Today's Veterinary Practice

MAY-JUN 2014

Today's Veterinary Practice provides comprehensive information to keep every small animal practitioner up to date on companion animal medicine and surgery as well as practice building and management.

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| PracTice Building Today's Veterinary Practice May/June 2014 74 tvpjournal.com DEMANDFOrCE demandforce (demandforce.com) is a multi-tool com- munication platform dedicated to enhancing relation- ships between small businesses and their customers. Owned by intuit (the makers of QuickBooks), demand- force has a presence in over 30 different industries and supports the small business owner through: • a highly intelligent communication platform • Online reputation tools • access to a diverse consumer base. demandforce for the veterinary practice operates through an online portal environment that is integrated into the practice management system. From the portal, users can develop a comprehensive messaging program for their practice that operates primarily behind the scenes of the daily office routine. Key Features The demandforce platform is built on three foundational elements of client engagement. 1. Email & text Communication demandforce automatically manages email and text com- munications that can be deployed as reminders, post-visit communications, or client outreach/promotional messag- ing. This communication can be personalized based on patient attribute filters set by the practice (eg, targeted messaging for senior patients, dogs only, multiple pet households) and scheduled to be delivered automatically based on your practice's strategic goals. For example, a practice can create an automated sys- tem for: • confirming scheduled appointments for all patients • Sending a post-visit client survey to new clients • Sending a new pet owner newsletter to all new puppy and kitten clients • Sending twice yearly reminders to clients with dogs over 7 years old and cats over 10. One of the most attractive features of demandforce, and one that adds tremendous value, is the ability to recapture lost clients—a significant hurdle for every prac- tice—by implementing specific marketing campaigns that identify and recruit lost and inactive clients. 2. reputation tools Online reputation and reviews are highly influential in a consumer's decision-making process, and many strate- gies exist for increasing the number of positive reviews for your practice. entire companies exist whose only purpose is to generate positive reviews for businesses. However, as quickly as these companies emerge, search engines, such as google and yahoo, develop algorithms to prevent businesses from "stacking the deck" in their favor with nonauthentic reviews. demandforce is an approved review solicitor for many popular search engines, including Bing and citySearch. Through the survey tool, practices can engage clients to submit reviews that directly populate across sever- al online channels. Practices can also link these certi- fied reviews to their own hospital webpage and Face- book business page. members of the practice team can enhance the client interaction experience by directly responding/commenting on reviews from the demand- force portal. 3. Cross-Industry Marketing The traditional marketing plan for a veterinary practice typically involves engaging with complementary busi- nesses in the community—shelters, rescues, pet stores, and daycare and boarding facilities, among other ani- mal-centric businesses. One distinctive feature of the demandforce platform is the ability to cross-market across other local, but unrelated, business channels. as a standard practice, demandforce reminder and appointment confirmation emails and text messages "introduce" other demandforce member businesses in the local community. The client who confirms his or her appointment to the local spa, dentist, or optometrist is exposed to footer advertising for the local veterinary hospital. in effect, automated cross marketing can help expand the reach of your practice beyond the tradition- al outlets. In Our Hands every member of our practice team has become a strong advocate of demandforce in our daily routine. • The review generation tools are very efficient; dedi- cated staff members monitor the review feed multiple times during the day, taking great pride when a good review comes in and acting quickly to reach out to a client if we receive one below our expectations. • The email and text appointment reminders are also very effective. at least 1 out of 5 of our practice's cli- ents confirms and schedules appointments through our email and text messaging reminders, enabling our practice to reduce print volume and associated costs by 20%. TVP_2014-0506_PB_Marketing_PART1.indd 74 5/24/2014 11:23:42 AM

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