As a veterinarian, it's likely that your practice dedicates most of its time to helping animals regain and maintain good health. But after the last appointment of the day, you have a business to manage and keep healthy, too.

The business management responsibilities can seem unending: You have equipment and supplies to order, appointment conflicts to reconcile, and clients to bill. You have employees with schedules and pay to track. Fortunately, there's technology that can serve as appointment manager, recordkeeper, and payment processor—saving you time so that you can concentrate on what really matters.

How business software can streamline vet clinic operations.

One of the most effective ways to simplify those tedious business management tasks is to implement advanced point-of-sale (POS) software for veterinary practices. You'll be pleasantly surprised by how this cloud-based solution can streamline and even automate your practice's operations.

The best POS software can scale to the needs of your business and reduce the time you spend on a number of tasks, helping you to do the following:

1. Automate appointment scheduling.

Veterinary POS software can serve as a client-facing appointment manager, reducing the time both you and your clients spend on scheduling. Clients should be able to conveniently book their routine appointments right from your website and on your Facebook page. The software can manage scheduling adjustments for unplanned emergency appointments alongside efficiently booking visits for routine care. Software with a built-in appointment manager can also send automated reminders to clients via email, push messages, text messages, or phone calls to reduce late or missed appointments.

2. Manage staff schedules.

Some POS business software systems can schedule employee working hours and track time-off requests. When you're ready to enjoy a well-earned vacation yourself, your POS software can send a notification to your mailing list, proactively letting clients know when you'll be back in the office and where to go in case of emergency while you're away.

3. Simplify billing.

POS software makes accepting customer payments more efficient for both you and your clients. The best POS software for vets supports payment via traditional debit and credit cards as well as from digital payment sources, such as mobile wallets, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other electronic transfers. Automate your billing processes with business software that can generate invoices and handle billing recurring payments for you.

4. Stay in touch with your clients.

Additionally, the best POS software solutions can keep track of customer information, including email addresses and cell phone numbers. This makes it simple to send convenient appointment reminders and also to promote special events, such as vaccination clinics, or to broadcast seasonal reminders, such as heartworm testing.

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5. Monitor customer reviews.

Manually tracking customer reviews can be a big task for a busy practice, but the right POS software solutions automatically monitor customer reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook. When someone posts a new comment, you'll get an automatic notification. Reply to praise with a heartfelt thank you note and to constructive feedback quickly and professionally, keeping your online reputation unblemished.

Business software tools don't replace your friendly and reliable office personnel, but they can greatly simplify the management of your practice. With POS software, you'll be more efficient, more effective, and ultimately more profitable, leaving you more time to focus on what you do best: taking care of your very important patients.

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