Several veterinary businesses have reported issues with their telephone lines, with clients unable to ring their clinics. The issue has been confirmed by veterinary customer experience company Vet CX, who provide a phone call monitoring service for vet practices as part of their customer insights program. Vet CX Managing Director Michael Mckeand reported a 360% increase in missed calls since mid-February 2020.
“Practices have been working hard to minimise the amount of team members within the practice at the cost of the ability to respond to inbound calls, other practices are reporting an uplift in pet owners calling the practice resulting in capacity issues with phone lines and internet services resulting in calls being unable to get through to clinics. It is critical that as vets being the trusted expert providing care to pets that your practice is contactable in times of uncertainty. Some practices may consider team members taking calls from home or utilising the services of Vet CX to ensure that clients always connect with your practice”, said Michael.
The unfolding COVID-19 pandemic and surge in employees working from home, has also contributed to overloading of the telephone network. Recent news coverage reports that Telstra’s phone network is under increasing strain due to the unprecedented demand on their services, including a surge in the number of calls to government agencies. Veterinary practices are being urged to use their social media platforms to communicate the issue to their clients, acknowledging that if clients are unable to ring through on the phone, then please keep trying or use email or messaging options instead.
by Dr Phil Tucak