Are You Losing Clients Over Your Veterinary Payment Options?
Most veterinary professionals go into veterinary medicine to help animals, not to discuss credit cards and payment plans, or negotiate estimates for clients who can’t afford care. However, cost-of-care and payment conversations are integral to veterinary practice, impacting patient outcomes and whether teams meet or fall short of client expectations.
If your clients find paying for care difficult or stressful because of limited veterinary payment options, you could unintentionally drive them away. Here’s why your payment systems matter, and how to upgrade them to improve the client experience.
Payment friction
Veterinary care is just one piece of a pet owner’s financial puzzle, which is becoming increasingly more complex. Clients who can’t afford a large bill up front may be forced to say no to treatment they know their pet needs. When the options are to pay now or walk away, many will choose the latter.
The costs of preventive care, routine service, unexpected illnesses, and chronic disease management can add up quickly. Offering flexible veterinary payment options, such as online payments, pet insurance, or third-party financing, gives people more ways to budget and say yes to their furry pal’s care.
Setting client expectations
In addition to offering a variety of payment options, veterinary teams should focus on minimizing surprises for clients. This means discussing estimates before and during each visit, outlining multiple treatment plan options and expected outcomes, and educating new and current clients about available veterinary payment options and policies.
Here are a few ways to make this easier:
- Add information about wellness plans to automated vaccine reminders.
- Ask team members to review accepted payment methods when booking new patients..
- Explain the value of services in terms of each pet’s well-being.
- Use your practice management software to send estimates and updates about payment method offerings.
Payment flexibility
Trust is crucial to the veterinarian-client-patient relationship, but it isn’t solely based on the team’s medical competency. It also relies on clear communication and payment systems that feel fair and manageable. When your veterinary clinic offers more ways to pay, you make care more accessible and help bond clients to the practice.
Here are a few payment options every veterinary practice should consider adding:
- Online payments – Many pet owners expect the option to pay an invoice with a click from their phones or computers. A secure portal integrated with your veterinary practice management software makes bill pay easy and convenient.
- Contactless payments — What about clients who forget their debit card? Tap-to-pay digital options, such as Apple Pay, solve this problem. Contactless card options are also faster and more secure than traditional payments.
- Financing options — Third-party payment systems, such as CareCredit, allow clients to pay over time with deferred interest on a pet- and health-specific card. Other providers, such as ScratchPay, offer a low-interest loan repayment option.
- Pet insurance partnerships — For most pet insurance scenarios, helping to file a client’s claim by completing a form or submitting notes can speed up the reimbursement. If your practice partners with a direct-pay company like Trupanion, you can submit claims automatically through a PIMS integration.
- Wellness plans — Bundling a year’s worth of routine preventive care and veterinary services into a predictable monthly payment encourages clients to visit more frequently while spreading out costs for services that keep pets healthier, longer. Clients, teams, and pets can benefit when you use a third-party system to manage these recurring payments.
If the thought of overhauling your entire payment system sounds overwhelming, consider that a cloud-based practice management system can help you easily integrate multiple options. Instead of toggling between windows and using manual inputs prone to error, an integration-friendly system lets you use them all in one place, without leaving your PIMS dashboard.
Veterinary payment options support patient care
Veterinary care doesn’t end after the physical exam. How clients pay and how they feel about pricing and payment methods can affect whether they follow through with recommended treatments and return for future veterinary care. Creating a non-judgmental, supportive, and flexible environment builds trust.
Payment systems and communication about pricing and payment policies can impact the client experience. Clients who feel stuck may not return, while those who feel supported will. Introducing more veterinary payment options using cloud integrations can reduce stress on both sides of the exam table and help pets get the care they need.
