John Dillon’s veterinary business debut came after his dog had a weekend medical issue. “My impulse was to call my general practice, but I got a message saying, ‘Sorry, we’re closed. Leave a message or go to the emergency room.’ I contacted the emergency room, and they said, ‘If you think it’s an emergency, come on in.’ I ended up going in, spent a lot of money and found out it wasn’t an emergency.”
What followed was GuardianVets, a company founded in 2017 that fields client calls on behalf of hundreds of veterinary practices across North America. Certified veterinary technicians triage cases, but not just when the general practice, emergency hospital or mobile service is closed for the day. GuardianVets also picks up during business hours if the practice requests it.
“Some have phenomenal front desks but are under pressure,” Dillon said. “They’re trying to juggle the phones, the emails, the chats with the clients, and the patients and practice. In those instances, we can help offload that pressure. Not only can we start picking up the calls that these practices may be missing, but oftentimes, we can increase their conversion rate.”
Pay-as-you-go pet owner advice lines have existed for a while. GuardianVets went in the opposite direction by working directly with veterinary practices.
“You’re connected to a veterinary professional, whether a credentialed veterinary tech providing triage or a CSR doing something administrative like handling a prescription refill request,” Dillon said. “You’re talking to a veterinary professional with years of experience who has access to your protocols and workflows. If we’re integrated with your PIMS and have access to it, we can do appointment scheduling.
“It’s much closer to being an extension of the team rather than just a third party that takes a message and passes that information through.”
GuardianVets also engages in chat messages and recently introduced video calls. However, most of the interaction remains by phone.
“The conventional wisdom says younger generations don’t want to call, that they want to do things themselves, that they don’t want to talk to anybody,” Dillon said. “But that’s not what the data is showing.”