11 May 2015
James Westgate
Job Title
There was a time when the only way pet owners could engage with their veterinary practice was by picking up the telephone and booking an appointment.
But things have changed over the past decade and tech-savvy clients can now interact with their practice in an increasing number of ways, including booking appointments, scheduling repeat visits and accessing their pet’s medical records using nothing more than a standard smartphone.
And it is not just a one-way street either. Practices can make the most of tailor-made apps, branded using their own logo, to offer discounts and deals via push notifications that help generate extra business and increase the bottom line.
There is also a wide range of “vet only” apps to assist with things like clinical data collection, product information and dosing. But perhaps some of the most exciting products from a practice manager/owner’s point of view are those aimed at strengthening the bond between practice and client.
Among the companies with offerings in this area are Virbac, Zoetis and Pedigree Petfoods. All three have spent a considerable amount of time and money developing apps that, to varying degrees, help enhance animal welfare and improve compliance.
A perfect example of this is the way Virbac has used the augmented reality app Blippar to promote its new anti-parasitic treatment Prinovox.
Marketing manager at Virbac Simon Boulton said: “It’s worth explaining the digital angle for new products like Prinovox doesn’t replace other channels of communication, but is an addition to more traditional media. It opens a new sector of communication through the area people are more likely to read communication – that is through smart devices.
“The platform uses Blippar technology, which is a free app from all phone app stores. When you open the app it scans for images through the camera, the images on the packaging trigger the platform to open, which makes the front of the pack animate and become interactive. There are then buttons to press to open educational videos, built in text reminder systems and product information.
“We went down this route for two reasons. One is that the biggest trend for media consumption is through smart devices and, secondly, the biggest issue with parasite protection for the practice is for client loyalty, compliance and retention of sales in the practice. The whole Prinovox campaign, including the digital aspect, was built with this in mind.
“The offshoot of this is the veterinary practice is seen to be providing innovative communication tools and accurate post-dispensing information direct to the client, discouraging online searches for contradictory opinions and advice.”
One of the first multi-functional apps on the British veterinary market was PetDialog, launched by Zoetis. It is free and has been designed to help pet owners track all aspects of their pet’s health with their local vet.
This smartphone app is only available to clients direct from their vets and offers a wide range of elements including appointment booking, a “wellness” tracker and vaccination reminders that keep owners engaged with their pet’s well-being – and their local practice.
“In a nutshell, it’s to help vets deliver better pet health care in the eyes of their clients,” said John Toole, product manager at Zoetis. “The rapid growth of smartphones and apps is transforming many aspects of our day-to-day lives, including tracking our own fitness and health. Similarly, our aim with PetDialog is to help improve pet heath care in important areas, such as gathering health record information and treatment compliance, communications and consulting, patient management and monitoring, and clinical decision-making.”
John added: “Technology doesn’t have to be seen as communicating from afar; moreover, we aim to use it to bring pet owners and vets together. As the pet health industry evolves with the emergence of new competitors, pet owners are faced with a multitude of options. We aim to help veterinary practices differentiate their offering to ensure they remain at the heart of pet health.”
Another new product on the UK market is the Pedigree Tracks app, this is a smartphone program designed to increase an owner’s awareness of his or her dog’s weight, launched in response to data that showed 43% of the UK dog population was overweight. Tracks has already been downloaded by 21,000 people and is the first app featuring a combined personalised feeding guide – based on a dog’s breed, age and weight – as well as a tailored exercise plan that recommends how long the dog should be active for each day.
Jo Ladbrook is dog portfolio director at Pedigree. She said: “At Pedigree we are aware of the growing obesity issue we see in the UK dog population today and of the wide variety of health problems that can develop as a result. As with humans, a healthy diet, the right amount of exercise and an overall healthy lifestyle can minimise the risk of specific health problems developing with age. Tracks has been designed to be a simple, fun and interactive way of
re-engaging all owners with their dogs’ diet and exercise to encourage a healthier lifestyle and ultimately help to combat the levels of dog obesity in the UK.”
Although the app has no in-built features to connect pet owners to their vets, according to Jo, by its very nature, Tracks is likely to increase engagement between owners and their veterinary practices.
“We have included very clear notifications and guidance within the app that, while Tracks can be a useful guide to help you manage your dog’s weight on a day-to-day basis, it definitely should not be viewed as a replacement for a full consultation with your vet. It is our hope the app will help owners re-engage with the subject of their dog’s weight and this will lead to greater dialogue with vets on the matter.”
These are just three offerings in a market that is fast becoming crowded with apps for a wide range of different tasks; Bayer has its Jungle for Pets app, which offers a suite of tools to help owners keep their pets parasite-free, while Idexx’s Vetconnect allows vets to check on lab results using their smartphones.
Of course, with so much diversity in this fast-growing marketplace, a huge amount of research has to be done far in advance to determine who the product is for and how it will work to the benefit of that market.
“It depends on the product,” added Simon Boulton. “Sometimes it is an application for the vets that would be most useful to aid in the diagnosis of a condition, and other times it will be more appropriate for the owners – to help vets get across a particular message or aid in compliance.
“The main challenge is creating something of benefit, rather than an app for app’s sake. Creating an app that’s of no benefit is probably more negative than none at all, as by taking the time to download an app or investigate it, they will have an expectation of finding out something more.”
The collation and alignment of all the information needed to build the app can be one of the hardest parts of the process, as Jo explained. “Once we had all the information, and were 100% confident the information we’d be giving out within the app was in the best interests of the dog, the rest of the process was relatively simple.”
Simon said: “We engaged a digital agency that specialised in building mobile apps, built a prototype, tested it among dog owners, tweaked it based on their feedback, tested it again, tweaked again and then soft-launched it into the app stores before Christmas.”
For PetDialog, Zoetis made use of its own team based at its Centre for Digital Innovation in Shoreditch, where programmers are already working on ways to evolve the app for future developments in the market.
John said: “The digital space is seen as more of a threat than a benefit, but the ability with digital technology to share data about your pet real time with your vet creates new opportunities for vets to engage with their clients in different ways.
“Developments in telemedicine will mean, in some circumstances, the vet can provide expert advice to the client based on live data from the pet – without the hassle of them having to visit the practice.
“A simple example would be diabetes monitoring. Instead of bringing your diabetic, ageing, male, neutered Burmese cat into the practice – for what might be, for the cat, a stressful blood glucose test resulting in an inaccurate result – imagine if the cat owner could simply take the readings at home on his or her Alphatrak monitor and share the results live with the vet via PetDialog.”
It would be fair to say the future is digital and those who fail to embrace this paradigm shift could ultimately find themselves paying a high price, warned Simon.
“People expect to get information fast and the first point of call is now often digital,” he said. “If that information isn’t available from the vet, or something the vet has provided, they will go elsewhere – either to another vet’s website or start searching online and get potentially incorrect information.
“We have to look to other industries and how they interact with their customers because our customers are the same people who now have an expectation of how they are interacted with.”
