Running a veterinary practice is stressful: no two days are the same. The more that office staff can do to streamline operations, the more time is available to focus on the medical and emotional needs of animals and their families.
Upgrading to one unified platform allows payment information to automatically flow directly from ezyVet to PayJunction’s software and terminal for payment processing, reporting and management. The result is increased productivity, a better customer experience and more time to devote to essential areas of your business.
Recently, the team at PayJunction set out to validate that assumption. We surveyed veterinary practices that use our connected solutions, including a mix of new customers and those that have been clients for two years or more. A little less than half (42%) previously used a stand-alone terminal to process payments, while the rest (56%) used another integrated system. Below is their feedback on how an integrated solution from ezyVet and PayJunction streamlined processes from checkout, to end-of-day close and back-office management, and how they put that time back to work in their practice.
Managing Paper is Wasteful and Time Consuming
The majority of our survey respondents were still bogged down with paper-based processes before making the switch to ezyVet and PayJunction. It takes time to print receipts, obtain a signature, attach the receipt to an invoice and file it away with customer records. Then there’s the time it takes to manually print out individual batch reports from each terminal to conduct end-of-day accounting and reconciliation or to track down receipts and correct mistakes. It’s easy to see how time adds up and makes it harder for office managers to focus on important duties.
The Checkout Process
Instead of printing and storing every paper receipt, you can streamline and improve operations by going paperless and automatically syncing customer invoices with payment transactions.
Plus, credit card brands no longer require signatures for businesses that use EMV-enabled devices to process payments. Those same businesses are also not required to retain and store transaction receipts.
Our time studies have demonstrated that using a customer-facing payment terminal and eliminating signatures and paper receipts shaves about 45 seconds off of each transaction and improves the customer experience. If a vet practice averages 40 transactions per day, or about 1,000 per month, that adds up to 12.5 hours of time saved per month. Plus, an integrated solution means no more errors from double-keying amounts into separate systems; 76% of respondents said key errors have been eliminated.
End-of-Day Close
The time spent consolidating sales receipts, printing batch reports, preparing deposits and reconciling credit card activity with POS sales adds up. Manually gathering credit card receipts and paper batch reports to tally and match to POS sales is time consuming, especially if you have payment terminals in every exam room plus the lobby. And if totals don’t match, more time is spent identifying and reconciling errors.
With ezyVet and PayJunction, reconciliation is a breeze; nearly 80% of respondents cited an improved close process. Office staff simply run the ezyVet end-of-day wizard and the PayJunction batch report. If they match, that’s it. “What used to take about 20 minutes a night now takes five. All that other extraneous work went completely away,” said Daniel Shults, Operations Manager at Quartet Veterinary Hospital. From the recent survey, we found 77.5% of respondents believe the integration has improved end-of-day close processes.
Back Office Operational Tasks
Researching transactions and managing payment-related tasks manually with outdated systems and processes is a tedious waste of time. Paper invoices and receipts are difficult to store, easy to lose and prone to damage. Time is wasted with the frustrating task of finding and correcting mistakes. Reconciling merchant and bank account details can be confusing.
For practices with repeat customers — wellness programs, prescriptions, day care, grooming — the process of creating and sending invoices, and chasing down late payments, takes about two hours a month.
With ezyVet and PayJunction, invoices, receipts and transaction history — by invoice, customer name or other qualifiers — are retrieved with just a few clicks. Plus, you can easily charge customers for recurring and installment payments by securely storing card details with customer records. More than 75% of respondents agreed that an integrated solution saves time and money.
Time is Money
While it’s easy to calculate the savings from obvious, time-laden processes such as end-of-day close, other time-consuming requests throughout the day, week and month likely don’t come to mind, yet really add up. Fifteen minutes tracking down a receipt, an hour entering data into a spreadsheet, 30 minutes a week sending out invoices for recurring payments, etc. These tasks can add up to 10, 15, or even 30 hours every month.
A smart, integrated solution saves time during the checkout process, running end-of-day close and managing back-office tasks in big and little ways. From the recent survey, 36% of respondents reported saving more than 15 hours per month on payment-related tasks.
What is an hour of an office manager’s time worth for your veterinary practice? Lost time adds up to an opportunity cost that can translate to thousands of dollars per year. What else could you do with that time to improve operations and customer engagement? Here’s what our respondents are doing with their extra time:
Once you streamline processes and eliminate wasteful tasks, you create free time that improves the customer experience and helps you focus on initiatives that drive value for your business. For example, instead of spending a couple of hours manually sending out invoices or keying payment data into accounting systems, you can use that time to connect with the community by posting updates on social channels like Facebook and Instagram.
Interested in saving time with ezyVet and PayJunction’s integrated solution?
What would YOU do with more time at your veterinary practice? Tell us below in the comments section.
