No doubt your veterinary practice goes to great lengths to deliver the best veterinary customer service it can. From maintaining a clean front office to delivering the best patient care and providing a fast checkout process, you do what you can to keep clients and patients happy.
If you have an old-school credit card terminal, however, you could be compromising all that hard work. Here’s a scenario that you (unfortunately) may be familiar with: A client comes in for an appointment, buys over-the-counter medication for his pet and leaves. Later in the day, he notices that he was accidentally rung up for two tubes of medication instead of one. He calls your office, but he can’t get the issue resolved without coming in to show his receipt and rerun his card. Now your client has to fit another visit to your practice into his busy schedule, damaging his perception of the service provided.
Mistakes like these are easy to make; it’s part of being human. That said, you can improve how your practice handles these issues and delight your clients from start to finish. Meet digital transaction histories and cards on file.
Two Security Features to Consider
With a Virtual Terminal (a.k.a. a software application that connects to your credit card terminal), you can digitally record all transaction data and store customer cards on file. You can do so safely by choosing a Virtual Terminal with the following two features:
- Cloud-control: It’s important that any payment-related software you use is cloud-controlled and does not install natively onto your computer or network. Cloud control will help reduce your PCI scope so you can securely gain added payment functionality without increasing your practice’s liability or putting your clients’ information at risk.
- Tokenization: This form of data security is preferable to point-to-point encryption because it swaps sensitive data for a randomly generated string of characters and numbers. This string, known as a token, is only decryptable at the final point of the transaction: the payment processor.
Those points may be a bit technical to understand, but they’re important. Your practice can use a Virtual Terminal to unlock the following efficiency and customer service benefits, but they’re only worth it if the solution is secure and reduces your business’s liability.
How Digital Transaction Histories Improve Veterinary Customer Service
Now, you may be wondering, “How will these features benefit my practice?” With transaction histories stored in the cloud, you can stop printing paper receipts for your veterinary practice and clients alike. With PayJunction’s Smart Terminal, for instance, a digital signature will be captured on the terminal’s screen and be stored with the transaction. Now, the transaction can be found by simply searching the client’s name, transaction date, transaction amount, patient ID or other parameters! Your customer can opt for a signed copy as well via email, which makes it easy and convenient for both parties to track down a receipt in the event of a dispute.
Bringing this solution back to our initial scenario, your practice no longer needs the client to return with his receipt copy. Furthermore, with customer cards securely and automatically stored in the cloud, you can simply issue the transaction adjustment from within the Virtual Terminal: No return trip to rerun a card needed.
This level of unparalleled convenience gives clients peace of mind and an incentive to return in the future. With cards on file, you can run a card from within the system for future transactions and set up automated recurring billing, which helps streamline all future payments.
One of the secrets to building a successful business is long-term, repeat clients. You can leave the impression of ease, convenience and satisfaction by following through on your veterinary customer service from start to finish.
Learn how to reduce touchpoints at checkout.
What veterinary customer service tips do you have to share with our readers? What questions does this solution bring up for you? We’d love to hear from you!
