In an Apple commercial that aired on January 26, 2009, the catchphrase, “There’s an app for that.” was introduced to the world. In the early days of smartphones, this phrase was often used in jest. Now, with the ever-increasing number of smartphone users, this phrase exemplifies our (mobile) reality more and more. If you’ve ever downloaded an app, you may have noticed in your iTunes or Google Play store that there are thousands of apps out there. While the obvious reasons of making life easier or giving users entertainment justify the existence of many of the apps out there, how can this translate for a veterinary practice? Moreover, how do you keep your app from getting lost in the crowd?
Having an app just to say, “We have an app!” is next to useless. Without having a reason behind your app’s creation, your potential end users will have no reason to keep the app on their phone, let alone have any desire to download it in the first place. Since you’re probably a smartphone user yourself, try to envision why you downloaded the apps that you currently have on your phone. Did they make your life easier/better, and if so, how? Were they fun? What were the features of the app that kept you going back to it?
Being in the veterinary world, one of the first reasons you might want to have an app for your practice is to make life easier for your clients. Perhaps you want to make it easier for them to request an appointment or prescription refills. Maybe you’re running into an issue with surgical patients where their owners don’t remember important details about their pets prior or post treatment, and therefore, you want a section in which they can keep track of such things. Think about the common pain points you experience with your clients, and this will make finding an app provider who can alleviate those pain points easier.
However, being in veterinary medicine doesn’t mean your app can’t have an element of fun to it. These fun elements can be what bring your clients back to your app, even when they don’t need to request an appointment or refill. You know your clients better than most. Would they be interested in sharing fun photos of their pet through your app? Perhaps your clients are very health-conscious and want to track the exercise their pets are receiving. Maybe your clients would get excited over an in-app loyalty card. The goal is to keep the end user in mind, thus making the likelihood of you creating a successful app (one that is actually used versus simply lost amongst the throngs of random apps already out there) much greater.
After years of listening to the needs of the veterinary community, InTouch Practice Communications can help your practice “have an app for that.” We know how valuable having your clients “just a thumb away” is to your business. That’s why we created an app that helps you “talk” to your clients. To learn more about what the InTouch app solution, Vetovia, can do for you and your end users, visit us at vetovia.com.