AVA (Automated Virtual Assistant) is a phone service handling entirely automatically incoming calls for the purpose of regular appointments scheduling, prescription refills and other tasks exactly as one of your team members would do. Ava uses a human like voice of your choice, providing a pleasant caller experience. This is not a punch number or old robotic voice system. Ava truly provides a pleasant caller experience always available and patient. This is an easy addition to your team.

AVA connects to your practice management software (Pims) allowing to read client and scheduling information real-time, making sure AVA recognizes existing callers (86% of calls) and proposes openings matching exactly what your clinic staff would have proposed.

AVA uses intensively the latest A.I. technologies (artificial intelligence) to detect caller intentions and emotions ensuring a smooth and human like conversation. AVA also detects any glitches in the conversation and forward to your staff upon any detected incidents, non-satisfactory dialog or simply upon request from the caller at any time.

To use AVA your clinic only needs:

1. To use one of the most popular veterinary clinic software (Avimark, Impromed, Cornestone etc…)
2. To use a Voice Over IP phone (VOIP) system.

In case your clinic do not use a VOIP yet, VetPawer partners with Goto and could provide your clinic with the latest VOIP phone technology at extremely competitive pricing.

Yes, at any time and actually from the start if wanted.

First of, Ava is an opt-in system so caller chose to use Ava instead of being put on hold and talk to one of your staff.

Then, during the conversation, caller can at any time press #0 or say something like “staff”, “operator”, “speak to a human” allowing Ava to immediately forward the call to the first available staff member.

Our experience with over 4,000 Practices using our on-line scheduling tools including website and Apps is that less than 10% of appointments are scheduled using the on-line tools. Most client have the Practice number saved on their phone or search the web for the practice’s phone number and call the practice. As a result, today still, more than 87% of veterinary appointments are still scheduled over the phone.

AVA is an addition to your staff. She requires no training and works 24x7. AVA sits side-by-side with your staff, tells them everything she is doing including booking appointments and client accepted Rx Refill proposals.

The AVA install is handled by the VetPawer Technical Support team and requires no I.T. support. AVA is already integrated into your Practice Management system and is compatible with all VoIP phone system providers.

Due to the volume of calls, the staff is very busy and may not be properly staffed resulting in calls that can’t be handled in an expedient manner. Clients are experiencing long hold times and inconsistent client experiences. Since ~60% of appointments are wellness, AVA can handle all of those calls freeing up staff to focus on emergencies and in-Practice client experiences.

No, AVA is a menu option on your phone system’s main menu. The standard Call Attendant greeting from your current phone system will be changed to be something similar to this, “Thank you for calling ABC Veterinary Hospital. If you are an existing client and would like to schedule a routine appointment, Press 1 to use our Automated system, AVA. You won’t have to wait on hold and AVA is available 24x7. Otherwise please hold and a member of our team will be with you shortly.”

60% of Pet Parents are Gen Xers and Millennials and many prefer to speak to automated services like Siri and Alexa. Clients opt-in to speak to an automated system and know in advance what to expect. If your client reached AVA by mistake, and do not wish to speak to AVA, they can easily exit the system and get transferred back to reception by saying words like, ‘agent’, ‘reception’ or by pressing 0.

AVA is setup to handle varying Appointment type times by Provider, groomer, and technician. AVA’s Appointment Analysis report is reviewed with the Practice Manager and is setup appropriately by the VetPawer Staff.

Sometimes a client will opt-in to AVA with an emergency. When AVA understands the Client has an emergency, she immediately transfers to the reception.

AVA is compatible with all VoIP phone systems, there is no need to switch to a new VoIP system.

AVA is currently working with Practices without VoIP systems, however, we highly recommend upgrading to a VoIP. Please ask about our current VoIP partner who can provide guidance to an upgrade.

Yes, AVA reserves the Appointment directly into your Practice Management with Reason for Visit transcribed and included with the Appointment.

The staff is notified (Desktop Assistant, e-mail or text) that AVA has reserved an appointment, the staff confirms the appointment, and the Client is notified via text or email.

Yes. If an existing client would like to schedule an appointment for a new patient, AVA captures the patient details, adds them to your Practice Management system and notifies your staff.

Currently AVA handles existing client only.

AVA has lots of flexibility, some practices would like screening done prior to booking the appointment. AVA can handle scenarios like this.

Yes. AVA can handle an unlimited number of appointments and appointment types simultaneously.

There is no limit to the number of client calls AVA can handle. There is no hold time and AVA picks up the call from your client immediately.

Quotes from AVA users, “AVA is asking for pharmacy business that many times our staff doesn’t have time to review/ask for. In addition, filling the Prescription in the Practice updates the medical record and provides compliance information. After success with the parasiticide category, we opened up all pharmacy categories”.

In most practices using AVA, the percentage of calls handled by AVA is 40%-45%.

The VetPawer (VP) team conducts a thorough introduction to each location. The VP Implementation Manager contacts the VoIP provider (or the VoIP system administrator) and describes the simple setup. The Call Attendant Prompts and Greeting script is modified and recorded and a call forwarding number is assigned. Simultaneously, the VP team installs and tests DataLink on the Practice Management system, works with the Practice Manager to understand the Schedule setup, determine Appointment types (Wellness, Technician, Grooming, boarding, etc) and determines unique keywords for Appointment reasons. The time commitment for the Practice Manager consists of 1 60-minute session and 1 30-minute session. After the system is setup and tested by VetPawer, the new Greeting is moved live and AVA begins scheduling 3-5 appointments on day 1, for the next week the number of appointments is increased for each subsequent day. Every appointment is monitored by VetPawer and is communicated to the staff. After the initial week, AVA is ready to operate to full capacity.

• Improved pharmacy dispensing compliance: Over 30% of Wellness Appointments booked have a Client accepted Rx Refill Proposal. In addition, we are connected to your Home Delivery provider and offer those items you sell through their platform.
• Increased staff productivity: A load is taken off the staff to handle phone in-bound phone calls. Clients call the practice to book wellness appointments and refill prescriptions; AVA is able to handle all of these types of calls. Practices who are using AVA report they are able to utilize the staff who formally were handling these calls to perform other important duties.
• Client satisfaction. Since AVA is handling wellness appointments and prescription refills, the Practice staff has more time to manage emergencies. Hold times for Wellness/technician/grooming/boarding appointments are eliminated.

“We consider Julia (the practice renamed AVA to Julia) to be part of the Veterinary team. When the client chooses, she answers every single phone call on the first ring and works 24x7. We don’t know how we could live without her.”

Quote from Client, “We like the automated assistant, it’s like talking to Amazon Alexa, but she knows my pet’s names and can schedule an appointment quickly and easy.”

A busy Practice in North Carolina was having staffing issues causing very long on-hold times. Existing Clients were frustrated with their scheduling experience, and the Practice had increasing client attrition. In addition, the Practice had implemented an on-line scheduling solution and marketed it to their clients, however, very few of their clients were using the on-line scheduling system. They were delighted to learn about AVA and agreed to begin using the AVA service. VetPawer (VP) Implementation Support contacted their VoIP provider to make small adjustments to the Call Attendant, defined the new Greeting script, installed the Datalink software responded quickly to the AVA setup. The Practice was fully operational on AVA within 2 weeks, AVA was booking appointments and freeing staff to respond immediately to urgent appointments requests and the in-clinic clients/patients. Client attrition dropped, and a great deal of stress was taken off the entire staff enabling the Practice to improve service and experience to Clients and Patients.

“The AVA™ technology allows my staff to focus on the client that is present while still meeting the needs of those calling us. And AVA™ connects directly to our practice’s phone system and software, so the integration is seamless. Our clients have also shared positive feedback. They appreciate the convenience of not being on hold and being able to make an appointment at any time of the day or night, including weekends.” — Dr. Knapp, Owner, Knapp Veterinary Hospital

“We love AVA because it relieves my exhausted staff by reducing the number of calls they are having to handle.” — Dr. Julie Miles, Compassion Care Animal Hospital