Customer Story
Common Companion Vet Co launches with Vetstoria & grows monthly revenue by 1300%
with Dr. John Younker, Owner, Veterinarian & Chief of Staff
80%
of all new clients currently acquired through Vetstoria (100 per month on average)
1300%
monthly revenue growth within 3-years of first practice opening
2nd
location opened in June 2020 after success with Vetstoria
Atlanta-based startup, Common Companion Vet Co, has been an overnight success under Owner and Vet John Younker’s directorship. Known for unparalleled customer service coupled with medical expertise and technological innovation, they implemented Vetstoria for online booking before opening their first practice doors. The ambitious business has already opened a second practice and now generates over 13 times its first-month revenue.
Challenge
When John Younker, a graduate of the University of Georgia Class of 2012, decided to open his first veterinary practice in his native Atlanta, Georgia, he had one core mission. This was to operate a high-quality customer-centric veterinary practice that focuses on escorting the client through a positive experience with their pet’s medical care.
“I’m very enthusiastic about having a client-centered approach as opposed to a veterinarian-centered approach. Common Companion’s slogan is to bring healing to the pets and people of Atlanta. I know many practices neglect the human part.”
John Younker, Owner of Common Companion Vet Co
Based on these goals, and the prominent role that the booking process plays on the pet owner experience, John looked to evaluate online booking solutions that could facilitate a great pet owner experience while streamlining operations and generating additional revenue.
John was introduced to Vetstoria through his PIMS platform – Vetter. He understood the enormous growth potential that real-time online booking had and took a meeting with Vetstoria’s CEO, Julien Renard, to hear his pitch. John implemented Vetstoria, the most advanced and widely-used platform in the industry.
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Solution
Once deciding to go ahead with Vetstoria, the Common Companion Vet Co team were introduced to their dedicated onboarding agent, who assisted them through the setup process and was on hand to help with any configuration questions.
Logging into the Vetstoria platform, they were able to fully-customize the booking widget to match their desired practice workflow. This included setting the appointment types available, species treated, duration of slots, and adding clinicians.
Additionally, the Common Companion Vet Co team set the Vetstoria booking widget to match their brand, ensuring brand consistency.
Within a week, the Vetstoria booking widget was live on the practice website, completely customized to match Common Companion Vet Co’s branding and desired booking process. This was essential to Director John, who is a strong advocate for the importance of branding and online presence as stated below:
“I’m a firm believer that, now, people’s first impression of your practice is the homepage of your website. Pet-owners land on the page and within 10 seconds, they make a conclusion about what type of practice you are, how well you practice medicine. We wanted our homepage to have the WOW factor which isn’t something pet-owners see very often for on veterinarians’ websites.”
John Younker, Owner of Common Companion Vet Co
As you can see, Common Companion Vet Co’s website is stylish and slick, easily navigable, and equally functional. However, as John has put it, the biggest trick is: “there’s a big old fat button which says BOOK AN APPOINTMENT” that leads to the user-friendly Vetstoria-powered booking widget.
Results
Monthly revenue grows by 1300% over a 3-year period
Within the first three months of opening the first practice, launched alongside Vetstoria, Common Companion Vet Co’s client base grew rapidly. The trend continues today, even covering the initial outbreak of COVID-19 that hit many practices hard.
In August 2020, Common Companion Vet Co generated their highest ever monthly revenue, 13 times what they saw in their first month, largely attributed to Vetstoria and a great philosophy toward digital experience. The fact that 80% of Common Companion Vet Co’s new clients come through Vetstoria says it all – online booking is a winner.
“People do still call to book appointments but the website and online booking have been so effective, I normally get 4 or 5 new client bookings overnight, which is great.”
John Younker, Owner of Common Companion Vet Co
Planning to launch a vet practice in the near future?
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Vetstoria + Vetter powers growth
Vetstoria’s seamless integration with cloud-based Vetter and the ease-of-use of both systems help John, and his team, reach their goal of providing a frictionless journey for pet-owners while reducing admin work. On the subject of why Vetter is particularly good for startups, this is what Vetter’s CEO and founder Sagi Solomon has to say:
“Our software is exceptionally well-suited for a new practice because it is easy to set up, simple for staff to learn, and leverages robust automation to ensure better patient care and a healthy bottom line from the very beginning.”
Sagi Solomon, CEO of Vetter
“Vetstoria reduces the barrier to entry. Everything is as smooth as possible. There’s no login, the amount of things for pet-owners to do is minimal, and the digital triage process is smart and effective.”
John Younker, Owner of Common Companion Vet Co
The implementation of Vetstoria with Vetter creates a truly automated booking process and managed schedule – essential for sustainable online growth.
Online booking success leads to second practice opening
In June 2020, on the back of the success of their first branch in Inman Park and against the grim backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, John opened his second branch in Reynoldstown, again with Vetstoria online booking implemented at launch.
So far, Common Companion Vet Co’s second launch has been a success, as the chart below displays. In August 2020, just 2-months after opening, the second practice booked over 150 appointments and acquired 64 new clients through Vetstoria. Appointments are actually near capacity. In fact, the Reynoldstown branch is already looking to increase its capacity by hiring more vets – not bad for during a pandemic.
How is it that Common Companion Vet Co is unstoppable at a time when many other practices are fretting? “Well, Vetstoria is my secret weapon!”, says Younker.
Why John calls Vetstoria his “secret weapon”
Common Companion Vet Co started with real-time online booking from the very beginning, which meant their receptionists never had to experience the hellish influx of phone calls for the purpose of booking appointments. John jokingly states:
“I don’t know how much call volume Vetstoria helps reduce because I’ve always had Vetstoria, I have nothing to compare to.
And why do I call Vetstoria my Secret Weapon? Because I don’t want people to know about it!
I guess that was the secret a few years ago. Vetstoria and Common Companion Vet Co have grown with each other. I’m barely scratching the surface of the new features, so sometimes I have to get the help from the support team. However, If you have a gripe about Vetstoria, those guys will fix it”
John Younker, Owner of Common Companion Vet Co
The secret is out! Vetstoria is loved by over 4,500 practices globally and is now compatible with 20+ practice management systems. The new add-on features of Vetstoria, such as online payments and telemedicine all add enormous value to the original benefits that real-time online booking has to offer.
About
Common Companion Vet Co is a young and dynamic veterinary practice providing preventative care, veterinary medicine, surgery, dental and more to companion animals.
Website
Locations
2 locations in Atlanta, Georgia – United States
Practice Type
Corporate
Practice Management System
Key Features Used:
✅ Real-time Online Booking
