Let me start my saying that Dr Beach is our vet and based on my experience with her and how well she was always communicated with me especially with the most recent findings and seriousness of my dogs... Read More
Let me start my saying that Dr Beach is our vet and based on my experience with her and how well she was always communicated with me especially with the most recent findings and seriousness of my dogs health, I made the mistake in thinking that the day I dropped my dog off and I was told in the moment that she was not in office until the following week, that being seen by another vet would not be an issue since I expected nothing less than what Dr. Beach ALWAYS provided us with in terms of quality service and understanding/compassion especially with news like POSSIBLE CANCER and my poor dog suffering.
Based off of my experience today, it is very unlikely that I will be recommending anyone until this issue I am presenting you with is resolved. I am referring about the initial point of contact between clients and their pets veterinarians, which is the receptionists. Being the initial/barrier point of communication between us(the clients) and our vets is extremely important and sets the tone for the rest of our (the clients) experience and satisfaction. It is so important to be well versed, have a very good understanding/knowledge of the questions being asked by the client. Even more important, how to provide quality customer service!!! Knowing how to make the client feel/what to say when receptionist don’t know the answer essential especially if they are going to continue being poorly educated/trained on the basics. It’s extremely frustrating asking a simple question that does NOT require a Veterinarian to answer. And it’s even MORE frustrating when it’s is very clear that the receptionist has no idea how to answer/is silent/ or does not even try to ask anyone around her or grab someone that can answer it and continues to hesitate on how or what to answer. That being said, I understand and am VERY familiar with the daily interactions and sometimes even abuse they get from clients that can be very overwhelmed/upset and on edge about the health of their babies. I even understand that being short staffed is a huge part of the reason behind poor quality customer service, as I have experienced today, and this is where management needs to do better. Because you cannot expect this issue, that’s has presented itself since the moment the new building was opened, you cannot expect the few staff members that you have to be exceptional at it all, all of the time. It’s overwhelming, unrealistic and not even well paid. I have spent over $400 on the drop off appointment I had with my dog yesterday in regards to tests needing to be done to confirm the suspicious bladder cancer detected a few months back. I had my brother drop him off since it was too early and I needed to be at work. In the documents I was asked to fill out, I marked a check by where it stated that I wanted to be called in regards to tests being done if the amount surpassed “$400”. The document itself had it all typed out and was very clear and the blank allowed me to put that dollar amount!! I thought I had nothing to be concerned about and expected a call all day with even just an “all good, waiting on results but your baby did fantastic”. Nothing… all day went by and I had to ask my brother to call them since I was at work and already stressing at the fact that it was 1:45pm and we had not heard anything. (He was dropped off at 6:30am). So they tell him that my dog will be ready at 2:30pm. Ok. Fine. I never got follow up call from the doctor which is what should have happen. I don’t recall ever sending a dog home from a drop off visit without the vet speaking to (over the phone or in person) to the client. Regardless of the vet visit reason. I did get a call today finally from someone and they indicated over the voicemail that my dogs blood work was “pretty much largely unremarkable”….. what does that MEAN??! so I stepped out of work immediately (again, possible cancer visit here) and I call asking to clarify. Upon asking a very simple blood work related question, I got silence. I then was frustrated and asked to get a copy of the results since I could read them myself and not get further upset about how I could not even speak to someone (anyone at this point) that can answer my questions. I was told they would be sent and that was at 11:45am. She confirmed my email and I expected maybe an hour or so I would get them. Nothing. That email should have been sent right after speaking with me. It takes 2 seconds to complete your responsibility with that client or even while we were speaking on the phone. I understand I am not the only client being tended to but if this is what customer service looks like and simple tasks cannot be completed in a timely manner, I don’t think I can keep coming here. It was an email, I was not asking for anything other than that. I wasn’t even making a big deal about not speaking to the vet the day before. I just wanted to know an idea of what I dropped my dog off for and being that it was for something serious and the fact that they clearly did not care to think about how worried I must have been. That’s what irritated me. I called a total of 3 times for that email. I waited 2 hours between every call and the same girl kept answering telling my that she would send it and had my written down (and proceeded to tell me that I was “calling about Leo, right?” No…. dogs name is not Leo. This definitely made the whole experience worse and then took a few minutes to check her list or whatever and corrected herself. IN THAT TIME SHE COULD HAVE SENT THE EMAIL AND GOTTEN ME OFF HER BACK FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE!!! This conversation was the last conversation I had with her and it was at 5:25pm. She proceeded to tell me that they close at 8pm and there was still time to send it. I told her fine, but I wanted to have time to speak to someone after looking at the blood work but whatever. It is now 7:50pm and I STILL have not gotten that email. Vet bills are always expensive. I’m never going to change my vet based off of the pricing because that’s a factor you can always bank on never being able to change. But quality customer service is something I expect 100% especially if I’m asking for a simple action to get test results that I PAID FOR. I constantly tried to overlook it every time because of Dr. Beach how great she is. But not this time. Read Less