Setting up specific email addresses helps organize the communication coming into the clinic. While talking with owners of a 26-doctor practice, they confessed their hospital’s general email is a mess. Hundreds of messages a day funnel into one email. Client service representatives (CSRs) cannot keep up, and some correspondence simply gets lost. The average worker gets 121 emails a day and checks it 74 times during the workday.1 Reading and responding to emails consumes up to 28 percent of your workweek. Most practices are experiencing significant staff shortages, causing burnout to intensify to 80 percent.2 As a result, 35 percent of veterinarians and technicians and 27 percent of CSRs plan to leave their current jobs or quit the profession within three to five years. Because a staff-to-doctor ratio of 4.7 to one seems unattainable with current labor shortages, your team needs to work smarter.3 Save your sanity and prevent the spiral of employee burnout with these five email time-savers. Tip 1: Create specific email addresses to presort messages Rather than dump every email into the hospital’s general inbox, set up emails to go to the right person the first time. List the top email requests you receive, and then set up email addresses based on the reason for the communication. In addition to individual staff emails, create email accounts such as invoices@hospitalname.com for accounts receivable, pharmacy@hospitalname.com for prescription requests, appointments@hospitalname.com for appointment requests and new client forms submitted from your website, and records@hospitalname.com for sending and receiving medical records. Your bookkeeper will manage the invoices email account. Technicians will oversee the pharmacy email account. CSRs will be responsible for general, appointment, and records email accounts. Tip 2: Create templates for common responses Based on options from your email provider, you can set up and select templates when composing replies. Simply personalize a few fields rather than retyping the same paragraph 50 times per day. Canned responses ensure consistent communication and fewer typos (see: “How to set up response templates.”) Here are two templates to customize for your hospital: Email template for prescription request: Thank you for requesting a refill of <drug name> for <pet name>. Our medical staff is reviewing the prescription request and will email you when it is ready for pick up or if they have questions. Prescription requests submitted by 2 p.m. will be filled the same day and available for pick up after 4 p.m. If your request was submitted after 2 p.m., we will email you when it is ready on the following business day. We offer contactless curbside pickup. You will get an email with a link to pay/pay through our app, park in our curbside pickup spot, and text us when you arrive. Thank you for using our hospital’s pharmacy and supporting small businesses in your community! Email template for an appointment request: Thank you for requesting a check-up for <pet name> and sharing three choices in our online form. We have scheduled your appointment with <Dr. Name> on Oct. 22 at 2 p.m. Please bring your pet’s teaspoon-sized stool sample for intestinal parasite screening. Now is a great time to check flea/tick and heartworm preventives and other medications you may need to refill when you visit us. If you have questions before your pet’s exam or need to change the appointment, please reply to this email at least 24 hours before the scheduled appointment. We appreciate the opportunity to provide preventive care for <pet name>. Tip 3: Use labels and folders to end a messy inbox Let’s say refill requests go to pharmacy@hospitalname.com. Sort emails into folders so technicians know which actions to take. Create folders of “Waiting for Doctor Approval” and “Completed RX Requests.” The pharmacy technician will forward the prescription request to the appropriate doctor for approval and move the message to the “Waiting for Doctor Approval” folder. Once the doctor grants approval, the technician will fill the medication, update the electronic medical record, email the client using a response template, and move the message to the “Completed RX Requests” folder. Using folders lets technicians see all refill requests are promptly handled daily. Tip 4: Set up autoresponders Set expectations for when senders will receive a reply and tell them what to do for urgent requests. Create an autoresponder to emails received during business hours, after hours, and when you are on vacation or out of the office. Depending on your email provider, you can automate when these messages are turned on and off. Here are autoresponders for open and closed hours: During business hours general email autoresponder: Thank you for contacting <Hospital Name>. Our client care team reviews emails at 8:15 a.m., 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 2 p.m., 4 p.m., and 5:30 p.m. If your pet is having a medical emergency or your request is urgent and cannot wait until these times, call or text us at 555-555-5555. We appreciate the opportunity to care for your pet and look forward to assisting you. After business hours general email autoresponder: Thank you for contacting <Hospital Name>. Our hospital is currently closed. If your pet is having a medical emergency, please contact <Emergency Clinic Name> at <address> and <phone number>. We will reply to your email when we reopen. Our hours are <list hours>. We look forward to following up with you. Tip 5: Flag emails needing follow up Let’s say you received an email from your distributor sales rep about a product sale with an order deadline of Sept. 15. You need to check inventory, consult with the owner, and place the order later. Use the flag tool to remind you two days before the deadline. Most email providers let you flag emails for follow-up today, tomorrow, this week, next week, or on a custom date. Using this tool will prevent missed deadlines, avoid buried messages (which often get forgotten), and give you time to complete multi-step tasks. When you better manage your clinic email inbox, you will lower your stress and ensure timely, accurate responses. HOW TO SET UP RESPONSE TEMPLATES A feature in Gmail allows you to create and save multiple email templates in your inbox.4 Enable this feature in your settings to begin using canned responses. Here is how to do it: In Gmail, click the gear icon, then Settings. Click the Advanced tab. Click Enable on the Templates prompt. Click on Save Changes. Click Compose in the upper left corner of your inbox to start a new email. Type the email subject line and message you want to save as a template. Click the three dots icon on the bottom right corner of the compose window, hover over Templates, select Save Draft as Template, and choose Save as New Template. Name your template. Start a new email by choosing Compose in the upper left corner of your inbox. If replying to an email, click the Reply arrow. Click on the three dots icon on the bottom right corner of the compose window, hover over Templates, and select the template name. After the response is pasted, add or reply to your recipient, and click Send. Wendy S. Myers, CVJ, has been training veterinary teams for 21 years as owner of Communication Solutions for Veterinarians. She teaches teams to become confident communicators, so more pet owners say yes to medical care. Wendy shares her expertise through conferences, online courses, and monthly live CE credit webinars. She is a certified veterinary journalist and author of five books. Her passion is to help practices like yours thrive and grow through effective communication skills. You may reach her at wmyers@csvets.com or www.csvets.com. References 23 Email Management Best Practices and Tips. Hiver. Available at: https://hiverhq.com/blog/email-management. Accessed July 12, 2021. Halow B. Alarming Results From National Survey on Veterinary Stress. Available at: https://www.bashhalow.com/alarming-results-from-national-survey-on-veterinary-stress/. Accessed July 12, 2021. Myers W. How Nurses Can Grow Your Revenue. Available at: https://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/how-nurses-can-grow-your-revenue/. Accessed July 12, 2021. Tousley S. How to Create a Gmail Canned Response in Under 60 Seconds. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/gmail-templates-canned-responses?__hstc=183004857.3a0cf5e1c5be88c6faade90a488becff.1602516025590.1602516025590.1602516025590.1&__hssc=183004857.2.1602516025590&__hsfp=4131369029. Accessed July 12, 2021.
