T
Tom Henaghan
Our company recently purchased a relatively large company from a couple that were looking to get out of the business. They had been using Time to Pet for the last several years and are now on our Precise system. We just did a "transition survey" with those clients to check in how things are going, and the biggest complaint we got, by far, was about how much harder Precise is to use than Time to Pet.
I've used Time to Pet before (as well as Scout and Pet Check) and from a business standpoint, it's not even close! Precise stomps them all in pretty much every category across the board, from reporting, to scheduling, to billing, and everywhere in between. However, from a client standpoint, with the narrow scope of what clients do with it, Time to Pet is just a much more streamlined, easy to navigate system.
Frequent complaints/questions we've gotten:
  • difficulty in updating My Info and My Pets. It's not obvious what fields are required and what aren't, and having the sections "closed" makes it even harder. They shouldn't have to hit a plus sign to expand the sections, should all be one streamlined form with clearer markings on what's required.
  • to go along with the above, when a client forgets to fill in a field, the form should jump right to that section, with a "next" button or something to take them to the next missing required field.
  • Vaccine expiration warnings shouldn't be buried in the yellow box, should be a pop-up when they log in with a button to jump them right to that section. (The vaccine section is often where I see new clients often get stuck as well.)
  • It would be EXTREMELY helpful to have customizable "small text" instructions underneath each custom field. Some are self-explanatory but others it would be good to explain specifically what we're looking for from them, and/or add instructions how to complete certain fields (like vaccines)
  • Errors in submitting tip only payments using eCheck because their first and last name are missing. When clients update their billing info, the primary name should already be filled in, with a checkbox or "new name" button for them to hit if they need to enter a spouses name.
  • Not being able to "chat" in-line with their walker after they submit a journal, rather than sending each response one at a time as individual messages/emails. And not being able to send a "chat" message to the walker while they're scanned in to an appointment.
  • Something on the dashboard when they login that shows "today's visits" so they don't have to go to the schedule to find them.
  • There's no easy way for them to note that feeding/meds are needed at a visit. (I understand that this what the "notes" field is for but would be good to have this expanded so client's can leave specific notes for specific things. Or at a minimum, have the notes field be a larger text box with "placeholder" text like "tell us if your pets need feeding, medications, or other special needs"
  • Even though there are 3 different ways for clients to tip (plus auto tipping), it's one of the most commonly asked questions. Ideally resolved by adding a tip button right on the home dashboard page where it can't get missed.
  • Legend at the top of the scheduler identifying what the different colors for visits mean.
I'll say again, from a business standpoint, Precise Petcare is the absolute best system available and I don't think any other system on the market can touch it right now. With the way updates have been rolling out, the system just keeps getting better and better, but it would be good to see some of those feature updates focused on improving the overall client experience.