[gottlos]

Consider a simple online booking system, backed with google calendar or speaks ical. Importantly, something that lets their customers pick a time slot, send reminders, etc.

A number of healthcare providers locally do something similar; benefit to the vet is lower admin costs (answering phone etc), potential of online payment to secure the consult, and easy ways to reach their customers for follow up (vaccination reminders for example could be triggered by adding people into a mailing list package, email details gained at time of original booking).

Those are harder to build, but offer clear value and ongoing revenue ($1/booking fee x 5 vets x a year starts to make it look attractive!)

[MasterScrat]

But then there are two options:

- We have to integrate with the system they are currently using. This is a lot of work that may not be reusable for other vets, if they don't use the same system.

- OR We have to change the system they are using day to day, which I expect means fighting some strong inertia

Both are doable but will require a lot of mental bandwidth, which makes me uncomfortable for a side project.

[gottlos]

Thus the 'spits out ical' - if you can offer them calendars on phones, outlook, etc that's a compelling use case; and the is a chance the existing system can consume it

[icebraining]

You mean, like patio11's Appointment Reminder?

[patio11]

We didn't do online booking at all (for reasons that I'd go into except that I don't own the business anymore). It's a different category than reminders, although many booking systems have a (cough suboptimal cough) reminder feature.