[01] Context
Every virtual visit ends the same way: the pet parent wraps up with the vet, and any prescribed medication still needs to be fulfilled. Vetster supports two in-app paths, and this case study focuses on the outside-pharmacy route, where customers pick a location and Vetster sends the prescription to pharmacy by fax. That handoff is where friction, manual CE work, and bad data compound.
POST_VISIT_MODEL
Two ways pet parents can fulfill vet-prescribed products inside the mobile app.
STEP 01
Virtual appointment complete
Pet parent finishes the visit in the Vetster app.
STEP 02
Vet prescribes
The veterinarian issues a prescription for the pet’s care plan.
TWO IN-APP FULFILLMENT PATHS
PATH A
Purchase in app
Buy through Vetster’s ecommerce pharmacy, with optional Autoship for recurring refills.
PATH B · THIS PROJECT
Send to outside pharmacy
Pet parent picks a local pharmacy; Vetster sends the prescription to pharmacy so they can fill it in person.
[02] Problem
On the outside-pharmacy path, two problems drive most of the cost and frustration: customers are not sure where to send prescriptions, and CE still verifies every send request by hand.
CUSTOMER_UNCERTAINTY
Unsure where to send, or send the wrong info
Clients often don’t know which pharmacy to pick, submit phone numbers instead of fax lines, or choose the wrong branch. They end up doing manual lookups and corrections themselves, which increases back-and-forth with CE and breaks the premium send request experience before support can help.
CE_VERIFICATION
Manual pharmacy outreach on every send request
Customer Experience contacts pharmacies to verify fax details and confirm the prescription can be fulfilled at the chosen location, even for locations faxed hundreds of times before.
LABOR & DATA
~$313K/yr
Spent on manual send requests
Every outside-pharmacy Rx still runs through CE, sourcing fax numbers, calling pharmacies, and chasing corrections after checkout.
~42K
Pharmacy records sitting unused
~16,000 confirmed by successful fax delivery, with structured data that could power verified selection upfront instead of reactive CE verification.
[03] Discovery & research
We validated labor cost and retention impact through three lenses: what CE agents said in the field, how the send-request journey runs today, and the themes that surfaced across interviews and existing customer and pharmacy feedback.
01 · CUSTOMER_EXPERIENCE_TEAM_INTERVIEWS
Quotes from shadowing and interviews with Customer Experience agents on where time goes and what breaks trust.
02 · CURRENT_JOURNEY
Step through checkout to resolution — customer actions alongside what CE does at each stage.
03 · RESEARCH_THEMES
Four recurring themes from CE interviews, shadowing, and feedback we had already collected — each pointing at the same labor and trust gaps.
Send requests eat hours on both sides
CE agents spend 40+ minutes on complex cases sourcing pharmacies and waiting on hold. Pet parents wait days for confirmation while CE chases corrections, wasting time on a service they already paid for.
[04] Solutions
A map-based pharmacy picker blending Vetster-verified locations with Google Places, replacing the fax scavenger hunt with one-tap selection where possible.
KEY_DECISIONS
Surface verified pharmacies first
Show previously collected verified pharmacies first, prioritizing locations with successful send request history for telehealth medication fulfillment.
Surface previously used pharmacies
Surface pharmacies pet parents have successfully used before, with easy search so they can quickly find and select a familiar location.
Automate CE workflow
Automate CE agent workflow through Intercom, gathering data from the admin portal to reduce manual checking time and effort so the team can focus more on care.
Manual path remains as backfill
The manual path still remains as a backfill when a pharmacy is not found.
INTERACTIVE_PROTOTYPE
Tap through verified search, manual entry, checkout, and success states.
[05] Process
PRODUCT_DEVELOPMENT_PROCESS
[06] Success metrics
The key results we are expecting: most send requests pick a verified pharmacy on the first try, CE spends less time re-confirming fax lines by hand, and far fewer “can’t find my pharmacy” support chats.
Verified pharmacy selection
0%
OF SEND REQUESTS
CE verification time saved
~0hrs/mo
“Can’t find my pharmacy” support chats
0%
Figures shown are launch targets from the requirements doc, not post-ship results. This section will be updated with measured outcomes once the experience is live and we have enough rollout data.