by Daniel Kittell | Business Growth, Industry - Veterinary Medicine, News, Uncategorized
Veterinary practices that provide award-winning services don’t hesitate on the small stuff – the over-and-beyond touches that make them stand out and keep clients coming back. The customer service tips below might not be groundbreaking, but when implemented on a regular basis, you’ll create positive experiences and gain repeat clients, who will likely spread the word to their friends and communities.
First Impressions and Communication
A common grievance reported to veterinary state medical boards is lack of communication. To avoid this fate, make a good impression when a client visits for the first time by:
- Introducing them to the team that will be caring for their pet
- Signing them up for any means you’ve established for clients to communicate with you, such as an online portal
- Offering them a welcome packet that includes details about your clinic, services offered, emergency contact information, where to find additional information about pet care, and a welcome letter
Create a Loyalty Rewards Program
Clients who follow your suggestions, properly care for their pets, and continue to bring their business to you are deserving of some perks, and a loyalty reward program is just the ticket. Whether they can be used for product or service discounts (or both) is up to you, but a loyalty program can be an effective vehicle in retaining clients.
Follow Up in a Meaningful Way
If you want a client to feel especially cared for, be sure to follow up on their pet after they’ve come in for an illness or procedure. At the minimum, follow up with a standard phone call one to three days after the visit, depending on the procedure. This also keeps you informed of the pet’s progress and client compliance of aftercare. If you want to add an extra personal touch, send the client a “get well soon” chew toy or catnip mouse for their pet.
Take Notes
Just as we appreciate when doctors remember something specific to us, clients appreciate when their vet remembers something specific to their pet, so take note of anything that stands out during routine check-ups. Do they like to be scratched behind the ears or on the belly? Is there a certain treat or toy they love? Jotting notes in a patients’ records about their likes and dislikes can help you create a personalized experience for your clients.
Create a Social Media Presence
Social media is a powerful tool that can help personalize your practice and communicate with your community. Share information like helpful tips for pet owners and any changes to hours or services. You can also post pictures of pets (provided the client has signed a photo release form), and encourage pet owners to post their own pictures and tag your practice.
Make a Memorial Donation
Establish a way to demonstrate your sympathy when a pet dies. While most practices send sympathy cards, you can go above and beyond by making a small donation to an animal charity fund in the pet’s name. You could also have a tree or flower planted in the pet’s name.
Implement a Referral Program
Referral programs can include simply sending a thank-you card to a client who sent a referral your way, or it can be as involved as sending a small gift of thanks for the business sent your way. You could provide new clients with a $10 discount and post a $10 credit to the referring client’s account. If you want to take it up a notch, you could give a different gift each time for repeat referrals to keep the program updated and worthwhile to the client.
by Daniel Kittell | Accounting News, Industry - Veterinary Medicine, News
It’s no secret that inventory costs, payroll demands, and overhead expenses are climbing due to inflation, supply chain issues, gas price hikes, and a broad staffing shortage. Thus, prices are going to need to increase in order to maintain profitability and stay afloat. Read on for industry-specific challenges and how to solve them while remaining dedicated to offering quality care.
Trim Payroll Expenses
Day-to-day practice management continues to be affected by staff shortages, a competitive hiring environment, and higher payroll expenses. You’ll need to make the judgment for your own practice about trimming payroll. It may mean cutting some hours for staff whose jobs can be done in a shorter amount of time, or it may mean letting go of staff whose contributions no longer serve your practice.
Reduce Inventory Overabundance
Pricing is higher in just about every category. Any steps you took to prepare for expected higher expenses likely didn’t cut it, and your bottom line is feeling the effects. Think about the medications you offer, and rather than trying to stock a small pharmacy, pick just a handful that are most in demand, and that the majority of your staff can get behind.
Offer More In-House Services
While now might be a good time to scale back your in-house pharmacy offerings, it could be an optimal time to invest in new equipment so you are able to offer more services to your clients. Think about lab services that you’ve been neglecting or outsourcing: cytology, urinalyses, and fungal cultures to name a few.
Raise Prices
Increasing prices can be tricky, and it can be done incorrectly, so you need to be thoughtful about how to go about raising prices. The last thing you want is for clients to feel that you’re insensitive to their financial reality. You’ll want to pinpoint areas where it’s defensible to raise fees by just a small amount. This will vary across practices, but even a small amount can make a difference. For instance, given today’s supply chain issues and energy costs, it makes sense to focus on items and services that rely on transportation and energy consumption. Whatever your focus, forgo large fee hikes for small and steady increments.
Show Appreciation for Clients
Make sure your clients know that despite the current rocky economy, your priority is to serve them and their pets with the high quality of veterinary care they’ve become accustomed to when they visit your practice. Most clients will understand that in order for your doors to stay open, prices may need to inch up. Still, you’ll want to show appreciation for a client’s loyalty and the opportunity to care for their pet. You can also instruct staff to share information about preventative care plans, pet insurance, and third-party financing to help pet owners handle the cost of care.
by Daniel Kittell | Industry - Veterinary Medicine, News
The pandemic ushered in a new era now referred to as the Great Resignation. A record number of American workers quit their jobs in 2021, many of them with no immediate plans to return to the workforce—they’re taking care of family, retiring early, living on savings, or reassessing their professional paths in light of living through a pandemic. The challenge now, for veterinary practice owners, is to halt this trend as it affects the veterinary industry. Read on to learn why workers are leaving, and what you can do to keep valuable employees on staff.
Who is Leaving the Veterinary Industry?
The labor market has seen the most quits among in-person positions as well as jobs with relatively low pay. In veterinary practices this translates to customer service staff and technicians. Low wages, overwork, and additional costs attributed to things like continuing education requirements and license renewal are some of the reasons they are leaving the industry. According to a 2007 study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, credentialed technicians have a considerable impact on a practice’s gross revenue. Yet the U.S. Department of Labor cites the median hourly pay for a credentialed technician is just $17.43 an hour, which may not be reflective of the monetary value they bring to the practice.
Quitting is About More than Compensation
It’s no secret that living through a worldwide pandemic for the past two years has caused people to reevaluate priorities and question life goals, so it’s no surprise that compensation is not the sole reason people are leaving their jobs. A survey conducted by Gallup last year confirmed that 57% of workers want to update their skills and 48% would contemplate a job switch for the opportunity to do so. In fact, workers across a broad age range consider upskilling a top benefit. It’s worth considering how your veterinary practice values career growth as a key factor in recruiting and keeping valuable employees.
How Your Practice Can Avoid the Great Resignation
Take action. It’s clear that employees greatly value updating their skills, so focus on employee development. Have conversations with employees about specific challenges they might be facing; engage them in conversation about why they choose to stay in the industry, and on the flip side, what variables or circumstances might have them questioning that decision (then take this feedback and cultivate a workplace that emphasizes what’s working and strives to mitigate what’s not). Offer professional growth opportunities through new projects or skillsets that align with their professional goals within the industry.
Finally, turn the questioning on yourself. What new skills, roles, and services could you bring to the table to help facilitate a practice that values bettering the skillset of employees and a more fulfilling workplace?
by Stephen Reed | Accounting News, Business Growth, Industry - Veterinary Medicine, News
With big-box retailers and ecommerce powerhouses like PetSmart, Walmart, and Chewy.com offering online pharmacies, private practices are finding that their bottom lines are being affected. Now is the time to strengthen your clinic’s pharmacy with proactive business strategies. Here’s how.
Send Refill Reminders
Your practice likely already sends reminders for vaccines, so sending refill notices for preventatives and prescriptions are a natural extension of this practice. Because text messages have a 99 percent open rate—as opposed to the 33 percent open rate of health-care emails—text prompts are likely your best route. You can also print refill reminders on prescription labels.
Reinforce Client Relationships
When you receive the fax from the internet pharmacy, instead of immediately signing it, take a minute to connect with the client, especially if the client’s pet is overdue for an exam and heartworm test because you have the opportunity to make an appointment. Even if their pet is up to date, reinforcing the doctor-client-patient relationship with a phone call is important. It also gives you an opportunity to explain to the client how your hospital buys safe drugs directly from pharmaceutical companies, your staff receives regular training on medications, and your pharmacy offers competitive prices. If you can offer any additional savings on particular brands, or if you have an online store and a home-delivery option, now is the time to make sure the client is aware of these services.
Set Up an Online Store with Home Delivery and Auto-Ship Benefits
With your own online pharmacy, you can offer your clients home-delivery of medications with auto-ship benefits by partnering with veterinary distributors. Offering an auto-ship option assures the client that they will never be in need of long-term prescriptions and preventatives. If the client purchases a six-month supply of flea and tick medication, set up an auto-ship refill in five months when the client will have one dose remaining. This is especially helpful in regards to heartworm medication because near the end of a 12-month supply, you can send reminders to the client for an exam, heartworm test, prescription renewal, and additional preventative services.
Begin Offering Home-Delivery of Pet Food
Home delivery helps to cross one more errand off of your clients’ to-do lists. It’s a time-saver for working professionals, a relief for older seniors, and a natural move for anyone who regularly orders online. You can seamlessly get clients started with recurring shipments during exams, offering them a starter bag of food, and assuring them that their online order will arrive on their doorstep in just a few days.
by Stephen Reed | Accounting News, Industry - Veterinary Medicine, News
Clients consistently turn to veterinarians for advice and assurance on products, pet food, and pharmaceuticals for their pets, so a retail business that can add to your clinic’s bottom line is a natural step for many. Below are some tips to help implement a retail business for your practice.
Be Selective with Products
Evaluate your product offerings and determine which ones move quickly. Focus on items that are backed by your medical team, turn over quickly (less than six months but ideally in a month or two), and are favored by clients. If you routinely recommend over-the-counter products during appointments, have them accessible for your clients to take home that day. Limiting choices to what your team specifically and commonly recommends helps to manage inventory and develop trust with clients. Even in the case of products that clients can buy at a pet store or grocery store, like Nylabone chews or nail trimmers, if they are readily available at their vet’s office, clients are typically happy to check that item off their list and support a small business in the process.
Implement a Loyalty Program
Consider implementing a loyalty program where clients receive a “freebie” when they reach a certain dollar amount. These freebies could be an account credit, a service such as a free nail trim, or a product that retails for under a certain threshold. This is a simple strategy to boost sales in a way that will help staff guide clients to products that they would likely buy anyway while helping them reach their dollar goal for the loyalty program.
Keep It Focused
Keep it small in the beginning by viewing your retail offerings as an expansion to the services you’re already providing. Focus on stocking products that are important to your clients and esteemed by doctors and staff. This approach will help garner more repeat clients, more foot traffic, and a better-established relationship with clients.
In addition to over-the-counter healthcare products and general pet merchandise, be sure not to discount in-clinic pharmacy sales. Veterinarians do the work of attending conferences, communicating with drug manufacturers, and determining which products are best for their clients and pets. Instead of directing clients to drugstore pharmacies or, worse, online sites where they could unknowingly purchase less-than-ideal products to save some money, why not stock the products you’re recommending? This isn’t to say you should stock every product ever mentioned in every appointment, but it should be fairly easy to run some reports through your software to determine which products have the highest turnover. This will tell you which products are important to have on hand for customers.
The Bottom Line
Though you may not be able to increase your cost more than 35% of wholesale value in order to be in range with competitors, a positive cash flow on product sales is worth it in the end for your bottom line. Perhaps most importantly, clients and their pets are getting exactly what they need from the veterinarian they trust.
