One of the primary reasons clients don’t visit you as often as they should is because of cost. If you ask a majority of pet parents, they’d say that they say that they typically spend at least $100 for each visit. For people who have a large disposable income, that’s not much, but for the majority of the population, $100 needs to be budgeted into their monthly expenses. The trouble is, it’s hard to budget for unexpected expenses for pets. And if that pet parent hasn’t taken in their pet for a while, chances are additional services will need to be performed too. That’s why pet insurance is so important. Pet insurance can help with financial assistance in an emergency situation and provides relief where pet parents can focus on the health of their pet rather than the cost of a procedure.

Lack of communication can destroy any relationship you have with clients, even clients who you may consider loyal. If you are not actively communicating with a client while their pet is at your practice, it could be hurting you.

Take my friend Dan for instance. He is an older gentleman who recently lost his 14 year old chihuahua. Him and his wife finally decided to open their heart and adopt another dog. Of course, with any young pet adoption, the right thing to do is to make sure they’re spayed or neutered.

Believe it or not, a handful of great practices are struggling with the same issues your practice may be struggling with. One of the main issues is how to get clients back in the door. My vet tech friend recently explained their situation perfectly. New clients are very excited and engaged, and their older, most loyal clients always return. It’s the clients that fall in the middle they’re struggling to reach.  

So, what exactly is preventing these clients from walking back into your practice? We’ve identified five issues that could be deterring clients from returning.

It's summer time. That means families are going on vacation and people are boarding their pets. It also means that it's extremely important to make sure your patients are up-to-date on their vaccinations. Hopefully your staff is doing everything they can to stay on top of keeping them up-to-date, but occassionally things slip through the cracks. That's exactly what happened to my cousin this past week.

In the last 20 years, because of technology innovation and growth, business models have had to do a 180. Historically, businesses set the standard of consumer behavior and experience. Customers had to call in for appointments and wait until daytime business hours to make a trip to the store. Now because of modern technology, consumers have more control over how a business is run.