In the past few weeks, we’ve been speaking a whole lot about the momentous opportunity for veterinarians offered by Millennial pet ownership. But this isn’t to say that they’re the only sort of client that’s crucial to your practice’s success!

The treasure trove of research we’ve amassed about veterinary customer demographics has revealed three crucial pet owner profiles that amount to the bedrock of every robust client base.

And just like a healthy ecosystem, a healthy client base requires diversity to keep a practice stable in varying economic climates.  Let’s take a look at three of the keystone species:

Veterinary medicine has reached the precipice of a fantastic turning point.  For years, the pet ownership market has been stagnant - stable through rough economic waters, but offering little quarter to rising numbers of veterinary graduates.

However, recent statistics show that there is much more than a glimmer at the end of the tunnel! We are beginning to see veterinary medicine emerge under blinding stadium lighting, ready for the primetime, all because of two demographic trends: the novel attitudes of Millennial pet owners, and the resiliency of baby boomers.  In this blog we will be focusing on the former.

Alright veterinarians, vet techs, practice managers, and pet health professionals of all sorts, are you ready for a mind-blowing statistic?  Take a seat for this one, it’s a doozy.

The average veterinary clinic is missing out on $123,000 of gross revenue due to inefficiencies in phone-based customer service.

We’re talking boatloads of annoyed or impatient folks giving up on attempts to contact your practice, not because the front desk is struggling, but because it’s just impossible to provide pet owners with the instantaneous gratification they expect - a sisyphean task even for the most experienced front desk administrators.

Just take a look at a few of the results from VitusVet’s recent calling study:

Two years ago marked a dramatic turning point in the continued evolution of the web: the smartphone dethroned the desktop as king of connected devices.  More than 80% of internet users own a smartphone and the usage gap will only continue to widen.

What does this have to do with veterinary medicine?  Our profession has always maintained a healthy scientific skepticism, and sometimes this translates into a reluctance to embrace newer technologies.  Thus, we have become the sad beneficiaries of the pet portal, a revolutionary solution only for denizens of the early 2000s.

Depending on the platform, ”pet portals” allow owners to view veterinary records, make appointments, request medications or food, print vaccination histories, read clinic news, and other assorted functions.  Sounds okay, right?  Not in a world dominated by smartphones!