You know your clients love you, your clinic is a community staple, but business is flat and your appointments are slowly decreasing. This is an all too common statement veterinary professionals are making across the U.S., and increasingly we are turning to client surveys to try and diagnose the problem Surveys, however, don’t tell the whole story.

Jan Miller from Veterinary Best Practice says it best: “[In] a typical customer satisfaction survey, you are given choices that range from very dissatisfied to very satisfied, with the middle choice of “satisfied”. When a customer selects “satisfied” they are telling you that you have achieved the lowest level of acceptable service. “Satisfactory” doesn't sound so great, does it? In fact, I would argue that it’s insulting.” Just "satisfied" customers switch veterinary practices all the time, loyal customers stay - but what exactly have you learned from the survey question? One of your clients is nearing the precipice, but you still don’t understand why.

There is more to measuring client satisfaction than a few questions you ask your clients once every couple of  years. You can ensure more loyal, happy, paying clients by using better measures of client satisfaction that give feedback all year round.

The Digital Age is upon us. There’s no denying that the introduction of tablets and smartphones into our lives has made us more contactable than ever, and consumers are now expecting more from their service providers, veterinary clinics are no exception. I know we are busy and keeping up with the modern day customer isn't easy, but there are definitely steps that we can take to make it more possible.

First, gauge how digitally advanced your veterinary practice is. This quick 7 question quiz can help you figure out if your practice is stuck in the stone ages or if it's a place Judy Jetson would be proud to take their dog, Astro.

All vets want their clients to be happy, their patients healthy, and their business thriving. But at times, it can seem like meeting these goals is always just out of reach - you can succeed at two, but the third evades. One way to approach this problem is not by considering each goal in isolation, but to combine all three into a single entity.

Answer this: what is the product of your veterinary practice? From a pure business perspective, your product is not just medical outcomes, but is your client experience - an all-encompassing term that captures everything from the moment a pet owner contacts you, until the bill is paid and a pet is sent home happy and healthy.

Try googling “veterinary websites” and see what you get.

You'll find just about 1000 different web design businesses that offer their services to build you a website, and almost nothing explaining why you need a website in the first place - let alone how to pick out a good one from a bad one.

The market is saturated with veterinary web designers because the need for an online presence has quickly evolved from merely a perk to an absolute requirement from 2005 to today. Every client expects to find, at the absolute minimum, contact information and hours of business online, and the failure to provide this is enough to incite rage in any Millennial, and frustration in all others.

In our previous blogs we have talked in great lengths about the importance of client churn rates in your practice. While it is still important to track the rate your business is gaining new clients versus the number of clients it is losing each month/quarter/year, attracting new clients is still key to growing your practice. 

Attracting new clients, no matter if they are a Millennial pet owners or not, is not an easy task, especially if you have been marketing your veterinary practice the same way for the last 10 years. Even if your practice still uses some out-of-date technology behind the desk (e.g. using a fax machine as a main form of communication or not having a practice email address) your potential new clients still expect to be able to find and communicate with you in a convenient setting outside of the office.