One of the most interesting things I learned in business school was that consumer communication preferences are changing very fast. This can be intimidating for veterinarians who, to put it charitably, don’t have a history of being early adopters. The fact that the average veterinary clinic is a good ten years behind the times with respect to consumer technology isn’t cute anymore...it’s a threat for those practices that don’t adapt.  And a tremendous opportunity for those that do. One of the biggest areas where this is evident is in the changing preferences with respect to the almighty telephone.  

According to Ian Bogost in his August 2015 article in The Atlantic entitled “Don’t hate the phone call; hate the phone.”

It’s easy to view your existing client base as a measure of your veterinary clinic’s success - clearly you’re doing something right if these people have chosen to entrust you with their pets’ lives! Unfortunately, that frame of mind can also lead to complacency, which breeds the sort of bad service that can drive away clients permanently after a single negative interaction. 

Below is a list of 5 common mistakes that can cost you clients, and ultimately that shiny new ultrasound you’ve got your eye on!

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.

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.

On the surface, Millennials’ expectations seem paradoxical - they seek out personalized, empathetic experiences, but also eschew human interactions in favor of self-service through websites and apps.  To make sense of this, veterinarians need to know two things:

1. Millennials only welcome the involvement of people where humans can be more efficient, or offer something more meaningful than an algorithm or device.
2. Millennials are highly independent and resourceful, and value businesses that equip them to address their own problems, rather than forcing dependence on customer service representatives.