Today's Veterinary Practice provides comprehensive information to keep every small animal practitioner up to date on companion animal medicine and surgery as well as practice building and management.
PRACTICE BUILDING |
2. Believe that wellness examinations are the most valuable service. One aspect of veterinary medicine is to treat sick or injured pets; however, focusing on wellness care may mean that pets are less likely to become sick or injured and allows earlier diagnosis and treatment.
3. Recognize that marketing and advertising are critical to success. Practices that focus on attracting clients are obviously more likely to have an increase in visits versus practices that don't.
4. Become an active user of social media, such as Facebook. This finding is a clear sign of the times and confirms how consumers (including pet owners) pick the businesses they choose to use.
This same type of statistical
analysis was used to identify variables commonly shared among practices that saw a decline in visits: 1. Think that advertising undermines credibility as a veterinarian. There is a blurred line today between advertising/ marketing and pet owner communication. If practices are uncomfortable with promotion, they are missing opportunities to help pet owners understand the need for care, which ultimately results in lack of practice growth.
2. No referral arrangements with other pet service providers. Relationships with groomers, boarding facilities, pet sitting services, and other pet service providers are a natural fit for a symbiotic relationship—these service providers can recommend your practice to clients unfamiliar with you and vice versa.
Decline in Veterinary Visits: Six Reasons Why Six reasons were identified in the Bayer Veterinary Care Usage Study
as contributing to the decline in veterinary visits: r The recession r Fragmentation of veterinary services r Intrusion of the Internet r Inadequate understanding of the need for routine examinations r Cost of veterinary care r Feline resistance.
1
The Recession Without a doubt, the U.S. recession of 2007 to 2009 has had
a negative impact on companion animal veterinary practices and exacerbated the downward visits trend seen prior to the recession.
2
3 4 5
6
Fragmentation of Veterinary Services The number and type of veterinary practices appears to be growing
faster than the number of pets; thus, the declining number of visits is being spread out over a greater number of veterinarians. Practice owners face competition not just from other traditional veterinary hospitals, but especially from types of services that have become more prevalent in recent years, including pet store veterinary clinics, mobile vaccination clinics, animal shelter and rescue operation veterinary services, and specialty referral practices. Practice owners, on average, estimated there were 15.3 other practices in their trade area.
Intrusion of the Internet With the ready availability of information on the Internet, pet
owners depend less on their veterinarians when it comes to the care of their pets. Pet owners say they often look online first if their pets are sick or injured.
Inadequate Understanding of the Need for Routine Examinations
Many pet owners associated veterinary care with vaccinations, and did not understand as readily the necessity for examinations or other care. They also felt that indoor pets and older pets need less veterinary care.
Cost of Veterinary Care Pet owners cited the rising cost
of veterinary care as an obstacle to taking their pets to a veterinarian. They also indicated they did not see value in their veterinary visits compared to the cost of care. Seventy-four percent of practice owners indicated that it was becoming more difficult to increase fees; 49% said that clients were increasingly complaining about fees.
Feline Resistance Cat owners find taking their pets to veterinarians highly stressful
to both the cats and themselves; therefore, fewer cat owners have a primary clinic and when they do take their cats to veterinarians, they spend less and visit less often.
January/February 2012 Today's Veterinary Practice 57
How Practices Can Thrive in an Online Environment