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
GROWING YOUR PRACTICE: KEY ACTIVITIES TO IMPLEMENT The Bayer Veterinary Care Usage Study points toward some key activities practices should focus on in order to grow: 1. Build bonds between clients and the practice team members. Only 48% of the practice owners surveyed agreed completely or somewhat with the statement that clients were assigned a veterinarian whom they saw most of the time. Instead of having the first available person return a call or see a client, try to keep those contacts consistent. This allows pet owners, veterinarians, and team members build strong, trusting relationships.
2. Make preventive care a key part of the practice. Communicate the need for wellness care to all pet owners and train everyone in the practice about the need for it. Use models, stickers, checklists, medical record templates, and other aids to make sure information is consistently communicated to clients. In addition, consistent communication between doctors and the practice team regarding the importance of preventive care is critical in order for team members to become a strong part of the client education process.
3. Communicate wellness and other recommendations effectively to clients. It's not enough to simply make a recommendation; that approach does not explain to the client why the recommendation is important. Instead of saying "Your pet needs a dental," say "Cleaning Fluffy's teeth now will help your cat keep all his teeth, prevent tooth and gum infections, and reduce the likelihood of expensive dental care in the future."
4. Try new communication and marketing ideas. According to the Bayer study, about ¾ of practices have websites and advertise in the yellow pages, but less than 50% of practices are trying other types of promotional activities, which can better educate pet owners about their pets' need for care and consequently bring them into the practice. Practices certainly need websites but there are many other marketing activities that more actively reach out to clients—consider building relationships with realtors, large companies in the practice's area, or other pet service providers.
58 Today's Veterinary Practice January/February 2012
5. Venture farther into web-based communication. A website is a start but try expanding Internet communication with your clients, such as email, texting, or Facebook. The key thing to remember is to communicate with clients the way they prefer communicating. Findings from another study performed by Nicholson Kovac indicate that dog and cat owners are more likely to use social
media and text than other consumers, yet only: » 54% of small animal veterinarians use email to communicate with clients
» 76% of veterinarians are not at all or only slightly familiar with social media sites
» 50% see social media as a marketing opportunity.
In addition to these 5 action steps, the findings in
the Bayer study point to many more. In spite of the recession and its aftermath, there are actions every practice can take to increase both dog and cat visits. Future articles in this series will examine these actions in-depth and provide ways to incorporate them in your practice. ■
References 1. Volk JO, Felsted KE, Thomas JG. Executive summary of the Bayer Veterinary Care Usage Study. JAVMA 2011; 238:1275-1282 (http:// avmajournals.avma.org/doi/pdf/10.2460/javma.238.10.1275).
2. Volk JO, Felsted KE, Thomas JG. Executive summary of phase 2 of the Bayer Veterinary Care Usage Study. JAVMA 2011; 239:1311-1316 (http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/pdf/10.2460/javma.239.10.1311).
Karen E. Felsted, DVM, MS, CPA, CVPM, is the Chief Executive Officer for the National Commission of Veterinary Economics Issues (NCVEI, ncvei.org). She is also a founding director and current member of VetPartners (avpmca. org), the treasurer for the CATalyst Council (catalystcouncil.org), and a past member of the Veterinary Economics Editorial Advisory Board.
Dr. Felsted has written an extensive number of articles for a wide range of veterinary publications and speaks regularly at national and international veterinary meetings. In addition, for the last 10 years, she has provided financial and operational consulting services to veterinarians, most recently with Brakke Consulting and Gatto McFerson CPAs. Dr. Felsted received her degree in marketing from University of Texas– Austin and spent 12 years in accounting and business management, including 6 years with Ernst & Young. During this time, she also earned both her CPA and MS degree in management and administrative science from University of Texas–Dallas. In 1996, Dr. Felsted received her DVM from Texas A&M; University; she practiced small animal and emergency medicine for 3 years.