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tvpjournal.com | november/december 2015 | Today's VeTerinary PracTice PracTice BUiLdinG 93 LESSON 2. BE WILLING TO DIFFERENTIATE When we purchased our frst practice almost 15 years ago, the world was a different place. our most signifcant competition was the other veterinarian in town, and it was commonplace for many practice owners to operate on the premise that competition was a bad thing. one thing we now know is that the current competitive landscape is nothing like it was in the past. Today's veterinary practices compete with a host of new competitors, including online pharmacies, low-cost service providers, and new practices. competing effectively is not just a good idea—it is a requirement for staying in business. it is challenging (or even impossible) to identify an attractive, high-growth market where a signifcant unmet need for veterinary services exists. To successfully compete, practice teams must fnd a comfort level reaching out to existing and prospective customers and actively differentiating their practice from the rest of the pack. Practically, what does this mean? Practice Website Take a quick look at your practice's website and scroll through the core elements. • do you have a picture of your surgery room? • do you have a laundry list of services that you offer, including vaccinations, spays/neuters, and senior profiles? • do you have a library of resources for your clients to access? review 3 or 4 of your peers' websites and count how many of them have the same exact elements, often in the same exact physical layout. How is your website any different? Patient Experience Take a moment and consider the patient experience from your clients' perspectives. • do your clients come into a busy waiting room, and wait in line while a receptionist sits behind a big desk balancing phone calls and intakes? • do they get shuffled off to a room where they complete their pets' annual visit in 15 minutes? • is your client's experience just like every other trip they've made to every other veterinary practice? Differentiation i strongly believe that for individual veterinary practices to thrive in the future, we have to make the commitment to differentiate ourselves from the growing number of alternatives. We have to be willing to make sometimes radical changes, including: • adapting our model to be more in tune with our clients' needs • recognizing that clients have options • communicating what truly makes each of our practices unique • Most important, educating our clients about why they should care. Those practices that make this evolution will continue to build a loyal client base, both strengthening their existing relationships as well as attracting new customers, no matter what the local competitive landscape. LESSON 3. ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN, MEASURE THE IMPACT, & CHANGE COURSE IF NECESSARY For many years, the veterinary practice business plan went something like this: • s how up for work • Try to do a good job by providing sound medicine and satisfactory service • raise your prices every few years • see your business grow 5% to 8% annually. Business Planning Very few practices actually have a business plan. if you ask practice owners to state their goals for this year, those goals are most likely along the lines of achieving a few percentage points growth from the previous year. ask an owner how they plan on reaching that goal, and the conversation often stops there. The business of veterinary medicine has grown much more complex in recent years. Larger staffs, increased regulatory oversight, previously referenced competitors, and new technology all make the process of running a small business feel like a big corporate headache. if you study the practices that are successful in today's marketplace, you often fnd they have embraced many business principles, including business planning. a regular planning process enables practices to accomplish many important tasks that impact their business throughout the year, including: • development of practice-wide goals that can be communicated to the entire team • creation of budgets related to expenditures for new equipment, payroll, and marketing, among other categories • establishment of contingency plans if revenue drops, the practice loses a doctor, or the business faces unplanned challenges • Provision of groundwork for improving practice value.