Have you ever said something like this during a patient’s wellness exam? “Let’s get Lucky his annual heartworm, flea and tick prevention.” To which the pet owner responds, “Oh, Dr. Stacee, I have some left over from last year.” That conversation occurs all too frequently in veterinary practices. Which begs the question: Why don’t clients give the medication they paid for? And how compliant are they with our recommendations about vaccinations, post-op care and diagnostics?
We aren’t doing well with client compliance if we look at Vetsource statistics for rabies vaccination and parasite control — two basic suggestions veterinarians make all day long. Rabies vaccination comes in at 66% and parasite control at 43%. Dentistry is even worse, at 10%.
We can do better because you know what isn’t fun? Working 10 hours a day to help people take the best care of their pets but not moving the needle much. To persuade pet owners to listen to us and follow our instructions, we must grasp the five-part compliance life cycle.
Part 1: Understanding
Does the client know what to do? Your success depends on your ability to transfer knowledge to someone else’s brain. You can boil down the options for educating and communicating with clients about what they should do for a pet to these channels:
- In-person visit
- Phone call
- App notification
- Website
- Social media
Here are some things you can do to help clients understand what they are supposed to do.
Explain Why
If clients don’t understand why they are supposed to do something, chances are they won’t do it. For example, when I fly, the flight attendant tells us to put our cellphones in airplane mode and detach our Bluetooth keyboards. But they fail to say why. So, what happens? Many passengers don’t comply. But what if the flight attendant said, “This helps prevent interference with our navigation system, so the plane is less likely to crash.” I think we would all shut off our phones immediately.
Speak Plainly
If clients don’t understand the words you use, rest assured they aren’t going to receive all the information you’re trying to convey. Therefore, talk in a style that is relatable for the listener.
Think Three
Having more than three choices overwhelms clients, and less than three makes it seem like I don’t have any ideas. Presenting three options, whether for differential diagnoses or treatment plans, is more manageable for the pet owner.
Pause Frequently
Talking without coming up for air is hard on listeners, especially those unfamiliar with the subject matter. By pausing, you let the client’s brain catch up and refocus on the conversation. Practice a spiel on common diseases. As you become more seasoned at explaining them, you will discover the best way to teach another topic, whether about a blocked cat or a splenic tumor.
Leverage Technology
Ask clients to use a smartphone to record a video of how to do something, like clean a pet’s ears or apply eye drops. It also works well to have clients record the conversation you are about to have with them. A phone’s voice memo app or video feature works great at this stage. Doing it will prevent you from having to repeat everything to their spouse later.
In addition, create a library of short videos about common ailments and client instructions. These visual aids help you cement the information and maintain consistency in your delivery.
Finally, check out Loom software to create personalized lab and X-ray results. You can add a Chrome browser extension to record your video and mouse movements as you share a screen.
Collaborate on the Time
Make sure you and your client are aligned on how long a conversation will last. For example, if you have a 10-minute presentation on how to take care of a dog’s cast and the owners must pick up a kid at school in five minutes, chances are you won’t receive their full attention. Be sure to set the expectation of how much time is needed and confirm a commitment to listen. If a client doesn’t have time, schedule another meeting or send an informational video.
Avoid Making Anyone Feel Dumb
We sometimes have wacky thoughts and ideas when working with the general public. However, the No. 1 way to destroy compliance is to make someone feel dumb. Once someone’s ego is injured, the person becomes embarrassed, defensive or angry. Either way, the client no longer listens. Be sure to use ego-friendly phrases like, “Well, that’s one approach we could take, but I have another idea I would like to share.”
Part 2: Convenience
Pet owners must be able to accomplish what you want them to do. You can make all the recommendations in the world, but clients won’t comply if they can’t follow through. Here are a few ideas to improve the client convenience factor at your practice.
Make Booking an Appointment Easy
Scheduling an appointment should be as pain-free as possible for the pet owner, especially on recheck exams. Nowadays, most people want to do business without talking on a phone, so have digital channels available, whether that means your practice’s mobile app, WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.
Make Refills Simple
Your veterinary practice should strive to process refill orders as fast as possible to be competitive with big-box retailers. Examine your protocols and look for ways to improve the workflow to increase the speed of refills. The most common bottleneck in the process is usually the doctor approval step. One idea is to empower your trained technicians to authorize prescriptions. Another is to have the doctor prioritize refill authorizations instead of doing it at the end of the day.
Here are a few more ideas to consider:
- Place a QR code sticker on a prescription vial. The client can scan the QR code and go to a form such as Jotform to request a refill.
- Instead of burdening pet owners to call when they need a refill, plan for it. Ask the client, “How would you like us to handle your future refills? Would you like us to contact you five days before the due date and get it ready for you? We also can deliver it to you.”
- Know your client and patient. Different people are capable, or not capable, of different things. So, before you prescribe a twice-a-day pill, find out whether the cat owner can administer it and whether the patient is a willing participant. Sometimes, delivering the best care is impossible because of limitations with the pill-giver or pill-taker.
Offer Same-Day Urgent Care
If you want clients to take the best care of their pets, you must make time for urgent situations. Access to care, even digital advice, helps clients get the information and care they desire. If same-day urgent-care slots fill within a few minutes of your clinic’s opening, you don’t have enough slots. If five slots are gone within 30 minutes, try seven. If those are claimed quickly, try nine. Get to the point where you are about 90% booked on your daily urgent-care slots.
When you are just under the wire of being overbooked, your team members are less exhausted and get home for dinner on time. But what if that means you don’t have enough slots for wellness exams and routine dentals? Remember, the job is to take care of the sick first, then the well. This might mean your clinic needs to consider pivoting to more urgent care than wellness care.
Block the First Morning Appointment
This tactic leaves time in your schedule for clients waiting in the parking lot or for you to call a pet owner who left a frantic overnight voice message. If those scenarios don’t happen at your clinic on a particular day, try starting with a cup of coffee, looking at the schedule and chatting with your team before the guaranteed chaos ensues.
Another way to keep up with the unexpected is to dedicate part of your working hours to walk-ins. Maybe the first-come, first-serve mentality runs daily from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
After-Hours Care
Do your clients know what they should do in an emergency? Take the time to build a good working relationship with a nearby ER practice. Once I started doing it, my clients had a better experience during emergency situations because the ER doctor was able to establish trust faster with the client by saying things like, “Yes, Dr. Santi and I work together all the time, and we talk regularly.” Also, consider adding telemedicine texting to your after-hours plan so clients can reach someone at your clinic.
Texting
Whether you use a texting service, practice app, WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, have at least one of those communication channels available for clients. Texting improves compliance significantly and guides clients on what to do and when. Digital communication is often more efficient than talking on the phone because, it turns out, more people like to use a smartphone for everything besides talking.
Part 3: Money
Can your clients afford what you want them to do? When they face financial barriers, you can:
Offer Third-Party Payment Options
Many companies will extend a line of credit to cash-strapped clients. Make sure you offer several options. Besides the standard credit providers, such as Care Credit, Scratch Pay and VetBilling, consider a local bank, too. Meet a nearby bank manager to discuss short-term, fast-loan options.
Start a Nonprofit Fund
Years ago, I established a nonprofit, Furry Friends for Seniors, at my veterinary practice. I posted about it on social media and asked my well-to-do clients to donate to help the less fortunate. I took patient photos and told stories of animals that received care because of the charity fund.
Create a Giveback Program
When I became the managing veterinarian at my hospital, I knew I had to end the emotional roller coaster of heartbreaking financial cases. Instead of dealing with them individually, I found it much easier to look at the profit and loss statement and decide how much we could donate. Let’s explore how to do it.
- Know your EBITDA (roughly, your profit margin). Most practices run from 5% to 25%, depending on how well-managed they are. Then, decide the percentage you are comfortable setting aside for givebacks.
- Say your practice has three doctors, $2 million in annual gross revenue and an EBITDA of 12%. Therefore, your profit margin is about $240,000. You can decide how much to donate to your charitable cause. There is no right or wrong answer, but consider 5% to 10%, which is $12,000 to $24,000 in this case. Alternatively, you could set aside 1% to 2% of the gross revenue ($20,000 to $40,000).
- Whatever your approach, be consistent every year. At year’s end, do your calculations. Then divide the amount among your associate veterinarians, who use their giveback funds to help clients in need. When the well dries up, there is no more until the following year.
Another idea is to have your team brainstorm fundraising ideas. Turn it into a team event with the goal of helping the less fortunate.
Part 4: Remembering
Clients need to be able to recall what they are supposed to do. Unfortunately, people forget 50% of what they hear within one hour, 70% within a day and 90% within a week. Here are a few ideas on how to help clients remember what you told them:
An automated reminder system is one way to help pet owners plan annual exams, give monthly parasiticides and recheck lab work. It is also possible to hack the system and use it for prescription refills. Just put the medication is the PIMS reminder table so that your automated systems send out the reminders in the same way they do for vaccines.
Sending a push notification in your mobile app is easier than emailing everyone who needs to administer a monthly parasite prevention.
Lastly, leverage Siri on Apple products and Google Assistant on Android devices. Keep a notecard in the exam room and have the client read it aloud into their smartphone. For example: “Hey, Siri. Remind me to give the parasite pill to <Pet Name > on the first of each month.”
Part 5: Reinforcing
If you want clients to repurchase something, they must feel good about it the first time. Your team can help by reinforcing the value of a purchase. The affirmation sentence should:
- State that the purchase is popular or common.
- Restate the benefit of the purchase.
I was recently shopping at a sports store. When my girlfriend tried on a ridiculously expensive tracksuit, an exceptionally trained employee running the dressing rooms stated, “That looks so amazing on you.” (It did.) When we got to the checkout desk, the cashier remarked about the fabric’s high quality and how great the color was, and then she rang it up for a whopping $200. What happened was the retailer reinforced the purchase’s positive feeling and alleviated buyer’s remorse later. Every time my friend wears her pistachio green tracksuit to lounge around in, she sends a selfie reminding me she is wearing her $200 outfit.
We can take a page out of the store’s playbook like this:
When a client is buying a therapeutic diet, you might say: “I can’t keep that food on the shelf,” “It makes such a difference in how the pet feels long term” or “You are such a good pet owner; I wish other pets had parents like you.”
Those statements make clients feel good about expensive purchases like lab work, dentals and parasiticides, so they will want to do it again.
Compliance isn’t magic or happenstance. It requires a deep understanding of how people process information and experience value. Clients visiting your practice pay to hear what you think is best for their pets.
SHOW AND TELL
An estimated 65% of people are visual learners, which means a veterinarian rolls the dice when explaining something over the phone. A blank sheet of paper can come in handy when you’re face-to-face with a client. Try drawing sketches to help pet owners understand a disease or treatment plan better. Use a red pen to underline the top three most important pieces of information.
STORY ARCHIVE
Dr. Stacee Santi is a frequent contributor to Today’s Veterinary Business. Check out:
- How to Get a Raise, go.navc.com/raises
- 6 Ways to Reduce No-Shows, go.navc.com/no-shows
- Your Loyal Followers, go.navc.com/loyalty-programs