How will your veterinary practice exceed expectations if you don’t know how clients feel about their visits? Surveys can be hit or miss, with success depending on their deployment and ease of use and on managers asking the right questions, contacting respondents when appropriate, and celebrating or making improvements based on the feedback.
Let me be clear: I’m not talking about requesting online reviews. You want surveys that ask specific questions about a client’s interaction with your team. Your goal is to achieve greatness within your practice and exceed expectations.
Remember that to exceed expectations, the entire team must be on board. All employees have roles affecting the client and patient experience. For example:
- The receptionist team sets up the medical team for success by setting expectations for a visit when clients make an appointment and creating value through education. They greet pet owners and patients by name. They also communicate well with the medical team and hand off the client and patient professionally.
- The medical team continues the hospitality by providing timely and knowledgeable education, showing compassion and empathy, and being 100% transparent with the cost of services before delivery. Medical teams complete as many diagnostic procedures as possible in front of the client, creating a sense of value.
- The practice manager ensures that the highest level of technology is in place, enabling the team to be efficient and proficient in their delivery of medicine, communication and client service.
Everyone must work cohesively, enabling trust, collaboration and self-accountability. When those elements are present, the client feels it. The pet owner trusts the team’s recommendations and brags about the service to friends and family.
Why You Should Do It
Client surveys are important for these reasons:
- To identify pet owners who are upset and might post a scathing message on social media. Surveys provide an outlet for their frustration.
- To ensure the team’s idea of consistent, quality service matches client perceptions. Your employees might think they go above and beyond, but the client sees unmet expectations. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. Exceeding expectations is what gets you word-of-mouth referrals.
- To give your team a sense of fulfillment when they exceed expectations. Sharing feedback with them grows their confidence and encourages them to continue delivering exceptional service. On the other hand, the team can learn about client dissatisfaction and identify opportunities for improvement without finger-pointing.
How can you propel your practice from good to great? Your clients have that answer.
Do It Right the First Time
When building a client survey, keep these tips in mind:
- Provide the option for an anonymous response or to leave a name and contact information.
- Be brief. Present no more than four multiple-choice questions and one spot for clients to brag about or explain their experience.
- Use a platform that integrates with your practice management software and automatically deploys surveys within two days of a closed transaction.
- Deploy the survey link by text message so clients can complete the questionnaire on a mobile device.
- Alert pet owners during checkout that a survey is coming. Prepare a script to share with team members so they feel comfortable asking clients to complete one.
- Update the questions at least every six months to continue achieving your practice’s goals.
- Don’t survey the client again within six months.
What to Ask
Your surveys should focus on these two points:
- Target initiatives your practice initiated to address the client and patient experience. For example, if greeting clients by name is a top priority, ask, “Were you greeted by name as you entered our practice?” If it’s a Fear Free patient experience, ask, “Did the team take additional measures to ensure your pet remained calm throughout the visit?”
- Consider your clinic’s vision, mission statement and core values. You might ask, “Did your veterinary technician demonstrate compassion and empathy throughout the visit”?
While the examples above deliver yes-no responses, multiple-choice questions can address broader initiatives. If you installed new technology, ask clients about their experience. For example, “We recently gave clients the opportunity to make appointments online. Please tell us what you did.” Their choices might be:
- “I booked the appointment online and love it.”
- “I will not use it again.”
- “I called the hospital to make my appointment but will look for this feature the next time.”
- “I am not interested in booking my appointment online.”
If you can’t do something with client responses, don’t ask the question.
Measuring Success
Client surveys must be simple to use and respond to. Many pet owners presented with long surveys will exit before completing one or leave short-answer questions blank.
Test the survey platform in a soft launch to ensure everything works as anticipated. The last thing you want is a technological hiccup that results in a bad experience and no responses. A return rate of 10% or better is ideal.
The more your team members are involved in promoting client surveys, the better the return rate. Employees who are excited and emotionally invested in talking about a survey’s importance and what practice leaders will do with the results help build engagement. Client loyalty grows when they see a difference the next time they visit.
Can We Talk?
When clients leave contact information, always follow up, either with a “Thank you for taking the time to share” after a positive survey or “May we please call you to learn more?” following a subpar response.
Use surveys to learn more about what your practice might do to achieve greatness and reduce the likelihood of a pet owner posting a poor online review. Host open conversations with those clients and seek to understand their perspectives. While obtaining details is important, using the comments as ammunition against your team is not. Instead, ask the client, “In your perspective, what could we have done better?” If one person experienced it, others might have too. At that point, consider the need for further team training.
Then, contact the client several weeks later to report what you did because of the feedback and that you hope the team will meet expectations at the next visit. Your response lets clients know that you care about their experience.
Each week, share survey results with your employees. A team with a growth mindset looks forward to learning what clients think about their visits. Surveys can build team confidence, generate internal motivation and pride in the practice, and help your employees contribute to a strong workplace culture.
LOOK IN THE MIRROR
According to the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association, about 28% of practices survey their teams annually and 21% do it as needed. About 16% abstain from employee surveys.