Given the decline in patient visits over the past two years and pet owners’ increased cost sensitivity, now is a critical time for veterinary practices to evaluate their client communications training program. Client loyalty and compliance rise when every team member has the knowledge and skills to connect with customers, communicate value and discuss payment options. Unfortunately, businesses don’t often commit the time and effort needed to improve employee training.
Let’s look at a roadmap for practice leaders to create and implement an effective client communications program that elevates the team’s expertise, creates exceptional experiences and helps more pets get the care they need.
Look at the Big Picture
Every veterinary practice is different, so analyze what your clinic needs by answering these three questions:
- What can we learn from our key performance indicators? See if the number of new clients or patient visits is down. Determine whether pet owner compliance with treatment recommendations has declined. Your findings might indicate the team needs to clearly communicate the value of services and promote payment options on the phone and in person.
- What do online reviews tell us? If you have a rating of 4.5 or higher, great! With any negative reviews, look for patterns. Do clients complain about poor service, the cost of care or a lack of empathy? Identify opportunities to communicate better with pet owners.
- How much training does our team need? Some practices have multiple new hires and inexperienced staff, while others have a stable roster that mainly needs advanced training.
Determine Individual Needs
Next, do a gap analysis to determine each team member’s specific training needs. Newer employees might need to learn about preventive care and how to respond to client questions. Experienced team members might need to hone their communication skills for dealing with emotional clients, discussing money or educating pet owners about specific medical conditions.
Ask for team feedback so you can focus on training where it’s needed most. Give everyone three days to answer this question: What are the top three client communications training needs at our practice?
Identify Trainer Challenges
Developing excellent trainers can be difficult, especially if you’re short-staffed. Moreover, trainers might face added job stress if they’re responsible for onboarding multiple new hires.
To help overcome those challenges, form a training team that reports to the practice manager. Some members might organize training materials, while others engage in teaching and role-playing. Adopt a train-the-trainer approach. Don’t assume employees know how to be good trainers just because they’re proficient in a job. Discuss the importance of clarity, patience and encouragement and the ability to give constructive feedback.
Another challenge occurs if someone resists training co-workers. To address the issue, promote a culture of continuous learning and emphasize that everyone is responsible for taking part in training. Talk about the benefits of implementing the program, such as:
- Being a trainer elevates knowledge and growth opportunities.
- Enhanced client communication builds loyalty and helps more pets.
Address Time Constraints
Lack of time is the No. 1 reason I hear when the training is insufficient. One of the best ways to level up team members’ knowledge and skills in a busy practice is to schedule short, laser-focused sessions. At a weekly minimum, hold two 15- to 30-minute sessions with one or more team members. For example, a veteran technician might meet with an inexperienced client service representative to discuss pet owner education on vaccine protocols or parasiticides. Likewise, a practice manager might meet with someone who needs to learn to respond to angry clients.
Learning to communicate with pet owners effectively — regardless of the message — takes practice, which is why weekly role-playing exercises are valuable. Receiving feedback after rehearsing real-life scenarios helps team members become comfortable with client communications.
Get Organized
I often find disorganized training documents at veterinary practices. For example, the same CSR manual might include excruciating details about job expectations, the practice management computer system and preventive care protocols. All that information in the same document slows learning.
Client communications training for new hires should be a stand-alone program that includes specific goals. Use phased training so that they learn basic skills and knowledge first. Also, outline a schedule of what new hires should learn each week during the first month of employment and in the five months that follow.
For more experienced team members, establish modules to help them achieve additional knowledge and skills. For example, organize training documents in clearly marked digital folders and in three-ring binders, with a table of contents for easy access. Categorize everything into major topics, such as client education, client engagement skills, communicating the value of services, and talking about money.
Measure Knowledge Retention
Team members might lack the desired expertise if you don’t ensure they retain what they learned about client communications. Written quizzes are an easy way to assess if someone has accurate knowledge. For example, you can create multiple-choice, true-false or fill-in-the-blank tests on topics such as vaccine protocols, parasite preventives and communicating the value of specific procedures. Question-and-answer sessions will tell you whether team members know how to respond to “Why does my dog need a heartworm check when he’s on a preventive?” and “What should I feed my puppy?”
To evaluate a team member’s proficiency in using specific skills to communicate the value of veterinary services and present payment options, schedule an interactive session involving real-world scenarios. Keep these two goals in mind:
- Does the team member understand when to use open-ended questions, empathy statements, reflective listening and de-escalation techniques?
- Can the team member effectively verbalize the communications?
By following the above roadmap, you’ll improve your team’s ability to build strong client relationships and help more pets get the care they deserve.
MAKE-BELIEVE
The talent development company Exec offers this role-playing scenario about a repeatedly disappointed customer: “Imagine facing a customer who’s been let down so many times they’re ready to leave. Their trust has nearly vanished. Your job involves acknowledging previous failures, taking ownership of what went wrong, and showing them exactly how you’ll fix things with concrete steps that prove this time will be different.” Learn more at bit.ly/3W0TYll.