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4 Tips on Tackling Your Veterinary Practice’s Negative Online Reviews
Veterinary practices have never been under more pressure than they are right now. With new pets being adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic (often by first-time pet owners) and the demands brought along with those, coupled with the hiring shortage in today’s market, veterinary practices are often bursting at the seams trying to keep everything moving and everyone happy.
Let’s be real, you can’t make everyone happy, especially in an era where patience is thin and access to social media and review sites is so easy.
So what do you do when someone posts a negative review about your business? We asked Brianne Spiersch, an executive coach with Veterinary Mastery, a division of Fortune Management, for her advice.
First, Spiersch says it’s critical to respond to the comment and ask the individual about next steps.
“Whether it’s positive or negative, it’s about how we respond to those comments,” Spiersch said. “At Fortune Management and Veterinary Mastery, we always talk about our ‘intent’ when it comes to our customers. With that in mind, we need to respond when something goes wrong and say, ‘That was not our intent. How can we make this better for you?’ It doesn’t have to be anything long, but it needs to be something that says we understand there has been a not-so-great experience and we will be reaching out to you, likely with a phone call.
“It’s important that the public sees that you’re paying attention to this and you know what's going on within your business. Silence is the worst thing you can have.”
Second, Spiersch believes preparing ahead of time for any potential reviews can pay off in the long run.
“Having a consistent voice is very important,” she said. “Coming up with some form of a script and having that in advance so you’ll have a framework for how to respond, no matter who is responding, is a big step. It will help make sure the entire practice is prepared and has one voice when something occurs online.”
Speaking of preparing ahead of time, a key third point is knowing exactly what is expected by the customer before the visit even occurs.
“We don't know what that expectation is unless we ask them. If we’re not asking them, they’re going to go home and be very quick to go on the Nextdoor app or Yelp or Google reviews and say how unhappy they were with that experience,” Spiersch said. “If we can ask them and prepare on how to meet that, many problems can be solved before they ever start.”
Finally, it’s important to always be on the lookout for what people are saying about you and your business online.
“Be proactive. Doctors will often know the apps where people are potentially talking about them the most so don’t be afraid to go and see what is being said,” Spiersch explained. “If someone is speaking negatively about the experience, it’s better to know it and take care of the situation than to let it fester without ever knowing someone is upset and talking about your business in a negative light.”
Need help knowing exactly how to tackle an online review? Spiersch and the Veterinary Mastery team is here to help with all aspects of your business. Contact her here (insert link to contact us page).
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Veterinary Mastery Blog
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No matter whether you're running a veterinary practice or a dentistry practice, reaching out to your clients to collect late payments is never a fun experience. But, it does not have to be one that changes your relationship permanently. In today's post, Veterinary Mastery shares a bit of insight on how to navigate the rocky road of missed and late payments without turning your clients in the other direction. Customer Service Matters Just about every aspect of your practice revolves around the service you provide your customers and how well you know them. When it comes time to collect late payments, your customer service team or admin staff will either provide a positive or negative experience. When done right, your customers will pay and continue to make you their veterinarian of choice. Executed poorly, and you may be stuck with an open invoice while the competition gains a new account. Make sure that your customer service team is fully prepared to handle both positive and negative interactions. This starts with ensuring they have the right tools. One to consider here is client communication technology. Not only does your software help your team manage the reminders and letting you know when a client is overdue for services, it also provides additional ways to connect with your client. Your software system can show your staff when the client was last contacted and, in many cases, will provide personal information that can make a conversation go much more smoothly and a lot of the software reports back into your practice management system. There are many options out there including, AllyDVM, Rapport, Weave, PetDesk, and many more. Your staff should also be clear and concise, use positive language and, perhaps most importantly, be unified . When your team all knows what’s going on and can provide your customers with consistent information, there will never be a question about how late payments are handled. A lot of the clients we work with come up with a script that’s unique to their team for ways to communicate clearly in difficult conversations. Get Paid Before The Due Date Unfortunately, no matter how great your customer service, collecting late invoices costs you money. But, you can circumvent many instances of non payment by strategically designing how you invoice and get paid. Incentivizing, which often means providing a small discount for full payment upfront, is a great option. However, if you are already on a tight margin, this will only cut deeper into your profits. Setting up a clear payment policy, asking for deposits up front, having multiple options for payment like CareCredit and also having in house wellness plans. While you can’t always get everyone to pay on time, the last thing you want is to lose a client. To keep your relationships intact, start by empowering your customer service. At the close of each business day, your goal is to have the same number of (or more) clients than you had yesterday. The way you handle late payments will greatly influence whether or not you achieve this goal.
Embark/Veterinary, a Boston-based genetics startup valued at $700 million, is looking to change how many years we get to spend with our dogs. The Boyko brothers DNA tested village dogs around the world to learn about the history of the domesticated dog. Now they want to help your dog live longer. Bloomberg recently reported that Embark/Veterinary raised $75 million to employ DNA testing on dogs with the goal of discovering and treating preventable illnesses and increasing the life span of dogs by three years. The goal would be to have this in place by 2030. It's a fascinating story of what could be coming down the line for pet owners, and something that veterinarians should know about. You can learn more about how it works and what it could mean for the pet industry in this riveting article from The Hustle.
During the pandemic as people around our nation adopted pets, veterinarians saw their businesses spike. For many in the veterinary space, it’s not a matter of keeping busy in today’s environment, but rather ensuring that time and productivity is maximized while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. One of the easiest ways for veterinary practices to improve their businesses is to have an outside set of eyes look at how tasks are performed from an impartial point of view and make suggestions on potential improvements. That’s what Laura Boone and her team at Veterinary Mastery have been doing for years and continue to do as our society emerges from the shadows of COVID-19. With a complimentary practice analysis, Boone and the Veterinary Mastery team can visit the clinic and bring best practices to light, helping the business to flourish. A complimentary practice analysis is a service that has been available for long before COVID-19 came into our society’s vocabulary, but there are often three misconceptions that keep practices from inviting Boone and her team into their business. With that in mind, we asked Boone to tackle those three misconceptions with the truth. Misconception 1: It’s expensive Let’s get the biggest misconception out of the way first. A practice analysis from Veterinary Mastery costs the doctor and clinic nothing until a consulting agreement is signed. That’s right. A Veterinary Mastery coach will come into your practice, watch you in action (more on that next), look over your reports, and give you some steps you can take to move forward … all for no charge. Next, one of two things happens. If you agree with the action steps, that’s when an agreement between your business and Veterinary Mastery is drawn up. A working relationship begins and the business begins its new journey. However, after discussing the action steps, if you think it’s not the right move for you at the time, you and the Veterinary Mastery coach shake hands and part ways. No questions asked and no strings attached. “We’ll provide you with a document, and you can take that document and use it, even if we don’t work together,” Boone said. “Of course, we believe we can help bring more detail to what the document contains and can help boost a practice’s business, but not everyone will agree. We’re OK with that. We want to make sure people understand that there is no cost to at least explore a potential working relationship. “We’re happy to invest our knowledge into the client’s success, even if he or she eventually chooses not to work with us,” Boone added. “The numbers we pull can show opportunities when a coach and client can work together to make a big difference in not only the bottom line, but the everyday efficiency as well.” Misconception 2: Coaches will be in the way Boone said that her team’s way of doing a practice analysis is best done by standing back and letting the business run like normal while they observe. “The way I love to do analysis is to watch the practice in action. That’s the best way to observe the client flow,” Boone said. “I can observe the team in action. I can observe and listen to what the clients are asking, as well as team communication. I can observe the customer service. There are a lot of things that can be seen without ever interrupting the day.” Boone also says that any reports that are needed can be pulled ahead of time, working with the team to ensure everything is in hand before the Veterinary Mastery team comes into the practice. “You can even sit me at a workstation and I’ll pull the reports,” Boone smiled. “Our job is to be honest, efficient, upfront, and stay out of the way while we’re doing it.” Misconception 3: The business is what it is and can’t be improved Remember those numbers that Boone mentioned earlier that are pulled from reports and documented? Interpreting those numbers and looking at them with a business eye can often be the difference between just reading a document and making it an action document. “I often tell doctors that our team can go in and help them with areas that they didn’t learn when they went to school,” Boone said. “We can look back at the experience we’ve had with other clinics and show doctors where the gaps in their own business are. We can become the eyes and ears for the business while the doctor and team focuses on the thing they love: Being a great clinician, a great leader, and focus on their patients.” Veterinary Mastery has provided its business knowledge to clients throughout the country, from working with startups to any stage of their business career. Veterinary Mastery is ready to ensure your success while being proactive and always looking ahead to what is possible, and that starts with ensuring the analysis is a smooth process. If this sounds like something that would benefit your practice, connect with Laura Boone and her team by sending an email to laura@veterinarymastery.com.
Let’s face it, COVID-19 created a boom for the pet industry. With so many Americans adopting pets and some even becoming first-time pet owners, shelters were empty, and society was suddenly filled with furry and feathered friends who had found their forever home. With the stay-at-home order in place and veterinary offices being one of the only businesses open during the shutdown, everyone now had time to go to the veterinarian and take care of their four-legged family members. Of course, that meant that more and more pet owners were reaching out to veterinary practices for everything from first-time visits to emergency calls. The increase in pets meant an increase in business … and an increase in stress levels for many people inside the practice as well. So, what can be done to help lower the stress levels when you’re literally herding cats inside the practice? We asked the experts at Veterinary Mastery for their advice. It All Starts At Your Front Desk Stress can often start with a phone call and trying to establish exactly what is needed from a client. If someone calls saying they have an emergency, is it really an emergency? That is just one of the balls that needs to be juggled at the front desk, and those phone calls can include everything from getting a prescription refilled to a true life-or-death situation. It starts with asking the right questions, accurate triage, to know what services are needed, says Brianne Spiersch, an executive coach with Veterinary Mastery, a division of Fortune Management. “It all starts with the first phone call and really knowing how to handle that and then proceed to either fit the patient into the schedule or have those timely communications with the doctor about next steps,” Spiersch said. “The best choice for that patient may not be coming into the practice, but rather going to an emergency clinic. Knowing how to quickly gather this information and relay it back to the caller is so important.” Ultimately, Spiersch believes that everyone on the team should be able to answer questions that come in over the phone so that one person is dealing with one situation, rather than having multiple people pulled in to solve a problem or answer a question. “Asking great questions is the key,” Spiersch said. “Then, once you’ve asked those questions, take a moment to listen. With the right questions and the right training, your front desk can become adept quickly and efficiently funneling clients/patients where they need to go.” Knowing And Informing Your Audience Puppies and kittens became all the rage during COVID-19, and new pet owners dealing with new animals certainly has provided its share of questions and excitement. So how do you talk to your customers about what is needed for a new puppy or kitten? Perhaps some of the questions can be established on a portion of your web site that you can refer customers to, cutting down on the number of calls and time spent on the phone to your practice. “Don’t be afraid to talk about what’s most important for a puppy in those early months,” Spiersch said. “Educate your customers on why vaccines are important. Make sure they know when they should be spayed or neutered. Make sure they understand the value of socialization. Make them aware of the importance of yearly wellness visits. We’re hearing from several of our clients about puppies becoming young dogs and being aggressive, because they have no experience with people and other dogs. “You have to think about what’s important for the pets, as well as what’s important for the owners to know. Having this information in one place can help alleviate some of the calls, and letting your audience know this is on your site through your social media or postcards or however you communicate is important as well.” Good Notes for the Tech Team Gathering information from the phone call is important, and so is taking good notes during the call and relaying that information correctly to the tech team members. In a typical practice, the tech team will first interact with the animal and owner when they arrive. Therefore, having the right information and being able to communicate that back to the owner is important for peace of mind, Spiersch said. “With curbside service, having the tech be able to go out and reiterate everything that he or she has heard from that first call from reception, and making sure that we have every bit of information needed is so important,” she said. “With everything being curbside right now, patients are handed off from team member to team member, so you have to really make sure your communications are streamlined and clear.” It also creates certainty for clients that they are in the right place for their pet’s care. Of course, there is much more to understand when it comes to successful running a veterinary practice. And that is why the experts at Veterinary Mastery are available to help you not only build your practice, but keep it running at a high level. If you need help in lowering the stress levels in your practice or making sure your systems are running as efficiently as possible, reach out to the experts at Veterinary Mastery at info@veterinarymastery.com or call (925) 408-2526.
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