Practice Tip 23 – Client Service and the Standing Ovation Practice™

Client Service and the Standing Ovation Practice™

Despite the “economy” and all the doom and gloom there is no question that some people still have money to spend on their pets. However, often there exists a certain fear and restraint about picking up the phone and calling a veterinarian. The result? Uncontrolled floods of clients and patients into our offices when, out of desperation, they finally decide to call in and use our services. This lack of control (Remember the definition of control as your ability to proactively speed something up or slow it down, change it’s direction etc…) results in unplanned high CPMs (Clients Per Minute) that can drop our efficiency, increase our staff over-time costs, and ultimately douse the flames on a Standing Ovation Practice™. What’s a Standing Ovation Practice™? This is the highly efficient practice that runs like a Swiss watch, that delivers the highest quality care in a fun and genuine manner, that results in clients that are happy to hear from us, happy to return, and give us the ultimate applause (acknowledgment) – the referral of their friends, family and neighbors. The problem with the floods of unplanned clients is that our normal friendly efficient staff can get overwhelmed, started making needless goofy mistakes (I.e. wrong meds, not giving estimates...) and be not quite as friendly as they normally are. Your good clients may tolerate this BUT they won’t necessarily give you the standing ovation compliment of a referral.

Fact: You need to exert better control on the arrival of clients and patients to build a Standing Ovation Practice™. Obviously you can’t predict when an emergency will occur BUT here are some simple things you can do for the everyday things:

1. Book every departing client with their next visit in your calendar – this gives you some prediction of client and patient flows in the future…
2. Book ample time for appointments – 30 mins is a good place to start…
3. Don’t book BIG elective surgeries on typical high traffic days (I.e. Mondays…)…
4. Always call 12 hours before to remind them of their appointment…
5. In busy times protect the friendliness and good client communication by getting the incoming phone calls off the front desk by having someone in the back take calls. This will allow uninterrupted communication with your client that will have them leaving happy and likely to refer friends and family…

Sounds simple? It is. Try it out and watch what happens.