Volume 1, Issue 2

Each issue of Veterinary Marketing Tips provides suggestions for reaching out to clients and prospects with marketing and communications strategies and tactics. Please feel free to email us at Lindaw@lwmarketworks.com if you have questions or would like to find out more about our marketing services. – Linda Wasche/LW Marketworks, inc.

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TIP: If your practice has limited resources for marketing, MEASURING CLIENT SATISFACTION SHOULD BE AT THE TOP OF THE LIST! A veterinary marketing program that fails to take into account how satisfied clients are with your practice could be a waste of money. You may be committing resources to attracting new prospects in the front door while clients are going out the back door. Remember that effective marketing is AS MUCH ABOUT LISTENING AS IT IS TALKING. Listening to clients helps you not only spot potential service delivery weaknesses, but will also help you identify OPPORTUNITIES for building competitive advantage at your practice. Keep in mind that MOST clients (of any service business) leave NOT as a result of extreme dissatisfaction. Instead, they leave because they do not feel they are getting the desired attention and care.

HOW: Determining how happy your clients are with your practice can be done fairly easily. The trickiest part is developing a set of questions that will give you a good “pulse” on whether or not your client relationship is still alive! Follow these steps:

• Develop a survey questionnaire that asks clients to rate all points of client contact with your practice such as the appointment, reception desk, the exam, etc. Also ask clients to provide comments as to how they could be better served.

• Ask clients to complete the survey following their visit. (Try to do this every six months or depending on how often you see the client.) Some clients may prefer to receive an email version; others will prefer completing a printed survey.

• Offer clients an INCENTIVE for returning the completed survey with a prize drawing or gift.

• IMMEDIATELY call clients who give your practice poor ratings.

• Put in place a process for quickly addressing client complaints and create a culture that EMBRACES client feedback – where complaints are OPPORTUNITIES to enhance client service!

IDEA: TEST your client survey on a small number of clients.

Before Initiating the client satisfaction measurement process, test your client survey on a small number of clients to see if you need to make any additions or adjustments. Are you getting specific information that will help you identify weaknesses or problem areas? Are you covering all relevant areas of the practice? If not, you may want to go back and revise the survey.

MORE IDEAS: Establish a baseline of client satisfaction and use this to identify goals for strengthening service delivery.

Veterinary Marketing Tips is published by LW Marketworks, inc. Copyright © 2010
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