Sambo Veterinary Books & Vet Stationery Printing

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In the Marketing section you will find lots of marketing tips for the practice, how to get the most from your stationery and plenty of tips on staffing issues, customer service, merchandising and practice management. This section is constantly being updated so log on regularly to view new material.

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Do you sell Pigs ears, Rawhide chews etc? Want to sell more? Place them within reach, very close to where your clients pay and clearly label them with a description & price. Use words like Gourmet, Delectable, Delicous etc or how about 'For spoilt dogs only!' I tried this little experiment and watched sales of our Pigs ears almost double, simply because I put the word Gourmet in front of the product name.

Have you got a tip or idea to share? Email me your tip and I'll share it to help other practices. Don't forget to include your name and the practice you are from so I can include who kindly provided the tip.

Need a unique marketing tool? Then read on.

Do you love sending out the yearly Christmas card? Then you’re in luck as Sambo sell Christmas cards with a special message inside from the practice, BUT if you want to try something different why not send out a card at a different time of the year? Why would we do that you ask? Because in my opinion, you’ll get a better return for your money.

Marketing is about getting the practice noticed; make sure you keep this in mind when constructing a marketing campaign. Most practices send out Christmas cards but when was the last time you asked yourself why you are doing this? Is it because everyone sends out Christmas cards and you just do it ritually? Is sending out a Christmas card helping to improve your practice? At best, your card probably got strung up next to the 30 other cards received from businesses or friends. What makes your Christmas card stand out from the others and how do you measure its success? I mean, you are probably spending over $200 of precious practice profits on this card campaign so you must have some idea of measuring its return? Sadly, most practices probably don’t.

In December, your clients are flooded with Christmas cards so it’s hard to stand out from the crowd at this time of year. Sending out Christmas cards can be costly and in my opinion isn’t the best way to be spending marketing dollars. So what else can you do? Put your thinking caps on, get creative and ask for opinions from your staff at your next meeting. Heres an idea of mine you might like to try and to get things rolling.

Marianne’s tip:

Pick a date exclusive to your practice and call it something like ‘Pause for Paws day’. I’ll pick August 23 as it’s my daughters birthday and I’m not going to forget this date (lets hope not!). Approximately one week prior to August 23 every year, send out cards to your best clients introducing this special day and asking them to pamper their pet on this one day of the year to thank them for their unconditional love and friendship. To get them into the practice offer some discounted pamper packs (which I would have already got some special treats and other items from my favourite rep or/and wholesaler). Also included would be some vouchers to encourage them to use your additional services like grooming, the weight loss clinic or hydrobathing on a Saturday.

Every client who purchases a pamper pack will go into the draw to win a years worth of pet maintenance including a 12 month supply of flea control, heartworm prevention and vaccination and health check (of course I would have been given these off my favourite rep). Are you also beginning to see the importance of having a rock solid business relationship with your chosen reps? In appreciation for all of these free items I would include their logo or product on my cards to ensure they got value for their money/gifts also. Remember to be successful in business it has to work both ways. Here is a sample card I whipped up. Get the staff involved on ways you can decorate the practice and make it a huge part of your year. Get creative! Go one step further and donate the $5 from each pamper pack to your chosen animal charity. Get the local newspapers involved and get some free publicity!

Now which campaign will get the most notice? The trusty Christmas card or Pause for Paws day? We can design the whole campaign for you including the postcard and posters for you to hang in the practice. Look after these posters and put them up each year to celebrate the day. A great way to get clients back in the door don’t you think?

It’s obvious how every practice uses their drug labels but what about the spacer label? Do you use this spacer label to benefit your practice?

Use this label to advertise your additional services and then place these stickers onto your merchandise! This ensures that every client who purchases over the counter products will leave with some advertising, giving your other services a boost. It also places your practice phone number in the home of your clients ensuring they don’t have problems contacting you.

Nothing infuriates me more than having to wait for an appointment. When you make an appointment for a client, you enter into an agreement that you will be available to see them at a particular time on a particular date. That agreement should be taken seriously and not be broken unless something unforseen happens like a patient emergency. If the practice has an emergency, putting the vet behind schedule, all clients should be notified, with apology that you are running behind schedule, given an explanation why and an opportunity to re-schedule.

You can also give the client an opportunity to arrive closer to the ‘real time’ that the vet will now be available eg arrive half an hour later or to re-schedule the appointment for another day. By re-scheduling or allowing clients to come closer to the ‘real’ appointment time, you are sending a clear message that their time is very important to you. What a fine display of customer service.

Clients don’t like to wait and there is nothing worse than sitting on a reception desk listening to an angry client huffing and puffing as each minute ticks by. The client is not happy; the reception nurse is uncomfortable as s/he waits for them to approach the desk to angrily ask ‘how much longer will the vet be?’ and you are doing your practice no justice at all. I’ve seen nurses ‘abandon ship’ and hide in the surgery area during these long waiting times, just so they can avoid being on the receiving end of a client about to lose their cool.

Making appointments is not only for the benefit of the practice but for the benefit of the client also. They have places to go, people to see and their whole day does not revolve around you. Clients are there to give you their business so take their time seriously. If you have no intention of keeping to a schedule then you have no right to make appointments.

If you are finding that you are forever behind schedule then it’s time to review your policies and procedures to work out what you can do to improve your time management. Maybe you need to increase your consultation times or admit animals for bloods etc. The practice spends a lot of money on advertising (yellow pages, internet, telephone on hold, newspapers, reminders etc) to get clients in the door and then when the client accepts your invitation, you make them wait!

Remember that clients have a choice and unless you are the only vet within a 100km radius, your clients can go somewhere else if you don’t show respect for their time. It is our privilege that the client has chosen to spend their money at our practice, not the other way around. Be mindful of your clients time and keep on schedule.

Sounds over the top right? Well, I’ve seen a practice that looks like this and to this day I still remember it. Clients like to see a waiting room that is clean and fresh, it shows a commitment to your clients and patients. If your waiting room looks old and tired, what must I think of your equipment? If you don’t make an effort by providing comfortable waiting room chairs, how comfortable do you make it for my dog/cat in hospital? When you go to the same place everyday you can start to become immune to the ageing process so put some procedures into place so your practice doesn’t crumble around you without anyone noticing.

As a guide, you may need to revamp your waiting room every five years but don’t go overboard and make it too flashy or clients may think you must be expensive and avoid you as a result. The trick is to find a comfortable medium. While your waiting room may only need a revamp every five years, this does not apply to your posters and in-clinic signs! These should be rotated or discarded regularly. It’s wonderful that you allow some window space for missing pets but take down ‘Jake the tabby went missing in 1985’ signs. Keeping up old signs sends a message that you haven’t bothered to see if Jake was found and only clutters up your window, shadowing any missing pets from 2007.

Make every inch of your waiting room bring value to your practice. Don’t just pin up a poster because there is a gap on the wall. Have a plan and make the poster/sign work for you.

Don’t forget to monitor the outside of the practice also. Litter, cigarette butts, dead plants and weeds can give the impression that you lack attention to detail. Keep the building and car park clean and replace old signage. Put yourself in your client’s shoes and shop at your practice, writing down everything you see. You may be surprised with what you have been overlooking for years. Get rid of those old magazines and start asking your clients for some feedback on your waiting room, after all, they are the ones that use it. Strip the walls of old posters and put up signs that will bring in a return to the practice eg in-clinic promotions.

Marianne’s tip:

Don’t forget to include your favourite drug reps when re-vamping your practice. Remember that it’s advertising for them to use some of your practice wall/window etc. Ask them to provide some signage or come up with a solution to a ‘dead spot’ in the practice. It’s a win, win situation! Your practice looks great with professional signage/posters and the reps get to have their products in view of their direct clientele: the pet owner.

Be loyal to these reps however and they will give you more. I don’t agree with ‘getting what you can out of them’. Work out what products you want to support then build a solid relationship with the reps behind these products. People have said to me ‘but by being loyal to all the reps we get something from them all’. That may be the case but you’re spreading yourself thin. I can guarantee you that if you are loyal to a small few you will get more support for the practice. In one instance, I obtained over $3000 in sponsorship from drug reps for a practice profile book that I had printed. I don’t tell you this to impress you; I tell you this to impress upon you, the importance of having a good relationship with the drug reps. Be loyal to them and they’ll be loyal to you.

Is your reading material helping to sell your practice? While I don’t agree with long waiting times, there are situations where clients arrive early or may choose to wait for their pets blood results etc so why not give them something to look at that will sell the practice?

Magazines need to be replaced every week/month and a wide range of magazines need to be on display to cater to everyone’s taste. This is not only costly but works well to advertise everyone else’s business except your own!

Why not get together a practice profile magazine? This will help clients get to know staff, your other services, your policies, emergency information and the list goes on. On one of our client questionnaires I once asked ‘Did you know that we offer grooming?’, ‘Did you know that we have a cattery?’. I did this for two reasons: 1. It was a good opportunity to inform our clients we offered these services and 2. To see how many clients already knew about these additional services.

It was eye opening to receive the results; more than 70% of clients did not know that we offered these additional services. How can we sell these services to the public if we can’t sell them to existing clients? Here are a few suggestions of what you can put in your practice magazine.

1. Staff details, education, likes, dislikes, duties at the practice, own pets etc

2. The story behind any clinic pets – how they came to the practice

3. Your opening times and emergency contact

4. Additional services – grooming, cattery, puppy school, weight loss clinics etc

5. Basic health information

6. Emergency information and first aid tips

7. Loyalty programmes

8. Practice promotions, information evenings etc

9. Policies ie: arriving for appointment times, surgery times etc

The sky is the limit! Stop selling everyone’s business except your own and put together a practice profile book. We can even help you put one together. Prices are dependant on how many pages you need so ask us for a quote.

Alternatively, we can supply you with the artwork to print one out on your printer at the practice. There are many binding options for the pages you print at your local print shop. Design prices are just $20 per page.

How many practices do exit interviews? Not as many that should. Exit interviews are a valuable tool to identify problem areas in the practice and to improve working conditions for your staff (exit interviews should be given to practice staff who voluntarily resign, not to those who have been dismissed).

By identifying and fixing problems within the practice, you can better retain your valued employees. It is not only costly to continually replace staff but it’s also a strain on the remaining staff by not only having to get used to the new personality in the group but to train them.

Here are some sample questions to ask employees close to their departure

1. What is your primary reason for leaving?
2. Did anything trigger your decision to leave?
3. What was most satisfying about your job?
4. What was least satisfying about your job?
5. What would you change about your job?
6. Did your job duties turn out to be as you expected?
7. Did you receive enough training to do your job effectively?
8. Did you receive adequate support to do your job?
9. Did you receive sufficient feedback about your performance between reviews?
10. Were you satisfied with this company's review process?
11. Did this practice help you to fulfil your career goals?
12. Do you have any tips to help us find your replacement?
13. What would you improve to make our practice a better place to work?
14. Were you happy with your pay, benefits and other incentives?
15. What was the quality of the supervision you received?
16. What could your practice manager do to improve his or her management style?
17. Did any company policies or procedures (or any other obstacles) make your job more difficult?
18. Would you consider working again for this practice in the future?
19. Would you recommend working for this practice to your family and friends?
20. How do you generally feel about this practice?
21. What did you like most about this practice?
22. What did you like least about this practice?
23. Can this practice do anything to encourage you to stay?
24. Did anyone in this practice discriminate against you, harass you or cause hostile working conditions?
25. Any other comments?

(sample questions taken from About.com, an excellent business resource)

Think carefully however about who will conduct the exit interviews. This is where it’s important to have a manager that adopts a coaching style more than a dictatorship style. If your employees aren’t fond of your Practice Manager you won’t get honest feedback. Remember that one drop of vinegar can spoil the whole pot and it may be your manager that’s the vinegar!

The golden rules for meetings

1. If you have a concern about an individual staff member, their behaviour or their performance, a meeting is NOT the place to bring up your concerns. It is extremely destructive to morale and should be avoided at all costs.

2. If you have a vocally critical staff member on your team, make it clear in advance who is in control of the meeting and ensure the meeting stays on track. Staff with strong characters can sometimes change the meeting to suit their own agenda, so ensure the point of the meeting is clear and you don’t get off track.

3. Never schedule meetings outside of practice hours unless it is absolutely essential and urgent. Work meetings should be done in work time.

4. Advertise what the meeting agenda is prior to the day, so staff can think about these topics and have input ready. This will avoid topics being raised again after the meeting has adjourned, when staff has ‘had a chance to think about it’. Staff who have not attended the meeting or offered input or suggestions should be exempt during the decision making process.

5. Stay on time! Don’t let the meeting run overtime. If you start the meeting late, still finish at the time scheduled. Make it clear to staff that the meetings are important and time management is essential. Don’t ask yourself what it’s costing to hold these meetings, ask yourself what it’s costing to NOT hold meetings. I can guarantee you that inefficiencies in the practice are costing you a lot more than a 15minute meeting. Don’t get so bogged down working in the practice that you forget to work on the practice.

6. Beware of the chatterbox! Stay on focus and don’t let the practice chatterbox take up everyone’s time. At the start of the meeting remind everyone that there is only 15minutes to cover all the topics on the agenda so it is imperative that this be the focus. If you have a few chatterboxes at the clinic (and we love the chatterbox as they keep things light) implement the ball system. The only person who can speak is the person holding the ball. If you want to speak, you have to ask the person holding the ball to toss it to you. This will alleviate small conversations starting which are not on the agenda and waste time.

7. Don’t cram too much into your meetings. Keep them brief or you’ll end up going overtime and this will only frustrate staff. On the other hand, if you finish your meeting early, don’t waste time. When the meeting is finished, encourage staff to get back to their daily duties.

Most importantly, look out for the meeting sabotages, especially if they are senior staff. The worst thing possible is when senior staff members display a negative attitude in regards to meetings and therefore make little or no effort. This negative attitude filters down to the rest of the team and sabotages your meetings. I’ve been witness to this attitude and it didn’t take long before the rest of the team (including some veterinarians) started asking ‘why should we make an effort if the managers don’t?’ Have you heard of the phrase ‘Actions speak louder than words’? This scenario is a classic example! You lead and they will follow.

If you can’t convince your senior staff/practice manager on the importance of working on the practice and not just in it, I would consider a team restructure and find someone who is goal focused and team focused, not just task focused. Managers focus on the near-term tasks and activities but leaders stress the promotion of long-term team effectiveness!

This is a very simple team building exercise and one that can involve the whole team. It’s called a SWOT analysis and is an excellent management tool for the practice. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

It’s best to ask all of the staff at the practice to give their views. For the best results explain what the SWOT analysis is and ask each employee to think about answers to each letter (explained below) and bring their answers to the next meeting. By providing a  draft SWOT, you can quickly transfer the answers onto a whiteboard, butchers paper, whatever your practice has to use for all of the staff to see (some answers will appear more than once!)

As with your general meetings, establish some ground rules. Explain that the SWOT process is an exercise aimed at improving the practice and not about allocating blame. Assure all staff that their contributions are respected and appreciated, all staff members’ suggestions and ideas are important and no one idea is better than another. I recommend you read my tips on meetings before you participate in this exercise.

Step One - S

List the strengths of the practice: Examples of strengths are a good team, practice is in a good location, good return from vaccination reminders, good parking etc. Write down whatever you can think of – brainstorm.

Step Two – W

Identify weakness in the practice: Examples are delays in returning client phone calls, long waiting periods when admitting animals, slow response rates from pathology, staff holidays, leadership problems, decline in the sale of flea control, lack of staff knowledge in regards to nutrition.

Step Three – O

List the opportunities: Examples of opportunities could be a new pet store opening in the area which could refer to you, new computer software to be launched etc, internet, a chance to promote the practice at the million paws walk etc.

Step Four - T

List the threats to the practice: Examples of threats could be a new clinic opening up in the next suburb, a local vet cut pricing desexing procedures etc

When you have completed the process, you will have a list developed for each letter (SWOT). Encourage group discussion about the four lists by asking:

It is best to set out the exercise in the following way:

Have you got dog soap on your shelves which have been there since 1987 or 3 different shampoos all doing the same thing? When was the last time you had a really good look at what lies on your shelves? It’s sometimes easy for those ordering merchandise to get caught up in the ‘specials’ or ‘new products’ and buy items you don’t need. This leads to surplus stock or stock which nobody will sell.

Don’t have 5 products doing the same thing! All staff has favourites but if you stock all of your staff’s favourites you would have a very high stock level and therefore poor profitability. I once did some work at a practice that had 4 different types of shampoo, all doing the same thing. When I asked why this was so I was told that each brand was stocked for particular staff members and on deeper investigation they really wanted to stock these favourite shampoos because they didn’t know how to sell the others! Crazy isn’t it? I removed all of the shampoo except one and arranged for a rep to come to the practice to brief the staff on the product kept so they would feel comfortable selling it. The pharmacy is another area where you can save big money.

Get in there and clear it all out. Daggy old stock makes your new stock look old and daggy too. Make sure your practice doesn’t look like an old junk store and get rid of the lines that don’t move. Don’t forget to also make sure you have procedures in place to ensure they don’t creep back in! Remember it’s hard to break old habits and can be easy for staff to slip back into their comfort zone and reorder their ‘favourite’. Be aware that this happens!

Marianne’s tip

You should never add a new item to your shelves unless you first brief all of the staff on the features and benefits of the product and you remove or sell what it is that you currently stock. For example: I currently stock ABC oatmeal shampoo but a new oatmeal product has come on the market which does the same thing but has a greater profit margin for the practice. What do you do?

Bring up at your next meeting that you want to replace the existing shampoo with the new product and give your reasons why (features & benefits). Listen to the feedback from the staff and address any of their concerns but remember you are never going to please everyone so don’t try (particularly if you are replacing their favourite!) It is important however to sell the new product to staff and get them on board. If you can’t sell to your staff how can you sell to your clients?

Do not put the new product on the shelf until you have removed the old product. Run an end of the line promotion to get rid of it or use it as in-clinic stock. Don’t keep adding to your shelves or you’ll end up with so much clutter that the popular items won’t move as quickly as they are lost in all the rubbish.

Do you sell Pigs ears, Rawhide chews etc? Want to sell more? Place them within reach, very close to where your clients pay and clearly label them with a description & price. Use words like Gourmet, Delectable and Delicious or how about using a title 'For spoilt dogs only!' I tried this little experiment and watched sales of our Pigs ears almost double, simply because I put the word Gourmet in front of the product name.

Now that you have your signage to sell, please don’t present them in cut up syringe boxes with a piece of paper stuck over the label please! Surely you can find something presentable for a reasonable price? How can you put a sign on your pigs ears that says ‘For spoilt dogs only’, then present them in an old vaccine container or syringe box? If it’s for spoilt dogs I want to see them presented in a flash container to make me believe you.

Don’t have too many items on the counter for sale however as it can look like a cluttered mess. This means other clutter like business cards, both yours and every other business that wants to use your counter to display their cards. Unless they make you a lot of money or pay for the advertising space, don’t waste your impulse buying area putting them in prime position. You can get some really great business card holders now that fix to the wall and will still be very accessible for your staff and clients. The reception desk is for selling, keep it clean with impressive storage containers holding your well signed items for sale and watch profits soar!