| What story is your waiting room telling? |
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Does your clinic resemble a second hand store where nothing matches, the furniture is aged, a poster sits dog eared and faded in the corner, you still have magazines with Prince William as a baby on the cover and your waiting room chairs look like they were picked up from an old cinema about to be demolished? 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. |
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