Postcard reminders

I don't always reinvent the wheel here on this blog. For one thing, just as it says in the Bible, "There is nothing new under the sun." All of my advice has already been given. Perhaps I have a slightly different take, or perspective, or I have changed, omitted or redecorated what was already out there, but no one giving business advice is giving anything particularly earth shattering.

That being said, my goal, as I see it is to offer fresh perspectives to stale concepts, touch on the high points of certain ideas, share what really works, and sort through all the advice out there so you don't have to.

So, in this month's (1/2014) Messenger (MWI's little magazine) there is a fantastic discussion about post card reminders. In it it lists client pet peeves about postcards. Many of them are obvious (receiving one right after another pet has been in, receiving one for a dead pet, receiving one for a vx due in days).

There were some other interesting pet peeves I thought worth sharing:

1. Not offering a discount or coupon. I found this one interesting. I do know how enthusiastically clients embraced the paltry $1.00 coupon sent out by a hospital where I worked. They tracked that dollar like it was a hundred, often asking multiple times if the staff had credited it. And yes, it was one dollar, so, no, the coupon does not need to break the bank.

2. Not including the date of the last visit on the post card. I found this interesting, but in light of the fact that many hospitals have moved to a more exam over vaccine model, I can see why clients would want to know when they were last in. I recall at the AAHA meeting a discussion about client perceptions of when they were last in versus reality. It seems that time flies, and clients are often unaware that they haven't been in in a year.

3. Arriving mangled. This is a growing problem with printer-friendly post-office unfriendly card stocks. The flimsy card stock that your printer finds so easy may be getting chewed up by post office sorting machinery.

4. Using pleading tones as if it were written by the pet that infer that the pet has been or is about to be neglected. They may sound cute in the hospital, but in the real world, they may be annoying and rude.

Post cards are still a large part of veterinary marketing to existing clients. It is an easy and cost effective way to keep in touch. For other information and the complete list of owner pet peeves see this month's issue of Messenger by MWI (I would link to the article, but it doesn't appear to be online.)

Dental Month

The entire veterinary community has gotten sucked into February being dental month. If you have a relationship with your Virbac rep you get cool swag to give away, and you maybe cut out paper teeth and hang them on the walls to thank all the pets who went home with dental care packets.

Maybe you discount services. Maybe you just tell staff to double down on talking about dental care. Whatever you do, you need to have a goal. That goal need to be simple and measurable and it needs to carry through for the remainder of the year. "Wait!" You say, "How can it carry through for the rest of the year? And why should it?"

First, to answer that question, we have to start with the premise that the goal of Dental Awareness Month (or any awareness month, for that matter) is to help your staff remember to create compliance. After all, you are hopefully not just rescheduling dentals you would have done during the rest of the year to take advantage of a discount, right? The goal is to create year-round awareness by creating habits in your staff through one month of focus.

Graph Number one shows what happens when you simply discount for one month. Your hospital was averaging 10 prophies a month and your goal was 20. You discounted, you staff said, "hey this month we've got a discount," and you get to twenty. However, none of your habits changed, so all you did was steal 10 prophies from the following months, and next year our goal will be exactly the same: 20. You gain nothing.






Your goal during an awareness month should be to change your staff's habits. Discount or no, the staff needs to learn how to discuss dental care and prophies to clients. The goal of this month is to, yes double the amount of dentals, but also to improve your overall ability to create compliance.



The above graph shows (in a perfect world) what would happen if you use your awareness months to build on the importance of dental compliance within the hospital. If you spend your time educating your staff on how they can educate clients. If you get complete staff buy in, maybe then next year's goals will look more like this:




So, if you want to know if your Dental Awareness Month was a success, don't just look at February, look at the rest of the year.