Archive for the ‘veterinary business’ Category

Double Bay Vet Clinic Launches Social Media Site

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

Today marked an historic day, the publication of my third generation vet website. A site that I hope will allow vets to benefit from the astonishing and rapid development of social media, arguably the most important communications advance in history.

Readers may not be aware, but this blogger has been researching and managing websites for over a decade. In fact if you have a website built by one of the largest mainstream vet website providers then you’ve probably been benefiting indirectly from my consulting input for years.

In the early days (1998-2002) the web was seen as something weird and techy for most vets. As a conservative profession, we failed to see the potential business benefits of being online. But a brave few did venture into cyberspace, which was largely a trip into indulgent ego land. But at least they were playing with a new idea.

Vetsite One – Promotional

Version one then was about turning the clinical and sales language around and learning to give useful, understandable information that clients found engaging and useful. It was about ‘stickiness’ and ‘eyeballs’ or, put another way, getting clients to come back for more.

We took things a step further and introduced email collection forms and an email newsletter. And it worked! New clients began to register with the practice and seemed happy to give out an email address. Though it was hard to measure an impact on the business the general feeling was that the site was a worthwhile investment.

Vetsite Two – Supporting

Parkvets.com 2008Three years down the line, version two was slicker but simpler. Better structured, this site was all about supporting the crucial roles of the business. From generating new clients, to handling feedback it complimented the core objectives. We even added ecommerce. This time we hired a designer to bring the plans to life. The advent of new technology allowed better monitoring of performance, so we could measure the impact and demonstrate a return on the investment. X new clients per month. Y additional product sales through the ecommerce site.

Vetsite Three – Being Connected

Double Bay Vet Clinic June 2010So what’s new? Two words – Social Media. (Yes they do deserve to be capitalised.) There are some out there who still doubt that the Internet is even useful to vets. They will either change that opinion or stop work soon (either through retirement or lack of business).

Most accept that the Internet is a normal part of life. Few, however, have yet noticed that the rules have changed again. But if you choose to investigate you’ll find that they’ve changed for the good.

How Social Media is Changing the Rules

Think about this. When could a practice ever have afforded to make its own videos? (Let alone broadcast them to the world for free.) When would it have taken ten minutes to send out a traceable newsletter to your clients without involving the mass printing and stuffing of envelopes? When was it possible at the click of one button to potentially engage millions of pet owners with images, sounds, videos – all for free?

The answer is never. The ability to connect with millions of people at zero cost has always been the promise of the Internet. Social media is simply the set of tools that has finally unlocked this power. It may be a source of irritation to find nurses and vets (even on occasions yourself) distracted by sites like Facebook. But what these huge networks of people are doing is talking with friends and colleagues about things that affect them.

They’re talking about holidays and eating out. They’re talking about pubs, clubs and sports events. They’re sharing clinical info. They’re collaborating, planning, building, even destroying…..all with the minimum effort taken to log on. And your vet business isn’t immune. Treat staff badly, it’ll be on Facebook. Treat your clients and pets well and they might just Tweet about it.

Like it or not, people are talking and if you want to have your say then you need to learn about social media.

Dave’s Tuppence-worth

Having a Facebook page or twitter account won’t make your practice cool or hip or better any at fixing pets. But it will help you engage with and deepen relationships with new and existing clients. In other words it will help bond your clients – more effectively in my opinion than any promotional or cost based gimmicks you attempt. Humans are programmed to seek out and interact with each other. Social media allows this without travel or expense.

The Double Bay Vet Clinic website is more than just our e-brochure, it’s our cyber handshake. It’s our Google pumping, client-engaging relationship machine. I’ll keep you posted. But in the meantime why not sign up as a friend either of Double Bay Vet Clinic (to get tips) or follow me (@dave_nicol) on twitter.

Learn More…

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Posted in Communicating, Facebook, Twitter, Website, social media, vet business, vet management, veterinary business, viral marketing | No Comments »

Six Ways To Run A Veterinary Practice Really, Really Badly

Thursday, May 27th, 2010
head for oblivion

Onward! To financial oblivion.

The economy is on the mend. And we can’t have that – what will all the journalists and bloggers like me have to write about? So it’s time to do your bit and push the world back towards financial oblivion.

Since credit has largely dried up you can’t possibly get into more personal debt. And since the government has largely removed any responsibility from the big boys, it’s time for us small and medium enterprises to enter the fray. It’s time to ensure that your practice contributes absolutely nothing to GDP this year.

Be strong people. Do your bit and follow these tips on how to run your practice so badly that it won’t ever make a penny, cent or peso ever again.

Step 1 – Don’t make any attempts to get customers through the door.

Don’t advertise. Don’t train your staff on phone techniques. Don’t maintain your buildings or appearance. And under no circumstances engage in any ‘high-falutin’ social media marketing activity. Dangerous stuff that.

Step 2 – Try not to find any problems with pets.

Don’t employ the best vets – go for the cheapest. New grads all the way! Do not waste money on continuing education courses for staff.  Actively discourage using new skills or individual development in your practice.

When your vets are using vaccine consults as ‘catch-ups’ take no action. After all the pet’s teeth will still be bad next year and that niggling lameness will probably get better on it’s own. Found a lump? Probably just a lipoma – no need for a time consuming aspirate.

Step 3 – Stop selling them solutions.

If your vets (pesky lot) absolutely insist on looking for medical problems, all is not lost. Since most of them haven’t a clue how to effectively persuade a client to take the right action this doesn’t represent a big issue. To keep it this way, do not try to teach them communication skills or sales techniques. That would be disastrous in your efforts at avoiding profit.

Step 4 – Sink yourself with pricing.

Ah-ha! Double opportunity to fail here. Firstly, make sure your prices are so low that there is no way you could ever make a profit. Secondly, don’t tell your staff what’s expected of them when it comes to billing. They’ll make it up as they go along and almost certainly lose you a fortune. Good job!

Step 5 – Try not to collect money.

OK, healthy cash flow is not the same as profit but it does mean your business keeps trading. This in itself means you are a risk to economic meltdown. Therefore, try not to worry too much about asking clients for cash. It only makes the vets feel awkward and annoys clients. Everyone will be happier if you just ignore this bit and let clients wander out the door before paying.

Step 6 – Don’t pay bills.

Now you wouldn’t be doing your bit unless you helped pass the pain up the supply chain. So, to make sure no-one else has any money to pay bills or encourage growth keep all of your bills in a pot on the shelf, wait until they are all final demands, then (and only then) select one randomly and pay it.

And while you’re at it, make sure you’re paying top whack for all of your stock, can’t have the margins creeping up now.

Dave’s Tuppence-worth

If you follow these tips folks then within a few months you’ll be guaranteed to be lining up….at the job centre, claiming back some of that money you gave the government in last year’s tax bill. Now, job done…doesn’t that feel better?

Or there is another way…. ;-)

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Posted in Uncategorized, global financial crisis, recession, social media, training, vet HR, vet business, vet management, vet practice management, veterinary business, viral marketing | 1 Comment »

New Year Party Pooper – Are We Heading for A Painful Comedown in 2010?

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

In any business plan there should be discussion of the wider environmental changes that could affect your business. Today we discuss the Global Financial Crisis, how it might affect you in 2010 and why you should be wary of anyone who says it’s over.

The crisis if you believe some commentators, has passed it’s worst. The UK is officially out of recession, so we hear. House prices are on the increase and there’s some good news from the mortgage market.

So was that it? Have we escaped the after effects of apparently the greatest piece of financial mismanagement the world has ever seen relatively unscathed? If you believe that dear reader then you’re probably still waiting for Santa Claus to squeeze down your chimney! Or you’ve got your head in a bucket of sand.

The Story in 2009

At the 2009 VPMA congress last year Dennis Turner, chief economist from HSBC bank delivered an uplifting and statistically pleasing overview of the economic situation. His prediction was that by the end of 2009 or start of 2010 things would start to improve. We all felt relieved.

So Far So Good?

Great, well here we are, officially the green shoots of recovery have punched through and all is looking rosy. Time to sit back safely knowing we rode out the worst of the crisis. But hold on, wasn’t it all just a bit easy?

Sure, some folks lost their jobs and repos on mortgages are up, but compared to what we were expecting from the “worst financial crisis in modern times”, (given what history tells us about the great depression) it wasn’t all that bad.

I mean no vets that I am aware of went bust (but then I don’t know what financial shape the recent acquisitions of CVS UK Ltd were in either). And I doubt if many of us have seen a significant decline in our standard of living?

What’s bothering me is that something just isn’t right with this picture. The facts before us don’t add up with what the economists predicted. Doesn’t it all just seem a little too easy? (I’m not being flippant here. I’m sure many practices have had a tough year).

Perhaps I’m just being pessimistic and am now guilty of doing what I was blasting others for 12 months ago – talking down the economy. The thing that has changed is that we are now in the midst of a full recession. It’s real and as far as I can see, nobody has done anything that would fundamentally improve things. In fact it might be the case that Messers Brown and Darling have done just the opposite.

A Layman’s View

I like things simple, so this is my possibly over simplified view issue.

Imagine you are mired in personal debt. The type of debt you just can’t ever hope to pay your way out of. You have an interest only mortgage worth five times the multiple of your earnings. Your house has lost value and you now owe more than your property is worth. Your credit cards are max-ed out and you’re running an overdraft. Things look pretty bad. Your outgoings outweigh your income by so much that you are unable to even service the interest payments on your debt.

There are few ways out of this situation:

1. You somehow fluke a miraculous increase in your earnings to be able to service your debt again. (Win lottery or become a drug dealer – both extremely unlikely).

2. You take your medicine for some bad decisions and declare yourself bankrupt. You lose everything and start the painful process of rebuilding from the ground up. But with a defunct credit rating you’re going to have to do this the old fashioned way. Pay for goods and services with money you’ve actually earned and saved for over the hard years that followed your glut of debt driven excess. (This option doesn’t win you votes or friends)

3. You borrow more in the vain attempt to service your existing debt, with even more debt – on ever worsening terms. In effect putting the pain off for another day, but allowing the size of the problem to get even bigger in the meantime. The higher you fly, the harder you’re ultimately going to fall.

In the global economy right now guess which is happening? Bingo, Number 3.
Central banks/governments around the planet have lowered interest rates to rock bottom so they can service national debts without putting up taxes and completely kill off their economies (and chances of gaining or retaining power).

In the UK things are even worse because our public debt has expanded from 49% of GDP to 60.2% of GDP* in the past 12 months!

The low interest rates also mean that people (that’s you and me) can service their own debts and keep spending money we don’t really have (hence propping up the frail old economy with yet more fake spending).

In Australia, where officially we didn’t even have a recession, the government even gave everyone AUS$900 to spend. That was nice of them. Lots of easy liquidity, sloshing around making everyone feel great. It’s as if we’re all addicted to the drug called credit and can’t stop spending what we don’t actually have.

And for the past year (in accordance with what Mr Turner rather chillingly called the “nuclear option”), since dropping interest rates and bailing out the banks didn’t work, the government has pulled it’s one and only remaining lever to try and get us all through this before the elections – they are printing money like there is no tomorrow. Flooding money markets with phoney money to keep the whole house of cards propped up.

It just doesn’t add up. The credit bubble we’re trapped in is huge, almost too huge to believe and sooner or later is got to pop. The party has to end, and the mother of all hangovers will be hot on its heels.

The economic hangover we have suffered thus far really doesn’t match the size of party we’ve all had for the ten years prior.

Three Party Poopers for 2010 


In spite of these unresolved ‘issues’, commentators are beginning to talk up the economy. The stock market has rebounded strongly, sterling’s slip seems to have stabilised and house prices have even risen in the last couple of months.

For this lay observer things aren’t over yet though. And these are three of the things that I’m concerned about.

1. People who have jobs are going to see a reduction in the value of their money.

One result of all this “new” money being printed is that the value of our currency is being eroded. That is, each pound is worth a little less than it was before.
Our earnings have shrunk as a nation (recession), but there’s more actual money swilling about in the system.

And when inflation gets going (oil prices, food prices, etc) we’ll see these effects exacerbated in higher prices for everyday things. Without the attendant wage increases to compensate (who’s giving out pay rises right now?), confidence will take a hit. People will have less money and spending on luxury items – including pets – will be at risk.

2. Lots of people are hanging on to their homes by their fingertips. Low UK interest rates are keeping debt payment artificially low. This is allowing millions of UK borrowers the opportunity to stay afloat. It won’t last forever. When the government removes it’s support for banks later this year and/or inflation begins to creep into the system interest rates will climb. Defaults on mortgages will rise and things could get messy. Again less money for spending.

3. Unemployment is still rising. We’re almost up to 2.5 million or 7.9% of the workforce and although for now that figure is seemingly slowing down, it won’t take much for it to start climbing faster again.

Am I wrong? I’d love to be. Things are very, very finely balanced. Anecdotally, for now at least, people seem happier to give up a holiday abroad or a nice meal out, rather than not have their pet treated. But if things get really nasty can we rely upon that forever? I doubt it. Look for rising numbers of pets in shelters.

The next 12 months will be amongst the most interesting and potentially exciting in recent history. How our profession fares will come down a lot to how we manage our businesses. We cannot control the wider environment but we can position our businesses to weather the storm.

Dave’s Resolutions for the New Year

• Run a tight ship – control your costs and capture your missing charges
• Be the best at something – what makes you different?
• Communicate why you’re the best – make the money you spend on marketing really count.
• Look for opportunities – as always there will be winners and losers. If you’re looking to get bigger then my guess is that there will be bargains to be had in the next 12 months.
• Don’t believe the hype – use your head! This is election year, politicians on all sides will tell us anything.

At the risk of sounding like Ricky Fulton’s glum character The Rev. I.M. Jolly, Happy New Year and good luck in 2010.

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Posted in credit crunch, dave nicol, global financial crisis, veterinary business, veterinary practice management | 2 Comments »