Archive for the ‘vet 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 »

When Recruiting Gets Easier, Selection Gets Tougher

Thursday, January 21st, 2010


With the economy on the skids and unemployment figures on the rise it’s clear that a lot of companies are shedding staff to protect their businesses. But if you are hiring then right now is one of the best times in recent years to do it.

A report by HR technology and research company Kaonix, reveals that the number of applicants per job across all sectors has nearly doubled. Which is great news as a recruiter because it potentially gives you more choice and hence chance of landing a superstar for your practice.

However there is a downside, because as the number of applicants rise, so too does the difficulty in choosing the right person. For example, if you are the manager of a small practice, the admin (phone calls, replies, letters and feedback) alone might well swamp you and lead you to make a poor decision.

So it’s important to take a logical approach to the problem (And it doesn’t hurt to let technology do as much of the work as possible. Here’s a little checklist that might make your life easier:

1. Ensure that you have a prewritten and saved standard acknowledgment that you can copy and paste into an email.  I recommend always include a thank you (as courtesy), a note of the job they applied for, a date when they can expect to hear back from you if they have been successfully shortlisted. And I’d always make sure to say that if they have not heard back from you by this date then their application has not been successful.  This saves time going back and writing a second email to someone who is not going to add any value to your business in the near future.

2. Rather than send out a letter, or have to tell all the candidates where the practice is for interview, why not get a page up on your website that has interview day instructions including location (it’s so easy to embed a Google map) and giving them an idea of what’s in store for the day.  You can then send a link to the page in an email when you give them the good news that they’ve made the short list – quick and easy.

2. Take time to read the CVs. Personally I don’t bin CVs for layout reasons (I’ve met too many excellent vets who can’t write a CV to save their life to fall into that trap). But the devil is in the detail, so as tiring as it can seem, make sure you scrutinise the CVs properly. Giving a poor candidate an interview because you got sloppy/tired when reading the CVs is a huge waste of time. A recent example is a nurse who applied for a small animal position, her CV was very well presented, but if we hadn’t read to the end, we wouldn’t have seen that her real desire in life was to be in the fashion industry.  Conversely, if you find a ‘show stopper’ early on in a CV then why waste time reading more?

3. If in doubt, call the applicant for a brief chat to clarify any doubts you have. Are they warm, enthusiastic, polite when you call? Did they answer your question satisfactorily? If not then for me it’s decision made. Move on.

4. Aim for a shortlist of three or four solid candidates. Anymore and you’ll be wasting a lot of time on interviews. If you have a shortlist of ten then you either haven’t defined the role well enough or you’re being soft! Remember you only have room for one and you don’t have all year to work it out.

5. Prepare, prepare, prepare. You don’t want to have to go back to the drawing board on this one and waste even more time. Make sure you do the following:
•    Call to confirm the day before the interview to avoid frustrating no shows
•    Make sure your reception team know that the interviews are happening; nothing makes you look less organised than no one knowing a candidate is arriving.
•    Ensure you have a quiet, neat workspace set aside for the interview and CVs printed out before hand.
•    If you are going to be doing competency testing (we’ll cover this another day) then make sure you have all your materials ready (including a vet to ask clinical questions if this is part of your process).
•    If you are nervous then type out your questions before hand and have a running order written down so you don’t forget to ask important questions.
•    Anticipate the questions they might ask, like salary, hours and holidays. This saves you having to chase around for the information later.

6. Take notes and debrief – crucial that this is done on the same day as the interview itself. If you are interviewing with one or more colleagues then compare your notes while it is still fresh in your mind.

7. Ready to make an offer? If you are then go for it. If not and you need more information then remember the shoe is on your foot for now. Don’t be afraid to ask someone to come in for a trial day.

Dave’s Tuppence-worth

Getting the right bums on the right seats in your vet practice is one of the most important tasks of a manger. Current market conditions mean that things are very much in the favour of the practice, but be careful not to be rushed into a bad decision because you were swamped with job applicants. If you need help, then ask for help, it should be just as important to the business owner that you succeed. 

If it isn’t, I’m happy to tell them about the 40k per year difference in turnover it can make if you hire the right person. Or the destructive effects of the wrong person entering the practice.

Till next time, happy managing.

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Posted in HR, recruitment skills, vet business, vet jobs, vet practice management, vet recruitment | No Comments »