“I brought you into the world, and I’ll see you out at the end.” These words have inspired me for over a decade and are the essence of why I became and vet and why I still love being one twelve years later.
They were spoken by a man I never met, but came to respect greatly – because his clients loved him so much. The man was Charlie Johnson, a Scotsman who started Parkvets in the charming little town of Chislehurst, Kent, back in 1979.
I took over the branch surgery where Charlie had spent his last few years prior to retirement looking after his old clientele. At times the going was difficult me, a fresh faced new graduate, because everyone clearly loved “Old Charlie”, the never-ending tales of his charismatic approach to vet medicine were a real throw back to the days of James Herriot. But at the same time they were nearly enough to give anyone a complex! I remember thinking that if I could get these clients to care just a fraction as passionately about my way of doing things as they did about Charlie’s I’d be delighted.
Then one day a dear client told me a story that touched me deeply. The tale was about her first dog ‘Bounder’ whom Charlie had delivered by Caesarian section. She went on to tell me how eighteen years later with many, many happy memories (and quite few visits to the vet under her belt), she had found herself bac
k in the same consult room where it all began.
Charlie was there, as always, but by now Bounder was now struggling to live up to his name, so severe was his arthritis. It was clear to all that the time had come to ease his suffering.
As Charlie administered the final injection and Bounder slipped off into peaceful sleep, he quietly spoke the words that I have held in such esteem since, “I brought you into the world, and I’ll see you out at the end.”
So soft, so poignant, so caring.
It makes the hairs on my neck stand up just telling you about it. Those words really cut to the heart of why I personally chose to become a veterinary surgeon. For me it was a choice to be a meaningful part of a community I cared about and wanted to be a member of. But they also spoke volumes of the level of customer service and respect afforded to his patients. Charlie, who sadly died a few years ago, was from a bygone era where relationships mattered more than money.
Times have changed and I doubt that many of today’s graduates will ever look after one patient for as long a period. Now is the time of the more scientifically trained vet, the rise of the scalable corporate practice and who ever heard of staying in job for more than couple of years?
Society, to some degree, has changed as well. Now things seem more focussed on the individual over others. In other words, in little under a decade things have swung round to be the very opposite of everything Charlie stood for.
Today we are more aware of the need for a veterinary practice to generate profit (and rightly so). But the clinic that seeks to chase profit first without the client-focused approach of Charlie Johnson is surely doomed to failure. Could this lack of empathy and caring be one of the reasons why at a time when the pet-owner bond is at its highest, the number of client visits is falling alarmingly?
In a recession-bitten economy the time and effort you put into developing strong client relationships is what will see you through. It’s perhaps the best competitive advantage you’ll ever have because first and foremost I believe we are a service industry – not a scientific one.
Old Charlie’s clients respected and loved him because he respected them first. In fact he always put them first (often ahead of his business) and there is no doubt that even today, over a decade since he retired, Charlie Johnson’s name is still the stuff of local legend. A true local brand that was cherished by the community.
Yes things have moved on, and in many ways for the better. But in order to bring clients on the journey with us, we must not forget the skills and charisma of yesterday’s generation. If we can combine modern medicine and the generation of profits, with the charisma of Charlie and his peers, then we might just be onto something special.
This blog is dedicated to Charlie Johnson, Sam Duff and all those fabulous old vets who were and continue to be an inspiration to us all.
