Veterinary Rounds – Woolly Communication, Viral Benefits & Rita in Sydney
Woolly Communications
A friend recently sent me the following joke about a kiwi sheep farmer. You may have read it, but I thought it was worth repeating:
1. Because it’s funny.
2. It highlights a communication problem that is probably damaging your business right now (which is not funny).
A Kiwi buys several sheep, hoping to breed them for wool. After several weeks, he notices that none of the sheep are getting pregnant, and phones a vet for help. The vet tells him that he should try artificial insemination.
The farmer doesn't have the slightest idea what this means but, not wanting to display his ignorance, only asks the vet how he will know when the sheep are pregnant. The vet tells him that they will stop standing around and instead will lie down and wallow in the grass when they are pregnant.
The man hangs up and gives it some thought. He comes to the conclusion that artificial insemination means he has to impregnate the sheep himself.
So, he loads the sheep into his Land Rover, drives them out into the woods, has sex with them all, brings them back then goes to bed.
Next morning, he wakes and looks out at the sheep. Seeing that they are all still standing around, he deduces that the first go didn't take, and loads them in the Land Rover again. He drives them out to the woods, bangs each sheep twice for good measure, brings them back, and goes to bed exhausted.
Next morning, he wakes to find the sheep still just standing around.
"Try again." he tells himself, and proceeds to load them up, and drive them out to the woods. He spends all day shagging the sheep and upon returning home, falls knackered into bed.
The next morning, he cannot even raise himself from the bed to look out of the window. He asks his wife to look, and tell him if the sheep are lying in the grass.
"No," she says, "They're all in the Land Rover, and one of them is beeping the horn."
Funny? Well perhaps not, and a recent consultation with a pet owner shows why.
This client I had been pre-warned was “difficult” and struggled to follow advice. In fact she was coming to the practice to have her aged pet that suffered advanced heart disease put down.
I spent a lot of time just listening to her and it was clear she was confused and felt she hadn’t been listened to. After an examination we chatted about her options. I made it clear that her pet was not going to live for long, but I felt we still had one or two tricks up our sleeve to significantly help his quality of life.
A week later she returned, delighted as for the first time in weeks her dog was back up and going for walks in the park. She was amazed and her friends were amazed – they came to the practice to tell us so.. “Johno” was the talk the park.
Of course the improvement didn’t last forever and Johno was eventually put to sleep. But his owner had had a few more weeks of quality time and when the end came, she felt she had done everything she could for her beloved companion.
Our ‘difficult’ client was transformed. She took the time to buy us all a lovely gift and write one of the most moving thank you cards I have ever read. In it, among other things, she wrote, “Thank you for listening to me”. The same thing she said in the consult room to me when I first met her.
So what’s the lesson? Communication is the most important skill in business. Are your vets good communicators? Do you really, really know? Do they talk more or listen more? Do they use lots of jargon? Are they reading a client’s body language? Are they selling effectively? You can’t possibly know any of this from a distance and you don’t need to be a vet to assess it.
There’s a pretty good chance that a high percentage of those clients perceived as being ‘difficult’ are only being so because they either don’t understand what is being asked of them, or they don’t feel that they are being listened to. Get into consults with your vets or follow up your complaints with a personal phone call to find out.
Vets Go Viral – Novel Approaches to Practice Marketing
No not a story about the horrific Hendra virus here in Australia. Instead we see the creative talents of Village Vet Marketing director Ashley Grey and his clinical team at their Hampstead hospital. A highly amusing and innovative video remake of Michael Jackson’s Thriller created to celebrate Halloween, whilst promoting the practice.
And just to prove it can be done by any of you, I knocked up a little piece of my own to promote a kitten adoption service operating from one of my client’s practices. This video was published on a Sunday and by Wednesday more than 100 people had watched it. Click here to view it.
The advantage of this is it is relatively easy to do, looks professional and if you insert it into your social media network, it will spread around and beyond it quickly - providing you with some cheap and effective practice promotion.
What can you produce? Send me your video and success stories and I’ll tell everyone about them here.
VPMA Dinner in Sydney
OK, not an official event but it was fantastic to meet up with the VPMA ex-president and previous winner of the practice manager of the year award, Rita Dingwall. Rita’s passion for veterinary practice is utterly infectious, so it was a real treat to catch up with her and her legendary husband John on a balmy evening in Sydney.
If you are in Sydney and want some tips or to catch up for a beer then let me know and back in the UK, if you’re not already a member of the VPMA, then I’d strongly recommend joining. Their annual congress is coming up soon from the 28th - 30th January 2010. It was a terrific learning and net working experience last year - expect this year to be no different.
Meanwhile…
Double Bay Veterinary Clinic (my current project) goes from strength to strength. The marketing plan is done and sales are up by an impressive amount for the quarter, in a largely flat market. We installed digital X-ray this week to add to our already impressive diagnostics array. Next up is our new website (the current one www.doublebayvet.com.au, I think you’ll agree, needs a little work), but do check out our twitter and Face book sites to get a feel for how you can use this media to good effect.
Next Week
We’ll take a look at how the global financial crisis might affect your business in 2010 in my article ‘New Year Party Pooper – Are We Heading for A Painful Comedown in 2010?’
A friend recently sent me the following joke about a kiwi sheep farmer. You may have read it, but I thought it was worth repeating:
1. Because it’s funny.
2. It highlights a communication problem that is probably damaging your business right now (which is not funny).
A Kiwi buys several sheep, hoping to breed them for wool. After several weeks, he notices that none of the sheep are getting pregnant, and phones a vet for help. The vet tells him that he should try artificial insemination.
The farmer doesn't have the slightest idea what this means but, not wanting to display his ignorance, only asks the vet how he will know when the sheep are pregnant. The vet tells him that they will stop standing around and instead will lie down and wallow in the grass when they are pregnant.
The man hangs up and gives it some thought. He comes to the conclusion that artificial insemination means he has to impregnate the sheep himself.
So, he loads the sheep into his Land Rover, drives them out into the woods, has sex with them all, brings them back then goes to bed.
Next morning, he wakes and looks out at the sheep. Seeing that they are all still standing around, he deduces that the first go didn't take, and loads them in the Land Rover again. He drives them out to the woods, bangs each sheep twice for good measure, brings them back, and goes to bed exhausted.
Next morning, he wakes to find the sheep still just standing around.
"Try again." he tells himself, and proceeds to load them up, and drive them out to the woods. He spends all day shagging the sheep and upon returning home, falls knackered into bed.
The next morning, he cannot even raise himself from the bed to look out of the window. He asks his wife to look, and tell him if the sheep are lying in the grass.
"No," she says, "They're all in the Land Rover, and one of them is beeping the horn."
Funny? Well perhaps not, and a recent consultation with a pet owner shows why.
This client I had been pre-warned was “difficult” and struggled to follow advice. In fact she was coming to the practice to have her aged pet that suffered advanced heart disease put down.
I spent a lot of time just listening to her and it was clear she was confused and felt she hadn’t been listened to. After an examination we chatted about her options. I made it clear that her pet was not going to live for long, but I felt we still had one or two tricks up our sleeve to significantly help his quality of life.
A week later she returned, delighted as for the first time in weeks her dog was back up and going for walks in the park. She was amazed and her friends were amazed – they came to the practice to tell us so.. “Johno” was the talk the park.
Of course the improvement didn’t last forever and Johno was eventually put to sleep. But his owner had had a few more weeks of quality time and when the end came, she felt she had done everything she could for her beloved companion.
Our ‘difficult’ client was transformed. She took the time to buy us all a lovely gift and write one of the most moving thank you cards I have ever read. In it, among other things, she wrote, “Thank you for listening to me”. The same thing she said in the consult room to me when I first met her.
So what’s the lesson? Communication is the most important skill in business. Are your vets good communicators? Do you really, really know? Do they talk more or listen more? Do they use lots of jargon? Are they reading a client’s body language? Are they selling effectively? You can’t possibly know any of this from a distance and you don’t need to be a vet to assess it.
There’s a pretty good chance that a high percentage of those clients perceived as being ‘difficult’ are only being so because they either don’t understand what is being asked of them, or they don’t feel that they are being listened to. Get into consults with your vets or follow up your complaints with a personal phone call to find out.
Vets Go Viral – Novel Approaches to Practice Marketing
No not a story about the horrific Hendra virus here in Australia. Instead we see the creative talents of Village Vet Marketing director Ashley Grey and his clinical team at their Hampstead hospital. A highly amusing and innovative video remake of Michael Jackson’s Thriller created to celebrate Halloween, whilst promoting the practice.
And just to prove it can be done by any of you, I knocked up a little piece of my own to promote a kitten adoption service operating from one of my client’s practices. This video was published on a Sunday and by Wednesday more than 100 people had watched it. Click here to view it.
The advantage of this is it is relatively easy to do, looks professional and if you insert it into your social media network, it will spread around and beyond it quickly - providing you with some cheap and effective practice promotion.
What can you produce? Send me your video and success stories and I’ll tell everyone about them here.
VPMA Dinner in Sydney
OK, not an official event but it was fantastic to meet up with the VPMA ex-president and previous winner of the practice manager of the year award, Rita Dingwall. Rita’s passion for veterinary practice is utterly infectious, so it was a real treat to catch up with her and her legendary husband John on a balmy evening in Sydney.If you are in Sydney and want some tips or to catch up for a beer then let me know and back in the UK, if you’re not already a member of the VPMA, then I’d strongly recommend joining. Their annual congress is coming up soon from the 28th - 30th January 2010. It was a terrific learning and net working experience last year - expect this year to be no different.
Meanwhile…
Double Bay Veterinary Clinic (my current project) goes from strength to strength. The marketing plan is done and sales are up by an impressive amount for the quarter, in a largely flat market. We installed digital X-ray this week to add to our already impressive diagnostics array. Next up is our new website (the current one www.doublebayvet.com.au, I think you’ll agree, needs a little work), but do check out our twitter and Face book sites to get a feel for how you can use this media to good effect.
Next Week
We’ll take a look at how the global financial crisis might affect your business in 2010 in my article ‘New Year Party Pooper – Are We Heading for A Painful Comedown in 2010?’
Labels: Communicating, Michael Jackson, vet practice management, viral marketing, VPMA
posted by Dave Nicol @ 16:23
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