October 2017 – EasyDVM Practice Management Blog

Veterinary Medicine and Technological Trepidation

by Hunter Little

In a recent editorial published in the May/June issue of “Today’s Veterinary News”, the University of Georgia’s Simon R. Platt wrote a piece concerning the telemedicine, the AVMA, and the implementation of new telecommunication technologies in the veterinary field. The editorial, in part, focused on a report written by an AVMA advisory panel that attempted to define telemedicine and its potential implications for veterinary medicine. Platt’s assessment saw telemedicine and veterinary telemedicine as dividing into two distinct camps: the first being a kind of consultation structure that facilitated collaboration and cooperation between practitioners, and the second being a more diagnostic role, offering a diagnostic/care service for remote situations, etc. But the real task at hand, as Platt argues, is the degree to which this kind of technology can fit into veterinary medicine not just accurately, but ethically too. Platt notes how “we fear where it all could lead […] the rules of the game don’t change because a consultation occurs electronically rather than face to face.”

To outsiders looking in, veterinary medicine, in some regards, is a very slow moving beast when it comes to technological implementation. But, as Platt’s piece indicates, this isn’t such a bad thing. There are ethical and legal aspects to consider. More importantly, there is the question of standard of care. And here, I would have to agree. Pets present such a raw, emotional attachment for their owners; unconditional love from a pet is an almost universal constant, and something veterinarians must contend with at all times when providing medical care. So it would stand to reason that the technology that is implemented into veterinary medicine augment animal health and well-being in such a way as to support that underlying principle. On the individual practice level, this sentiment towards technology holds true, almost more so than at the broader, AVMA-policy level. So, my thought is this: when you, as a practice-owner, are considering new technologies and software to implement into your practice, consider its ability to effectively relay that standard of care. If your software can relay that level of care so inherently intertwined with veterinary medicine, then perhaps it is technology worth considering. If it only proves to bog your practice down, and mar your ability to provide that certain standard of care, then perhaps you should look elsewhere. When implementing new tech or software, trust what you see, and trust what your employees see. Platt includes a quotation at the beginning of his piece that reads:

“We must always tell what we see. Above all, and this is more difficult, we must always see what we see.” – Platt

EasyDVM Practice Software is a cloud-based veterinary practice management software system. We pride ourselves in offering a system that is user-friendly, easy to learn for new team members, full-featured and elegant in its simplicity. Best of all, all devices, multiple users, all your clients and patients, always affordable.

Veterinary Wellness Plans in Veterinary Practice – Pros and Cons

by easyDVM

If you are in the field of veterinary medicine, you have heard about wellness plans. You may be asking yourself if these plans would be profitable for your practice. Here are some pros and cons that wellness plans can bring to your business.

Pro: Increased Vet Visits

Clients have been known to increase the amount of times they bring their pets to the vet by two to three times when they have wellness plans. When a client can pay for services at a discounted price monthly, or even annually, they will be inclined to utilize these services more often. This leads to better care for pets, improved bond between the veterinary team and the client, and increased revenue for your practice.

Pro: Wellness Plans Tailored Towards Specific Practice Needs

Do you need to draw more revenue towards a specific service, such as dental cleanings or spay/neuter surgery? Create a wellness plan that includes items associated with only these services. This can drive clients to providing yearly bloodwork and dental cleanings for their pets, or even spay/neuter services with a new puppy/kitten vaccine package. Ultimately, again, this improves pet care and the bond with your clients, as well as increased revenue.

Con: Wellness Plans Can Be a Sensitive Matter

There are many things that can make wellness plans fall apart. As a veterinarian, you must pay close attention to what is best for your clients and their pets. Communication between yourself, your team, and your clients is essential to the success of wellness plans. Clients need to understand which wellness plan is best for their pet at various times throughout their care. Therefore, you cannot implement a successful wellness plan without thorough research to provide appropriate options and excellent communication to your clients, as well as your team. Everyone must be on board to make it work.

Con: As With Everything, Things Can Take a Terrible Turn

It happens. Clients cannot pay their wellness plan fees. A pet dies with months of unused services. As part of implementing wellness plans, veterinarians have to at least attempt to prepare themselves for the inevitable. Know what you are going to do; maybe your practice will offer a refund of services not used or have a clause that protects the plan, and your practice, if a client defaults on payments. If you have covered your bases beforehand, and communicate this with your team and clients, it will not be as difficult to deal with, should the time come.

Summary

This information merely grazes the surface of wellness plans in private practice. In conclusion, the most important thing is to do your research as a veterinarian and include your team and clients in the implementation of your pricing strategy. Find out what is best for your clients and roll with it. Wellness plans may not be the answer for you and your practice, but they are worth a shot.

Victoria Benson ’17 Lincoln Memorial University College of Veterinary Medicine

The Challenge and Value of Q&L, not Q&A, in Veterinary Practice

by Hunter Little

I’m going to pose a challenge, of sorts, to you. What do you expect when you ask a question? An answer. We want to get from point A to point B. But what if I told you we should expect more from our questions than just an answer? What if, instead of thinking about the process as Question & Answer, we thought of the process as Question & Listen? Q&A implies that there is a finite end; that there is a point A and a point B, and that is all. But, Q&L implies something more, like a vector, a starting point of a line that projects out; a launching point with no end, but limitless direction and possibility. That limitless possibility that emanates from a question, I believe, is learning. When we question and listen, we learn.

This whole line of thinking is inspired by Frank Sesno’s new book, Ask More. Sesno, a veteran of CNN and the current director of the School of Media and Public Affair at George Washington University, understands the value of a good question. As he says in the book, “Smart questions make smarter people. We learn, connect, observe, and invent through the questions we ask.” Without giving away the whole book, Sesno breaks down questions into 11 categorical types (Diagnostic, Strategic, Empathy, Bridging, Confrontational, Creativity, Mission, Scientific, Interviews, Entertaining, and Legacy) and delves into each, defining what they are and how they can be utilized.

In addition to dissecting questions themselves and how we can best craft them, Sesno although emphasizes the importance of listening. It is this particular dynamic of Ask More that I think is most applicable to the veterinary practice setting, and really life in general. Emphasizing questioning and listening imbues the process with an educational quality. The importance is to learn, not just to find an answer. To learn, we must engage. We must engage in thinking about how we question, we must engage not by looking for the answer we want, but rather by listening.

This whole Q&L paradigm implies a certain level of thoughtfulness, and this is where I challenge you from a veterinarian perspective. When we make the conscious decision to question and listen thoughtfully, we are engaging in the process of consciously interacting and learning. To think that we, as veterinary practice owners, have already learned everything we need to know – especially if there’s a graduate degree/DVM/MBA sitting in your back pocket – is a foolish notion and can close us off from opportunities to pivot, grow, evolve, or even open new doors and paths. We should never be done learning. And to think we have learned all we need to learn shows just how little we have actually learned. So my challenge to you is this: as you interact with your associates, employees, clients, or what-have-you, be conscious of your interaction and make the effort to be deliberate in how you ask questions. Then, instead of looking for a particular answer, just listen. Be open to the notion that there is always the possibility to learn. Learning implies growth, and I would surmise that this personal growth might spill over into your business, in one way or another. To question is to learn, and to learn is to grow.

Technology and the Decline of Veterinary Business

by Hunter Little

Scrolling through Facebook one Sunday afternoon – as one tends to do when avoiding work that needs to be done – I came across a shared photo that piqued my interest. It was a photo of a non-descript whiteboard with some statements written down regarding different major industries and companies that had changed the paradigm of those industries; companies like Apple, Air BnB, and Uber, that had utilized technology to carve out their place in the market and ultimately create their own success. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I am not one to go seeking wisdom amongst the annals and back-pages of Facebook. I think that if there is any place where you are likely to find actual “fake news”, chances are it will be on Facebook. But this photo – whose original source I couldn’t trace, as it had been shared numerous times and therefore forces me to simply paraphrase rather than share here without proper credit to the author – actually made me stop and think about the implications of its content. In essence, the photo – and the whiteboard it contained – said this:

‘Amazon did not kill the retail industry. The retail industry killed the retail industry with bad customer service.’

‘Uber did not kill the taxi industry. The taxi industry killed the taxi industry through fare control and limiting the number of taxis.’

‘Netflix did not kill Blockbuster and the film rental industry. Blockbuster killed Blockbuster through ridiculous late fees.’

There were more examples included, but I think you get the idea. After listing all of these different industries and the companies that disrupted those industries, there were two remaining sentences on the whiteboard, both written in a bold typeface and underlined for emphasis. They read:

‘Technology by itself is not the real disrupter…’

‘Being non-customer centric is the biggest threat to any business.’

Now, we can sit and argue all day about whether the retail industry or the taxi industry are actually dead, but that would be missing the whole point. What should really be the focus of our discussion is the nature of technology in business. More specifically, how the implementation of technology can fundamentally change not only your stance within an industry but also your relationship with customers and the nature of customer service. As the whiteboard said, it is not technology that is the real disrupter. Rather, it is businesses becoming non-customer centric that is the real threat. Businesses that lose sight of the customer and their relationship to the customer ultimately stand to lose the most. Whether you provide a service, a product, etc., the customer should always factor directly into that business equation you have constructed.

I think the overwhelming selling point for some time has been how technology can be incorporated to streamline a veterinary business model or make a veterinary clinic more efficient in how it runs and sells. But what about the customer? Yes, by utilizing technology in some form or another, you can deliver veterinary services to them faster, increase the total number of customers you can handle at one time, etc. There are myriad examples of that relationship between technology and growth. But what about the relationship between technology and the customer/customer service? Big companies like Uber, Apple, and Amazon disrupted their industries and rose to the top by implementing technology not for technology’s sake, but by using technology to distribute a service or product in an entirely customer-centric format. What I’m ultimately trying to do here is change the way we approach technology from a veterinary business standpoint. Let’s not ignore all of the ways technology can improve a veterinary hospital and how it operates internally. But let’s shift our paradigm slightly, and begin to approach technology from a customer-centric angle. When we look at new technology, the thought shouldn’t only be “How will this new technology help my practice grow?” What should be included in our thought process is “How does this technology make me more customer-centric?” Or, “How could this technology improve my customer’s experience?”

As I’ve said on this blog in the past, it is always good to take some time to take stock of your place in the world; to take stock of where your business stands and review where adjustments could be made. A certain level of self-awareness as it relates to business can make all the difference. So, in that vein of thought, I think it is high time we take that approach to technology and business. Take the time to assess how you can become more customer-centric. Perhaps, the answers might surprise you.

Indirect Veterinary Customer Service: Technology and the Employee-Customer Dynamic

by Hunter Little

I’ve got to say, I am really proud of the title of this blog. If nothing else, I’ve managed to make something that is, at its core, a very simple concept and transform it into a seemingly complicated theory (there is always something humorous about over-complicating simple ideas). When I say “Indirect Customer Service”, what I’m really referring to is the notion of improving customer service by improving other aspects of your business that do not directly deal with customer service. That is to say, addressing customer service indirectly by addressing other areas of your business. Also included in the title is this notion of the employee-customer dynamic, or more specifically, the daily interactions that occur between employees and customers (we can even include employee-to-employee and customer-to-customer interactions).

My theory is quite simple, and is ultimately based on a few basic observations within the workplace. By implementing a few key technological improvements into the lives of employees (with the idea being that these technological installments are meant to make the employees’ work easier), the employees would ultimately be happier and more productive (I promise, this is not some kind of pseudo-communist plot). This direct influence on employees has indirect benefits for customer service. A happier employee is bound to have a pleasant interaction with the customer. If you have ever been introduced to any kind of behavioral-based psychology, then you know that people oftentimes direct emotions at outlets other than the source of their emotions. Thus, an employee that is, for example, stressed out about the complicated process for inputing a new client’s medical history into the medical records database may be more likely to imbue that employee-client interaction with their negative emotions regarding their practice software. The client ends up being the recipient of an employee’s frustration, and thus has a negative customer service experience. Yet, this negative experience had nothing to do with the client. Thus, because we failed to directly address a problem or inefficiency within the workflow dynamic (or the workplace as it applies to the employees), we have indirectly influenced our customer service.

This notion of indirect customer service was one of the driving factors behind the creation of EasyDVM veterinary practice software in the first place. We wanted to create something that was entirely based on a customer-centric model, emphasizing the importance of customer service before anything else. This means that, when we began designing the software, we designed it through trial and error, utilizing the input of our employees throughout the creation process. It is easy to design a software platform that is aesthetically pleasing and loaded with tons of features. but none of that matters if your employees can’t use it. Functionality and ease-of-use became imperative to the creative process behind EasyDVM veterinary practice management software. What I ultimately found was how this indirectly affected customer service. If employees are happy, then clients are happy. It may sound simple or a little overreaching, but I challenge you to try it. Like I have done before, I challenge you to put customer service at the forefront of your business, and see what changes come with that new approach.