Leadership

Top-notch communication and protocols will wow clients and ensure the best possible care of their pets.

Veterinary technicians play a vital role in providing clients and patients with the ultimate surgery room experience. In fact, every employee who has contact with the client or the patient should understand what is involved from first touch to last. Surgery and anesthesia top the list of procedures that require our best effort in communication. […]

Here’s what you need to know about managing millennial employees, instituting drug testing and granting paid leave.

Recruiting, training and retaining quality employees is an ongoing challenge for veterinary practices of all sizes. Successfully doing so, though, is crucial if a practice is to thrive. Team members involved in human resources should know how to address the three key issues below. Let’s look at the issues, questions to consider and methods of […]

Start a charity or work closely with one to ensure that the pets of a financially challenged client get the care they need.

As veterinary professionals, we are charged through personal compassion, moral conviction or even social pressure to care for animals in need when owners lack financial resources. As business owners and managers, we understand that we can’t allow our hearts to lead the way to negative financial consequences. To strike a balance between the two, many […]

When clients behave badly, sometimes the right thing to do is tell them goodbye — permanently.

Last year I met a fellow veterinarian who had a problem. Her scheduler erred in booking a house call. As a result, she arrived at the gentleman’s home at the wrong time. She sent the client a few text messages and waited. When he didn’t respond, she informed him that she had to leave and […]

Veterinary technicians should take the lead in communicating the importance of oral care. Receptionists and kennel staff have key roles, too.

Eighty percent of adult dogs and 70 percent of adult cats have some form of oral disease. Dental problems are among the top three concerns raised by dog and cat owners. Why is the incidence of oral disease so high? Is it due to a lack of compliance or a failure to educate the client […]

Forging a better work-life balance and seizing control of emotions can put you on a more even keel.

It’s the Monday after a busy week at the practice, and everyone’s nerves are a bit frayed. To lighten the atmosphere and create smiles, you stop on your way in to pick up doughnuts. Even though you are mentally exhausted from all the fires you put out the past week, you found the strength to […]

Spoken and unspoken messages say a lot about a veterinary team’s assumptions, values and beliefs.

If you’ve owned, managed or worked at a particular veterinary practice for any length of time, you may be so used to the workplace culture that you can’t effectively define it, much less analyze its strengths and weaknesses. If that’s the case, it’s perfectly normal. Having said this, it makes good sense for your practice […]

If employees don’t remember much of what they were taught, your training methods may be at fault.

How much of this article will you recall once you return to work? Chances are, you will remember reading a training article, and perhaps you will recall an important point because it related directly to your situation. The reality is that you retain about 5 percent of what you heard in a lecture or podcast, […]

Clients are more likely to accept medical recommendations if you clearly explain the services, provide a high-end, low-end fee estimate and know how to respond to financial resistance.

Preparing and presenting treatment plans is an important part of what veterinary technicians do every day. How you handle these plans will make the difference between clients accepting your recommendations or walking out the door. Clients often have a difficult time understanding recommendations, especially if the plan involves diagnostics and procedures. It’s our job to […]

Properly managed incentives can boost client loyalty, improve patient health and lift the bottom line over the long term.

Our best veterinary clients — the ones who have come to us for years — are compliant with our recommendations, inherently trust all members of our team, choose to support our small business by utilizing our ancillary services despite less expensive alternatives, and promote our hospital in the best light to all their friends and […]