Fearless

Easy-to-implement changes can take odontophobia out of your veterinary practice and your clients.

Odontophobia: the fear of going to the dentist. Millions of people have it and the human dental industry has spent years trying to overcome it, from allowing patients to customize music choices and sit in a massage chair to using less-painful nerve blocks and providing faster, more comfortable cosmetic choices. Still, a significant number of […]

A few easy changes will go a long way in reducing fear, anxiety and stress in a canine or feline patient.

The heartbeat of every general veterinary practice is the exam room. This is where worried new clients sit with their dogs and cats, and sadly, where end-of-life discussions take place and the hardest decisions have to be made. The exam room is where the human-animal bond can shine, trust is created, and veterinarians, clients and patients become […]

Learn to reclaim your patients (and their owners) in three easy steps.

The U.S. cat population has risen by several million over the past five years, according to several studies. However, the number of feline veterinary visits is declining and nearly three times as many cats, as compared to dogs, did not receive any veterinary care in the past year. This is an incredibly disturbing trend that […]

Market your stress-free clinical approach by capitalizing on social media options and optimizing your practice website.

When I went to veterinary school many years ago, there were no marketing classes, no search engine optimization lectures, no discussion about social media or Twitter followers, and not a single hour on how a website can “make or break” your practice. In fact, I don’t think these topics were even a glimmer in my […]

Simple solutions start with the initial phone call and extend to the products offered at checkout.

The writer Malcolm Gladwell once said, “We don’t know where our first impressions come from or precisely what they mean, so we don’t always appreciate their fragility.” As practice owners, we know that our first opportunity to interact with and acquire a client may not occur in person or in an exam room. It may […]

Satisfying a patient’s emotional needs requires buy-in from most or all of the veterinary team.

Our ever-changing veterinary industry has seen strong momentum toward the removal of fear, anxiety and stress in patients at general and specialty practices. While I was immediately intrigued by this initiative — popularized by Dr. Marty Becker’s Fear Free campaign — some unknowns initially presented themselves. Among them: How would this seemingly common-sense way of […]