Understanding our marketplace and our customers is crucial to practice success. In 2015, Banfield invested in analyzing the 'conversations' of millions of pet owners in social media to try to understand what they want and expect from veterinarians. And the lessons relate to all species of practices in veterinary medicine. Their compressed State of Pet Health has some very revealing findings that will help any practice.
First of all, the recommendation is for veterinarians to listen more to their clients. They found that what clients want and view as preventive care was vastly different from what veterinarians viewed as preventive care. Consequently, they also found that the visits with their veterinarians were not meeting expectations. While veterinarians associated preventive care with vaccinations and parasite control, clients viewed preventive care as focused on diet, acitivities, and behavior. Those contrasting views result in greatly diminished customer satisfaction with current veterinary care.
Their findings also revealed that clients want to 'own' their animals' health, while veterinarians believe that they are responsible. This is also a conflict.
Bottom line: listen to your clients differently. They want to be in control. Advise them. Educate them. Respect them. These principles apply to all clients, and they were reinforced by the assessment of millions of social media interactions.
