Client Outcome

These are the type of stories we want you to write about BVEH.

Client Outcome:
If you are a veterinarian, try to remember the last time one of your clients scheduled a visit because they were having a GREAT day and just wanted you to be a part of it. Unheard of, right?  In today’s veterinary market place, success requires attention not only to the patient outcome but also to the client outcome.
Let’s look at Equine practice. Horse owners come to us because their horse is sick, lame, infertile or needs traveling papers. Unless they seek us out because they are trying to prevent sickness or lameness, those are the four reasons we see clients and their patients. The patient outcome is very important but we can’t get to 100%. All horses don’t get well, all horses don’t go sound and all horses don’t become fertile. That’s as good as it gets with patient outcome.
How about client outcome? It is my opinion that if it is important to us, veterinarians can learn to have good client outcome even though the patient didn’t make it. How can that be? Communication and empathy, that’s how.
I had a great client outcome experience the other day and that’s what motivated me to write this blog. The experience was with a car dealership, no really! We have a Toyota. When we purchased the car, routine service was included for X number of miles. I’m not naïve; I don’t think the service was free. It seems similar to a wellness program in an equine practice. I paid in advance for service to be delivered later that should make my car last longer…not much difference from a good wellness program in equine practice.

Ok, here is my experience with the Toyota dealer. I made an appointment for 7 AM to have the service done while I waited. I pulled up just before seven, parked in front of the glass roll up door and saw a beehive of activity inside. The unusual thing was that almost everyone was smiling like they meant it! At exactly seven the door rolled up and a guy came out to greet me. He seemed so enthusiastic to service my car that he ducked under the door as it was going up just to get to the Rav4 a little quicker.
He knew my name, he knew why I was there, he knew I was going to wait and he assured me that he wanted to get my car out with the best service in the shortest time so I could get on with my day. Since the paperwork was in order already, there was nothing to do but step out of the car so the guy who drives the car inside could get going. The guy who greeted me said “come with me”. He led me into a great waiting room with 4 seating areas, each one with a flat screen on a different channel. There were newspapers on the tables in each seating area. He handed me a poker-chip-looking-thing and led me to a little café in the corner. The chip was for a free coffee, soda, tea or whatever I wanted. The café sold those things as well as breakfast. I know that anywhere you get your car serviced, they will give you coffee. Those places just can’t match the experience I had at this dealership. My guy’s parting words were “you relax in here and I’ll come and get you when your car is ready, I won’t forget, you don’t need to worry about it”. Since he was still smiling, anticipated my concerns and really acted like he cared, I believed him and didn’t pace the floor like I usually do.  I was sitting in a nice couch watching sports center and answering email on my iPhone when he came back.  My car was ready he walked with me to rerieve it.
The dealership staff did was what they were supposed to do, service my car. However, they also made sure that my experience was better than any other mechanic had ever provided. I believed that they really cared and my car and I were both a priority. It was so impressive that now I’m writing a blog, drawing a parallel between equine practice and oil changing in car dealerships.
If you read Fred Lee’s book, 91/2 Things You Would Do Different if Disney Ran Your Practice, you will learn that our objective is not a satisfied client but rather a loyal client with a story to tell. The client experience accompanying an oil change did it for me. Whether its an experience with wellness program or in a hospital waiting room I think we can all aspire to create loyal clients with stories to tell.