Читать книгу Pet-Specific Care for the Veterinary Team - Группа авторов - Страница 361

Wellness programs are a lot of work, including program development, fee setting, appointment times, team training, client education, marketing and, lastly, protocols – what will you do with the information once you have it? Actually implementing a program can be challenging – it's complicated and time consuming. The more statistics you know about common disease problems, though, the more you see how early diagnosis and treatment is key to being an effective veterinarian.

Breed‐specific wellness has been building in significance for a long time. Follow this link to a client education video titled What is Breed‐Specific Wellness? www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDvl5L2cRNQ.

It could be started in the most basic fashion with simple laminated sheets for clients to read while waiting for the doctor that explains a single disease that their pet would be at risk for due to its breed. Then they could decide whether they wanted to do a screening test, such as an ECG screen, a Schirmer tear test or a urine protein:creatinine ratio (UPC), to diagnose it.

Such as system is simple, but the hit‐or‐miss approach of having such conversations may not engage many pet owners. Whenever possible, it is better to have a coherent approach to most breeds, and even mixed‐breed pets (see 10.7 Breed‐Specific Marketing). It often works better for a practice to put together a package that includes all the exams, tests, and vaccines we think are appropriate for the pet at its age and we factor in breed risk tests and any other services recommended because of lifestyle – so the package for a middle‐aged Labrador retriever might include thyroid testing and if it has exposure to deer ticks, we would also include Lyme prevention. With pet‐specific care, pet owners often select more services, so if payment (wellness) plans are being used in the practice, the client can split the larger total into monthly payments (see 10.17 Payment and Wellness Plans). A significant percentage of the client base may also elect to pay in advance for the full range of services.

Most practices market such healthcare plans through the website and social media (see 10.6 Target Marketing and Targeted Client Outreach). In time, practices will detect more problems, and earlier, so revenue from both diagnostics and therapeutics will help offset the higher costs of client service.

Every client interaction is an honest discussion about common problems that we can do something about. Our best marketing isn't what's on the screen, it's what's in our hearts and minds that we share with our clients every single day.