In the veterinarian business, as with any business, 99 percent of the clients are fantastic, but the other one percent have a tendency to be difficult or do things that gnaw at your craw.
Here are a few pet peeves of most veterinarians.
n Front-end staff, if well trained, are knowledgeable of set protocols, timelines and are better at booking the veterinarian’s time than is the vet. But some clients ask to speak directly to the veterinarian, even to set an appointment or ask the price of a procedure.
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As veterinarians and business owners, our time must be spent on cases or dealing with the most difficult problems. The staff are trained at booking, quoting prices, answering questions, and getting supplies ready.
If you treat these staff with respect, the service will be in direct proportion to the treatment you give them.
I often use this approach when dealing with everyone from the legal secretary to the clerk at the hardware store. Most people are eager to please and if they don’t know the solution to your problem they will gladly get someone else to help.
Our front-end people will refer you to a veterinary technician and if the problem is too difficult for them to deal with, a veterinarian will attend.
Producers should not always expect to talk directly to the veterinarian. Besides conversing when we are working on their livestock, we may consult directly with producers in our offices or over the front counter. Messages can be left but often it may be awhile before they will be returned. That is why the positive rapport with the front-end staff or veterinary technicians is critical.
n Veterinary clinics are stocked with all the supplies, vaccines and treatments necessary to maintain livestock health. The clinic has the expertise to properly prescribe these medications, which is why some drugs are available only by prescription and available only through the clinic.
Still, their products are competitively priced so producers can buy from clinics with confidence. I know veterinarians in the past had a reputation of having the highest prices for products. That is not the case anymore. They also try to have the best quality products.
There is nothing that irks veterinarians more than clients asking advice about products bought elsewhere, such as feed stores or farm supply companies. Veterinarians are in the best position to deal with the health of your farm animals or pets. They do not sell feed or fenceposts.
They are also ethical and credible enough to advise not using products when they are not warranted, a savings some producers never think of.
n Veterinary clinics are a service industry but it can become frustrating to get emergency calls at night about animals that have been sick for days or from clients who never use the clinic for routine work, yet expect the vet to come out and bail them out of something like a difficult calving.
At times, we vets grit our teeth in these situations and most veterinarians will try to educate the client to avoid these pitfalls in the future. Veterinarians are not gods.
Calling us to examine and treat animals that are three breaths short of death from an extended illness is futile. We must be given a fighting chance to help them.
n Clients who jump from veterinary clinic to clinic make it difficult to get a handle on herd health and establish confidence between the veterinarian and client.
More often than not, the local clinic, because of proximity, will give the best service. At times you might need a specialist, as is the case with something like embryo transfer. Even then, the local veterinarian provides a service by providing good references to a specialist. Often, there can be excellent communication and a co-operative spirit in employing these specialists. You want to keep your local clinic around to insure future herd health.
n Veterinarians are always under the gun from a time management standpoint, which is why we are often a bit late. Producer’s time is important to us as well, so when the client helps by having the herd in or the animal caught, it goes a long way to keeping us on time for our next appointment.
Clarify with the office staff all procedures or herd-related activities you need done. It is difficult to stay on time when numerous other examinations are added in. We appreciate the extra business, but we want to book the appropriate time to do a thorough job.
As more things become non emergencies and herd related, it is even more important to keep a good working relationship with your local veterinarian.
I find most of veterinary practise rewarding because of the clients I have. Dealing with them is challenging, uplifting, humorous and rewarding.
