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| VET GAZETTE | VET PRACTICE REPUTATION
PRACTICE
REPUTATION
What do your customers think about your practice?
W
hether you’re choosing a hotel, restaurant or even a
school, online reviews site and social media can often
play a pivotal role in validating the decision making
process. Therefore, what customers think or feel about
what they’ve purchased or a service they’ve received
is important because they may decide to share their opinion online.
Veterinary practices aren’t immune to this public scrutiny and many
are starting to see online customer reviews about the service their
customers received at their practice.
According to our research of 100 UK vets on how concerned they
are about their online reputations we found that, 72 percent of vets
are becoming increasingly concerned about the impact a negative
online review could have on their business. And, alarmingly only 10
percent of vets claim they’ve never seen a negative online review
about their practice. And it seems that pet owners aren’t scared to
speak their minds as our research also found that 89 percent of pet
owners would tell others if they were dissatisfied with the care they
received, while 63 percent would air their grievances on an online
review site.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
We asked pet owners what matters most to them when they visit the
vets and of course, care outcomes topped the list with cleanliness and
hygiene coming in second, ahead of customer service, appointment
waiting times and even cost of treatment.
Staff appearance and the cleanliness of waiting areas matter to
pet owners and they expect to see staff in clean uniforms and waiting
rooms to be as hygienic as possible.
A practice’s laundry procedures has an important role to play in
ensuring customers get the right impression when they visit your practice
and in order to meet customer’s high expectations, fight infection and
deliver on high standards of cleanliness at all times, vet practices may
want to consider reviewing their in-house laundry processes.
Surprisingly, the use of domestic rather than commercial washing
machines is common within vet practices. While domestic machines
are cheaper to buy, they don’t offer the thermal disinfection cycles, or
wash at the temperatures needed to kill infection.
Commercial machines have specialised cleaning programmes that
can be changed, depending on the load, and programmed to treat
items that need to be washed at high temperatures. Additionally,
domestic machines don’t offer compliance with Water Regulations
Advisory Scheme (WRAS), Category 5.
There’s lots vets can do to proactively adopt best practice for
controlling infection and managing their reputation:
ADOPTING BEST PRACTICE
1. T raining
W
hen staff are busy fulfilling their day-to-day responsibilities it’s
often difficult to find time for staff training. However, it’s important
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to remember that customers are making judgements from the
minute they enter the practice and could be forming an opinion on
everything from the way the phone is answered through to the way
a complaint is dealt with. Staff training has become increasingly
important. Training courses are available on customer services,
handling complaints and even managing online reputations and
taking the time to do this training could have a positive impact on
the success of the business.
2. Q
uality objectives
Over half of the practices we surveyed are accredited under the
RCVS’ Voluntary Practice Standards Scheme and many more are
currently working towards this accreditation. However, practices can
set their own objectives for quality across the business including
hygiene targets and even standards for customer service. Having
staff work towards a common goal can keep the business on track
to deliver high levels of quality care and service.
3. L ooking after your online reputation
Sometimes, despite what procedures and processes are in place,
a complaint just can’t be prevented. However, it’s how the response
is dealt with that’s important. The first step is to respond to online
comments calmly and reasonably whether the practice was at
fault or not. Then it’s important to express disappointment that the
customer has had a bad experience and invite them to pop in or to
discuss it over the phone. It’s vital to try and take the conversation
offline quickly and to be seen handling it professionally.
4. K
now your customers
How better to understand what matters most to your customers than
to go direct? Perhaps they think the practice should stay open later
in the evening; offer an online booking system; or even discounts
for those with multiple pets. Speak to customers to find out what’s
important to them and then consider whether it’s possible to adapt
working practices accordingly.
Of course, all vet practices hope their customers’ experience
has been a good one, but the reality is for any business that offers
any kind of service, you’re likely to encounter a few disgruntled
customers along the way.
However, to try and avoid any unwarranted comments
appearing online, attempts to raise standards on cleanliness and
hygiene; encouraging staff to take up training opportunities; and
understanding customer concerns are all positive steps towards
maintaining a great reputation. These can all go a long way
towards showing customers that the practice recognises what’s
important to them and could help encourage more positive online
reviews in the future.
By Simon Hart, national account manager at the professional
division of manufacturing company Miele
October 2018