Do you know Alberto?
Alberto is a veterinarian like you, committed, who has invested many years in his clinical training while running his own veterinary center.
Alberto tells us that his passion lies in caring for dogs and cats, but he is constantly concerned about the financial health of his business and the relationship with his team and clients. Our colleague has many unresolved questions...
Does this happen to you too?
After having a coffee with him, he confesses that often is questioning whether your pricing is competitive, whether you are offering the right value to your customers, or whether you are effectively communicating your vision and values to your team. 📊
💡 To be even more specific, Alberto shares with us the questions he usually asks himself on a daily basis:
▪️ Am I pricing my services appropriately?
▪️ How can I offer more value to my customers without compromising my revenues?
▪️ What key performance indicators (KPIs) should I monitor to better understand the financial health of my clinic?
▪️ How can I improve the profitability of my clinic without sacrificing quality of service?
▪️ Am I leading and communicating effectively with my team to ensure they share and work towards the same vision?
We know that these doubts are very frequent in a large number of veterinarians and owners because we have had hundreds of conversations with professionals like Alberto.
Although Alberto would logically need specific advice to solve his doubts, we will try to give some simple and practical answers so that you can use them as a starting point.
Here we go!
1️⃣ Alberto: Am I pricing my services appropriately?
VMA Team: To make sure you are pricing properly, calculate your fixed and variable costs to make sure your prices cover expenses and leave you a profit margin.
Always consider that the customer must perceive the value of your services and do not be afraid to adjust your prices based on the quality and specialization or differentiation you offer.
It is also not a bad idea to do a competitor analysis to understand the price range of the market, although these should not be the main factor when deciding.
2️⃣ Alberto: How can I offer more value to my customers without compromising my revenues?
VMA Team: perceived value has a lot to do with sensations or emotions, and is not always tangible or measurable. You can offer more value through complementary services that have a low cost to you but a high perceived value to your clients, such as personalized advice, vaccination reminders, clinical case control calls or educational talks on pet care. Also consider exclusive loyalty programs for the best clients.
3️⃣ Alberto: What key performance indicators (KPIs) should I monitor to better understand the financial health of my clinic?
VMA TeamWe cannot tell you which ones are best for your Alberto clinic, because they depend on each center or hospital. What you should know is that it is preferable to measure a few representative ones on a constant basis, rather than a very large list of them, which makes monitoring and even interpretation difficult.
Also, do not focus your KPIs on the purely financial aspect. You should also keep in mind that you can measure KPIs that measure the behavior of our team, such as the Diagnostic Ratio, or those that measure the customer's perception of our work and the possibility that they will recommend us, such as the NPS (Net Promoter Score).
4️⃣ Alberto: How can I improve the profitability of my clinic without sacrificing quality of service?
VMA Team: Improve profitability by optimizing your internal processes to reduce consultation, surgery or procedure times and increase efficiency without reducing quality.
Invest in continuous training for your team. The improvement in clinical case resolution skills leads to an increase in the billing of the patients involved, their loyalty, and even the future recommendation of other clients.
Explore the possibility of offering high-margin services and regularly evaluate your service mix to adjust offerings according to demand and profitability.
5️⃣ Alberto: Am I leading and communicating effectively with my team to ensure they share the same vision?
VMA Team: This is an important point Alberto. Effective communication starts with establishing a clear vision and sharing it with your team on a regular basis.
Organize regular meetings to discuss objectives and progress, making sure that each team member understands his or her role and how he or she contributes to the overall vision.
Encourages a culture of respectful feedback and recognizes achievements to keep the team motivated and aligned with the clinic's vision.
Do you feel identified with these questions? How can we help Alberto? 🍀
📌 All these doubts are resolved in our Veterinary Management Course starting January 8, 2024where we go through the different areas of veterinary management through 8 intense modules.
