An Effective Reminder System is Fundamental to Driving Wellness Compliance and Revenues Wellness services and products are applicable to every pet served. Veterinarians who proactively generate wellness revenue through an effective practice reminder system will find it to be the most accessible and controllable path to practice growth. With just three simple steps, practices will be able to fully realize wellness revenue growth potential.

Preventive care is a win-win situation for you and your clients. It helps keep pets healthier and living longer and it also provides a valuable revenue stream for your practice. From reminders, emails, customized pet/owner websites to exam room recommendations and follow-ups, compliance for preventive care recommendations improves with repeated and consistent communication.

As presented the in the previous Practice Intelligence email and webinar, by assessing critical 2011 practice performance metrics you can better plan for additional growth in 2012.

All veterinary practices have five fundamental growth opportunities available to them – each of which can be accomplished utilizing the practice’s existing clients, patients and staff.

Practice Intelligence: Reclaim Pets without Reminders

We’re all aware of the old adage that it costs five times more to acquire a new client versus retaining an existing one*. Nowhere is this more evident than when applying improved reminder management processes. Implementing “best practice” programs consistently can result in a 50% or greater improvement in the number of active current with future reminders scheduled. This, in turn, can yield tens of thousands of dollars in recovered annual revenue for your practice.

Looking to grow your practice? All veterinary practices have five fundamental growth opportunities available to them – each of which can be accomplished utilizing the practice’s existing clients, patients and staff.

Target market programs such as dental health and senior care can yield significant returns in terms of incremental traffic and revenue, while serving to reinvigorate awareness and compliance for these services as part of your year-round wellness standards for all pets. ThinkPets has conducted senior care-targeted campaigns for hundreds of practices and, as a result, developed an approach to maximize return on investment during the program period and, in many cases, beyond. Historically the average revenue per senior campaign visit is $42 more than the average revenue per visit from all visits ($163 vs. $121).*

Pets are living longer, with the senior segment (generally considered to be seven years and older) growing steadily. In 2010, 39.3% of dogs and 45.8% of cats were seniors, compared to 37.6% of dogs and 42.6% cats in 2003.

Growth in the senior pet population can represent a significant opportunity for your practice. ThinkPets data shows that practices with long-standing senior wellness programs consistently generate more than 2.5% of total practice revenue from senior wellness testing. How are they sustaining this effort?

When your practice has adopted management of key analytics in an effort to drive practice growth, the next step is program identification and implementation. Actionable programs commonly involve senior wellness, wellness testing, and managing pets without future reminders. You might, for example, want to work on reducing the number of pets leaving the practice without being set up to receive a reminder to visit again.

Most veterinary practices, despite providing “medical” services for pets, are subject to the same pressures and demands as conventional service businesses. By applying common service business principles and methodologies to your practice, you can favorably influence your medical performance, revenues and margins.

Busy clients have trouble keeping up with doctor or dentist visits, let alone remembering to see their veterinarian. So when client communication is inconsistent, routine wellness visits as well as pet-specific care recommendations can be easily overlooked. A single reminder or email will not create and maintain the level of compliance you want, though. Compliance is achieved when effective client education is delivered multiple times through more than one communication channel.

Many practices lack a sound reminder strategy. In fact, ThinkPets data shows that 26% of current pets do not have future reminders and, on average, practices are achieving only 16% of their total potential preventive care revenue. Well crafted, consistent reminders sent multiple times are key to driving practice revenue.

Dental service revenue opportunities are not being captured effectively by veterinary practices. Just 9% of dogs and 6% of cats suffering from periodontal disease received dental services in 2009. Implementing a few simple tactics might make all the difference in increasing compliance and boosting practice revenue.