Caitlin Rivers
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Caitlin Rivers
"The best way to effectively educate clients is to interact with them, to reach out and touch them—not through brochures,
not through letters, but through discussion. You are your practice's most important educational tool."
Doctors spend an average of 12.3 minutes with clients during a wellness visit, according to the 2007 Veterinary Economics
Business Issues Study. And the 2006 Veterinary Economics Business Issues Study shows that 45 percent of practices reported
team members dedicate an average of 11 to 20 minutes to the wellness exam (see Figure 1).
Figure 1
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That gives you a great deal of power, because clients make decisions about the care they'll provide for their pets based on
what you know and how you present the information.
Because repetition breeds compliance, all doctors and team members should know basic information on all topics, so practices
send clients a unified message with the same recommendations, says Mandy Stevenson, RVT, a Firstline Editorial Advisory Board member and a technician in Creighton, Mo. The learning curve
So how do team members evolve into fonts of knowledge? "We teach them," says Stevenson. Doctors and team members get crash
courses on all topics through in-house seminars and manufacturer presentations. To teach the nitty gritty details and turn
novices into experts, Caitlin Rivers, a veterinary assistant and technician supervisor at Metzger Animal Hospital in State
College, Pa., recommends a combination of on-the-job exposure, discussions, and homework. She uses quiz games, articles, and
job shadowing to train technicians at her hospital. In fact, Rivers, a Firstline board member, says team members learn most effectively when they participate in clients' visits and have the opportunity
to observe and ask questions.
I'll give you a topic—discuss!
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Besides absorbing the hard facts, it's important to train your team members to read clients for the questions they want you
to answer and how they want to receive it. And team members must feel comfortable discussing the topics and believe in the
importance of the recommendations they're making, Rivers says.
"Clients can tell when team members are selling them a product or service and when they're recommending something for the
good of their pet," she says. "When clients see that team members believe in their recommendations, they're more likely to
comply, and that's when sales go up." (See "Does Selling Your Services Mean Selling Out?")
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