10 Jun 2015
Lee Robinson
Job Title
All those working in the veterinary profession need to ask ourselves what we are doing as a profession for the care and well-being of pets?
Because, when it comes to dentals, we are simply not checking these animals thoroughly enough when they visit the practice, we are not educating clients about good pet health care, and, if I may be so bold, we are guarding the client’s purse over that of good clinical care of the patients.
Whether you agree or not, dental campaigns or programmes are a great way to create client loyalty, a source of untapped income that promotes the best healthcare and well-being for pets.
Most of us have conducted dental campaigns, often with the aim of increasing dental procedures, and while some have had reasonable success, there are many that did not get the hoped for return. Usually the return is not realised simply because the campaign or programme is not planned well enough. I know of one situation where the practice owner instigated a dental campaign, spent serious time and money sending out hundreds of promotional letters to clients, but didn’t think to tell any of his staff – the campaign was a total disaster.
Good planning for any marketing campaign is vital to its success and all considerations need to be explored. Team involvement right from the start is critical to ensure buy in. Many practices will promote a “dental month” rather than an ongoing programme. It’s like going to the doctor and the GP tells you he or she cannot take your blood pressure this month as “blood pressure month” is next month. Does that sound ridiculous to you? Of course it does, so plan your campaign for months, not “a month”.
I suggest telling your clients you are having a special for a “limited time”; however, just roll it on from month to month telling your clients that, due to its great success, you are continuing the campaign.
A good place to begin is to formulate a clear understanding of what you wish to gain from a dental campaign.
Ask yourself what the purpose of the campaign is and what outcome you want from it. Many would say “more dental procedures”; however, this limits your return. I suggest you also consider things such as client loyalty and advocacy, dental food, care products and Healthy Pet Club membership.
At this stage consider all the products and services you can promote as part of the campaign that will ensure the best care of the pet. Set a launch date for the campaign – giving yourself enough time to prepare it properly. This planning should be done well in advance.
To ensure all considerations have been explored, list these considerations under the following headings:
Get line managers, (practice manager, head vet, nurse and reception) together to brainstorm ideas under each of the headings. This way you will get more ideas and broader thinking – as well as getting the team engaged right from the start. It’s critical to get team engagement so make them part of the planning stage. Write these headers on the flip chart or whiteboard and work through the considerations starting from the offer through to the channels. Let’s look at each one in turn.
Your offer is what you are promising as a service or special price to your clients or prospective clients, such as:
Get as much detail as you can at this stage, but don’t spend too long discussing or getting bogged down in the detail; remember this is primarily a brainstorming session, working with your team to get the best result.
This is listing the steps to achieve the outcome and deliver the offer. It might look something like this:
At this stage you are looking to get enough information so it is generally clear what the process is. The main points are enough at this stage. A detailed flow chart can be created later as you will see.
List the resources the team will need to run the campaign or event. These include advertising material, print material, signs, giveaways, equipment, drugs and extra stock may also be required. If in doubt, write it down and you can always take it off the list later on if you change your mind. This list may include:
Think of everything you can that might be required and list it down.
Under this section list the key targets you would like to achieve from the marketing campaign or event. It might look something like this:
Remember, these are your key targets so don’t try to measure every little thing, just your key measures that will tell you if the campaign or event was successful.
Also make sure these are achievable targets or you may end up demotivating your team. Give them something realistic to aim for.
List the training requirements under these headings:
It may include training for the whole team so they understand the process and targets as well as specific clinical training for the vets and the nurses. You may require some refresher training on dental food products or selling HPC.
Channels are who you will be marketing to (the audience), and how you will get your message to them (the media). You may wish to start the campaign by targeting those clients who have not visited your practice for more than six months. You might do a mail out at say 100 letters per week or sending an email to the target audience. You may do a mix of target audience and media types to test what works best. List this under channels.
Next, create a timeline and place milestones for the completion of each key activity that needs to be carried out to launch the campaign or programme.
So now you have a clear project plan, this can be handed over to your team members to implement. You can meet weekly to ensure the tasks are on track.
As mentioned earlier, by having your line managers involved in the process right from the start, they are engaged in the programme and have a clear set of guidelines to work with to implement the plan. This will help ensure the campaign is a success.
Ensure the whole team have a clear understanding of the programme and everyone knows what to do and how to educate the clients about the best care for their pets. Set up visual target charts and put them on a wall so the team themselves fill them in. This ensures the team can be further involved in the success of the programme.
I would suggest between two and four targets for the team otherwise it may be a little overwhelming, so perhaps create visual target charts for:
Or you could use graphics – maybe themed like a thermometer with 10 gradations, but whatever you use, put these in place and get the staff engaged in updating the figures daily.
Make it exciting – unless the management participate and are engaged, then you cannot expect the team to be engaged. Gather around the visual target charts often with the team and provide enthusiastic positive feedback and get the team to discuss how they can do better if they are falling behind.
Of course, it is important to make the targets achievable in the first place. Set targets for periods of around one month to six weeks. If you make the targets too far in the distance, say yearly, the team may lose engagement before they get there.
Tell your clients the campaign and special offer will only run for a limited time as they will feel there is an urgency to book or they might miss out. However, relaunch the campaign at the end of this period, advising clients due to its success and the clear need to provide this service for the best interest of the pet, you have decided to extend the programme for a further month or two.
Last, but not least, at the end of each campaign period, meet with the team and provide positive feedback. Discuss how the campaign could be improved, then celebrate the success of the team’s achievement. Maybe order in pizza or have a special team event of some kind. This should not be seen so much as an incentive, but simply to celebrate the success of the campaign and the efforts that the team have contributed to ensure pets are well cared for and the team have done their part in providing the best of care to pets and their owners.
I hope this is something you can all get your teeth into.
