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Shown below is the updated graphic we’ve been sharing regularly; this includes the November 2021 VetSuccess revenue metrics shown on the Insiders’ Insights KPI dashboard (https://www.vhma.org/resources/insider-insights) as well as placeholders for other related metrics that should also be reviewed regularly in order to get a full picture of what’s going on in a practice.


In order to put this in perspective, here is some of the same information over the last few months showing the overall trends:


Revenue and patient visit growth fell in December 2021 compared to December 2020. Because Christmas Day and New Year’s Day fell on a Saturday this year; the days practices were closed was a little more varied than when the holiday falls on a weekday. The number of workdays in 2021 was likely pretty similar to 2020.
The overall trend in revenue and patient visit growth isn’t very clear; these numbers have been bouncing around since May 2021.

The trend in new client growth IS, however, quite obvious; growth in this metric has declined since May 2021. During the pandemic, many practices saw an increase in new clients due to an increase in pet owners and because pet owners with an established practice relationship tried out other hospitals simply because they couldn’t get a timely appointment at their regular hospital. As things have settled down a bit, it looks like this trend is returning to its pre-pandemic direction. What does this all mean to your practice?

Of course, these are averages and what is going on in other practices may not be going on in yours. The first thing to do then is review the growth or decline of new clients in your own practice for the last five years. This is an easy thing to do; new client numbers are readily available from your PIMS (practice information management system) and the growth calculation for each year is as follows:


The above analysis looks at the total number of new clients in the practice, but it is also important to review the new client numbers on a per FTE doctor basis, particularly if your FTE numbers have been fluctuating. Obviously, the more FTE doctors you have, the more new clients you need in the pipeline.

The next question is—do you want or need more clients in your practice at this time? If you are still swamped and struggling with staff shortages, the answer may be no. In this case, the practice should focus on keeping the clients and team members you do have happy and offering them all the best experience you can.

If you do have open appointments and want to see some growth, then it’s time to focus on increasing those new client numbers as well as retaining the clients you currently have. Before improving your marketing efforts, make sure that the practice is satisfying the needs of the current clients. What kind of feedback are you getting in your online reviews? In your client surveys? From comments made to team members? Through no fault of their own, practices haven’t always been able to provide their typically good client service through the pandemic, simply due to demand. If that’s true in your practice, fix these issues first. It doesn’t make sense to bring more clients into the practice if they won’t have a great experience.

If you know what has really worked well for you from a marketing standpoint in the past, i.e., you are confident those efforts brought in measurable numbers of new clients, then re-implementing those programs can make sense. If you aren’t sure, it may be time to talk to a marketing expert about revamping your efforts.

Regardless of what kind of marketing program you move forward with, it is important to determine what ends up actually working in bringing those new clients in. The steps involved in this practice include:

• Identify where clients heard about the practice
• Review client acquisition metrics
• Determine the cost of acquisition
• Calculate how much revenue the new clients are estimated to bring in while at the practice
• Estimate the life-time profits expected to be generated from these clients

The practice must first track where new clients come from. Often this task falls to the front desk team. How the client heard about the practice should be a question asked on every new client worksheet, but it is also critical that the reception team also ask every client and make sure the information was actually recorded for future analysis. Talk to your marketing guru about how to track the results from online efforts; it needs to go beyond how many people looked at a post. If 85% of the people who like your post live 100+ miles away, it doesn’t help you.

In addition to determining where the new clients are coming from and what percentage of total new clients comes from each source; the cost of acquisition must also be calculated as shown in the following example. The ABC Animal Hospital decides to advertise in the Lakeshore Condominium monthly online newsletter as well as write an “Ask the Vet” column in the same issue. The cost per month is $450.00 or $375.00 per month with a 3-month contract. The practice chooses the 3-month contract because they feel it will take at least that long not only for pet owners to see the promo but to have a need to visit.

The practice obtained 2 new clients in month 1, 6 in month 2 and 7 in month 3 for a total of 15 new clients from a $1,125 investment plus the time to write the “Ask the Vet” columns for a per client cost of $75. They estimate each pet will bring in about $2,250 in revenue over the years it comes to the practice and that a $75 per pet acquisition cost is reasonable.

New client numbers aren’t the only important metric but are certainly critical to growth. Remember too, that this metric doesn’t replace a profitability calculation. A practice can have very high new client numbers and still be unprofitable.

➤ Download Insiders' Insights - KPI, January 2022 Report

➤ VHMA Members can access the dashboard to drill down by region, species, and practice size filters, access the interactive KPI dashboard

Data review and commentary is provided by Karen E. Felsted, CPA, MS, DVM, CVPM, CVA of PantheraT Veterinary Management Consulting, www.PantheraT.com.

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