Blogs

Pointers for Motivating Inactive Clients

Every practice has them… clients who ignore and miss heartworm shots, fail to schedule annual checkups or wellness visits and, in general, meet your requests for action with crickets.

Are clients who fail to act after receiving reminder notices for the veterinary practice irresponsible pet owners? Of course not! There are a host of reasons why they may not be incommunicado: financial, logistical and personal. But the truth may be that your reminder messages are just not resonating with them or inspiring them to take action.

A Purina survey of dog owners published in July 2018 revealed: 95% of dog owners view their pet as part of the family, 62% report that their canine buddy helps them de-stress and 55% credit their pooch for offering emotional support. It appears that the emotional connection between owners and their pets is deep and practices should factor this in as they craft their messages.

In life, whether you are dealing with clients, neighbors, friends, family or kids, the power of your message depends on how well you can tap into the recipient’s psyche. If you’ve ever had to ask a teen to do something, you understand what I mean. Remind a teen to complete a chore and you might be met with a nod, eye roll and then… inertia. However, if you explain why it must be done and the ramifications of not doing it --- hopefully --- the message will elicit action.

Moving Beyond the Predictable

It’s essential that practices review the messages they send to clients. Reminders that consist of no more than a curt statement is less likely to shake the recipient out of his lethargy and lead to action. It’s also reasonable to conclude when a practice issues a perfunctory reminder, it will yield no more than a glance from the client and may even be tossed in the trash immediately.

There are, however, actions that can improve the quality of your messaging and increase client compliance.

The first is to ensure that your client communications appeal to clients and the bond they have with their pets. Consider how much more effective it is to receive a reminder that recognizes the client’s love for their pet and their desire to maintain a long and healthy relationship with it. Starting the message by acknowledging the bond and engaging the client, allows the narrative to segue way into reinforcing the connection between preventive care and compliance and well-being and longevity.

Practices should also evaluate the methods used to communicate with clients. Some clients may respond to traditional methods, such as postcards and phone calls, whereas the message may be ignored by those who prefer mobile-friendly digital messaging, such as texts or emails.

While employing multiple communication components such as text, email, manual postcards, and phone calls, may address all preferences, it is essential that the client not be made to feel like he is being bombarded with information from the practice.

For additional information on how to reengage clients, Partners for Healthy Pets (PHP) has devised an Inactive Client Re-engagement Reminder Program that has been shown to be highly effective in bringing lapsed clients back into the practice. What makes the PHP program different from other re-engagement efforts is that it takes into account a client’s visitation history and the messages that managers can use, which focus on empathetic messages to inspire clients to reengage.

Build the right message and your clients will come back!