IN a technology savvy society, we all look to the internet for answers. According to internetworldstats.com, as of June 2010 82.5% of the United Kingdom population utilised the internet. Whether we are price shopping for the latest gadget, finding a recipe or getting directions to a new restaurant, a majority of us turn to the internet for answers.
This is all fine and good but, unfortunately, many people turn to the internet to diagnose their pet’s symptoms and illnesses. In the 2011 Bayer Veterinary Care Usage Study, conducted by Bayer HealthCare LLC, Animal Health Division, 15% of pet owners said that with the internet they don’t rely on the vet as much; and 39% look online before consulting a vet if a pet is sick or injured.
This can be extremely concerning to veterinarians in our country and around the globe, as we know that subject matter experts develop only a fraction of the online content available. Anyone can publish either reality or rubbish on the internet, and it is up to the end-user to determine the validity of searched information.
The swallowed-sock dilemma
Let me introduce a pet owner named Tess. She has two, beautiful, 10-month-old Labradoodles. Tess is doing laundry late one evening when she notices that one of her pups, Lyric, is eating her child’s sock. She reacts quickly and tries to retrieve the offending object from Lyric’s mouth, but it’s too late. Alas, the puppy has swallowed the sock!
Panicked that her dog may choke or experience breathing complications, Tess scrambles to her computer and searches for the phrase “dog ate sock” (go ahead, try it with quotes in your favourite search engine to see what you get). Lo and behold, several hundred results are returned with varying recommendations. One is to induce vomiting with hydrogen peroxide. Thankfully, Tess ignores this advice and instead calls her clinic’s emergency number to consult with the on-call veterinarian.
He informs her that her puppy should be OK overnight, advises her not to induce vomiting with hydrogen peroxide, and asks her to bring her plugged-up puppy to the clinic first thing in the morning. The veterinarian can then determine the best treatment for her companion.
Feeling better about the information received, Tess goes about the remainder of her evening in a calmer state, and Lyric does indeed make it through the evening with no obvious problems. A visit to the clinic the following morning results in a retrieved sock in need of a good wash, a satisfied client, and a healthy pup no doubt headed for more mischief at the first opportunity.
While this is only one mild example of how “Dr Internet Search” can play into your daily role as a veterinarian, it can have an unwelcome impact on your business, and on the health of the animals you serve.
What if Tess had not phoned her veterinarian for guidance and simply implemented the online remedy of induced vomiting? Would the online advice have created more healthcare risks for her pet? While these questions cannot be thoroughly answered in this article, we can address how to be better prepared to compete against “Dr Internet Search”.
Educate, engage, automate
Client education is the key. Sir Francis Bacon stated that “knowledge is power”, and this is true in many instances. However, the internet has created a host of subject matter “experts” who are quite the opposite.
Here are a few tips on how to educate your client on the value of clinic versus internet diagnosis and treatment options.
To educate your clients properly you must first educate your staff on how to handle the “I found it on the internet” phone call or conversation. Here are a few practical tips:
- Handle with care. The client may believe that he or she is armed with valuable, solid, web-based knowledge. Your front-line staff, no matter how educated, may be no match for these individuals. Don’t dismiss the internet diagnosis as this may offend or embarrass the client, spur them to seek the services of a nearby competitor or, worse yet, prevent the ill or injured animal companion from receiving sorely-needed treatment.
Instead, if the situation seems potentially serious to the pet’s health, staff should stress the importance of a clinic-based check-up as soon as possible. Concerned clients will generally respond well to this suggestion, knowing that their companion’s well-being is worth far more than the cost of a veterinary visit.
If there is a question about how serious the situation may be, the best client service is to pass the call to a veterinarian for a phone consult. That type of personal attention can not only win but also retain client trust.
- Use your practice management system’s patient recall tools to follow-up with your client about the pet’s progress. This added touch of a post-visit phone call or reminder for a follow-up clinic visit really shows that your practice cares about the well-being of each pet.
It also gives clients a sense of security and allows them to bring up any post-visit questions or concerns about how their pet is doing. Use this opportunity to praise the client’s willingness to bring their animal to the clinic. By doing so, you reinforce the best-possible client behaviour.
More client education tips
- Engage and explain. Veterinarians often overlook the opportunity to engage clients in the examination room. If a client follows your advice and brings a suddenly injured or ill pet to the clinic, use this opportunity to educate and build the all-important clinic-client bond.
Explain what is happening medically to their companion, but in easy-to-understand terms. (After all, your clients did not attend veterinary school.) In the case of Tess, the veterinarian took time to explain why internet recommendations are not always the best treatment options. These remedies may in fact harm the patient further, leading to higher treatment costs and/or hospital bills.
- Education through automation. Use your practice management system’s ability to print post-visit treatment notes and to reinforce the importance of seeking veterinary care at the first sign of any future incident. Printing client-customised instructions and reminders is no longer a tedious practice.
Modern practice management systems have templates pre-loaded that need only to be updated with your practice personalisation. With minimal effort, you can educate clients with the right information after every visit.
- Stress value over cost. Once again, your practice management system is the key. Printed invoices should detail the value of your professional services, not simply the cost. For example, a good practice management system will, with a simple keystroke, print the patient’s history, a list of the current medications, and date(s) when the patient’s next boosters are due.
Of course, owners may be distracted at the time of checkout due to initial worry over a pet’s condition, the distraction of other pets and clients in the clinic – or even the worry over time taken from work to bring a pet to the clinic. However, when tucking that invoice away in their pet’s home file, they’ll likely notice and appreciate the informational detail.
Added touches such as this build knowledge, trust and an accurate perception of the value your clinic provides.
There’s no doubt that the internet is a powerful tool. Yet it is critical that companion (or large animal) owners rely on your professional guidance and service – not the world-wide web – for diagnosis and treatment.
By training your staff on how to handle these inquiries, by using the exam time to increase client education and build the practice-client bond, and by optimising the educational worth of your practice management system, you’ll be miles ahead of Dr Internet Search.
