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Diederik
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Building The Value For Your Client
Hi, it’s Diederik Gelderman here, and welcome to week three in setting your practice up for a fabulous pet dental health month.
In the last video, we talked about training, and in this video, it’s all about building the value for your client.
Let me share some value building strategies that will blow the client away. The idea behind this video, and what I’m suggesting you do is I’d like your client to walk out after the dental thing is done—and we’ll talk about what the ‘dental thing’ is in a minute—and I’d like to client to walk out and say “My gosh, how could they afford to do that? How much value did I get out of that?”
So, that’s the idea. Whether you’re discounting the procedure, or whether you’re charging full rate for the procedure, is irrelevant. I just want your client to walk out thinking that, “My golly gosh, that practice has gone above and beyond in every sense of those words”.
Here are a whole heap of suggestion, and in no particular order.
- Every pet needs to be charted, and a copy of that chart needs to be given to the client, a physical copy—not emailed, nothing like that. You want to give a physical piece of paper. People don’t get physical pieces of paper anymore, they all get emails, they all get SMSs and all those other stuff. You want to give them something and have them go home with a stack of information that’s going to really ingrain in their neurology how different you are, how valuable you are, and what a great service you have provided. So, chart every patient and give a copy to the client.
- Take a before and after photo of the procedure, or the dental procedure, and give it to the client. Yes, even if it’s only a grade 1. Ring the client when the pet’s in recovery. If you do PAS screens, then when the screen’s through, ring the client and say “Hey, great news, the screens are through and they are perfect. All are hunky dory. We’ve just sedated Fluffy and we’ll go to surgery”—and I would say the word surgery— “we’ll go and do the procedure in 20 minutes, and I’ll give you a call as soon as Fluffy’s in recovery.” And then when Fluffy is in recovery, “Hey, it’s Diederik here from the vets. I just wanted to let you know that Fluffy’s in recovery. Everything went really well. Just relax, get on with your day and we’ll see you at 4 o’clock when you pick Fluffy up.”
- At the discharge. So, if Fluffy is having the dental procedure today, at the discharge today, you’re only going to do a cursory—and that’s the wrong word but it’s the word that I’m going to use—a cursory discharge. That discharge is something that’s going to involve: “Here’s the chart, here’s the before and after photos.” You’re going to put some plaque discloser on, or you’re going to shine that fluorescent thing in, because when Fluffy came in a week ago for the predental exam, or the flip the lip or whatever the heck it was, Doc or the dental Queen – did it also on that day, and it would have been quite ‘vivid back then. You’ll show the client – clean teeth, they’re pearly white, no plaque discloser sticks at all, no fluorescence—and we’ll talk about that next step in this process in a minute, so just park that thought.
You’re going to do that, and you’re just going to do a brief after care discharge on what to feed and what to watch for. You’re not going to do any dental after care today, and that is critically important, critically important, and it swings the game when you follow this process that I’m talking about now.
- You use the fluorescent lamp, and then before they leave today, you book Fluffy and Mrs. Smith in for seven days’ time. Now, why seven days? Look, it could be four days, it could be five days, it could be six days, it could be seven days. In my model of the world, it is a seven-day check. Why? Because that typically fits in best with most practice’s rosters. Wednesday afternoon this week, we’ll have the same roster as Wednesday afternoon next week; so if nurse Emma did the discharge today, nurse Emma will be around to do the dental after care revisit and planning, on-going planning with the client, next Wednesday afternoon. And, I’m going to suggest this be a nurse discharge today, and in a week’s time that they’ll come back and visit a nurse and not visit a doctor, unless you’ve got a particular reason to have them visit a doctor; maybe there’s a lot of teeth that came out or something like that, but that’s up to you.
- Fluffy is booked in for seven days’ time. It’s now seven days’ time, Fluffy comes in, and it’s really important how you approach this visit. I’m talking about a number of things here, not in any particular order.
One; what I suggest you say right upfront is something along the lines of “Hey, Mrs. Smith, Fluffy had a procedure last week, I understand that you never want Fluffy to have another dental procedure ever again, if at all, possible. So, the reason we’re here today, the reason we’re together today is to put together a plan to, as best possible, make that happen, that Fluffy never have another dental procedure, if at all, possible.” So, you need to set-up the reason for today’s visit, and that’s a “We, together, can plan how to make this not happen again. Is that okay with you Mrs. Smith,” and you want them to say “Yes” and you want them to nod their head! You want them to buy into that, emotionally, in to that concept. You’re going to put the plaque disclosure, you’re going to shine the fluorescent light, you’re going to do whatever, and you’re going to see some fluorescence, you’re going to see some plaque again. “Hey Mrs. Smith, you remember last week, we looked at it and it was all hunkey dory, clean, pristine and white, you can see it’s back. This is a normal physiological process Mrs. Smith. This is a process that’s happening in your mouth and my mouth and Fluffy’s mouth all the time. It’s a normal physiological process. So, we need to keep on top of this to minimize that process and slow it down as much as possible. That’s the goal of today.”
- Then, I’m going to suggest that you develop a check sheet, a nice check sheet that you go through. It’s up to you what you put on the check sheet. You might put on there; TD, Oral care, you might put turkey wings, you might put finger tooth brush, you might put stuff to put in the water.
I would definitely suggest that you put on there ‘repeated cleanings’. I’m going to suggest you put on that list about five things. More than five is too many, but you can do less than that. Odd numbers also work better than even numbers. You should have an odd number of things on there.
You’re going to say, “Mrs. Smith, is it okay if we go through this? This are all the things that we can do, is it okay if we go through them one-by-one, and I’ll explain what they are. Okay, this is TD… or Oral Care…” BTW—I’m not promoting Hills above Royal Canin or anything above anything else.
“Here are some little biscuits, take them home, etc. Does that all makes sense?”
And then you tick the tick box with a red tick. So on the sheet, there is an image of the TD, and then a few words about what it does. An image of the biscuit bone, or the turkey wings, and a few words about how it works or what it does.
Then you ask – “Does this make sense?”
You’re going to go through each one one-by-one, and then at the end, you’re going to say to Mrs. Smith, “Okay, any question? Cool, great, fantastic. Okay, good. Based on what we’ve been through, which one of these do you think is going to work best for you and for Fluffy on an on-going basis?” and you’re going to ask her to commit, you are then going to circle it in red. Whatever she says, you’re going to say “Great, decision. Fantastic, well done.” You need her to buy in emotionally to that home care process and into that product, or those products she might choose.
You need to script this very carefully, and your nurses need to rehearse and role play. This is a game changer, that process there.
- Now comes the, “Good Bye Mrs. Smith,” but before you say goodbye to them, you’re going to book them in for a six-month check-up. “Hey, it’s with my complements, you can’t say no. it’s not going to cost you anything.”
You get them back in six months, and you’re going to do the flip the lip, it’s still with the nurse. You’re going to do the fluorescent stuff and all that sort of jazz again, and these clients will then keep coming back twice a year as an on-going thing.
Now, if they’ve purchased a product, whether it’s the stuff in the water, whether it’s TD, whether it’s dental care from Royal Canin, whatever it happens to be if you want to—and I most strongly suggest that you should do this, but it’s totally optional of course….
- I’m going to suggest that in a week or two’s time, you ring them, and what your nurse would do is say, “Okay, TD, fantastic choice. Love it, it’s the most popular of the foods that our clients choose. Tell you what, some people find it hard to transition pets on to different diets. Have you ever had sugar in your tea and then sort of weaned yourself off sugar? You know, the first couple of weeks, it tastes ‘ewww’. So, it can be challenging. I’ve helped lots and lots of pets, and pet owners through that process. So, what I’d like to do is I’d like to ring you next Wednesday to see how you’re going? if Fluffy is transitioning perfectly, great, cool, wonderful. If Fluffy is a little bit slower transitioning, if you’re having some challenges, I’ve got lots of hints, tips, clues, strategies that we can talk through and share that will help you make that transition easier for you.”
So, that’s the process, you’d ring again in weeks’ time. If Fluffy’s great, fantastic, wonderful. If Fluffy’s not on the diet yet, well, then you’d ring up a week after that, or the week after that and keep checking in.
Now, in case you’re thinking, “Oh, golly, it’s going to cost me nurses’ time, nurses’ money, wages.”
The answer to that is that the clients love you for that extra effort that your nurses put in and they will go and tell all their friends about how wonderful and kind and fantastic you practice is, number one.
And now, let’s not be so altruistic, let’s look at this from a financial aspect.
Most pets will not stay on the diet unless they are helped to do so, most pet owners will take their pets off the diet if there is a transitioning problem, or if there’s a toothbrush, they’ll stop brushing because it’s too hard or the pet doesn’t like it.
When you help them overcome those simple obstacles, then you’ve got a client for life that’s going to come back in and buy the TD, buy the stuff you put in the water, buy the Oral care, buy all the appropriate treats, etc., whatever it happens to be that you’ve transitioned them on to.
You have a client for life that’s going to come back and purchase that stuff from you on-going.
So, the few dollars in wages, the half hour that your nurse may invest in two or three phone calls over the next two or three weeks is well and truly rewarded by on-going sales.
If you happen to think that, “Oh, gee, the profit on TD or the profit on the toothbrush isn’t enough to cover that nurse’s cost,” as unlikely as that is, just think of all the ethical upsells that you can do when that client comes in.
They come in to buy TD, it’s also a change of season, “Hey Mrs. Smith, it’s a change of season, it’s time to worm the pet. Did you worm Fluffy last week or would you like to take some tablets with you now? It’s flea season, here is some flea control, etc. – ” or it’s tick season or it’s something else. Train your team to ethically up-sell!.
So, that’s video three, all about building the value.
Next week, we’ll talk about how to make this an on-going process. I’ll catch up with you then.