May 27, 2022

The five-step formula to improve client compliance

By Kelly Baltzell

Have you thought about pet parents’ compliance lately? The last two years have been a whirlwind and time has been in extremely short supply, giving us no chance to take a step back to see the health of the animal population as a whole. How do you get all your clients back into compliance with checkups and vaccinations? To keep it simple, here are five ways to assist in this endeavor.

1. Know your data

It is difficult to accurately know where the compliance rate of your pet population stands without reviewing data. Gut feeling guesses can only take you so far. Hard data wins the day. There are a few places to collect data. One would be invoices for what has been purchased and used in the last 12 months. Another is pulling reports from your PIMs system or by leveraging a marketing dashboard that provides charts and averages based on a variety of filters to gather data.

Generally, marketing dashboards excel at standardizing data from a hospital’s PIMS system and making it understandable. From a marketing perspective at Beyond Indigo, we wanted to be able to see exactly the number of pets, by species, who were compliant, and compare that data to the benchmark of other hospitals in the state. This gives us a baseline from which we began marketing campaigns.

For example, looking at this chart, we can see this hospital has 127 pets vaccinated for Lyme, which is 3 percent of their entire active pet population. Compared to the rest of the veterinary hospitals in the state, they are 8 percentage points lower in vaccinating for this disease. Since spring is upon us, and they are in a state known for Lyme disease, it would be an excellent marketing initiative to encourage people to get their pets’ vaccinations up to date. While the animal is at the hospital, per the data below, it would also be a great time to get a wellness exam.

First, review the data to pinpoint the focus of the marketing campaign(s).

2. Demographics

Because of how targeting works in marketing on social media, Google, and other platforms, it is helpful to define what demographics you want to target before setting up a campaign. Think about which group your desired client base fits into. What are the characteristics of your ideal or “best” client? In this new age of practicing medicine, who do you, as a team, want to see? Who adds quality to your day instead of taking it away? I would suggest you and the team write out a description of your ideal client and all their characteristics. They are to whom you direct your marketing efforts instead of just hoping for the best.

3. Bandwidth (This is very important!)

Bandwidth is a very important consideration when looking at marketing campaigns to increase client compliance. The biggest bottlenecks involve the team’s ability to see the pets, budget constraints, and supply chain. For example, take an inventory of vaccines you currently have on hand or that you can easily obtain. It would be a waste to do a marketing push for something you cannot complete due to supply chain restrictions.

Also, what does your team like doing? If the staff had the choice, which area of compliance would they enjoy doing the most? Finally, set a budget for your marketing push to cover pay-per-click advertising and someone’s valuable time to accomplish it.

4. Time to make the push

Data is in hand, demographics are known, budgets are defined, so you are set to go. Now, where, how, and when do you market for compliance? Please be realistic regarding your and your or staff’s time when creating marketing plans. If you have only five minutes, create a post about the importance of getting a Lyme vaccination on Facebook and/or Instagram. Throw in Nextdoor if you have a few spare minutes.

If you have more time or work with a marketing company, create a blog about the “what, where, and why” of Lyme disease. People like to know why versus being told “just because.” Make sure to include a CTA (call to action) that is easy for people to do— “Click here to schedule an appointment.” Then, promote the heck out of that blog on social media, website, and newsletters.

5. Time to measure

Regardless of the marketing message and push, it is important to measure the success of the campaign at least weekly (Social media gives you marketing success data sooner than Google.) Because the first step was collecting data, that becomes the starting point for your measurement. Compare those points to the new data after the campaign has been running for a week or two. Is the needle moving? If not, it is time to switch up the marketing message and/or platform.

Or, maybe you have reached the end of your coffee and you are thinking: “NOPE! There is no way on God’s green earth that I am going to do any of the above.” Consider using Beyond Indigo to move the needle on compliance (or any marketing push). Because we understand the value of your time, we created a Marketing Dashboard with VetSuccess, which allows us to see your data without you calling us, sending us reports, or squeezing in conversations. We can identify compliance issues, run them past you for your approval, and then roll up our sleeves and get to work. Reach out to us by clicking here at https://www.beyondindigopets.com/#contact.

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