Veterinary Clinic On Hold Messages: Case Study

Veterinary Clinic On Hold Messaging: Case Study

There are many reasons to become a veterinarian, but having an easy job isn’t one of them. Veterinary practice owners face a number of challenges every day, especially the difficult tasks related to owning and operating a small business. With so much day-to-day work, it can be easy to lose sight of the techniques to develop a thriving veterinary practice. Increasing prices is most commonly used to try and increase profits, but in turn often back fires by alienating existing clients – the lifeblood of your practice! With more than 40,000 vet clinics in North America, pet owners certainly have lots of choices when it comes to their furry friends’ pet care needs.

The Client:

Small veterinary clinics generally do not have the astronomical budgets that larger animal hospitals do, and Camden Animal Clinic’s owner Dr. Michael Schneider knows this challenge all too well in trying to compete with larger facilities in the area. After much frustration in trying to compete head-to-head and dollar-for-dollar using traditional strategies (ie. direct mail, television, etc) Dr. Schneider sought a more effective, more affordable method of advertising and marketing to grow his practice.

The Issue:

Camden Animal Clinic was faced with many of the common challenges of any small business. Attract new patients, retain existing patients and increase profits without breaking the bank. All three areas can be a tremendous burden on a veterinarian’s time and budget.

The Solution:

According to Stanford Research Institute – The average client in your practice can’t name 3 services you offer other than what their pet has been in for. The silver lining in this is that studies also prove the more clients know and understand about your veterinary clinic, products and available services, the more they’ll spend to provide care for their pets.

While many clients may know about Camden Animal Clinic’s primary care services, Original On Hold knows that it’s vital for small vet clinics to have a deep understanding of what customers really want and educate customers on everything their small business has to offer, so we developed an on hold marketing strategy to do just that.

Since the telephone is often the first interaction, our creative team crafted custom branded on hold messaging to convey to waiting callers that there’s no need to look elsewhere for their pet care needs, as well as to prompt callers to inquire about lesser-known services and available products such as advanced services they may not be familiar with including: soft tissue surgery, digital radiology, ultrasound and ophthalmology.

Additionally, the messages were also designed to educate callers about micro-chipping, boarding and grooming services, as well as referral programs to help grow the patient base. Plus the messaging includes a variety of topics that are updated from month to month, such as flea and tick prevention, heartworm disease, vaccinations, wellness exams and more.

The Result:

Dr Schneider says: “Most veterinarians start their careers because they love animals and they love medicine, not because they’re passionate about marketing, business or advertising. Consulting with Original On Hold was one of the best decisions I made in order to tackle our marketing challenges. We’ve had great feedback and response from customers about the messages on hold, and we’ve seen a measurable increase in the sales of products and services mentioned in the on-hold ads. By educating callers about our referral program offering, we’ve also tracked an increase of referrals from other satisfied clients.”