app

Connecting with Clients – Part 2

by with No Comment BusinessCommunication

In the first of these Posts I discussed ways to improve the incoming Communications in your Practice by leveraging VOIP technology and PBX options. This Post will be about ways to enhance the outgoing Communications to your Clients. Clearly there are many alternatives for this but not all of them work very well!

In order to simplify the Post I will start with the oldest tech approach and move from there. I will presume that we are discussing non “In-Person” communicationsm which is another topic altogether.

 Snail Mail

Sending a mail-out to Clients is still a viable way to communicate important mesages that you need to send to  Clients. Some useful examples(in no particular order will be:
  • Vaccination Reminders
  • Sympathy Cards after the loss of a Pet
  • Newsletters, either regular or intermittent
  • Targetted mailings based on data extraction
Sending a message in the mail is still one of the most useful ways to Communicate with Clients about non-
urgent issues.
 

Telephone Calls

This approach is great for relatively urgent messages which need to reach the Client quickly. The downside of the telephone call is that there is NO easy way to record what has been said or addressed in the conversation. Keeping a record of communications is vital, especially in a multi-person Clinic situation.
 

E-Mail

Sending an e-mail is a very useful way to communicate information to a Client especially if you need to attach a form or file for them to read or complete. In the case of a form to complete it may be better to direct them to an on-line form rather than an e-mail attachment(more below). If you want better receipt for this form of communication then you should also utilise a “tracking” service or request a “Read Receipt”.

The really big problem with e-mail messages arises when they are sent as bulk mailing and that includes ALL regular Vaccination Reminders and any promotional e-mail.

According to CampaignMonitor the industry average for E-mail Open Rate is ONLY 18%

The absolutely highest open rate is <27% and it is not for the Veterinary Profession. This is much the same as what we see at Vetsone when we send e-mails to our own mailing list using MailChimp.

Using that data you could assume that if you rely on E-mail alone for vaccination reminders you could be losing 70-80% of your vaccination returns in the short term or even permanently!

 SMS

This is very useful for non-urgent but important communications such as:

  • appointment reminders, including pre-surgery instructions
  • advising the Client that items they have ordered are ready to collect or a reminder about a Pet’s Visit or Surgery event.
  • sending a re-inforcing message after other communication like ‘phone calls or e-mails

We can advise and assist with all of the suggestions mentioned here, call us wherever you are based and we can help you improve your Client Communications.