The power of positive client feedback

We’re all aware that client conflict and complaints are a major cause of stress among veterinary teams – with sometimes devasting consequences.

When workloads are high and teams are under pressure, one negative client comment can have an inordinate impact on your team. Despite the fact ‘it’s just one client’, those hurtful words can drag everyone down.

But what about the flip side? For every negative client comment, there are so many more clients who are positive, kind, and appreciative. They truly value the effort and skill of their veterinary teams – and they’re willing to express it (we only have to ask!)

How do we make these positive clients the loudest voice in the room?

Let’s hear it from the happy clients!

A practical and powerful step you can take to protect your team from toxic clients is to dial up the positive. Reinforce the stream of positive client feedback they’re earning every day.

If your clinic has a Virtual Vet Nurse, you already have a brilliantly simple way to generate feedback from happy, positive clients – and then share the love.

Every Virtual Vet Nurse comes with a client review workflow. (This is included within your standard Virtual Vet Nurse subscription, but is also optional i.e you can choose to turn it on or off).

How does Virtual Vet Nurse generate reviews?

Here are some real-life client reviews being received by one of our clinics via their Virtual Vet Nurse:

5/5 Great experience from the second we walked in. All the staff were very friendly and very knowledgeable of the needs of my fur babies. 

5/5 The experience from start to finish was faultless!

5/5 Dr Emma is awesome. Very attentive not only to my dog but also myself. Highly professional.

5/5 I love that the exam was so thorough…they took the time to troubleshoot my cat’s symptoms to create the best treatment plan for him.

5/5 The moment I walked in I was greeted with a smile. Everyone was friendly and welcoming. The vet was also amazing; so thorough and gave great advice.

This clinic has a Virtual Vet Nurse they named Floyd (they wanted more males on their team!) One of Floyd’s automated tasks – within his continuous 24/7, 365-workday – is to generate post-visit customer feedback.

This is the digital equivalent of front-desk staff phoning clients after their visit…except it doesn’t tie up hours of staff time, or awkwardly interrupt the client’s day with a phone call.

The quick surveys sent from Floyd can be completed at any time (24/7), and are completely automated.

Here’s how it works:

1. You choose which type of procedures/visits you’d like to survey (e.g you can choose to exclude the likes of euthanasia visits).
2. Your Virtual Vet Nurse sends an automated post-visit link (by email or SMS) to the client after their visit.
3. The client is asked to rate the visit on a scale of 1-5, and add a comment if they wish.
4. The results of each survey are emailed to your nominated clinic email address. What you do with the results is up to you (but see our ideas below).

Note: as with all Virtual Vet Nurse workflows, there is zero maintenance required for this function; it all runs automatically in the background.

How can you use the client feedback?

Lots of ways!

The simple fact you’ve asked for feedback means your clients feel valued and heard. It shows you care about customer service.

But what’s really exciting is that your clinic can actively use the feedback. It can help you to:

• Monitor customer satisfaction

  This is a great way to ‘take the pulse’ of your customer service. Are your reviews improving over time? Or has there been a drop-off in ratings? You can track any changes in overall customer satisfaction – and address them – by reviewing your feedback regularly.

• Avoid clients ‘silently shifting’

  If you receive a less-than-favorable rating, such as a 1 or 2 star out of five, that’s an opportunity to follow-up with that client and address the issue. A quick putting-things-right call from the practice manager can only strengthen the relationship.

• Boost your Google reviews

  There is a final (optional) step in the client survey – where your Virtual Vet Nurse invites the client to add a Google or Facebook review.

  

• Celebrate the wins!

  Nothing boosts team morale more than being told you’re doing a great job, and that clients really appreciate the work you’re doing. Which brings us to….

Ideas for celebrating with your team

When your Virtual Vet Nurse has generated a bunch of positive reviews, what’s the best way to share the love?

Here are some ideas:

• create a sticky-note wall or whiteboard (where you add the freshest messages each day)
• add the week’s messages into a “you rock, again!” list and circulate to the team on Monday morning (to get everyone pumped for the week ahead)
• add a shout-out slot to your regular team meetings (where you read out 5-6 messages)
• celebrate with a monthly morning tea (pop the messages on a cake as ‘candles’)

See it in action

For a demo of client reviews, go to our Features page and click on client reviews.

Or click here to jump straight to a review demo.

Client reviews are just one feature of Virtual Vet Nurse

Client reviews are just one of 10+ automated workflows provided by your Virtual Vet Nurse. (You may have seen other offerings in the market which solely offer customer reviews. Virtual Vet Nurse offers this – and much, much more).

All for an affordable monthly subscription  (see here), with no minimum term. It’s a plug-and-play offering that is installed on your website in under 30 minutes.

To find out more, contact the Virtual Vet Nurse team.