Are you making the most out of vaccination and check-up reminders?

By Greg Robinson, co-founder and business development director, RxWorks

How many times have we heard that the fastest and most cost effective way of generating additional revenue is through regular communication with existing and previous clients? Informing your clients of up-coming treatments, check-ups or new services is widely recognised as a highly effective means of generating repeat business.

Veterinary practices have long embraced the idea of sending out letters to remind clients when their pets were due for their annual vaccination. However, having advised practices for over 15 years, I have encountered many who are not making the most of their existing client base. When I have asked veterinary surgeons in the UK what their response rates are to their vaccination and check up reminders, I am told regularly that these rates are in the region of 75-80 per cent. However, when this is subjected to close, critical scrutiny I tend to find that in reality these response rates are closer to 50 per cent for a first reminder run and the remaining responses generated with second or even third reminders.

Keeping track of and sending out reminders to clients is a time consuming and involved process, which can also be costly. The process can also be prone to compromising errors and inconsistency that could actually lose you business. Most businesses recognise the impact of sending a client a vaccination reminder for one of their pets that had recently died. Initially, reminders were a manual process and even though this was time consuming, veterinary practices made the investment because the value to the business was recognised clearly. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s it became apparent that computers could create and send reminders far more efficiently and this became one of the criteria for computerisation. So if you are providing your clients with top quality service and advising them adequately, via a computer system, as to when their pets require treatments, why are reminder response rates not improving? In addition, what practical measures can you implement to improve on response rates?

Many veterinary practices have now recognised that multiple vaccination reminders are of significant value in addressing low response rates. RxWork’s own statistical analysis has shown that the average UK small animal practice achieves a 55% response to a first reminder within two months. However, if a second reminder is sent within two months, a further 20% response can be achieved resulting in a total response rate of 75% within four months. Your computer system should allow you to measure these response rates accurately and then allow you to determine if further reminders are of value. So what are the implications of these figures for the revenue streams of your practice?

First reminders and second reminders
We will assume that a practice sends out 100 first vaccination reminders each month for a pet and that you charge £25 for a standard vaccination. You may expect the following results and associated additional revenue simply by having sent out a second reminder:

Non Vaccination Reminders
These can be very hard to value because each practice uses different reminders and charges different amounts for each service. Nevertheless, a good example that is commonly used in many practices is dental reminders. When a dental examination is performed, computer systems should be able to automatically generate a reminder typically in 6 or 12 months. Response rates to these reminders tend to be lower, but are of greater value if the reminder succeeds in getting a positive response from the client. We will assume that the value of a dental examination is £40, that a response rate is 25% to first reminder and then 10% to the second reminder. The following table will illustrate the impact that the second reminder will have on revenue.

The above figures show that it is definitely worthwhile to send reminders followed up by second reminders for many types of situation. It is up to veterinary practices to make sure that their computer systems are capable of performing this task cost effectively.

Both hardware and software technology have advanced rapidly and we have found that all too often, existing computer systems in veterinary practices are simply not geared up to cope with the task of multiple reminders. As more practices become aware of the value of multiple reminders, we are beginning to see an increased demand for upgraded or replacement computer systems. Systems that can help you to improve customer service will not only help you to stay ahead of the competition, but will also help you to improve the bottom line. Whether or not you are computerised, it is important to keep up to date with what is available and what the various systems on offer can handle.

In the UK there are over 12 different suppliers of veterinary management software. Some of these have been around for many years whilst others have been developed recently to suit the future needs of veterinary practices. An up to date software package should now offer the following capabilities:

• The ability to send vaccination reminders – this is nowadays expected of any credible computer system
  
• Automatically cease all reminders once a pet dies or is euthanased – you should also expect this of any computer system
• Send non-vaccination reminders – these may, for example include dental, geriatric, neutering, blood glucose (diabetics), worming, grooming, diet, weight check, flea control or any other reminder that you may desire. In the case of large animals these could include follicle testing, pregnancy testing etc
• Send second and third reminders for vaccination and other reminders.
• So that the process is as time efficient as possible, it needs to be fully automated. In this way, a practice manager should only have to ‘send reminders’ once to trigger the search of all patient records and process all reminders. It should not be necessary to make multiple requests for different reminders or separate steps to process first reminders, then second reminders, third reminders etc.
  
• Create a ‘safety net’ – this means that if a client fails to respond to all reminders, then you should have the ability to specify if a reminder system continues in the future. For example if you send a vaccination reminder and a client does not respond, you may still choose to send another reminder next year
  
• Send reminders on your choice of media – for example, postcards (printed directly), letters, mail labels, or telephone lists or any combinations of these. For example you may choose to print your first vaccination reminders for a patient on postcards but the second on a letter and perhaps the third as a phone list to check who has not responded. Again, this should be fully automated
  
• Print multiple reminders on one page – now that computer systems are sending multiple reminders it is reasonable to expect that a client who has several patients due for various reminders should be able to receive notification on one letter or postcard
  
• Design your own documents in a word processor like Microsoft Word. – this an absolutely essential feature that enables you to brand your materials
  
• Ability to include a picture of the client’s pet on the reminder. One of the new advances is the ability to store digital images of patients. As we all know, clients love to see pictures of their pets, so why not print their pictures on the reminders?
  
• View accurate statistics of response rates to all reminders – it is essential these days to assess if your response process is working. It is therefore essential that today’s veterinary computer system automatically keeps accurate response statistics to all reminders

Veterinary software developers understand the important role that reminders play in generating repeat business. So they should also understand that producing reminders can be time consuming and detract from the other essential tasks involved in running a practice. A comprehensive reminder facility ensures that you do not have to worry about missing out on valuable repeat business and can concentrate on treating your patients. Veterinary software packages should give you unlimited automated reminder systems on your choice of media be it letters, lists or postcards.

In today’s competitive climate, clients are expecting improved levels of information and advice on how and when to take action to care for the health of their pets. This desire for information has been fuelled by popular mainstream television programmes and printed media about pets and pet care. As a result, clients are now looking to their practice both actively and passively to provide that information. Software systems are at hand to help practices to cope with and satisfy this demand. As the competition intensifies, if your practice fails to live up to your clients’ expectations and needs, it is more than likely that they will move to another practice that does.

About the author

Greg Robinson is a co-founder and director of business development for RxWorks. Greg formed VetAid (now RxWorks) in 1985 when he saw the need for a total veterinary practice management system. Prior to this, Greg was a business analyst for MLC, one of Australia's largest insurance companies. Greg applied his analytical skills to the business of veterinary medicine and produced VetAid software, a solution that made a real impact on the revenues, expenses, and management of many veterinary practices. Today, RxWorks is a leading supplier of veterinary practice management systems and is used in 13 countries around the world.

For more information visit www.rxworks.com