Bob Levoy

The goal: As Bob Townsend, former CEO of Avis Rent A Car System LLC, has said, "Create the kind of environment that pays people to bring their brains to work." The more you identify and address employees' job-related needs, the more likely they'll engage in what psychologists call "motivated behavior."

If your team members aren't feeling satisfied with their jobs, find out what's wrong?and find a fix.

Some clients view an office visit as an opportunity to catch up on an assortment of neglected pet health problems. Use these techniques to stay on topic and on schedule.

At one time, the mass market was every veterinarian's target population. Today's best strategy, however, is niche marketing, which targets a specific population of pet owners, identifying their needs, and then addressing those needs more competently than anyone else.

You're looking for improved profitability but could end up with high turnover and service breakdowns.

"Increased customer loyalty is the single most important driver of long-term profitability," say Scott Robinette, Claire Brand, and Vicki Lenz, authors of Emotion Marketing: The Hallmark Way of Winning Customers for Life (McGraw-Hill, 2000).

Reluctant to purchase high-tech equipment because you're concerned clients can't afford costly diagnostic tests? You may be right. But consider the following facts from the recent article "Putting on the Dog" from www.businessweek.com:

How do you know whether a newly hired team member is right for his or her job and, equally important, right for your practice? Many practice owners evaluate a new hire's job performance during a probationary period, which can last from 30 to 90 days.

"The secret to a successful open house," says Christy Johnson, CVPM, practice administrator at Pampered Pet Health Center, "is to make it fun. Have lots of things for clients to see and do, and serve plenty of finger food. Involve your staff, distributors, and drug representatives. And get the word out."

As we discussed last month, the first day on the job sets the tone for everything that follows. And a great first day leads to a smoother transition, improved performance, and less turnover. Here's more on how to make a new employee's experience a great one

Regardless of his or her work history, a staff member's first day on a new job can be intimidating. For some, it's so overwhelming and confusing that they don't return for a second day.

Long-range strategic planning requires making hard decisions in your practice. First, you must decide what you and your team are going to do more of. What's working? What services, activities, and products generate the most practice growth and are the most profitable? For example, are pre-anesthetic risk assessments profitable—and good medicine? If so, you may want to challenge your team to increase clients' acceptance of such procedures.

Want to avoid regrets about management? Learn to avoid these common missteps, pulled from candid conversations with practitioners.

Effective delegation is undoubtedly the strongest productivity-improvement tool available. But here's a harsh reality check: Only 47 percent of staff members responding to a VetMedTeam survey indicated that their doctors delegate 80 percent to 100 percent of possible tasks.

What does your receptionist say to a client who claims to have forgotten his or her checkbook? Or how does your technician respond to an angry client? In such cases, is everyone following a similar script? Is what they're saying the best response? If not, role-playing may help.

Hiring employees is the single most important management task in a practice.

The No. 1 characteristic of companies that move from good to great is finding and keeping the right people, says consultant Jim Collins in Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap . . . and Others Don't (HarperCollins, 2001). But finding the right people isn't easy. To avoid costly hiring mistakes, take these hard-learned lessons to heart.

Ever wonder if there is just one customer satisfaction survey question that could accurately predict company growth? Consultant and author Frederick Reichheld spent two years researching that question, and published his findings in the Harvard Business Review.

In their new book, Trading Up: The New American Luxury (Portfolio, 2003), Michael Silverstein and Neil Fiske found that today's consumer is willing to spend more, or trade up, for goods and services with higher perceived quality levels.

When you know what goals you really want to accomplish, the path to your dreams becomes clear. Here's how to harness the power of goal setting for your practice.

VE board member reports from the trenches of 9/11.