5 senses of clinic hunters: How to entice veterinary clients to choose your clinic

You have potential clients hunting for you everyday. They aren't dressed in camouflage and loading up rifles, but they are using the Internet and listening to friends and family on their quest to find a veterinarian. What's more, they're recruiting all of their five senses to decide where to take their beloved pet for the best care.

So get ready—these pet owners have you in their crosshairs. Find out if your practice is worth their shot—and passes these five sense tests.

1. Sight

Wow them on the Web

The first source many pet owners will turn to is the Internet. However, just because you have a website doesn't mean it's going to bring in business.

When potential clients are searching for a veterinarian, they visit your website to get a quick overview of your practice. Your website must be informative, clean and professional. It's great to have a clinic tour or pictures of your patients on your site, but leave them off the home page. At first glance, people are looking for a few very important pieces of information—your clinic's logo, contact information and address, and business hours. They're also looking for a page that details your practice's philosophy and provides brief biographies and pictures of your doctors. And don't forget to include logos for social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, that link directly to your practice's pages.

Entice them on site

Now that you've appealed to potential clients with your website, the next step is the "meet and greet," as I like to call it. Often pet owners will contact us with questions about our service and prices—and that's the perfect opportunity to get someone new in the door. After politely answering the person's questions over the phone, our receptionists extend the invitation to meet the doctors and staff and get a clinic tour, with no cost for the visit.

And whether it's a 10-minute "meet and greet" appointment or a scheduled office visit, when clients and their pets visit your practice, the first thing they should see is a professional appearance—a clean facility, nicely dressed and well-groomed team members and doctors, and exam rooms filled with educational posters and tools. Even better, play videos or have interactive client education modules on mobile electronic devices to keep them entertained and learning about the health of their pet.

2. Sound

Keep it positive, people

Exam room doors are wonderful when preparing for the patient on the other side—you and your team can get everything together without ever being spotted by the patient or the client. But what you may not realize is that it's possible clients can hear everything your staff is discussing whether it pertains to their pet or not—and many staff members don't think before they talk.

Make sure your staff is aware of this and encourage everyone to keep a positive attitude at all times in the clinic. Of course there will be days when team members will be in the dumps, but you can help them out. Arrange for a quiet place in the clinic for staff to escape, whether it's an office, a break room or an outdoor sitting area. Just having this getaway will also help to keep your team's morale at its highest.

Be aware of the pet's needs

As far as the pet goes, each and every one is different. Some pets are happy to be at your practice, but many of them are shaking in their fur boots. A pet's sense of hearing is off the charts when he's in your practice—every drawer that's slammed and every bark, purr or voice he hears can send him into a frenzy.

So in an effort to keep pets calm, you've got two options: You could install padded, soundproof walls in your exam rooms or you could put yourself in their paws and consider how pets might feel in your clinic. I think the latter option would be the easiest and most economical, don't you? Consider something as simple as playing soft music in the exam rooms and treatment areas to keep pets relaxed and comfortable.

3. Touch

First impressions count

How does your practice "touch" its clients and patients, especially first-time visitors? Do they receive a warm welcome or a half-hearted hello? And remember: It all starts with your receptionists. Your front-desk team should introduce themselves by name and, when possible, welcome the client and pet by name, too. If an appointment has been scheduled, the receptionist should reiterate the reason for the visit to the client.

Make sure you take an up-close-and-personal visit to your own waiting room at least twice a year, too. Sit in the chairs and feel how comfortable they are. Look around and note the pictures or marketing promotions clients see. Scan the floors and walls for any surprise stains. Give clients an area where they can grab a cold bottle of water and maybe even a snack, too. And one of the best ways to satisfy the sense of touch is to offer a clinic tour. Clients will get an inside look at your facility and understand how their pet will be treated.

At our practice, the office manager is usually the tour guide, but sometimes, if a client is particularly uneasy about his or her pet undergoing surgery or having a procedure done, one of the doctor's will walk the client and pet through the treatment area to meet the technicians who will be working with the pet. At this time, they can discuss the procedure in detail and put the client's mind at ease.

Don't stop with the waiting room

What's the overall feeling in your exam rooms? Do you provide comfortable seats and plenty of room for the patient and client to interact with you and your team? Are your exam rooms set up to provide education for your clients?

After a pet's exam, a knowledgeable technician should discuss all aspects of the visit and make sure the client fully understands any tests or treatments that were done. Make sure the pet owner leaves with every question answered. When the client is ready to leave, a receptionist should go over an itemized list of the services rendered and once again ask if the client has any questions before checking out.

4. Smell

Of course you want your clinic to smell nice, but after working in it all day, you can become immune to smells. What no longer offends you might blow up the noses of your clients and patients. And nothing is more offensive to a client or visitor than a foul-smelling veterinary clinic.

I guarantee if someone asks a client about your practice, he or she may say you're the best veterinarian in the world, but if your clinic's scent isn't up to snuff, the subject of the bad smell will definitely surface in the conversation. And that's one factor that will drive more clients away than you could ever imagine.

Try using room fresheners specifically designed to eliminate or mask pet odors, but make sure to place in them in a safe area where pets and young children can't reach them. Also, consider having a professional cleaning service come to your practice a few of times a month to do a deep cleaning.

5. Taste

I bet you're asking yourself, "How in the world can clients taste my practice?" Well, figuratively speaking, they can. The sense of taste refers to your clients leaving with either a good taste or a bad taste in their mouths.

In order to successfully pass this sense test in a client's hunt for the best clinic, you must combine all the other four senses together. And if you successfully pass the tests of sight, sound, touch and smell, your clients will always leave your practice with a good taste in their mouths—figuratively speaking of course.

Dr. Keen is an associate at the two-practice group of Jackson Animal Clinic and North Madison Animal Hospital in Jackson, Tenn.