Conversations about cost with clients

During the 2025 WVC Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jonathan Wainberg, MBA, senior vice president and general manager, Pet, Synchrony and Courtney Campbell, DVM, DACVS-SA, sat down with dvm360 to discuss different strategies veterinary teams can utilize in their clinic when talking to clients about the cost of their pets care. Throughout the interview, the duo discusses how to bring up the topic with sensitivity, offer alternatives if available, and more to make teams more confident in these important conversations.

Below is a partial transcript

Courtney Campbell, DVM, DACVS-SA: Yeah, I think strategies going forward to approach that cost conversation first, I believe you have to approach it with sensitivity. There's a there's a complexity to providing care, and those resources for pet care that a lot of pet parents have to navigate on a daily basis, whenever they're that's good at the veterinary hospital, and navigating that can be difficult, it can be scary, and it can be anxiety ridden, and so approaching that with a certain empathy, I think that's the first step.

The second step is to provide... alternatives. I feel like pet parents genuinely feel valued when they're provided opportunities and options, and the reality is, at least my reality, that I see on an everyday basis is navigating those options. It's like a maze. It can be complex, and so that's why I'm happy we're chatting about Pets Best, because I think it streamlines that maze and takes the complexity out of it.

Jonathan Wainberg, MBA: Yeah, I think there's 2 things that come to mind. We've done a lot of research, and in one of the studies that we conducted, a vast majority of pet parents said that they want to know about financial options. It's one tool amongst the other. So while there might be some hesitation or some reluctance by the staff at the animal hospital or the clinic to do it, you need to understand your customers asking for it. So...don't be afraid. ...They're looking for solutions, right?

The second thing I would say is that credit is becoming a more and more important part of our market and our industry, right? We see where the cost of animal care is going, and it's something that is a great tool to help people get that great standard of care and the best compliance of care possible. So give them those tools.