Everything you know about veterinary business is wrong

Locked doors and empty storefronts litter today's indoor malls and strip malls-­leaving veterinary clinic tenants next door with decreased foot traffic and visits. Where will tomorrow's practice be located? GETTY IMAGES/SIMON WILLMSA few months ago I told you that that the care, services and products we veterinarians provide may not be enough to entice pet owners through our hospital doors. This month I want to discuss some additional trends that will make it harder for the average veterinary hospital to prosper. Here are a few-do you see yourself on this list?

Stuck in a strip mall

How many veterinary facilities and pet-associated retail outlets are located in so-called strip malls? The problem is, consumers are avoiding these old destination-shopping standbys-and they're likely to continue doing so. What happens to veterinary practices in these malls?

I've got a guess: Drive-by and walk-by traffic will decline, so these practices will be less visible. Current retail occupants of strip malls will find the price of space at indoor malls to be more affordable. The convenience factor of stopping by the veterinarian while going to the dry cleaner will be eliminated as more and more strip malls become ghost towns.

Businesses will begin to share space. Certain types-from electronics stores to sunglass outlets-are already cohabitating in grocery supermarkets. Best Buy, for example, opens an automated outlet in an airport or inside a Kroger's supermarket for two very good reasons: reduced rent and the opportunity for walk-by impulse shoppers.

The same goes for bigger malls too. I remember when giant indoor and outdoor shopping malls popped up every few miles every few years. They were an investment darling, but I always noticed that when you went shopping, you were lucky to find a parking place within a reasonable walk. Today, vacant spaces in malls are common, and the food courts are the busiest operations! In fact, there have been only 10 shopping malls constructed in the last 10 years in the entire country. Meanwhile, existing malls are being demolished, and large department stores are closing.

What's happening? It isn't the economy.

Give them entertainment

Increasingly, people are shopping without leaving home. They order without picking up the phone. They've learned they can purchase a product online with the click of a keystroke and in some areas of the country it will be delivered to their home in 24 hours or less.

That means that when today's consumers shop in the brick-and-mortar world, they want to be entertained, to have an experience. Case in point: A recent CBS news broadcast showed one mall appealing to Mexican-Americans. In addition to selling everything you'd find in a traditional Mexican marketplace, the mall also showcased regular concerts and dance recitals. Lots of us remember the mall as a place to meet and hang out-this is just taking the entertainment value of the shopping experience to the extreme.

Give them convenience

Now, if you're like me, the concept of buying a shirt or a pair of shoes without feeling, touching and trying them on is still pretty hard to accept … but I'm getting used to it. The only reason to go shopping seems to be to snag a Starbucks coffee and a salad, and it won't be long before some mobile barista drone will be buzzing around your neighborhood just waiting for you to wave your virtual arm.

Think that's unlikely? Ever heard of the Uber smartphone app? Uber has shown that consumers will pay for service, experience and convenience. Uber puts together folks who need a ride with other folks who want a little extra money for driving someone to a destination. I have friends who've now sworn off taxis. Better a clean, smoke-free, late-model car that arrives in an instant than a 25-year-old taxi with a driver who keeps you waiting in the rain and sees you as a distraction from a phone call from someone who is clearly more interesting than you are.

Millennials who may not have been born when you built your hospital have little interest in owning a home and probably less in owning a car. Assuming they do want a pet, what makes you so sure they'll drive across town to you, wait a half-hour past their appointed time and fight traffic back home when there are-or will be-alternatives?

Now I'm sure you all are exceptional diagnosticians and surgeons, and you always stay current on the latest treatments for obscure diseases, but how do your clients ever know how good you are? And do they care? They have every right to assume you're more than competent-you went to medical school. But are you worth the added time and energy or will they look for more suitable options?

Give them the Internet

James Herriot is being replaced by Dr. Google. Information and product purchases are just a click away. Pet owners are already skeptical of the need for and value of what we have historically provided. Will noninvasive diagnostics eliminate the need for blood tests? How many concepts introduced on Star Trek are now accepted norms? Will diagnoses be made using testing technology performed at home? Who would have thought that pregnancy confirmation and even HIV tests would be available over the counter? Could they be conducted by a small drone? Many drugs and products from parasite control to nutrition could be delivered more easily than via a “trip to the vet.”

Don't rest on the good ol' days

I remember when a DVM or VMD degree pretty much assured you, at the very least, of a respected community position and a good livelihood. But today's current burden of debt and excess capacity is a one-way road unless we take a hard turn. There's an old truism: “If you keep doing what you've been doing, you'll keep getting what you've been getting.”

I'm not sure how our profession will change in the coming years, but more of us will be delivering care to a declining clientele. How will the profession respond? How will veterinarians remain relevant? I don't know. I do know that most will keep doing things the way we've always done them … until there's no demand at all. A few DVMs will make operational changes to buy some time. A very few will be willing to reinvent veterinary medicine and the client experience. Those few visionaries will thrive and showcase changes that will carry the profession to its next critical period.

The future is here, and a reluctance to change our model will put us, as Barry McGuire sang in the late '60s, on “the eve of destruction.” 

Dr. Michael Paul is a nationally known speaker and columnist and the principal of Magpie Veterinary Consulting. He lives in Anguilla in the British West Indies.