Getting Them Thru The Door Without Rolling Out The Discounting Carpet
With clients reducing their veterinary visits over the last few years, many veterinarians have responded by frequently and heavily discounting their fees. Indiscriminate discounting can be self-defeating however, because veterinary practices still need to meet (and hopefully exceed) their business goals. While veterinarians generally are compassionate professionals dedicating their careers to serving their patients, reducing fees charged for veterinary services and products can threaten the practice's financial viability.
Broke practices cannot provide any veterinary care at all, much less practice high quality veterinary medicine. So veterinarians may be better served by changing course and adopting a "no discounting" policy; so long as this policy is accompanied by some creative measures designed to increase both the frequency and value of practice client traffic, as further described in this article.
(Click here to read full article)  |
Inquiring Practices Want To Know!
Our "Getting Them Thru The Door Without Rolling Out The Discount Carpet" article and the Bayer Usage Study suggest that clients do not appreciate the value of wellness visits. Do you have ideas or experience in teaching the value of wellness to your clients? Send us your stories and experiences to and we will post some of your responses on our Facebook page! (Be sure to include if you would like us to use your Practice Name or be Anonymous!)
To read part I of the Bayer Study (Click Here) or to read the newly released part 2 of the Bayer Study (Click Here).
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Practice Management Important Dates Calendar
2012 - Is it really here in just the blink of an eye? We have updated our calendar with additional events that you should be addressing in 2012 regarding Human Resources related activities. Please take the time to at least scan the list and pencil in on your appointment book or mark on your outlook calendar or for you techies with the smart phones or tablets, maybe there's an app for that - so that you are proactively prepared to administer or address each event in a timely manner.
Our list is based on a calendar year and your Practice's fiscal year running concurrently. But any listed activity below, can be scheduled in the month that you need to begin the activity, so that you have enough planned lead time to get the event executed successfully according to your own schedule. Not all activities may pertain to your Practice (some depend on the number of employees working for you) and the list is comprehensive but not all inclusive - it is meant to get you thinking about Human Resources related activities and functions for the upcoming year.
As a reminder, some of the new HR related activities that are listed due to their prescribed implementation dates may change as we get closer to the deadline dates because sometimes legislative acts may get challenged, postponed or shelved. As we hear of updates, we will post them in our newsletter.
(Click here to see calendar)
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VBA's October Poll Results
View our readers' response to the question, "I employ a technician that sometimes needs to come in on Sundays to help me with hospitalized cases or emergencies and this is not her regular work schedule. She is a salaried employee and a registered technician. Do I need to pay my technician overtime on Sunday if her hours exceed 40 hours per week?"
Poll Results
In our December newsletter, we will address Exempt vs. Non-exempt classifications as defined by the FLSA to include 'salaried employee'.  |