Client relations 1, 2 and DL

Question 1

Why do UK vet practices fail?

Answer 1

• leadership and vision
• team engagement
• focused marketing and client care
• internal communication systems
• accounting, financial and systems knowledge
• focus on professional fees vs. drug sales
• ability to change appropriately for services
• relying on pharmaceuticals as the sole source of profit

Question 2

What is innvoation?

Answer 2

• thinking creatively
• doing things differently
• novel or new combinations
• exploiting new ideas
• coming up with new ways of doing things

Question 3

What is the triad of competing values?

Answer 3

• pet
• vet
• relationship with client

Question 4

What are the 4 parts of teh client development matrix?

Answer 4

• vendor
• trusted partner
• expert for hire
• trusted advisor

Question 5

What are aspects of client decision making (for vets)?

Answer 5

• EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT
• RECOVERY EXPECTATIONS
• FINANCIAL SACRIFICE
• INTERNAL DECISION INFLUENCERS - role of guilty
• EXTERNAL DECISION INFLUENCERS - role of family

Question 6

What are client expectations of vets’ communications?

Answer 6

• educating clients
• providing choices
• using two-way communication
• limit breakdown in communication

Question 7

What frustrations may vets experience with clients? 4

Answer 7

• monetary concerns
• client misinformation
• indecisiveness when there is involvement of more than one client in decision making
• time limitations

Question 8

Define compliance

Answer 8

• a client’s adherence to a recommended treatment plan
• creating clients’ genuine commitment to following-through on recommendations which results in greater levels of pet supervision
• higher compliance = successful business
• Compliance = recommendation + acceptance + follow through

Question 9

Benefits - concordance

Answer 9

• happier clients with fewer complaints

- healthier patients

Question 10

Challenges - concordance

Answer 10

• fitting compliance into short consult
• varying consultation skills of vets
• varying skill and commitment of client

Question 11

Key aspects of communication skills

Answer 11

• active listening
• open questioning
• checking understanding
• dealing with emotion
• shared decision making

Question 12

How can you be a better listener?

Answer 12

• stop talking
• put speaker at ease
• aim to understand what speaker is saying
• be aware of your personal prejudices
• be alert to what the speaker is not saying
• ask questions

Question 13

Features of active listening

Answer 13

• VERBAL: positive reinforcement, remembering, questioning, reflection, clarification, summarise
• NON-VERBAL: smile, eye contact, posture, mirroring (don’t appear false), limited distraction

Question 14

How can you ask questions?

Answer 14

• need structure
• use silence
• encourage participation
• open questioning (leading, recall vs. process, rhetorical, funneling questions)

Question 15

List some methods of checking understanding

Answer 15

• ask a client to demonstrate a skill/ technique and then ask them how they thought they performed
• ask client to repeat or write down the instructions in their own words
• listen for inaccuracies in discussions and respond accordingly (e.g. are drugs administered 2 or 3 times a day)
• ask clients to report on progress

Question 16

What is shared-decision making?

Answer 16

the process of information exchange b/w client and vet for purpose of obtaining agreement about healthcare decisions for the animal.
- Make sure your recommendations are practicable and achievable

Question 17

How can you deal with emotional clients?

Answer 17

• social skills
• empathy
• motivation (to not be defeated)

Question 18

What are important aspects of shared decision making?

Answer 18

• elicit information (determine client’s knowledge)
• educate client
• consider the client (skills, disabilities, phobias, time constraints, income and access to pet insurance, desire for information
• over-arching question (is this tx plan achievable for you?)