Influencing
5 min read

From facts to feelings: The impact of anecdotes in veterinary practice

Imagine this: You’re at your doctor’s, feeling anxious about some treatment options that you need to choose between. The doctor shares clinical data with you, which leans you towards one option. But then they share…

From facts to feelings: The impact of anecdotes in veterinary practice

Imagine this: You’re at your doctor’s, feeling anxious about which treatment option to choose. The doctor shares clinical data with you, which leans you towards one option. But then they share a heartfelt story about their last patient with the same diagnosis who had a great outcome using the other treatment.  Which do you choose?

Well, studies have shown that people will be swayed by the anecdote more often than the data.

Not what you expected?! That’s the power of anecdotes.

In veterinary medicine, we often focus on conveying facts and data. However, anecdotes are another powerful tool we can use to complement data.

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Why are anecdotes so influential?

Anecdotes are personal stories that can make information more relatable and memorable. Research shows that people often rely on anecdotes when making decisions, and often even more so than data. This phenomenon is rooted in the psychology of decision-making. When faced with complex information, our brains latch onto simple, relatable stories.

A study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings explored how people make healthcare decisions. It found that people tend to weigh anecdotal information more heavily than data, especially when the anecdote is clear and emotionally charged.

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The influence of anecdotes

In the study, participants were more likely to choose a 30% effective treatment when paired with a positive anecdote over a 50% effective treatment paired with an anecdote that was ambiguous regarding the outcome. When anecdotes were ambiguous, then participants relied more heavily on data to reach their decision.

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Confidence in decisions

Participants exposed to positive anecdotes reported higher confidence in their treatment decisions compared to those exposed to ambiguous anecdotes. And interestingly, those exposed to negative anecdotes about the more effective treatment chose the less effective treatment more often but didn’t report significantly lower confidence in their decisions.

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Integrating anecdotes with facts

So, how can veterinary teams use anecdotes effectively without compromising the need for factual information?

  1. Start with the story, support with facts:
    • Begin your communication with a relevant anecdote that supports your recommendation. For example, share a story about a pet that successfully recovered following a similar procedure.
    • Follow up with the facts and data that support your recommendation. This combination can help clients relate personally to the situation while still understanding the scientific basis for your advice.
  2. Choose anecdotes wisely:‍
    • Use anecdotes that are clear, concise, and emotionally engaging. Ensure they are relevant to the client's situation and illustrate the point you want to make. Be mindful that when not used mindfully, anecdotes may inadvertently influence your clients towards a poor choice for your patient.
  3. Tailor your approach:‍
    • Different clients may respond differently to anecdotes and data. Pay attention to their reactions and adjust your communication style accordingly. Some clients may need more facts, while others might benefit more from relatable stories.

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So, to summarise...

We can't escape the need for facts and data in veterinary medicine, they're critical to choosing the right course of action for any patient. But understanding the impact of anecdotes can unlock better client understanding, trust and confidence in your recommendations. By using relatable anecdotes, you can help clients feel confident in their decisions and more engaged with your practice.

So, next time you're discussing treatment options, remember the power of a good story!

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Want to start building your behavioural science superpowers right now? Visit our online courses to find out how.

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Reference:

Freymuth, A. K., & Ronan, G. F. (2004). Modelling patient decision-making: the role of base-rate and anecdotal information. Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 11, 211-216.

Rebecca Maher
Sep 2024
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From facts to feelings: The impact of anecdotes in veterinary practice
Rebecca Maher
Sep 2024

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‘What you say’ or ‘how you say it’. What guides vet clients?

‘What you say’ or ‘how you say it’. What guides vet clients?

Bananarama famously sang, “It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it.” Admittedly, they weren’t referring specifically to client interactions or marketing communications, but…
‘What you say’ or ‘how you say it’. What guides vet clients?
Rebecca Maher
Aug 2024
•
5 min read
Read now

Bananarama famously sang, “It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it.” (Apologies if you’re under 45 years old, you may need to Google that reference…). Admittedly, they weren’t referring specifically to client interactions or marketing communications, but veterinary marketers and clinic teams would still be wise to heed their advice!

Of course, the messages that we convey are important, but it’s not the whole story. How those messages are presented will directly affect whether they (and your recommendations) are listened to, believed, and liked.

But why?

Surely the quality of the evidence and the information is the most critical thing?

Well, not exactly.
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Perceptual fluency describes how easy our brains find it to process information.

Studies have shown that if we find something easy to process, then our subconscious mind mistakes that ease for something quite different and much more meaningful. Our brain mistakes the pleasant sensation of processing ease for things that might surprise you. Just because something is easy to process, our brains will decide that it’s more trustworthy, credible, and correct (Okuhara et al., 2017).
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So, if perceptual fluency is a good thing, how can we achieve it?

We can influence how easily our communications are processed in so many ways. From keeping in-person communications brief and simple, through to how we lay out written communications so they are uncluttered.
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Practical tips for written communications:
  1. Keep it simple
    Use clear and straightforward language. Avoid jargon and complex sentences.
  2. Use readable fonts
    Choose fonts that are easy on the eyes, such as Arial or Helvetica. Avoid overly decorative fonts that can be hard to read.
  3. Contrast and Colour
    Use high contrast between text and background. Dark text on a light background is usually best. Be cautious with colour combinations that might strain the eyes.
  4. White Space
    Don’t clutter your content. Use white space effectively to separate sections and make the layout more inviting.
  5. Chunk information down
    Break information into bullet points or numbered lists. This makes content easier to scan and digest.

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Test your communications:

Once you’ve crafted your communication, test it. Gather feedback from colleagues or a small audience to see what they take from the information. Are they finding it easy to read and understand? Use their insights to make any necessary adjustments.

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Practical tips for in-person communications:‍
  1. Keep it simple
    Use clear and straightforward language. Avoid jargon and complex sentences.
  2. Make it visual
    When explaining complex information, use visual aids like diagrams or models. This helps make abstract concepts more concrete and easier to understand.
  3. Repeat key messages
    Repeat key points to reinforce the message. More memorable things are perceived as being more perceptually fluent, and repetition helps create memories.
  4. Summarise:
    Summarising the main ideas that you’ve discussed helps to reinforce messages.
  5. Structure information
    Present information in a logical and structured manner. Start with the most important points and follow with supporting details (not too much detail though!).

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Present information in a logical and structured manner. Start with the most important points and follow with supporting details (not too much detail though!).

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In Summary:

Next time you’re finalising a communication, make sure you reflect not just on what you’re going to say, but also spend time reviewing how you will present it. Be clear, be concise, and make it pleasing to the eye! Remember, it’s not just about the message itself, but the way it’s delivered that can make all the difference.

By embracing perceptual fluency, you can build trust, credibility, and a positive reputation with your clients. So, as Bananarama wisely hinted, it truly is about the way that you do it!

Do you wish you could equip your team with more behavioural science superpowers? Visit our Workshop page to find out how.

How being familiar will help your veterinary business

How being familiar will help your veterinary business

Before we dive into whether your veterinary practice clients like your clinic (and why you should care!), let us pose you a question. Do you see your friends more often because you like them? Or could it be that you like your friends because you see them more? The latter is probably not a perspective that feels too comfortable. But the concept that familiarity breeds liking is well-established in.
How being familiar will help your veterinary business
Rebecca Maher
Jul 2024
•
5 min read
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Before we dive into whether veterinary practice clients like your clinic (and why you should care!), let us pose you a question.

Do you see your friends more often because you like them?

Or…could it be…

That you like your friends because you see them more?
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The latter is probably not a perspective that feels too comfortable. But the concept that familiarity breeds liking is well-established in behavioural science.

Think of a Netflix series that you've watched recently. Did you start off feeling indifferent about the characters, but by the end really like them?

Or how about if we do your grocery shopping this week but buy different brands of your favourite foods. What will you think of the new brands? Most people won’t like ‘different’ brands as much as their usual brand… until they have them more often and they become familiar.

Behavioural scientists call this the mere exposure effect.

And you might well be thinking, "So what?".

Well, whether we like something, or someone affects other judgments which we make about it/them. So, because I like you, my subconscious mind will associate all sorts of other positive judgments with you. For example, I might believe that you're trustworthy, honest, correct, and credible.

It's not rational.

But it is how our minds work, and how clients’ minds work.

And that means it’s important for any veterinary team to understand.
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Get better patient outcomes and higher client satisfaction
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  1. Maximise client contact
    Ensure that your clients have as much contact as possible with your clinic brand, your team, and your messages. We’re talking lots of different touchpoints. A slow drip, drip of contact over time. Avoid them only interacting with you once a year.
    Not only will this help them become familiar with your business and your team, but it will also help your messages feel familiar too. It takes a coordinated effort across many channels, such as social media, your website, email, SMS, and WhatsApp, to name just a few.
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  2. Consistent, repeated messaging
    Repeating key points, such as the recommendations your team make, is another way to increase their familiarity.
    Ensuring that your team makes consistent recommendations and that information shared on social media and through your website is also consistent with the verbal recommendations will help achieve this.
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  3. Ease of Understanding
    You can also increase the perception of familiarity simply by making it easier for your clients to process, read, or understand information…..Is that a surprise too?

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We’ll fill you in on that one next month.

Creating a sense of familiarity is just one way that behavioural science can help your team and business be liked more by your clients. And being liked more is just one way that behavioural science can help your veterinary business:

  • Create better patient outcomes
  • Increase client satisfaction
  • Build happier teams
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Do you wish you could equip your team with more of the power of behavioural science? Visit our Workshop page to find out how.

Why timing of vet fee requests is everything when it comes to client experience.

Why timing of vet fee requests is everything when it comes to client experience.

Last week, we were working with an independent veterinary practice whose team was encountering a very familiar problem: money. It’s often thought of as the most difficult topic to discuss with clients. And because most teams are having conversations about fees with every client that walks through the door, the frequency of those difficult conversations takes its toll. Like many teams that we work with.
Why timing of vet fee requests is everything when it comes to client experience.
Rebecca Maher
Jun 2024
•
5 min read
Read now

Last week, we were working with an independent veterinary practice whose team was encountering a very familiar problem: money.
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It’s often thought of as the most difficult topic to discuss with clients. And because most teams are having conversations about fees with every client that walks through the door, the frequency of those difficult conversations takes its toll.

Like many teams that we work with, they believed at the start of the day that there was little that could be done to help. They knew their fees had been set fairly and communicated transparently.

Yet, these conversations still proved difficult. They knew they couldn’t drop their fees without endangering the business, and they thought that was the only thing that would make their clients feel more comfortable with their fees.

This is a very common misconception. And it’s logical. If a client is unhappy with a price, the natural response is to lower it to make them feel better.

Except there is another way.
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Paying is Painful

Quite literally. Functional MRI studies have shown that the insular cortex fires up when we make payments or think about making payments. One of the roles of the insular cortex is pain perception. So, paying creates a physiological pain response.

But we can make the same price (for the same service) feel significantly more (or less) painful through, for example:

  • The way that we present the price
  • How the client is asked to pay (e.g., cash, card, phone, watch, or direct debit)
  • he timing of the payment
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When should clients be asked to pay?

The most memorable parts of an experience tend to be the most emotionally intense moment (the peak) and the end of it. This is what’s known as the ‘peak-end rule’.

It's very common for veterinary practices to ask for payment just before the client leaves the building—the very last part of their experience in the clinic. That means that we're making the payment more memorable, and therefore a more painful part of the experience.

Put simply, if we ask clients to pay at the end of each interaction with a veterinary practice, we're likely to not only make the payment feel more painful but also damage their overall perception of the experience. The knock-on effect is reduced satisfaction and a lower perception of value versus cost.

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So, what can we do?

  1. Take payment earlier
    ‍     Taking any opportunities to take payment earlier in the experience (e.g., when booking online) will create a much better client experience.
  2. Take part-payment or payment details on booking
    Of course, we can’t always know what the final fees will be this early in the process. But taking part-payment at booking or collecting payment details to be used with the client’s permission once the full cost is known may help to reduce some of the pain of paying. Both of these approaches will make the payment less salient to the client, either because the payment they’re making at the end is smaller, or because they don’t need to hand their card over at the end of the experience at all.
  3. Set up a membership option
    Direct debit payments are the least painful of all, so membership arrangements can be a real win-win-win for client, patient, and clinic.
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Direct debit payments are the least painful of all, so membership arrangements can be a real win-win-win for client, patient, and clinic.

The timing of payment is just one of many ways that behavioural science enabled us to help our customer’s team improve their clients’ perceptions of fees and create a better client experience. And their feedback?

That this new knowledge is a game-changer.

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Take your veterinary customer experience to the next level with behavioural science power.

Visit our CX and Marketing Communications page to find out how.

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