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, 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.
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
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.
So, what can we do?
- 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. - 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. - 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.
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.
Take your veterinary customer experience to the next level with behavioural science power.
Visit our CX and Marketing Communications page to find out how.
