Explore our insights

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?
‍

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.
‍

Get better patient outcomes and higher client satisfaction
‍

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.
   ‍
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.
   ‍
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?

‍

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
  ‍

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

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?

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.
   ‍

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.

On a warm, bright summer evening, my husband and I headed out for a special celebration. We’d chosen a restaurant we’d heard was special, and we were excited to try it out.

We weren’t disappointed.
‍

The food was amazing, the ambiance just perfect, but the thing I’ve told all my friends about?

The service.

I’ve never experienced anything like it before or since. It was like the team was inside my head, anticipating my wants and questions before I’d even thought of them myself.

That evening was several years ago, but I can still relive it vividly today. I’ll likely remember the special details for my whole life.

Since that time, I’ve reflected and dissected the experience many times. What was it that made it such a great experience?

It ultimately boils down to one thing:

The restaurant created a feeling that the world revolved around us.

We were at the centre of everything. It was true customer-focused service.

‍

Customer-centricity: more than a buzzword

Customer-centricity. Well, there’s a business buzz-term if ever we heard one! But everyone’s already doing it, aren’t they?

Are they?

True customer-centricity (or in the veterinary world – client-centricity) means looking beyond the things clients might say they want or need and delving into the things they can’t put into words.

The reality is that we assess our experiences, make decisions, and decide how to behave based largely (there's an argument to say almost exclusively) on instinctive feelings.

Things like a smile to greet them, short waiting times (or at least transparent, regular communication about waiting times), and clear communications are all obvious ways to improve the client experience.

But exploring what makes clients feel subconsciously and instinctively that their experience has been great - the things that they can’t put their finger on – those are the things that raise your service to the next level.

‍

How do we achieve true client-centricity?

The specifics will vary depending on who your clients are and which part of their journey you’re focusing on.

As a general principle, it starts with experiencing things from their perspective. We need to reflect on their emotional state when the experience happens (including their hopes and fears) as well as the feeling we’d ideally like to create.

Then we can tap into behavioural science to understand how we can lay out information, craft language, and create an experience that taps into the subconscious drivers of those instinctive feelings.

Behavioural science provides the ingredients for an incredible client experience.
‍

Visit our CX and Marketing Communications page to find out how we can help you harness behavioural science to create an incredible client experience.

Last month, I needed to upgrade my mobile, so I headed into town to get some advice. My first stop was the closest phone shop to the car park.

It looked a bit rough around the edges. The paint on the walls was peeling a bit, and there was a faint and not entirely pleasant smell.

I was greeted with a smile from a very friendly but slightly scruffy-looking assistant who happily (and very easily) answered all my questions.

He understood exactly what I needed and gave me a recommendation.

Was I decided? Maybe. I thought I’d check one more shop before reaching a decision.
‍

As I wandered into the second shop, I noticed that this one was modern. It smelt fresh and clean. The lighting was lovely, and there was some gentle music playing in the background. I waited to speak with the assistant, who had clearly taken great care to look smart and presentable. They hesitated a bit when handling my questions, but eventually, I walked away with their recommendation.
‍

Whose recommendation did I take?

The rational answer would be to listen to the first shop assistant; after all, they clearly knew their apples from their androids. They were definitely more knowledgeable.

But like most people, I didn’t make the rational choice...

‍

The halo effect

The halo effect is a cognitive bias which means that positive impressions about one aspect of an experience can have a profound impact, causing us to create positive judgements about other (unrelated) parts of the experience. Even when the evidence doesn't support those judgements.

‍

The horn effect

The opposite is also true, where negative impressions of one aspect cause negative judgements to be made about other unrelated things.

‍

The subconscious drivers of my decision

So, although the first assistant was much more knowledgeable, the fact that he looked scruffy and the shop looked (and smelt) a bit grotty likely led me to subconsciously discount his recommendation.

On the other hand, the second shop was smart and modern, and the assistant looked professional. As a result, despite being less knowledgeable, I was likely to view his recommendation much more positively.

‍

So, what does this mean for veterinary businesses?

If we want clients to be guided by our professional advice, then we need to make sure they form positive impressions, so their instinct is telling them to trust and believe us.

‍

Try this:

• Walk through each step of your clients’ journey and view things through their eyes.
• What do you see (or smell!) that would create good feelings and enhance their perceptions of your services? Keep (or enhance) these things.
• What do you see that could be negatively (and unfairly) affecting your clients’ perceptions of your services? Address these things.
• How does their experience compare to the service level they're used to from other industries? How could it be improved?

‍

Visit our CX and Marketing Communications page to find out how we can help you harness behavioural science to create an incredible client experience.

Last night, I meandered around the supermarket on autopilot, mindlessly picking the items I needed (and, if I’m being honest, some that I didn’t). I didn’t stop to have even the most fleeting thought about why I buy this jam, but not that jam.

On the return journey home – one which I’ve driven time and time again over the last 12 years since I moved to this area – I listened to a podcast. I arrived home able to recount the podcast that I’d listened to, but not really able to recall any other part of the journey that I’d just made.
‍

Does this sound familiar?

This mindless, automatic approach to decisions and actions isn’t unusual. In fact, it’s human nature.
‍

The power of the subconscious mind

Our subconscious mind offers us decisions and behaviours instinctively. It’s fast and automatic, operating on intuition. Our conscious mind, on the other hand, takes time to weigh things up and is slow, involving significant effort.
‍

Think about a decision you need a client to make, and ask yourself what things will influence their choice.

Did you think of facts and evidence?

Or something else?

Most people, when asked this question, will think of the facts and evidence to consider.
‍

Most decisions are made subconsciously first

The truth is that we overestimate the control our conscious mind has over us. The vast majority of the time (90-95%), our subconscious mind will reach an instinctive decision, and then our conscious mind will post-rationalise why we reached that decision.
‍

What does this mean for veterinary businesses?

Clients make decisions in their subconscious, and then post-rationalise their thoughts afterwards. This means that when clinic teams are seeking to guide clients’ decisions, they need to be equipped with the tools to communicate with clients in a way that works with (and not against) their subconscious.

That means understanding what the key drivers of subconscious decision-making are, and knowing how to tap into them.
‍

The key drivers of the subconscious are:

• Emotions
• Mental shortcuts (heuristics)
• Cognitive biases
• Habits
  ‍

By equipping teams to speak not just in facts and evidence, but also to tap into the feeling that their communications make, we are able to create better clinical outcomes, happier teams, and better business results.

IF you would like to find out how we can help equip your team with the power of behavioural science, visit our Workshops page.