In our most recent blogs, we discussed the importance of creating a wellness plan program that meets your goals for both short and long-term success, and how this can translate into building a true membership model that incorporates more than just the plans themselves. At VCP, we refer to this concept as part of the Business of Wellness, which boiled down means viewing and using your wellness program as a vital business tool and strategy.
Your wellness plan program will not only grow compliance, but by taking ownership of your program, you will build your brand, follow your defined preventive care protocols, and will provide a highly effective vehicle to promote other services you offer. Your wellness plan program will help differentiate your practice and enable it to stand out.
To start, reflect on what makes your practice special (unique services, or referral partners), and then find ways to add this to your wellness plan program to make it more beneficial for patients, clients and more unique to your practice. This will help grow other areas of the practice, help more pets, and build value and client loyalty. The Business of Wellness, proprietary to VCP, provides the strategy, options, analytics and insight to ensure your wellness program thrives, grows your practice and enables the treatment of more pets.
The first point of differentiation to focus on are services and treatments. Ask yourself what do you offer over the other general practices? Perhaps you offer full boarding and grooming services, and to grow usage of these services you choose to include a special offer in your plans and/or create grooming and boarding membership plans as part of your program. Maybe you recommend post-op laser therapy for spays and neuters. Where there is normally a small additional charge for this, plan members may receive this as complimentary benefit, which then highlights the value both in discussion and in your wellness plan marketing materials. It is about differentiating your practice, providing additional services that help you build client relationships and grow your practice. Think of your wellness plans as a business opportunity and strategy, it is how you build long-lasting relationships with your clients. Feel free to be creative; it doesn’t have to be complicated!
The second point of differentiation is your practice’s mission and vision and how it is communicated to your clients. It requires that all team members have a full understanding of the reasons your practice has chosen to offer wellness plans and why they are important for pets of all ages. Your team must be able to speak to these in discussions consistently with clients.
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons your practice is offering plans is to make sure that all pets have access to optimal preventive care by being able to spread the cost of that care over 12 months. This demonstrates a high level of empathy, but it has little value unless everyone on the team, not only believes, but can also communicate it with ease and confidence. Let clients know that your wellness plans are a reflection on your commitment to them as pet owners – you love pets, and they love their pets, and keeping them healthy only enhances those bonds.
Whether it is reflected in the services you offer, or in your team members’ ability to communicate (hopefully a little bit of both), every practice has something special to offer. Taking the time to incorporate these unique qualities into your wellness plan program makes it much more than just something you do and becomes more about who you are as a practice. Identifying and adding this layer of specialness pays high dividends in customer satisfaction and practice growth, as well as job satisfaction for you and your team.
