Understanding How Customers Act and Buy

How much do we understand about our pet-owning customers? Do we know why they visit practices, how they act and buy veterinary products and services and what we can learn from successful businesses who do understand their customers but which are out- side of the veterinary profession? this presentation will examine how non-veterinary retailers in Europe systematically collect and use information about their shoppers to adjust their product ranges, promotions and customer service. although there is less information available about pet owners’ shopping habits in the veterinary profession it is correspondingly much easier in a smaller, more personal environment to interact and observe customers in order to gain a working understanding of what is important to them and how to improve your offer to them. after all it is essential to remember that much of business success comes from developing positive relationships with your exist- ing customers and finding out ways to look after them better. the presentation will encourage the adoption of a customer mindset within the practice and it will cover sub- jects such as the different customer missions when visiting a practice, typical customer journeys, the key contact points and how to make the most of these contacts.

A number of studies from both the uS and the uK have identified attitudes and needs of pet owners towards veterinary practices. the Bayer Veterinary Care usage study of 2011 indicated that pet owner visits declined in most veterinary practices due to the economy, fragmentation of veterinary services, increased use of the web by pet owners, an inade- quate understanding in pet owners of the need for routine exams, the cost of veterinary care and feline pet owner resistance of visits to vets. the study also identified that it is pos- sible to increase pet owner visits despite these challenges (34% of practices achieved this) resulting in a number of practical insights and actions that can be taken by practices which are based on pet owners views of what they want from their veterinary practice and what vets should do to increase their visit frequency. a study from the uK undertaken by noaH in 2007 and again in 2010 identified two main types of pet owners who can be generally described as ‘preventers’ and non-preventers’ and these insights along with all the others available can help veterinary professionals to better understand pet-owning customers’ needs, to improve the matching of products and services to these customers needs delivering increased customer satisfaction, loyalty and practice profits.