Everyday challenges

This chapter will cover some difficult situations that a vet practitioner can face. With the influence of “Dr. Google”, pet owners have more and more objections: they challenge what the vet says and does… this can lead to conflicted situations. Finally, many veterinarians are uncomfortable talking about money. Suggestions for how to talk about money are proposed in this section of the Focus.

Conflict: gaining the client’s trust

A) Introduction

Did you know that studies show that one of the most effective ways to create loyal clients is by providing them a satisfactory response to a complaint?¹

However, we know it’s easier said than done. Our primitive brain has been trained by millions of years of evolution to respond automatically to anything that could be perceived as “threatening”, and its two immediate responses — fight-or-flight — don’t exactly help resolve our clients’ complaints. Everyone eventually makes a mistake, sooner or later. Our professional career largely depends on us being able to develop skills to manage complaints and restore damaged emotional connections and trust with our clients.

¹ 25% of positive encounters started as service failures ( 1 )

B) Where do complaints come from?

Our clients rarely have enough scientific knowledge to judge our clinical performance. Most complaints do not come from missing excellence at work, but from things like those shown in Table 1 below ( 2 ).

C) The five-step method for effectively handling complaints

The good thing about having a method is that you can follow it to restore your clients’ trust, and teach it to other members of your team so they are prepared when things go wrong. [...]