Dear Rover: How Are We Doing?
Veterinary practices must gauge their performance by connecting with clients.
In the health care field, satisfaction is the hoped-for outcome in all patient/doctor encounters. Determining satisfaction involves more than observation and guesswork. True satisfaction can be discerned only from feedback. In the veterinary field, practice managers must rely on the pet owner’s perceptions, rather than asking the patient directly. As competition within the veterinary field increases, practices must do their best to not only treat their patients but also to ensure their clients’ owners are satisfied with the overall patient experience. Within the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association, a number of members have created and adopted instruments to measure satisfaction and their insights have been incorporated into this article.
Why Measure Satisfaction?
Practices that can point to a strong, loyal client base are often those committed to discovering how to satisfy their clients by measuring client satisfaction in an organized manner at regular intervals. When clients are asked to share their opinions and evaluate their pet’s care, the practice is sending a strong message: We care what you think and will reevaluate our practices as required in order to create a pleasant experience.
Ask and You Shall Receive
Client surveys are available in many forms, but it is important to choose one that works best for your clientele. The options include face-to-face interviews, phone interviews, mailed questionnaires, e-mail questionnaires or even paper-and-pencil surveys available upon check-out. When considering the most effective survey format, determine the budget and the availability of staff. For example, a low-cost, low-manpower survey is best administered by questionnaire as the client leaves the office. A more labor-intensive option is the face-to-face survey.
VHMA members with client survey experience suggest that how the question is phrased is just as important as what you ask and when you ask. To determine what to ask, first identify goals and objectives for the survey. Once the goals and objectives have been established, construct the questions required to obtain the information you desire.
Creating the Questions
In general, VHMA members who rely on customer satisfaction surveys recommend basing questions on what insights you would like to uncover from your clients. The possibilities are extensive. Questions can address satisfaction related to services, costs and products; staff evaluations; or general perceptions of the hospital or practice. Questions addressing loyalty issues are helpful to determine whether a client would do business with you again and recommend the practice to others. In the long run, the content of the survey should be personalized to the practice to ensure the information you receive is sufficient to make changes and improvements. As several VHMA members noted, “If you can’t use the information, don’t ask the question.”
Open-Ended or Closed, That Is the Question
Whether to ask open-ended or closed questions is a constant consideration when creating a survey. Closed questions allow respondents to choose from several responses. These questions can be dichotomous (true or false), multiple choice, rank ordered or rated. The respondent is required to select a response from a list. On the other hand, open-ended questions encourage the respondent to craft a response that is truly personal. When constructing the survey, keep in mind that it should not be too long nor should the questions be too complicated. If the respondent must struggle to decipher the questions and set aside a large block of time to complete the form, the response rate will most likely suffer. Those who know say it is best to ask questions that are short and simple and to avoid leading questions.
Information and More Information
Deciding how the practice will use the survey results is critical. Tabulate the responses as they are received and share positive responses with staff. VHMA practice mangers believe that it is imperative to do this because many clients neglect to articulate positive comments. In a world where everyone is so busy and rushing from one appointment to the next, sometimes there is little time for sharing positive comments. Distributing positive comments to staff is a great way to boost employee morale. Negative comments should be dealt with discreetly and efficiently, without involving the entire practice, unless it is an issue that affects the general practice.
Make time to discuss the survey results at a meeting of the entire staff and decide what specific changes, if any, will be made to address issues that clients raise.
A client survey can provide a very valuable snapshot of how well a hospital is serving clients, providing veterinary managers and practice owners with an accurate measurement of current client satisfaction levels as well as a rating of the importance of each aspect of their practice to their clients. All practices should consider using a satisfaction survey to improve services, decrease the stress associated with dissatisfied clients and have a tool in place to change staff behavior.
Christine Shupe is the Executive Director of the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association. The association is dedicated to enhancing and serving professionals in veterinary management through superior education, certification and networking. For more information, visit www.vhma.org.
