Pet Health Plans: Why Your Practice Needs To Make Your Plan A Priority
Throughout my years working in the veterinary industry, I’ve focused on helping practices to grow, to become more efficient and profitable, and to put themselves in the best position to focus on what they do best – looking after clients and their pets.
I’ve grown to believe that one of the key ways that all of the goals can be achieved is through building and promoting a fantastic pet health plan. And as the years go by, my belief in them has only grown.
For those who haven’t come across them before, a quick overview. Pet health plans consolidate a selection of services and treatments – typically including vaccinations and flea and worm treatments, but the only limit is your creativity – into a monthly subscription that works alongside pet insurance to leave pets and their owners completely covered.
Even if you run a pet health plan in your practice already, the thinking about what they are and why they are useful has evolved, with a big focus on unlimited vet and nurse consultations, to remove barriers to care.
Now, due to the challenges presented by the pandemic, where so many practices are oversubscribed and juggling a waiting list for new clients, joining the pet health plan has become a prerequisite to joining the practice. Effectively pet health plans have morphed into a practice membership scheme.
Put simply, a pet health plan is a no-brainer.
Head over here for my top tips on how to set up and get the most out of your pet health plan. But first let’s look at just why they’re a crucial aspect of the modern veterinary offering.
This bespoke Pet Health Plan was created for Stellar Vets
Best for pets
If pets could speak they’d ask to be part of a plan. They help them to live longer, healthier lives, through increased contact with you, the experts.
More time in the vets means less undiagnosed conditions, less dental disease and less chance of ill health in old age.
The sooner conditions are identified, the better they can be treated. By tying an owner into a plan, you increase the frequency they’ll bring their pet to see you. And from there you can work your magic.
Best for owners
Every day we try to be the best pet parent we can. And pet health plans help us to do that.
When I think about how best to care for Poppy Gabriella, my cat, I want my vet to guide me into the best solution. The clinical benefits to securing vaccinations, flea and worm treatment and consultations up front are easily explained.
But when you consider that the plan will also save me money – buying all of these things separately would cost a heck of a lot more – and allow me to budget with monthly fixed costs, it really does begin to sell itself.
Monthly subscriptions are an accepted part of modern life and help us to manage our money in lots of areas. There’s no reason that the care of our pets should be different.
Best for practice
Cost and accessibility are the two biggest barriers we face in gaining access to patients. And if we can’t see pets, we can’t treat them.
Pet health plans are brilliant at strengthening the bond between owner, pet and practice, enabling them to come in as needed so that you can improve the quality of their lives.
As medical professionals we feel uncomfortable around the concept of selling. We’re not used car salesmen. We’re here for the wellbeing of the pet.
By being on a plan it changes the dynamic from a selling perspective to simple compliance – the owner is now entitled to the treatment they need and you can focus on delivering.
From a business perspective, plans bond clients to your practice and stop them from shopping around, massively increasing loyalty.
The benefits of securing that recurring revenue are crucial, especially in difficult times like these. I know practices that are seeing recurring revenue pushing 40% of their annual income – and that’s all down to pet health plans.
And we all know how important financial stability is for planning for the future.
No more glass ceiling
Most practices will be operating a pet health plan of one sort or another. But so often, we’re limited by our preconceptions of what can be achieved.
Perhaps we begin by aiming for 10% of clients on a plan. When this is achieved, what next? 15%?
There’s no reason to keep going up in increments. We need to broaden our expectations of what can be done. There are practices operating with more than 60% of active clients on a pet health plan.
Why can’t that be every practice?
I challenge you to start thinking of clients in two categories: those that are on a plan, and those that aren’t… yet!
We are the limiting factor in how much we can grow our plan. We have a solution that will make our clients’ lives easier, extend their pet’s life and save them money.
It really should be a no-brainer.
Check out my top tips for making the most of your plan, over here!
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Let us guide you through the process of creating your ultimate Pet Health Plan
0113 347 0057
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