This topic parallels our editorial – Toot your own horn. A growing number of veterinary practices and independent dealers or retailers are using practice or business managers to monitor the delivery of services and their residual profits. Discussing discounting behaviors is challenging. Tanja Mimica, of ConsultMates, believes there are four key things that make discounting detrimental to the smooth running of the practice. None of them have anything to do with the bottom line.
- discounting hurts other vets in the practice
- discounting hurts customer service representatives
- discounting hurts clients
- discounting does not make clients happy
Source: Veterinary Practice News, September 14, 2016.
Vets think that discounting is doing the client a favor. There are two problems with this; firstly, they are prejudging the client and assuming that they can’t or won’t pay. Don’t prejudge. But that’s a whole other topic in itself. Secondly, most of the time clients do not know that you are giving them a discount! If you ever do discount, please at least tell the client what you have done, why and that it’s a one-off thing.