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Andy Roark DVM MS

How Veterinary Associates Can Manage Work-Life Balance

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How Veterinary Associates Can Manage Work-Life Balance

Originally Published: DVM Newsmagazine, November 1, 2010

[Author’s Note: I like this article, but was never fond of its title. This was my first venture into the delicate world of writing about involvement in organized veterinary medicine. I think that the title may have turned people off, and I wonder if this piece ever had a chance. If you’re reading this, I hope that you might give it one now. -awr]

 

 

Most veterinarians never get involved in industry groups such as AAHA, AVMA, AAEP and AAFP. Consequently, they never reap the many rewards such involvement can bring. Through these groups, you can find career and business mentorship, develop as a leader, make connections to people who share your interests and goals, and keep informed of career opportunities both in practice and in industry. Organized medicine can be your platform to call attention to a problem and your soapbox to elicit the changes you believe our profession needs. It can be your creative outlet, your source of energy and encouragement in pursuit of your passions, your leverage for creating better educational opportunities and your medium for improving the way we all practice.

However, it’s also important to note that organized medicine can suck up a lot of your time, bog your ambitions down in bureaucracy, put you in an airport every weekend you have off, and generally make you wonder why you ever volunteered to pick up extra work for free. Managing your involvement and participating on your own terms is thus critical to leveraging organized medicine to advance your career and increase your happiness in our profession. I have seen great success stories among associates who took the initiative to seek organizations and positions that most inspired them while largely avoiding these common drawbacks. These veterinarians are currently improving their own careers, reaping the rewards of connecting and surrounding themselves with people who share their interests, enjoying life outside of practice, and actively making veterinary medicine a better place for us all. You can benefit from organized medicine, too, by following these simple guidelines:

Grab the reins yourself

Don’t wait for a position that requires a veterinarian with your exact talents. It’s not likely to fall into your lap. Instead, find a contact who shares your interests and let him or her know you’d like to get involved. Every month, DVM Newsmagazine and http://dvm360.com/present dozens of articles on different initiatives that others in our industry. The people named in these articles are great points of contact. Just Google their names along with the associated organization, and you are well on your way to having their email addresses.

Alternatively, you can often contact an organization, search for specific people to contact or look for volunteer opportunities directly through the organization’s webpage. You can also approach groups at conferences through their convention exhibit hall booths and ask them whom to contact. Finally, don’t ever overlook your own network of friends and connections. If you know someone involved in the organization that interests you, contact that person and ask for direction. Even if your friend doesn’t know the right person, he or she probably knows someone who does.

Get specific about how you can help

Once you have made contact with a person who is working in your area of interest, ask, “Is there a specific project that I can help you with?” This phrase is vital because the answer will provide you with a goal. It also will help prevent frustration on both sides by setting clear expectations about your level of involvement. Getting specific helps you set an end point so you can avoid entering into an endless commitment. That way, you can evaluate both the topic and the organization to see if you have found the right fit before entering into a long-term relationship.

Do not get frustrated if an organization is not currently working on one of your personal passions. Let your contact there know your interests in case the organization pursues them in the future. Additionally, ask if your contact knows of any other organizations that are working on your topic of interest. Then move on to a different group to pursue what most excites you.

Set boundaries to protect life balance

When you reach out, be honest about how much time you are willing and able to commit to an organization. It is better to be honest and set reasonable expectations for your involvement than to over-commit and then quit or produce sub-par results because you simply don’t have the time to do exceptional things. Points you might like to make at the very beginning include:

Travel constraints. If you cannot travel more than once or twice per year, make people aware of that at the beginning. Work-life balance is tough. Associates simply do not have the flexibility in their schedules that practice owners do, and using all your vacation days for organized medicine commitments is not fair to yourself or your family. Offer to telecommute or read minutes from meetings you can’t attend. If the position requires someone who can travel more than you are able, then it’s better for both parties for you to remove yourself from the running for this spot early on.

Schedule constraints.Let people know when you can be regularly available. If your day off is Tuesday and the committee you’re assisting has conference calls on Thursdays, ask if the committee could move it to Tuesday. If not, ask to schedule it early or late in the day, or possibly on the weekends. Maybe the committee could schedule every second or third call on a weekend so that you and other associates can participate. Some people will balk at the idea of having calls on weekends, but if these groups want participation from young veterinarians, then they would be wise to consider it when asked by a willing participant. Don’t expect everyone to leap to your schedule, but don’t be afraid to ask if the group can make some changes.

Standing committees. If you have had positive experiences with a group and are passionate about the topic of a standing committee, then this may be the best position for you. Take it if it fits with your goals, but don’t feel like this is the only way to involve yourself. If it doesn’t fit your goals, don’t be afraid to decline participation on a standing committee. Even if you can’t commit for 2 to 3 years, you can still volunteer to support these committees and help them on an “as needed” basis.

When it comes to organized medicine, you get out what you put in. Don’t miss the many chances to be involved, to be connected to your peers and to learn about an entirely different aspect of our profession.

If you reach out to one group or committee and it isn’t a good fit, then find another one that works better for you. Just be clear about what your interests and passions are and about how you want to be involved. Start slow and ease in until you are doing as much as you want, but not any more. You will be more passionate, creative and productive if you take this approach. Organized medicine can be a wonderful addition to your career, and it will almost certainly be even more rewarding if you approach it on your own terms.

 

Veterinary Associates: Lose the Guilt

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Veterinary Associates: Lose the Guilt

Originally Published: DVM Newsmagazine, September 1, 2010

 

 

Most of us embrace guilt like it’s in the Veterinarian’s Oath. If we didn’t pursue an internship, we feel guilty. If we pursued advanced education that took us away from spouses and children, we feel guilty. We feel guilty if we work part-time, because we’re not developing as quickly as we should. We feel guilty if we work full-time because our kids are “only young once.” We beat ourselves up relentlessly about angry clients, disappointed clients and clients who look pregnant but aren’t (I still feel bad about that one).

The guilt associated with lost patients is difficult to escape, and maybe it’s good in that it drives us to be better doctors. The rest of the “veterinary guilt” is overly abundant, unnecessary and obstructive to our pursuit of happiness. This guilt is an enormous hurdle to appreciating balance in life.

Here are a few strategies to keep in mind to counter veterinary guilt.

Remember your priorities

Priorities are deeply personal, and you are the only one who can fully assess what is important in your own life. Be strong in your convictions and remember what is meaningful to you in both the short and long term. Don’t be afraid to prioritize family, finances, hobbies and health in addition to your career.

Expect conflict

Conflict doesn’t mean you’re getting it wrong. Sometimes the priorities of others — clients, other doctors, staff members or practice owners — will appear to be in direct conflict with your own.

Sure, life balance would be easy if everyone just accepted your priorities as their own, but that’s not realistic. Neither is the idea that you should accept the priorities of others as indisputable commands. Often, the best we can do is to understand others’ priorities so we can establish mutually beneficial solutions. It’s important to be creative and sincere in working with others while we pursue what is most important to ourselves. If we’ve done that, we shouldn’t feel guilty about the paths we choose, even if others disagree with it.

Carpe diem (seriously!)

I know “seize the day” sounds cliché, but it’s the key to escaping guilt. When you see cases at work, engage them with your complete attention. When you go home, be fully at home in body, mind and spirit. I struggle to live this philosophy as much as anyone, but on my best days, when I get it right, I feel neither guilt nor regret.

We must learn to forgive ourselves for following our own priorities. If we want “life balance,” we have to not only make the hard choices but also embrace the experiences we create, guilt-free.

The Veterinarian’s Prayer

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The Veterinarian’s Prayer

Originally Published: DVM NewsMagazine, April 1, 2012

Click here or above to read the complete Veterinarian’s Prayer article.

 

 

The Veterinarian’s Prayer

As the holiday season approaches, let all of us veterinarians bow our heads together to ask for guidance in the coming year.

 

Dear Lord,

Guide Me in Medicine

Please let me find the tiny, dehydrated vein of the ancient kitty when I am asked to perform euthanasia under the emotional eye of her owner. I ask for this first, Lord, because it is my single most common reason for prayer, so let’s start there.

 

Lord, help me be a good doctor. Not even a great doctor like House, MD, but at least a doctor who will not space out and miss the glaringly obvious stuff that every veterinarian should know. Lord, let no other doctor look at one of my medical records, shake her head, and think, “what an idiot.”

 

If I do make a mistake, please let the lesson find its way firmly into my memory and not onto Google reviews or Angie’s List.

 

Grant Me Patience and Understanding

Lord, grant me a future that includes someday not having to work on weekends. And until that day, I beg you for a few Saturday shifts that are not completely insane.

 

When the anal glands express erratically, may their contents find my coat and not my face or hair.

 

It is not lost on me, O Lord, that the truly wonderful pets seem to have a significantly greater chance of getting an incurable illness at a young age. If these pets have memorable names (i.e., Professor Snacks, Captain America, Chipper Donut, Jabba Bear, etc.), live with children, and have delightful owners, their long-term survival rates are even worse. While I do not seek to understand your reasoning for this, and I am grateful for those pets that seem to be too bad to die, I would really appreciate it if more of the great ones could live nice, long lives.

 

Give me self-control

Bestow upon me the strength to eat heartily from the holiday veggie trays that clients send, and to merely sample the brownies. And when my strength fails (as it will), please guide me to be more reasonable in my goals and aim at least not to eat the entire batch before the technicians know the baked goods have arrived.

 

Make Smooth My Dealings with Staff

Lord, make me the kind of vet other people enjoy working with. Please let the technicians and receptionists like me for the right reasons, and if one or two of them decide not to like me, let that be for the right reasons too.

 

Also: Might I request to be scheduled to work when the staff training meetings involve free lunch, and off when they do not? Speaking of schedules, please smite the technician who calls me at home early Saturday morning when it is not really, absolutely, without a doubt, critically necessary. Smite him good.

 

Give Me Wisdom in Handling Clients

I thank you, Lord, for all the wonderful clients you send into my life each day. When it comes to those few who are less wonderful: help me to recognize the cases that I should refer away immediately. In extreme cases, feel free to strike me with an illness so I am not in the building when the true nightmare cases come in.  Lord, if I were able to choose between getting pneumonia or getting sued, I’d take the former.

 

When I call the mean owners to check in on their pets, let my call go to voicemail. Likewise, please do not let the mentally unbalanced breeders find out where I live. I don’t want to have to choose between moving and changing professions.

 

Finally, Lord, give me the wisdom not to ask any pet owner when she is due unless I am absolutely, 100% certain that she is pregnant.

 

Amen.

 

 

 

Manage Your Social Media in 1 Hour a Week

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Manage Your Social Media in 1 Hour a Week

Originally Published: DVM NewsMagazine, March 1, 2012

 

My wife was out of town recently and left me with our 4-year-old daughter. Friends of mine, both veterinarians, decided to spare my child another hot dog dinner and invited us over for the evening. As soon as my daughter was engrossed in her meal, talk turned to Mike’s fledgling mobile practice.

“How are you using social media in your marketing?” I asked.

“As little as possible,” he replied. .

I put down my fork. As a business consultant and lover of all things social, I was at a complete loss. He might as well have told me he had started examining pets in the nude.

“That stuff is a major time suck,” he explained. “With everything I have to do at work, I don’t have the extra time. Besides, if I come home late and then get right on Facebook, my wife will kill me.”

There is no doubt that people today are looking online for their veterinarians and other service and care providers. (If the Yellow Pages aren’t completely dead, they’re on their last legs.) Your clients are using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, etc. If you want them to see you, you need to have a presence in these social networks.

That being said, my friend has a point about the need to expend marketing time and resources wisely. (I agreed that being killed by his wife was not the desired outcome.) With that in mind, here is a six-step plan for maintaining a useful social media presence by devoting just one hour per week. This is in no way a full social media marketing strategy, but it will help your practice get out there and connect with clients in a meaningful and manageable way. Let’s get started.

1. Set reasonable goals and expectations

Just like with a workout routine, you can’t expect to put in minimal time and get herculean results. However, focusing your efforts in an efficient, meaningful way can give you something to be proud of over the long term. You shouldn’t expect to get thousands of fans using this approach, but rather to communicate with—and stay in the minds of—people who may actually bring their pets to you for care. You’re going for quality in your connections, not quantity.

2. Remember your brand

Yes, the photo of the cat smoking a cigarette you saw on the Internet may have been hilarious, but is that the picture you want associated with your clinic? Every post or tweet you put out should fit the brand image you want to build in people’s minds. If in doubt, err on the side of caution and come across as caring and professional.

3. Pick a platform

All the large social networks out there do things slightly differently and have some advantages and drawbacks. Your goal is not to become omnipresent by using them all, but to find a service that you’re comfortable with and that your clients use. It’s better to have a single, well-run presence than a half-dozen neglected and disorganized efforts that all make you look bad.

For most practices, I recommend a Facebook business page. The other social media sites are great, but Facebook is easy to learn. It’s also the largest network by far, and the number of posts you need to stay visible is manageable. Facebook’s recommendation system also helps put your page in front of people who live in your geographic area, and that’s a big plus.

4. Find your content

No one wants to subscribe to see you pitching your sales and services 24/7. They want to subscribe to you because you share information that’s interesting, educational, helpful, funny and engaging. You should give them what they want (with a moderate dose of information about your practice, of course).

One easy way to do this is to let other people create the content and deliver it to you so that you can share the best of it with your own clients. Email newsletters are a wonderful way to get articles, blog posts and videos delivered right to your inbox. Some of the best media outlets you can subscribe to are from the AVMA, http://dvm360.com and ASPCA Poison Control. You can collect these newsletters in a folder in your email program. When you need content for your social media outlet, voila!

Additionally, developing a list of websites with great information for clients—such as http://dvm360.com and http://veterinarypartner.com—allow you to find links quickly to specific information you want your clients to have.

5. Use a social media calendar and a scheduler

Now that you have clear goals, your brand on your mind (and your mind on your brand), and helpful, funny, interesting, educational and engaging content that you’re ready to share, it’s time to take action.

First, schedule one hour per week as social media time. Then create a plan for what content you want to put out over the next seven days. Use a web-based program to schedule posts automatically at designated times.

The social media management company Virtue released a study of Facebook usage between 2007 and the end of 2010 that indicated the greatest activity on the site was on weekdays at 3 p.m. EST, followed by 11 a.m. EST, and 8 p.m. EST. Wednesday at 3 p.m. EST was consistently the busiest time in the week, while Sunday was the slowest day. Keep these times in mind when deciding how best to schedule your posts.

My favorite scheduler is Hootsuite (http://hootsuite.com). Users can write their posts, attach files or links, and then set the date and time for the information to appear on Facebook, Twitter, etc. It’s free to use, and once you decide how often you want to put out information, you can set your entire week in a single sitting.

6. Monitor what’s happening.

Once your social media initiative is up and rolling, you can’t take your hands totally off the wheel. You must be responsive when clients communicate through your social media channel. Have notifications about client comments sent to your clinic via a regularly checked email address. Figure out who will address these comments.

When clients reach out in this way, don’t panic. You don’t have to respond immediately like you would if they showed up in person. Twenty-four hours (48 on a weekend) is a good response time and won’t leave clients feeling ignored.

Like global warming and Justin Bieber, social media is an unstoppable force. It’s undeniably changing and improving the way we communicate with pet owners. Even if you have the most cutting-edge medical practice, you run the risk of seeming outdated without a presence in social media. So carve out an hour a week to log in and have fun with it. Then get back to the work of being a vet.

 

 

Dr. Andy Roark practices in ljamsville, Md. He is the founder/managing director of a veterinary consulting firm Tall Oaks Enterprises, LLC. Follow him on Facebook or @DrAndyRoark
on Twitter.

5 Tips for New Year’s Resolutions That Work

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5 Tips for New Year’s Resolutions That Work

Originally Published: DVM NewsMagazine, January 1, 2012

 

Anyone who goes to the gym regularly has seen the power of the average New Year’s resolution. Starting Jan. 1, the number of people using the equipment triples and the number of people posing in front of the mirrors quintuples. Suddenly, the American indolent are determined to become American Gladiators. But by the first week of March, the treadmills are still once again. Thus is the power of most resolutions. They drive large numbers to commit, flail wildly in their chosen areas of interest, then slink away in disgrace as their resolve fades before the winter does. Sound familiar?

As veterinarians, technicians, practice managers and receptionists, we are not a population of slackers. If anything, we’re known for going above and beyond, often giving more of ourselves to others than we have time for. If our resolutions aren’t taking hold, it’s not due to laziness. It’s probably because we’re so busy doing the hard work of, well, work, that it’s going to take more than a set of vague resolutions to break through the demands of everyday practice and help us forge new habits.

Let’s not let our good intentions slip away this year. Here, I’ve taken five common goals and turned them into resolutions that are less likely to be abandoned and more likely to bring you real success. Happy New Year!

1 Resolution: I will improve my ultrasound skills.

Better resolution: I will take a two-day ultrasound course this year and begin regularly charging clients for diagnostics I do using the machine.

Lesson: Don’t fall into the trap of setting lowball goals. That first resolution might as well read, “I will embrace my ability to use the ultrasound to consistently find the bladder. I will learn to take and print pictures of bladders and then discuss bladder health at length with clients.” Goals like this are similar to skiing exclusively on the kiddie slopes. Sure, you won’t fall down, but you also won’t get any better. Get specific. Set goals that push you to grow and give you a distinct sense of accomplishment when complete.

2 Resolution: I will get more clients.

Better resolution: I will contact every middle school, Boy Scout and Girl Scout troop and church in town to ask if I can visit and talk about pet health. I will also put one of the technicians in a giant dog costume beside the road every Saturday until they rebel.

Lesson: Remember to include the “how” when setting a lofty goal like “get more clients.” Otherwise, you’re destined to expend a lot of unfocused energy.

3 Resolution: I will do a better job talking to clients about dental health.

Better resolution: I will give out at least 10 client handouts on dental health per week, and keep track of how many I have given. I will also increase the number of dental cleanings I do per month by 10 percent.

Lesson: As the old saying goes, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” The same is true for resolutions. If a resolution is a good one, it should come with metrics that let you quantify your progress at any given moment and assess exactly where you are in relation to the resolution. Setting a measurable goal can also demystify the goal itself—it may not seem so lofty and unattainable when boiled down to a simple number of steps.

4 Resolution: I will spend more time talking to the technicians about medical issues of their choice.

Better resolution: I will e-mail the practice manager, the head technician, and the practice owner today to tell them that I plan to spend 30 minutes per week talking to the technicians about medical issues of their choice.

Lesson: Resolutions you keep to yourself are easier to abandon. A friend of mine took pictures of herself in a bathing suit and posted them on Facebook the day that she started the P90X workout routine. I remember seeing them and thinking, “Wow, she’s serious about this.” I expect that once she posted those photos, she was going to go the full 90 days or die trying. Sure enough, 90 days later she posted new photos, and she looked amazing. That’s the power of public commitment.

5 Resolution: I will shadow local veterinary specialists to improve my skills.

Better resolution: To improve my skills, I will shadow a local veterinary specialist before Feb. 15, a second one before May 1, a third one before Sept. 1, and a fourth one before the end of 2012.

Lesson: I have been telling my wife that I will clean my side of the bedroom since we got married in 2003. And I will … eventually. Deadlines—even if they’re self imposed—force action and keep us on track. Put them on your calendar.

Finally, write down your list of resolutions and post them somewhere visible. (Do you know what resolutions are if they’re not written down? Daydreams.) Celebrate your goals and look forward to achieving them incrementally each week and month. If looking at your list leaves you feeling overwhelmed or defeated on Day one, consider trimming to a set of goals you can make happen. I find five resolutions to be very manageable. Your five may be different from my five. You may have four or six. The point is, if you’ve made resolutions that are specific, attainable, measurable, and to which you can be held accountable, you’ll be well on your way as soon as you post that list.

This is your opportunity to make 2012 your best year ever. Good luck!

6 Ways to Fight the Veterinary Competition — Without Fighting

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6 Ways to Fight the Veterinary Competition — Without Fighting

Originally Published: Veterinary Economics, November 1, 2011

They did what?” I sputtered. The practice owner I was talking with on the phone was a longtime friend. He lowered his voice and explained, “They bought reviews on Google.”

We were discussing the megapractice down the road. This practice had been amassing negative online client reviews for months—at the same time that my friend’s clients were posting glowing reviews of his small startup clinic.

But suddenly, the megapractice had garnered 30 five-star reviews in a matter of weeks, all from “clients” who had all—coincidentally?—given five-star reviews to a slew of other unrelated businesses across the United States. Either these reviewers were traveling cross-country together, reviewing the same random businesses, or the competition was buying their praise. Unbelievable.

Now, a little friendly competition can be healthy. It can motivate you to improve both your medicine and your business practices. Plus, the presence of others in your business space pushes you to create better value for clients and patients and keeps you from resting on your laurels.

However, the fear of competition stealing clients can also make for a stressful situation—especially when your rivals play dirty. In my years as a veterinarian—working at a fledgling startup practice, a megapractice, and now at a three-doctor clinic in an area where new practices are constantly opening—I’ve dealt with many different competitors. I’ve led strategic planning sessions for veterinary organizations, clinics, and corporations, and dealing with veterinary competition is one of the most frequently discussed topics.

In facilitating these discussions, as well as leading veterinary teams on the ground, I’ve discovered some excellent tactics for addressing rivals. It’s time for the gloves to come off so you can focus your energy on tackling what’s most important: your practice. Here are six tips for handling interclinic aggression without stooping to your competitor’s level.

1. Don’t take the offensive. Most of us learned this lesson on the playground: Punching back can get you into worse trouble—and sometimes leave you with a broken hand. Even if you’re bigger, stronger, and absolutely in the right, the odds of being damaged by your own aggression are high. Don’t risk your reputation or your business by lobbing aggressive initiatives at competitors. They’ll usually backfire. Strategies to avoid include: direct price and service comparisons; disparaging comments about your competitor’s medicine, morals, location, or business practices; and observations about your competitor’s bad personal hygiene or holiday decorations. (Yes, I’ve heard these before.)

None of these things will make your practice look good. In fact, they’ll do the opposite—and make your clients start to question your integrity.

2. Focus on personal performance.

Stop aiming at your competitors and point your focus inward. Win the battle on your home turf by shoring up your strengths and ensuring that your veterinary team is performing at its best. Pull together your personal advisors, discuss what the competition is doing, and build a strategic plan for what you’ll do to rise above the pressure. Polish your fundamental service model to make sure you’re providing a solid client experience and avoiding common practice mistakes such as missing charges, neglecting your reminder system, and failing to schedule recheck appointments or follow up with clients.

Are you taking your clients for granted? Discounting your services into oblivion? Dropping the ball on preventive care? If the answer is yes (or even maybe), then conquer those issues first. Those are all things you can change at your practice.

3. Start innovating. There’s nothing wrong with adapting ideas and techniques that are succeeding in other clinics and businesses. Once you’ve worked internally to raise your own standards, look externally and consider what other businesses do to better serve clients and distinguish their brand. Read widely, talk to everyone you can, and expand your thinking to find and modify ideas that will help you grow and evolve. Innovation, when applied to a fundamentally sound business, can radically change the competitive landscape.

I have seen clinics pursue successful innovations such as wellness plans, social media initiatives, community outreach events, and niche marketing plans. I was recently involved with a small business that gained a foothold in its community through regular talks at the local gay pride center. The business is currently growing by replicating these talks for local church groups. This is an innovative marketing approach that is working well because competitors aren’t doing it, thus the opportunities are plentiful. The take-home message here is that great ideas and opportunities are everywhere. Don’t be afraid to harvest them.

Once you have a plan for innovation, don’t go all in just yet. Present the idea to some of your best clients and people you respect both inside and outside the veterinary industry. Incorporate their feedback into your master plan and begin the program one step at a time. That way you can gauge success—and prevent unmanageable losses if the idea doesn’t work out. Set up and monitor performance metrics carefully. Remember: Not every initiative will work out, so don’t get too emotionally attached to any one idea, and don’t be afraid to abandon plans that aren’t delivering results.

4. Honor your values. As my father and mentor used to say, “In the end, all you’ve got is your reputation.” It’s easy to let fear, frustration, and uncertainty push you to make decisions you otherwise wouldn’t make. But what does your long-term picture look like if you become known for tactics such as buying positive reviews, slandering other clinics while hiding behind online anonymity, upselling beyond what patients need, or never referring cases to specialists regardless of the situation? Think about your actions and image from the perspective of your clients, most of whom know nothing about your competitors or perceived business battles.

If you take a hard look and find you don’t like your practice’s image, then regroup and start fresh. You want to succeed, but you also want to be able to look at yourself in the mirror every morning with a clean conscience.

5. Improve your closing techniques. While client education is of great importance, your ability to get your veterinary clients to commit to and pay for services is what will ultimately dictate success. When clients check out, ask them if they would like to book their next appointment. (Yes, even if it’s a year in advance. Remember, your dentist does it.) Ask price shoppers if they would like to schedule the service they’re calling about. And encourage doctors to make firm recommendations.

Note: These are not recommendations that start with the words, “You might” or “You could.” Firm recommendations start with phrases like, “I recommend” and “I suggest.” Finally, empower technicians to follow up with clients after the exam to determine which products they want to take home. Brushing up on your closing techniques will help increase your practice’s bottom line.

6. Don’t take client behavior personally. Clients will leave your practice. This is a business reality. Don’t let it damage your confidence or, worse, push you into a panic. It may feel like two clients leaving in a week is a mass exodus—especially if they’re going to the same competitor. It’s not. It’s a sign that your competition is doing something that works, and you need to know what that something is. It’s a time for strategy, not emotion. Your veterinary clients will usually act in their own perceived best interest. Understand that inclination and strive to make your clinic the obvious choice for self-interested clients in the future.

Six weeks have passed since I talked to my friend about the megapractice’s dirty tricks, and 18 more five-star reviews have been posted. I asked whether his business had shown signs of suffering as a result. “No,” he said. “The last two months have been the best we’ve had so far.”

What was going on? Well, for one, my friend had hired a technician away from the competing practice. But even more important, he stopped looking at the online reviews. “They’re just a distraction,” he said. “We’re doing great things, so getting upset about the competition just doesn’t make sense.”

You can’t control your competitors. What you can control is your own practice: its strategy, its relationships, its culture. Letting go of the urge to engage in direct conflict frees up your energy so you can direct your best efforts toward your own veterinary practice. It’s like Sun Tzu says in The Art of War: “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”