Why CX is an Untapped Goldmine for Veterinary Practices

A newsletter breaking down the business and money behind veterinary practice operations. Powered by Mascotte — Integrated support for modern vets.

As a vet, patient care is always your number one priority, but it’s equally important to focus on your clients to build a sustainable, profitable business so you can keep doing what you love. 

The trouble is that most practices are overwhelmed by the recent surge in pet ownership coupled with industry-wide staff shortages, so dedicating resources to improving client care is not always top-of-mind. Practices end up with missed calls, unattended voicemails, and clients left waiting on hold—situations that strain the client-practice relationship and leave people feeling neglected.

The knock-on effect is a loss of business and a massive drop in customer loyalty, which is a tricky thing to rebuild and has long-term financial consequences.

When implemented correctly, customer experience (CX) programs can turn things around, generating new and repeat business, alleviating pressure on your practice staff, and freeing up your time to focus on what you do best: treating animals.

In this brief guide, you’ll learn about the basics of CX, the financial benefits it brings to veterinary practices, and some practical advice to get your clinic on the path to improvement.

Let’s get into it!👇🏼

THE BASICS
Understanding CX

Customer experience (CX) refers to the sum of all interactions, or touchpoints, a client has with your clinic. These touchpoints, when combined, make up the customer journey.

There are three key stages in the initial customer journey:

• 👀 Awareness might involve a potential client seeing one of your posts on Facebook, finding your clinic on Google Maps, or visiting your website. 

• 🤔 Consideration: Once the client is interested, they might call the practice, start a web chat, send an email, or even drop into the clinic in person. 

• 🤝 Decision: At this point, the client is ready to schedule an appointment or make a purchase, either online, in person, or over the phone. 

After the pet owner becomes a customer, the journey becomes about building loyalty and LTV (client lifetime value). 

• 🔒 Retention: The focus shifts to keeping the customer engaged and satisfied after their initial visit to encourage repeat business. 

• 🗣️ Advocacy: Here, satisfied customers become advocates for your clinic, referring others and leaving positive reviews online. 

Every step of this journey is an opportunity to strengthen—or weaken—the client’s connection to your practice. Practices that don’t get this right run the risk of losing customers to the competition.

In fact, over half (51%) of customers believe CX is more important than price, and 79% would switch to another brand if it offered a better experience, according to a 2024 study by CX expert Shep Hyken. Another study from Zendesk shows that over 50% of customers will avoid a brand after just one bad experience.

Clearly, CX is critical to a customer’s decision, but it’s also imperative for a clinic’s financial success. Let’s explore how CX can increase profits for your practice:

FINANCIAL SUCCESS
The Financial Case for Veterinary CX

Businesses in other industries have found that focusing on CX leads to higher customer loyalty and increased sales. For example, consumer-centric healthcare companies have achieved twice the revenue growth of those with lower patient satisfaction scores, according to McKinsey.

This precedent means that vets who transform their CX can see similar financial benefits. Here are some examples:

Increasing Patient Volume with Proactive Triage

Calling clients to gather information before they visit the clinic can save vets a lot of time and increase their availability. By asking questions about the pet’s condition in advance, clinics can streamline visits by about 10 minutes per appointment on average—that’s over an hour a day of extra time, allowing for at least five additional patients. While many clinics already do this, its impact on the bottom line is significant and should be a top CX priority.

Boosting Revenue with Reminders & Advice

Proactively reminding clients to bring necessary documents or samples and providing pre-appointment guidelines saves time and reduces the likelihood of cancellations, no-shows,  or rescheduled appointments. 

When clients are well-prepared, practices can increase their average revenue per customer by up to 20% through additional tests and diagnostics, particularly during annual or quarterly checkups where these tests are most relevant.

Are some of your regulars ghosting you? Quick calls or messages for vaccination reminders, quarterly checkups, nail trimmings, or general follow-ups etc., can also help reactivate that business. 

Increasing Client LTV with Post-Visit Check-Ins

After surgery or a medical procedure, pets can often feel unwell, especially when anesthesia is involved. Plus, new information on medication or at-home care can leave pet parents confused or overwhelmed after consultations. 

These scenarios are the perfect time for checking in and supporting your clients. By showing that you’ve got their back (and actually care about their pet’s health), you’ll boost client life-time value (LTV) , ensure higher medication compliance, and increase follow-up visits that the customer may have neglected without this additional touchpoint. 

Attracting New Clients with Proactive Outreach

When you communicate more often, it makes clients much happier- simple as that. We’ve seen this first hand by tracking our clients’ Net Promoter Score (NPS), a widely used CX metric that measures a customer’s likelihood of recommending a business. 

The average NPS in the veterinary industry is around 40 out of 100. Still, we’ve seen that skyrocket to 91 for some practices because their clients are delighted with the increase in communication and additional touchpoints. These happy clients then go on to tell their friends about the experience, post about their experiences online, and leave positive reviews, bringing in more customers and more profit for clinics. 

Reduce Client Churn with Pet Loss Support

A considerable number of clients will change clinics after the passing of a pet because they don’t want to relive that sad last memory. However, clinics that provide compassionate pet loss support through follow-up calls, sympathy cards, or just a shoulder to cry on can maintain trust with the customer and rebuild their positive impression of your business. 

While some people may wish to open up and share, others might want to grieve privately, so focus on being genuine, understanding, and patient while respecting their wishes. If you provide a positive experience in their time of need, your customers won’t forget it. 

THE PLAYBOOK
Use These 5 Steps to Get Started

These financial benefits can only happen if your practice has a strategy for CX transformation. Here’s a quick framework to help you get started. 

1️⃣ - The first step is committing to making CX as a function a priority—everybody at your practice needs to be on board with the plan to see the benefits. 

2️⃣ - From there, you can start to assess clients' needs to find the most pressing issues they face, such as long wait times, communication gaps, or cumbersome processes. Surveys and feedback from both clients and employees can help here.

3️⃣ - Next, prioritize these areas and build a CX playbook, along with outlining your current capabilities to understand your strengths and weaknesses. 

4️⃣ - Now, figure out the new process and test it. It helps to focus on improving one specific customer issue at a time instead of going all-in. 

5️⃣ - Once you iterate, get feedback, and improve, you can go live and start getting those financial wins for the clinic. 

Now that your CX process is complete, be sure to train your staff to maintain consistency and build customer trust and loyalty. You can also achieve this by partnering with a veterinary CX specialist like Mascotte to provide tailored expertise and resources, allowing your team to focus on what they do best—providing excellent veterinary care. Schedule a free discovery session today to find out how an embedded CX team can increase gross sales in your practice by more than 20%!