Lapsed patients – those that haven’t been seen for the last 18 months – are increasingly common in many veterinary practices. This means missed revenue opportunities as well as costs to attract new patients to your clinic.
But, it’s not just your practice that is being impacted. The patients themselves are missing out on regular checkups and preventative care. So, when they are brought in, the health concern is often more serious for the patient and more expensive for the client.
An effective patient recapture program maintains the wellbeing of your patients as well as the financial wellbeing of your practice.
Bring back lapsed patients
A key benefit of a patient recapture program is that it brings lapsed patients back into your practice. In a typical practice, this can equate to as much as 20% of your client base. Even if your recapture rate is just 4%, this can have a significant impact on the number of patients returning to your clinic. These recaptured patients then receive the benefit of crucial check-ups and preventative care.
Strengthen the veterinarian-client relationship
While pet ownership has been rising since 2000, routine visits to the veterinarian have declined. However, Millennials are breaking this trend. Not only are they are more likely to bring their pets in for check-ups, they also have higher expectations of their veterinarian. If they feel they aren’t the right level of care for their pet, they won’t hesitate to find another clinic.
A patient recapture program strengthens the veterinarian-patient bond by showing you care about their pet’s health as much as the pet-parent. After all, pet owner clients don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
Bolster practice revenue
Bringing back lapsed patients also has the key benefit of bolstering practice revenues. While treating pets and ensuring they have happy and healthy lives is the reason for a veterinary practice to exist, without a steady revenue stream it can’t survive. For a practice of 7,000 clients, of whom 20% (1,400) are lapsed, even a 5% success rate from a patient recapture program can have a real positive impact on your revenue. If an average visit is $150 dollars, that’s $10,500 in recaptured revenue.
With the Covetrus Patient Recapture Program, you only pay for the patients that come back to your clinic. No monthly fees, or paying for postage. It’s a no-risk, pay-for-performance program, so you don’t pay anything until your clients start coming back.