Whether you’re a new practice or have been around for decades, it’s good to set goals that help you achieve year after year. Goal-setting helps keep your practice efficient, productive and profitable and can help provide the best standards of care for your patients.
So, what are some of these goals that you should look to set at the beginning of each new year? Setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based) goals backed by sound training will help you maintain a high-performing practice.
Inventory control
Well-managed inventory is a key factor for helping meet your practice’s profitability goals. Good inventory control will help you identify slow- or fast-moving retail items as well as the turnover of medication and consumable items used regularly by your veterinarians and technicians. With proper inventory control, you’ll always have enough of the items on hand to meet staff and patient needs, but never so much that there’s wastage when an item passes its use-by-date.
Client retention
Client retention is another vital component of practice growth. While it’s important to keep a steady flow of new customers, keeping your current clients and their pets is a good way to keep your appointment book full and improve the lifetime value of your customers. Offering a variety of services such as wellness plans, home delivery and virtual visits is a great way to meet customers evolving needs.
Employee Engagement
Just as much as you want to keep your clients happy and coming back, you also want to keep your staff happy and eager to turn up to work every day. Training and tools are an important aspect of staff engagement; 7 out of 10 people say that training and development opportunities influence their decision to stay with a company. Providing valuable tools can empower your team to perform their best together. Additionally, putting an emphasis on resources to support mental health and wellbeing can alleviate stress and help your teams to feel encouraged and supported by the community they have at work.
Training
This goal goes hand-in-hand with staff engagement. A survey by Spherion Staffing found that 29% of employees felt their skills were outdated. Having your staff professionally trained by experts ensures that they’re not only properly skilled, but are also able to make the most of their practice software. This, in turn, will help improve the overall effectiveness, efficiency, and profitability of your veterinary practice.
Accurate and complete medical records
Accurate data is crucial; this includes accurate and complete medical records of your patients. These are important for providing excellent standards of care for patients as well as for identifying trends over time across your entire patient base. Take advantage of technology tools that automatically keep records up to date and track compliance such as digital prescription management.
Wellness
Consider the business advantages of wellness plans. These days, nurturing client loyalty is vital to the success of practices amid growing competition, as AVMA Chief Economist Dr. Matthew Salois recently noted. At the same time, Morgan Stanley suggests average annual household spending per pet could reach $1,909 by 2030. Wellness plans cultivate strong bonds with clients while providing a reliable stream of revenue to support operating costs and fund growth opportunities.
Profitability
It’s vital that your practice remains profitable. Without sufficient cash flow, you’re not able to invest in the equipment, inventory, or staff resources your practice needs to provide the best of standards of care for your patients.