Monday, Dr. Patty Khuly at Dolittler posted a piece called “Top 10 Reasons to Break Up With Your Vet”. Here’s one I’ve been pondering lately based not only on Lilly’s recent experiences but on those of a friend: How much follow-up and genuine concern (outside the 15-minutes in the exam room) do you expect from your veterinarian and the staff at the hospital you use?
Here’s why I ask. Remember WAY back in June when I saw the relief veterinarian (who happens to be a neighbor) after my original appointment got cancelled while I was in route to the hospital? Then, there were delays and issues getting all the test results. Then, drama ensued after our behaviorist made her recommendations for anxiety meds. We’d been plugging along with our behavior mod work, then this rattlesnake bite happened Labor Day weekend.
Yeah, well … through ALL that … not one call to check on Lilly. Total telephonic silence from our regular vet.
You want to know what I DID get a call about? A few days after Ginko had his teeth cleaned last month, someone called to make sure he was doing OK.
That’s right. The most routine, the most banal, procedures or worries in my veterinary realm, and THAT earns a phone call. BUT, it was one of those we-call-to-show-we-care-but-I’m-not-really-listening-to-anything-you-say calls.
I got Uh-huh’d to death.
BUT, being me, since I had someone on the phone, I tried to give a quick update on Lilly’s behavior stuff. And, there could NOT have been any LESS concern, comprehension, or recognition of the case. Call me SILLY, but I prefer for the people calling me to pretend to know who we are.
To continue, I’ll share a friend’s story.
She took one of her dogs to a major veterinary teaching hospital out of state for experimental heart surgery. It ended up being outside research parameters, but the surgeons and cardiologists found a solution for his odd, odd case. This is serious, scary stuff. The story is long and complicated, but last I heard the dog was doing really well.
So … here’s the thing … no one called in those first few weeks post-op to check on him. NO ONE.
She was seriously freaked out by how much he bled because of the blood thinners. The inside of her truck looked like a murder scene because he got so many nose bleeds on the long drive home. She wasn’t too worried as long as he was with her, but what IF she got pulled over later, before she could clean things up … it’d be like a scene out of CSI.
When it comes to my own clients and my sense of most marketplaces, I believe that perceptions of good customer service and relationship building for long-term clients takes root in expectations management.
Maybe I’m being a big baby, but wouldn’t you expect your veterinary team to show they give a rat’s ass by making a quick phone call or sending a quick email to check in?
You would think, wouldn’t you, that a quick call or email by one of the front desk staff when they’re not busy would go a loooong way toward keeping your clients happy and cheerfully paying their bills. But no, I don’t get calls from my vet or my doctor, even when they say they’re going to call. I often have to call them.
But I’d rather have a good vet than one who isn’t so good but has a good bedside manner. Unfortunately, the ability to communicate clearly and well isn’t something they teach in medical or vet school.
I nearly had a kitty put to sleep based on a (mis)diagnosis. As luck would have it, the weekend Vet set me straight, and we were off to a specialist who gave my Maggie 14 more months. When I brought in the report and info from the specialist to the original Vet, he had the audacity to tell me he would read it ‘the next time he got on a plane’. I never went back……
I hear you. I have a bunch of different vets-regular vet, allergy vet, and horse vets. My regular vet is awesome. Always calls when the dogs are sick and gave me his home number in case I was freaking out. When one of my dogs died he made a donation to UCDavis Vet.
The allergy vet, not so much. Never a word.
My horse vet even comes by to check on my horses when he’s at the barn for others.
And yes, I expect a LOT more from my vets than my own doctors. I did leave my last vet because I thought they didn’t give a hoot about the patients or me.
I would!
My husband had surgery last week–no one called him to see how he was doing, either. But you know, I expect more from my veterinarian, who at least sent a lovely note last month when our cat died.