Veterinary Expectations

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.