Driving Veterinary Practice Growth: Leveraging Technology, Marketing, Operations, and Client Experience to Increase Revenue and Loyalty

Good evening everyone, and welcome. Thank you so much for joining us for another Veterinary Business Institute expert panel. I'm Angie, and I'll be your moderator this evening. Now, whether you're joining us as a practice owner, practice manager, veterinarian, or a part of a leadership team, we're delighted you've chosen to spend the next 90 minutes with us. Now, tonight, we're exploring a topic that's relevant to every veterinary practice, regardless of size or location. How do you continue growing your practice while strengthening client relationships, supporting your team, improving operational efficiency, and making smart use of technology?

Growth isn't about one single strategy. It's about bringing all of those pieces together, so they support one another. That's exactly what we're going to unpack with our panel of experts tonight. Now, before we begin, just a couple of quick housekeeping notes. This session is being recorded, so if you need to revisit any of today's discussion, you'll receive the replay afterward. That said, I do encourage you to stay engaged throughout the live session, because there's something fashion in real time. So if you have questions throughout the webinar and answering as many as times I love during our live Q&A toward the end, please do use the Q&A feature, like I said, if you have any questions as we go. With that, let's get started.

All right, so before I introduce tonight's panelists, I'd like to quickly highlight another great resource from Veterinary Business Institute. Many of you may already be familiar with the Veterinary Business Podcast. If you haven't had the chance to listen yet, I highly encourage you to check it out. New episodes are released every Thursday at 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time and cover a wide range of topics that matter to veterinary professionals, from leadership and marketing to operations, technology, financial management, client communication, and practice growth. It's a fantastic way to continue learning between our monthly webinars. And of course, webinars like tonight wouldn't be possible without the support of our partners. I'd also like to take a moment to recognize our platinum sponsor, Ekwo Marketing. So for more than 15 years, Ekwo has worked with veterinary practices to help them grow through stronger online visibility, effective digital marketing, and websites designed to convert visitors into loyal clients.

So one important part of that is making sure the right clients can actually find your practice when they begin searching online. So later in the webinar, we'll share a complimentary opportunity from Ekwo that can help you better understand your own practice's online presence and identify opportunities for growth. We'll tell you more about that at the appropriate time. For now, let's dive into tonight's discussion. So to set the stage, let's take a quick look at what we'll be covering over the next 90 minutes. So tonight's conversation is built around six key ideas. First, we'll explore how technology can simplify workflows and improve communication throughout the practice.

We'll also discuss where many clients unintentionally create friction by adapting technology without a clear strategy. From there, we'll look at marketing, not just attracting new clients, but attracting the right clients and building long-term trust. We'll also spend time discussing operational efficiency, team well-being, and the client experience, because these aren't separate topics, they're deeply connected. So by the end of tonight's discussion, my hope is that you will leave with practical ideas you can apply in your own practice, whether you're looking to grow, improve efficiency, or simply create a better experience for your team and your clients.

And with that, I'd like to introduce the outstanding panel joining us this evening. To begin with, I'd like to introduce our first panelist, Dr. Amanda Ensor. Amanda is the co-founder of BOOP, a veterinarian, keynote speaker, and a respected leadership expert who has dedicated her career to helping veterinary teams build stronger cultures, healthier workplaces, and better patient care. One thing I particularly appreciate about Amanda's work is that she reminds us that exceptional client experiences don't begin at the front desk. They begin with healthy, supported teams. Amanda, thank you so much for joining us tonight. We're delighted to have you with us.

Thank you for having me. The next panelist is Lester de Alwis, Marketing Manager at Ekwo Marketing. Lester has spent years helping veterinary practices improve their visibility, strengthen their brands, and attract the right clients through thoughtful, data-driven marketing strategies. One thing I know we'll explore tonight is that marketing isn't simply about getting more people through the door, it's about building lasting trust and sustainable growth. Lester, thank you for being here and sharing your expertise with us this evening. Thank you, Angie. Pleasure to be here. Our third panelist is Dr. Christine Cornelius, a veterinarian, entrepreneur, founder of Kindred.vet and Chief VetX. Christine brings together clinical experience, business leadership, and technology in a way that's both practical and deeply compassionate.

So throughout tonight's discussion, I'm sure we'll hear valuable insights into what it truly means to create practices that are efficient, innovative, and centered around both people and pets. Christie, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for inviting me. It's a pleasure to be here. And finally, I'd like to welcome Jack Peplow, Director of Veterinary IT Services. Jack is a technology specialist, a certified ethical hacker, and entrepreneur who works within the veterinary industry, helping practices simplify technology, improve security, and create systems that genuinely make life easier for teams. Technology is evolving rapidly, and I'm looking forward to hearing Jack's perspective on how practices can embrace innovation without creating unnecessary complexity. Jack, thank you so much for being with us tonight.

Very excited to be here. All right. Let's get into the main discussion. All right. Amanda, I'd like to start with something that I think every veterinary practice can relate to. So, a lot of practices think about client experience as what happens at the front desk or in the exam room. But you often connect it back to team health and performance. What have you seen in terms of how team well-being directly affects client loyalty and practice growth? Well, in order to really provide an exceptional client experience, there certainly needs to be a level of well-being that both the individual team member and the team both experience. So regardless of your role in a hospital, I need to feel when I show up that I truly matter here.

So recognition and appreciation for my contributions every day, that goes a long way, but it starts there, and having confidence in my role. So I need for both the team and hopefully leadership to help foster an environment that provides opportunities for me to develop, know what it is that I'm doing, set clear expectations, and also create a level of psychological safety where I feel like I can make mistakes, learn from them, ask questions, and hopefully contribute some new ideas. And to really empower our team members to be proactive with their own ongoing learning. There's only so much that we can provide. A lot of that relies on them being proactive to do it. But then lastly, it's really important for all team members to have a true shared core value. Values are often things that's a word that's thrown around, and there are few teams that actually sit down and think about what their values are.

There's even less of those teams that keep that a part of the conversation. But if it truly, everything that you do in the hospital can be tied back to what we're here to do. We're here for exceptional client care, patient care, and our impact on the community. Then everything that the team members do, we can have an actual conversation and hold people accountable to that value. And it takes a lot of the emotion out. But I think those are some really important things to help with a client being able to feel that and experience. Because then more team members are going to pick up slack. They're going to help others take a break if they need it.

But a client is going to feel that every day for a team that experiences that. Mm-hmm. What do you think practice owners most often underestimate about this relationship? I feel like they often underestimate how happy their team members are. There's very few that actually solicit feedback, and I'll probably talk more about that later. But if you're not hearing about problems, then often you think that they're not there, and that's often not true because there's way too much change that happens on a regular basis, especially right now, and there's just too many personalities and dynamics for everything to be quiet and for you not to be proactive to helping everybody stay cohesively happy and recognized.

So I think that's probably it. That's amazing. All right, now the next challenge is making sure the right clients actually find you in the first place. So Lester, one thing we hear constantly from clinic owners is that their marketing feels inconsistent. They're flooded with new clients one month, and then it goes quiet the next. Why does that feast or famine pattern happen, and what does consistent marketing actually require? Thank you so much, Anjie, for that question. It's a great question, and it's a great place to start, because almost every practice owner has lived through this exact scenario that you just mentioned. And here's the truth about why it happens.

Because most clinics, marketing as something they do only when they are slow. If things get slow, they do it. They start to look at marketing, and then the schedule gets a little empty. Everyone starts to worry, and so they boost a Facebook post, send out a quick response, a quick promotion on Facebook or Meta, maybe run an Google ad for a couple of weeks, and then it works. It will work. They might get a bump, and then, the schedule fills back up. But then they get busy, and they stop doing all of what they were doing earlier. And a month or two later, they're right back where they started. So it's a cycle, and it keeps happening. It's not a marketing problem, I would say. It's a foundation problem.

There's nothing running underneath the panic marketing to keep the new clients flowing steadily. So What I always talk with our clients, and I always tell this, is marketing is something like getting the patients to find you and giving them a really reason to choose you. So what does consistent marketing actually require? I see you put it in two buckets, two simple buckets. The visibility you own is one bucket, and the visibility you rent. So the visibility you own is the stuff that keeps working whether or not you're logged in this week. That means your local SEO, your Google business profile, your reviews, the content on your website, because you don't need to keep changing it every week.

And then when a pet owner in your town pulls out their phone and searches "vet near me" or "emergency vet open now," you want to be one of those first practices they see. And the beautiful thing about that own visibility is you don't pay for each click. Once it's built and maintained, it produces a steady baseline of new clients month after month. So that's your flow, that's your foundation, and that's the flow that does not disappear the moment you get busy. And the next one is the visibility you rent. So that is paid advertising, that's Google Ads, Meta Ads. All that is basically renting visibility is powerful because you turn it in the moment you want to grow, and when you've got a new service to fill or a slower season, you're always going to cycle it whenever you need it.

But the mistake I see practices use rented visibility, they do is that they rent visibility to do the job, to own that visibility, and then they stop because they're not doing it in a continuing cycle. So they run ads just to plug the holes to the-- So the second they stop paying for the ads or do run Meta ads, the flow stops. So renting should be how you accelerate on top of the foundation, which I just mentioned earlier, not the foundation itself. So in the real-world picture of this, we worked with practices that were running almost entirely on word of mouth and the occasional social post, and these are lovely clinics and great medicine, but their new client numbers were like a rollercoaster.

What we did wasn't actually flashy. We built up their local search presence, which is the foundation, and got their Google business profile properly optimized and got a steady stream of guaranteed new patients, and also genuine reviews coming in from the patients that they actually look after. So within a few months, they had a dependable baseline of new clients coming in. And then from search, and also people who'd never heard them before also started coming in because their foundation is good. They get the visibility from the normal search than ads. And then on top of that, we laid a paid ads campaign to push growth in the specific services that they are really good at. And so then it's the same clinic, same team, but now the rollercoaster turned into a steady climb.

So, if I could leave the owners with one idea, on this foundation is stop asking what I can do this week to get busy and start asking what's running for me every week, whether I touch it or not. So, if you build that foundation, I think visibility is not something that is challenging. It's basically something you will be doing in and out as you move along. So that's what's turning marketing from a source of stress into, I think, a predictable engine. That's such great insight, Lester. Thank you. Dr. Kristi, when a veterinary practice is busy but still struggling with revenue growth or client retention, what does that tell you about the way the service model may be designed, and what does a truly human-centered veterinary experience look like in practice?

Yeah. So, we are veterinarians first. A lot of us are. And we don't typically get some of the business administrative skills in school. And so I think we, as veterinarians in general, focus on the medicine aspect and getting that right, and making sure that those workflows as far as delivering medicine is concerned. Oftentimes we have that down pretty good. It's when we start to notice things as we move along that if we're not experiencing the growth that we expect or our growth is not as strong as maybe the year before, we start to have to think about some of the other factors that might be happening outside of the medicine that you're delivering.

And some of those include some things that you might notice that are needing improvement in that flow, and you're looking at the client journey instead of your operational workflows. Okay? So you want to completely understand who your client is and how you meet their needs. And that really at the end of it is really what the goal is, and it needs to be moving forward. We have to set ourselves up to be able to listen to our clients and to be able to understand where they're coming from and meet them where they are. And I will tell you that probably will outdo any sort of technology that you bring in here. It's really working on those relationships, establishing trust, and just making sure that everything is clear, and everything is simple for the client journey, and you're not creating challenges or any friction as you move them through that experience.

And so Examples of what I would consider a more human-centered veterinary care model, it would definitely include easy scheduling. A lot of practices offer online scheduling now, which a lot of clients now find that much more convenient and easier. Making sure that all of your expectations are very clear up front before that client even comes through your door. Minimising wait time, minimizing confusion, using clear communication and clear channels, using transparent pricing, making sure that the client always knows what's coming next, always including follow-up in your visits, and just making sure that your clients are actually feeling heard and not really part of a process.

And so, I guess to wrap it up, clients don't really remember every medical detail. They're going to remember how you made them feel throughout that process. That's amazing. All right. Jack, I'd like to get into this one. Now, many veterinary practices have added more technology over the years, but not always in a way that makes life easier. So from your perspective, where do you most often see technology creating friction instead of solving it? Yeah. I think in many ways, we have this habit within the veterinary industry, and it's fascinating to sort of witness, where we integrate technologies without understanding what is the problem that we're trying to solve. Now, what that kind of usually causes, or the biggest friction, usually comes from technology being added, I suppose, in isolation. So a practice might add, I don't know, a booking tool, a new payment system, a new client communication platform, a new clinical tool, maybe even a bit of AI, but sort of no one steps back and asks, "How does this all fit into the day-to-day workflow of the practice?" Kind of what Dr. Kristi was sort of talking around.

Now, the result in this case is the team ends up with more systems, more logins. There's blasted notifications that keep popping up, more places to check. It's yet another tab to access, and sometimes, more manual work than before, which is kind of fascinating. And that is when technology stops being, I suppose, an enabler and becomes yet another operational burden. Now, I often see this, I suppose, in many different workflows, from reception workflows, client communications, even down to lab result processing, payment processing, consent forms, insurance claims, clinical notes, the list can go on. Now, the technology itself may be fantastic, but if it's not been properly considered as to what problem it's trying to solve, if it doesn't integrate within your workflows and also within your existing technology, especially around the PIMS, or, big one, team have not been properly onboarded and trained around clear process, ultimately it's going to create quite a significant amount of friction. And even the client can be bought into that because you've got multiple stakeholders to consider here. So for me, the question is never just what tool should we buy. I suppose the best question is what friction are we trying to remove, and what outcome do we want for the client, the team, and ultimately the business, which are, I suppose, the key stakeholders.

I'm a little curious, Jack, what's one technology mistake you see practices make again and again? I suppose let's pick on a very recent one. If we pick on the AI scribe, right? It sounds like a superb tool that addresses exactly what it is that a veterinarian or a nurse is going to experience during consult, right? It's ultimately designed to minimize that burden of writing up your notes because let's face it, we never have enough time, and we're always rushing at the end of consults. Or worst case, we don't do these blasted notes, which we absolutely need to do, especially from a regulatory point of view. Now, what I find and what I've seen is that practices are going in blindly and going, "Yes, great, the scribe is going to do exactly what we want to do." And because they haven't taken the team through the journey, they almost feel like an aspect is being stolen from them, even though it's an aspect they want to have taken from them.

And so they see it as an inconvenience. They see it as, okay, you're wanting me to go into the consult room, press the record button, and then I've got to go and copy and paste the notes across from this system to that system, which seems incredibly inefficient. But because they haven't been taken through the process of properly understanding what the technology is there to do, the fact that it's not a threat, it's there to support them, it's going to solve the biggest thing that we want to address, which is we want to provide the best patient experience. And they see the AI almost taking away the client experience, when actually, when it's done well, that note-taker is sitting in the background listening to what is being said, allowing you to properly deliver the best possible customer experience, which is what we ultimately want.

And in some ways, a lot of these more copilot driven tools, the best thing is that they can capture any required actions. They can capture any billable items that need to be added onto the invoice at the end of the consultation. It captures all the things that we miss. But again, because they haven't been trained, they don't know about these other items. They don't know about the fact that, what's been previously mentioned, I'm a user of veterinary services, and I promise you, I try my best, and I'm sorry to the veterinary community, but I retain about 10% of what's being said to me. And that's only because I really care about my animal, right?

I'm so excited to see my animal and see that she's happy and everything's fantastic, or understand the problem that might exist. And so because I'm very focused on that and not taking anything home with me, or I'm taking a really small component. And of course, this is again, something that an AI scribe can help with because it can provide you with the information. It can be in your inbox to the client before they even leave the consult room. But again, none of this is explained and none of it's looked into. You just go, "I'm going to go with an AI scribe because it's going to kind of solve the note-taking problem," when actually there's quite a number of different items that something like a scribe can solve, but because it's not considered, going back to my original point, it's generally a regular failure that I see, or at least a hindrance that I see.

Mm-hmm. Christie, I'd like to get your perspective on this as well. Have you seen technology either strengthen or unintentionally weaken the client experience? Yeah. So as Jack mentioned, it's in the way that these veterinarians are using the technology, and you let the technology do what it's good at, and you spend your time focusing on getting that client engaged, and you're listening to them. So you're actually spending your time doing the things that actually help on the client journey. You're not doing the stuff that's already done for you, right? And so it allows you that freer time to really engage that client so that you are good at retaining those clients over an extended period of time.

Mm-hmm. All right. Dr. Amanda, if a practice leader is dealing with burnout, turnover, or inconsistent team performance, what are some practical steps they can take to rebuild trust, clarity, and momentum inside the hospital? Well, I want to take it back to what you said, Dr. Christie. You said it so well, that we were trained to be veterinarians and to do the medicine well, but just like business and not really having that be a well-developed part of us, it's the same for leadership. So there's so many of us that find ourselves in a leadership role, and even if we have great intentions, we often don't have the training to do it well or the bandwidth.

And so for that, any time that we're hearing burnout, we're having significant turnover, and if you're noticing just any subtle cues in your team members, like maybe people used to always come back to lunch on time and now they're late. If they're no longer asking questions or seem engaged, those are certainly earlier red flags than to wait for someone to leave. But that is always a key indicator that we need some more information, and you need to spend some more time with your team. And feedback is, again, something I've mentioned before. It's so important. We're missing so much information as far as what's going on. So burnout, I'm almost sick of the word.

It's said so much, but it's because it's experienced that often by every role in the profession. So although it's collectively felt, it's uniquely experienced. So each individual has something or a cluster of unique things that contribute to what is causing burnout for them the most. And so feedback, I strongly encourage, and you're going to have to be vulnerable, too. If you want your team to be vulnerable with you, you have to be vulnerable with your team. So find ways to solicit anonymous feedback with your team, and I would suggest asking these few questions, starting with, "What is one thing that is keeping you from being able to do your job well or is contributing to burnout the most?"

At least one. And then, because we want to empower our team to be solution-oriented, I would then follow that up with, "What are maybe two potential solutions that you see that could help that issue that you're having?" And then this is where you offer yourself up. "As a leader, what is something that I can do to better support you?" And then often it may not be what you could do, but what you shouldn't do. So then you follow up by saying, "As a leader, maybe what is one thing I should stop doing to make this a better workplace?" So get more information and spend more time with your team, and that is one of the hardest things for us to do, because pulling us away from our patient feels so uncomfortable and foreign.

But as leaders, a veterinary leader especially, you have to move from being patient-centric to team-centric. If you can't do that, then you're just not going to have a well-functioning team. Mm-hmm. All right. So the next challenge is making sure people can actually find your practice when they're looking for care. So let's go deeper on that idea of being found. When a pet owner needs a vet, almost all of that starts with a search on Google, and now increasingly through AI tools as well. What does it actually take for a practice to show up at that exact moment, and where do most clinics fall short? I think it's a great question, and I think that's the heart of the problem.

So we'll take a step back. So when a pet owner actually needs a vet, the moment usually starts with a search. They might be having a dog, and the dog might be limping, their cat might be not eating for days, or maybe they just moved into a new house, and needs a vet. So they grab their phone and search. They type things like, "vet near me," "emergency vet open now," or "puppy vaccines near me," something like that. And that is a very important moment because they're just not browsing. They need help right at that moment. So the real question is simple. Does your clinic show up in that exact moment? And when you show up, do you look like the practice they should trust?

Which I mentioned earlier, because marketing is giving them a reason to find you and choose you. So- And yeah, so most of the time, the first thing they see is the Google Map section. And usually Google shows the first three clinics, with ratings, reviews, and phone numbers and directions, et cetera. So the small sections matters a lot because most of them look at the reviews first. So most pet owners will choose from the first few options. And of course, me or anyone here will not go scroll through many pages to find vet practices because it's emergency, they want to find the very best ones. So every clinic should ask those two questions. Are we showing up there?

And if we are, do we look like the best choice compared to the clinics next to us, our competition? This is where many practices fall short because the first gap, like I mentioned earlier, is the Google Business Profile, because that is basically what is showing you there when they search. A lot of clinics set it up once, and then forget about it. Meaning when they start marketing, they just set up Google Business and that's it, they forget about it. So sometimes the hours may be wrong, sometimes the address may be wrong, services may be missing, and photos may be old, and reviews may not be even answered. And that profile is like your front door on Google, so it looks neglected when pet owners actually notice that it is like nobody has ever replied, there's no photos.

It's inconsistent. So talking about reviews, I would suggest if, again, reviews is something that you would get, you would not be asking for, but the patients will actually give you for the level of care that you offer. So again, if you have love letter reviews, it is actually a very positive sign for patients to choose you because they know how much of effort that you have put through every service that you offer. So if one clinic has actually 200 recent strong reviews and another has 20 old reviews, the comparison is very clear to a pet owner. And reviews help people to trust before they ever call. They also help Google to understand that your clinic is active and it is trusted for anyone.

And the third gap I would like to cover is the website, because a lot of clinics show up when someone searches their practice name. That is good, but it also helps people who already know them. So the bigger opportunity is showing up for what new pet owners actually is searching for. Like I mentioned, maybe it could be a senior dog checkup, puppy vaccines, emergency vet. Those are the keywords that they would be searching, and that's where new clients are actually found. Because now AI adds another layer on top of that because most of the time, if it's not for the random Google search, we might go and check with AI. So pet owners are starting to ask tools like ChatGPT or Google's AI mode, "Who's a good vet near me?" Or, "Where should I take my dog for this issue?"

But AI still looks for the same basic signs of trust, just like Google. So your Google profile, your reviews, your website, your clear service pages on your website, your local presence, all matters. There's no shortcut to it. So the clinics that build strong local visibility today are not only helping themselves show up on Google, they're also getting ready to be found through AI. So the basics have not changed, meaning the fundamentals are still the same. It's basically be easy to find, look trustworthy, and show clear proof that you can help. All right. Christy, one thing that's become clear tonight, I think, is that every practice wants to improve the client experience, but many teams already feel stretched.

The challenge isn't knowing improvement is important, it's knowing where to begin. So for a clinic that wants to improve the client experience without overwhelming the team, where would you suggest they start first? The appointment flow, client communication, follow-up, technology, or something else? I actually would start with something before all of that. I would actually work on mapping your client journey first. Mm-hmm. You want to make sure that you're mapping every single step. Okay, so you want to start with that client first realizing that they need help, just like Lester pointed out, right? And meet them where they're at there. So you're having good SEO, you have good marketer in place, and they're helping you establish that.

Okay, that's where the start of the relationship is, and he's absolutely right. This is where clients gain trust with you, and you're showing that through what you post, how you respond to reviews, the number of reviews, the quality of reviews. So, keep that in mind as you're working through the client journey. And then, what does that client experience as they go through actually scheduling the appointment? What does your hospital look like, and how do you help them through their arrival to the appointment? What does the exam look like? Then you go through your treatment protocols, your checkout protocols, and also your follow-up. And so just make sure you're mapping all of those things.

And then I think once that is finished, I think then you can go into, "Hey, this is how we're going to communicate this." And so you would approach communication first. And I would echo a lot of what Dr. Ensor had said about how to properly do that with a team. So starting with communication, setting your expectations, and then you can go through your appointment flow. So you want to kind of get away from the habit of adding too much. Maybe think about what you can take away at the same time. So you're simplifying things and making things more efficient. And then, of course, once you work through that appointment flow, I think the next focus is going to be on your follow-up.

And then everything that you are doing to help maintain and retain that client relationship, moving forward. And so in a pet's journey from birth to death, that includes offering things like grief support, when those clients have a pet that passes. And so just making sure you're rounding everything out so that in the end, that client's going to want to return right back to your door with their new puppy And so that's really, really important, that follow-through. Okay? And then I think last but not least is your technology. And, of course, your technology should really just be there to support all of your relationships, not replace them. So you're not going to want to automate the heck out of everything.

Automate the things that make sense, but make that customized experience for your clients very special and unique for them. So focus your time on that. Mm-hmm. Jack, I'd love to get your perspective on this as well. Yeah. So I think for me, I'd always start with the workflows that do create the most pressure, repetition, or client friction before sort of recommending any new platform. Personally, I'd want to sort of fully understand the full journey from the client's first contact through to consult, treatment, payment follow-up, and sort of the recall side of things. I tend to sort of initially zone in on receptionists. I think they're quite incredible people with the fact that they are able to do so many things at once. I mean, the amount of times I go into practice where we're doing a discovery or an analysis, and you've got this poor receptionist that's on the phone to a client while typing out an email, while responding on a client communication tool, while also trying to communicate with you in sign language to say, "Just bear with me one second." Now, for me, reception is usually where sort of quite a lot of inefficiency shows up from phones ringing constantly, clients chasing results, prescription requests, appointment changes, insurance queries, payment queries, and obviously then you've got the general admin and also dealing with the printer. Now, if we can sort of reduce the pressure there, we can improve the experience with clients and free the team to focus on sort of the higher value work.

Then I would be looking at sort of things like around the appointment booking, reminders, registration forms, consent forms, payment labs. But ultimately, all of this comes down to sort of really understanding where are the areas where you experience the most pain. And as what Dr. Christy said, you need to sort of map out the workflow first. And I would also bring the team in earlier in some cases to try and get their feedback over where is work being duplicated, where are clients waiting, where is the team sort of manually copying information from one system to another? Where are mistakes and delays happening? Once you really understand the workflows, when you understand from the team's perspective, because ultimately you're going to need to get them on board, and this is where you want to integrate a champion to really effectively integrate a solution, because you're not always going to have the full idea. You're going to have one perspective as a leader.

And I think that's something which we need to consider. So once you understand all that, then the technology decision becomes a lot clearer from my perspective. Amanda, I'd like to get your perspective as well. From a leader perspective, how do you introduce change without creating change fatigue? Oh my goodness. That's such an exceptional question and very timely. Even though it feels like there's more change now than ever, but my entire career feels like as soon as I'm comfortable with one aspect of medicine, it changes. But that's probably the most consistent thing, right, is change, in veterinary medicine especially. And the truth is that the team has to really feel like they're bought in and that they're a part of it. Too many times, I mean, I've been guilty of that. I've gone to continuing education.

I hear all this amazing information. I can't wait to bring it back to my team, and we need to start this today. No one else was privy to that conversation or that knowledge, but I'm adamant that this needs to be the way we do things from here on out about something. But that never, or rarely, is effective, and so most of the time, there needs to be a discussion around what kind of change are we-- like what is the problem? I think you alluded to that really well, Jack, that we at least need to acknowledge when the problems exist, what change we're considering that may be a solution to that problem, and that we hopefully have some round table discussion about what team members likely see are pros and cons of that change. What are barriers that we may encounter that we need to consider?

And everyone needs to feel truly bought in before we move forward with that change. Mm-hmm. All right. Lester, getting back to you, I think this is something that a lot of our listeners are really curious about. A lot of owners are nervous about marketing spend because they genuinely can't tell what's working. So from a performance standpoint, how should a practice know whether their marketing is actually paying off? And what separates marketing that grows a practice from marketing that just burns through budget? Great. Good question, actually. It's, I think, one of the most important questions because this is where a lot of marketing money gets wasted.

Mm-hmm. Most practice owners who are not against marketing, it's just that they're nervous, because they cannot clearly see what is working or exactly what is working. So from a performance point of view, the first question should not be how many likes did we get? Or how many people saw the ad? The better question is: Did this bring up new client opportunities or new patient opportunities? So that is the difference that I would see between marketing that grows a practice and then marketing that burns through a budget. So marketing that burns budget focuses too much on likes, followers, views, and search. Of course, you need them, but that's not basically performance.

Those numbers can look good, like I said, but they do not always mean new clients. So marketing that grows a practice focuses on business numbers. Like for example, how many client calls came in, how many forms were submitted, how many appointments were booked, how many of those became real patients? And that is what the owner really needs to know. And that is the goal, we need to follow that path if we are to make sure that we are doing right with the marketing budget. So a pet owner searches online, clicks on your practice, visits your website, calls or fills the form, and then books an appointment. If you can track all that path, you can make so much better decisions on how you're basically getting them to actually choose you.

So you can say sometimes I hear this, that the campaign is bringing in good new client calls, so they invest more here. So maybe it could be ads, it could be more time on showing the before and after or some kind of more stories on the website. And you can also say that the campaign is getting clicks, but it's not leading to bookings, so we need to fix it or stop spending right there. Those are a few things most pet owners actually say when they come to us. So, this is when actually marketing becomes less emotional and you stop guessing, you start making decisions based on proof. So a simple example is social media. A clinic may feel like social media is their best channel because it gets most likes and comments, but when you track it properly, you may find that most of that engagement is coming from existing clients.

So this is still useful for staying connected, of course, it's always something that you should be maintaining, but it may not be the main source of new patients. So at the same time, local search or Google Ads may not look as exciting, but they may be bringing in actual phone calls and bookings. So the answer is not social media is good or Google is good. The answer is which channel is producing real appointments at a cost that makes sense. So that is the mindset shift we actually need to have. And a vanity number tells you something must be working or not working. So, a business number tells you whether it was worth it, like what I just mentioned, all those few things.

And so if a practice wants to know whether marketing is paying off, they need to track the money from spend to call, from call to booking, and from booking to revenue. That whole line of path. So once you can see that, marketing stops feeling like a risky exposure or a risky expense. It becomes something you can manage, improve, and grow with confidence. Again, this is something you cannot do alone. Of course, you need experts that can help you go through that and understand what's happening with your practice. That's really interesting. All right, Jack, getting back to you. If a practice wants to use technology to improve efficiency and the client experience, what are the first workflows you would look at before recommending any new platform or tool?

I think realistically, from my perspective, it again goes back to trying to understand the problems that are being faced within the practice itself. So, every practice is unique. Every practice has their sort of unique challenges, and this is where I would very much sort of sit down, make sure that you've mapped out the workflows in detail so that you properly and truly understand them. And then following it in with bringing in the team and getting their perspective. Because like I said previously, as a leader, you generally have one perspective on something, or you see your practice from one particular lens. So if you can bring the other team members in to try to understand where there might be particular challenges or inefficiencies or double entry, whatever it might be, so that you can then really, truly sort of weight up.

And I always recommend to, like I say, you need to understand the problem first, and ideally, where possible, try to quantify what the impact of that problem would be based on time inefficiencies and cost or potential lost revenue through those inefficiencies. Right? So, using the Scribe as an example, it's like, okay, well, I reckon I'm going to be saving five minutes per consultation. Well, that five minutes has a value depending on who's in that consult room. Or you could flip that as it's a potential revenue gain. Once you can truly understand that, that's where you can sort of weight these solutions and kind of go, "Okay, this is the area I should be focusing on." Because like I say, every single area within veterinary is incredibly inefficient. So there's so much opportunity there.

So I can't really pick on one. I've given one example previously, which would be reception, but like I say, the whole consultation process or hospitalization process or discharge process does seem to be incredibly inefficient. Even down to taking payments can be painful at times. So there's lots of little tools that could be integrated, but it's trying to work out what the best solution is for you, and you can only do that when you start to sort of quantify and understand the financial impact, both from a positive and negative point of view, and time impact, so that you can actually weight those solutions and choose the solution that's most appropriate to your practice.

Right. Christy, I'd like to get your perspective as well. Does improving these workflows also improve the client experience? Dr. Christy? You're muted, Dr. Christy. Sorry about that. Sorry. So I think really- Separating the two aspects of, you've got your workflows, but then you also have your client journey. And so artificial intelligence, and technology is going to be good at doing the workflow things. And so like the documentation, as Jack pointed out, the scheduling, client education, summaries, medical records, some of the administrative work, and then any sort of predictive analytics that Jack could-- Actually, Lester pointed out in terms of what's working, what's not working.

You're looking at your data. So artificial intelligence technology is really good at those things, but as veterinarians in our businesses, we must protect things like trust. We need to be good about-- and we need to have confidence that these recommendations are actually coming from us and not an algorithm that AI printed out for us. All right? And so you need to add that element of trust in there, and then the element of being present in that decision matrix. And so, artificial intelligence can't sit beside our clients, and really get deep down and meet them where they're at. That's what we're for. And so focus on that aspect of it. And then, the relationships, we need to preserve the relationships over anything. And these clients, they really want someone who actually remembers who they are when they walk through the door. They want to be called by name, right?

And so in that aspect, and if you're doing it every single time, it's what you have ingrained and trained with your team is that that continuity is what's going to ultimately bring you loyalty. And so really just really focusing in on what the AI cannot do for you. All right. So we've talked about today's challenges. Let's spend a few minutes looking ahead. So Dr. Amanda, as veterinary medicine continues to face staffing pressure, rising client expectations, and more complex care demands, what do you think future-ready practices will do differently to keep their teams engaged and performing well? Well, with my experience with working in a lot of different hospital environments, it's still a rarity to be sitting down with your team on a regular basis. And so I'd hate to say that sets you apart because I would hope that more teams would integrate that and hopefully we will.

But that's something that really is the only way that we can implement all that we have already discussed that will always still be important. I don't know how many times collectively we've said the word trust, but whether that be trying to establish and maintain that with our clients, it's just equally as important when it comes to everything that we're trying to take on right now with our team members. So for me, like I said in that previous answer about change, it's so important that not only do we sit down with our team to implement that change together, but we have to consistently sit down again to see how it's going, right? So just because we thought that this was the problem, this is the solution, and we're all bought in on it, doesn't mean that it's working.

We can certainly lose momentum after a few weeks or months, and before you know it, if you aren't having regular discussions, then whatever technology you implemented or change that came about may be something that's actually causing more harm than good. And now your team is doing workarounds, and it's actually creating more friction that you don't even know about. So future-ready teams are just consistently building and maintaining trust with their team members, talking to them, and having that same level of respect for even trying on some of their ideas. Just because we might be leading a team doesn't mean we're the only ones with the bright ideas.

So I think that all of those things collectively, along with just paying attention to elevating psychological safety in your hospital, being vulnerable with your team, and just creating a culture of learning, mentorship, and that feedback loop, like I said before. All of those things help keep teams future-ready. All right. Lester, I'd like to bring the conversation back to something many owners are probably thinking about right now. This has been incredibly practical, Lester. So let's land the plane. For a practice owner watching right now who knows their marketing has gaps but honestly doesn't know where to start, what's the practical first step, and how can Ekwa actually help them figure that out?

Yes. I love this question. So because this is where many practice owners get stuck. They know something is not right. Maybe the schedule is up and down. Maybe the clinic down the road seems busier than your clinic, and maybe they are spending more money on marketing, but they cannot actually clearly see what it is doing. So the natural reaction is to jump to that thing that feels urgent. You get to that panic moment. You say, "Let's run an ad. Let's post more on social media. Maybe we need a new website." But I would take a step back, and the first thing is not to spend more money. The first thing is to step out, find out, and find out where the real gap is.

For one clinic, the issue might be local search. For another, it might be weak reviews. For another, it might be people may visit the website, but never call or book. So the practical first step is clear diagnosis. Mm-hmm. You need to know how your practice shows up online, how you compare with nearby clinics, your competition, where pet owners are dropping off, maybe through your website or maybe through your calls, and what should be fixed first. So this is why we created something called the practice growth audit or marketing strategy meeting. It's a- It's a complimentary 60-minute strategy session, but it's not just a casual call. Before the meeting, our team reviews your website, local search presence, the Google Business Profile, reviews social media and competition, and give you a roadmap. And then we show you what is working, like how we were just discussing earlier, and what is not working, and where the best growth chances are.

So the goal is for you to leave with a practical roadmap and the real blueprint on how we could get you there. And that means clear, quick wins, like the bigger gaps to fix the real issues that's happening, and a long-term plan to bring in more of the right patients that you deserve. So there's no pressure. If we are good to fit to work together, great. If not, you still leave with a plan you can use with your marketing team. So my advice is simple: Do not spend more money in the dark. Start with a clear picture of where you started and of where you stand and basically where your foundation is. Yeah, so you can book that complimentary practice growth audit.

Let us do the homework and come with the results, and we'll show you where your growth is hiding. So I think you can easily find that session on the slide, and you can also just book it through the veterinarybusinessinstitute.com/msm. Thank you, Lester. I hope everyone found that helpful. If you'd like to take advantage of that complimentary marketing strategy meeting, be sure to scan the QR code that is on your screen or use the booking link that has been shared in the chat. All right, let's continue with our discussion. All right. Dr. Christy, I'd like to get back to you. So as AI hybrid care models and new client expectations continue to reshape veterinary medicine, what do you think practices need to protect so that growth in technology still feel compassionate, personal, and trustworthy?

Again, I think really it is focusing on your customer needs, focusing on listening, and again, meeting them where they're at. Really customizing that experience. At a certain point, like I said, there's things that you're going to want to automate, but really, really take advantage of that extra time that technology is giving you in order to really nail that client journey and where they're at emotionally, mentally, spiritually, throughout that whole journey. And you focus on that and I think you're going to end up in a much better position than those that are just focusing on the medicine aspect. Mm-hmm. Amanda, I'd love your thoughts as well, because culture plays such a significant role here.

Yeah. Dr. Amanda, I'm so sorry, but you are muted. Thank you. Sorry about that. It was my turn to mute. Dr. Christy, you said it very well, but we need to do an analysis of what we're learning from this technology and see how we can implement better strategies moving forward, whether that be with the client experience and with the team. And we need to truly invite and welcome people to say, "I'm really struggling. I'm having a challenge with this, and I'm not getting it." Because it's a consistent thing that I've noticed with teams is that we feel like we got proper eye contact and a head nod, and now we feel like that team member gets it, and we can move on.

But that's often not the case, especially with a leader, because anyone who works underneath someone of more authority, they're going to be more likely to pretend like they know how to implement something when they really don't. So we really need to invite those reasons for it not being comfortable or just saying yourself that, "This is new, and I'm struggling a bit, too." And then maybe that will invite a more honest answer from your team member. Dr. Christy, getting back to you, just a bit of a curious question. Yeah. What do you hope never changes in veterinary medicine? Oh, I hope that we never, ever lose our true passion for what we do. Mm-hmm.

And I think that we're starting to experience a little bit of what Dr. Amanda said, that burnout, and making sure that we're setting up our systems to have that in mind. We know that there are a certain percentage of these people that are going to be experiencing burnout at some point. How do we prevent that from happening? How do we set up our systems to prevent that? How do we set up our communications to prevent that? And I think really those lead to more long-term satisfaction within team structures, helps prevent burnout, and leads to much more satisfaction and hopefully a renewed or regained spirit and passion for what we do. Jack, I would love to get you into this conversation as well.

Yeah, I agree exactly with what Dr. Christie just mentioned there. I think it is really important that obviously the industry doesn't lose its passion, and there has been evidence that has started to occur in some cases because of the added pressures, et cetera. So I think realistically it is, again, really trying to understand and trying to find ways in which you can better enable your team to avoid that sort of risk and that situation. And I think also with what Dr. Amanda mentioned around the culture, I cannot stress that more than anything. Even something that we've witnessed with our own business because you go into that risky, dangerous situation of assumptions, right?

Where you assume that everyone is on the same page and everyone understands, even down to your values. As an organization, we used to have 21 values, and I was like, "Well, these are so obvious." And it's obvious because that was me. That was based off me, and that's the mistake that we make. So really trying to make sure that we enable and support the team because they're the only ways that you're going to be able to thrive in this industry from my perspective. Technology is all great and it absolutely does enable, and it will give you an efficiency gain. It will give you an advantage in many ways, but if you haven't got these fundamentals right, then there is a big risk.

Mm-hmm. All right. Speaking of technology, I would like to finish our main discussion by looking ahead. Jack, again back to you. As practices become more digital, cloud-based, and connected, what technology risks or opportunities should veterinary leaders be paying closer attention to over the next few years? So it is a very exciting time. I know I'm saying that because I'm from the world of technology, but I genuinely do believe it, and that's purely down to the fact because I've seen the transformational change that the technology can have, and it's not the core reason, but is definitely a supporting factor. The biggest opportunity is that technology can obviously move from being that support function, I've put it in brackets because sometimes it feels like it's not actually supporting, to becoming I suppose a real growth driver. It's that better use of data automation. All the information that's provided to you because it's not just data anymore, you're actually getting something useful from it.

And obviously integrating those workflows better will ultimately help the practices improve efficiency, increase the capacity, and deliver a much, much better client experience. I know I keep banging on about the AI Scribe, but if a solution like that is integrated properly, then you are going to provide a much greater experience to the patient and also the client, which is ultimately the driver here. The key to good technology is it should be invisible. You shouldn't even notice it really being there. It's just an incredibly good and efficient tool in helping you thrive. But the risk is that practices become more dependent on that technology.

The amount of times that people come to me going, "Jack, I'm not going to move my server, my PIMs on the local server because I can see it over there." And they fear this risk of going into the cloud because they're worried about the resiliency side of things, and actually there are bigger problems by having the server locally, and I can promise you that. But we do find that especially now, our PIMs, our phones, our payment systems, email, all forms of client communication, they're all based off the internet service, for example. And when that goes down, the operational impact is significant and it's immediate. I've witnessed, luckily not a client of mine, where they had a local server, their system went down, they were mid-operation, they were about to amputate a leg.

They called the client to go and confirm which leg it was. The client gave the wrong leg. Luckily they didn't go ahead, but that was an example where they were not prepared for the potential risks. The things we've got to consider around cybersecurity, and that's obviously another field I'm in, and the resilience, these need to be board level or senior level issues, not just the IT person's problem. Over the next years, I really genuinely believe that veterinary leaders need to pay close attention to identity security, things like multifactor authentication. I know it's a real pain in the bum, but it's incredibly important because you will be very grateful for when it saves you one time.

Making sure you've got the relevant endpoint protection, like antivirus stuff that's on your machine. Making sure you've got appropriate backups, making sure you've got some form of internet resilience, ensuring that you've got that data governance. Also the supplier risk element of it. Have you done the appropriate due diligence on your vendors? Are they protecting you and your clients' data? Because you have a responsibility. The other big thing, the big acronym in the room is AI. We need to not just understand what it can do, but where the data goes, who has access to it, and whether it's being used in a safe manner. From my perspective, the practices that do this bit well will not just be more secure, they're ultimately going to be more efficient, more trusted, and they will have the ability to scale.

So I think they will find that technology can be a superpower if it's been integrated correctly and they've got the appropriate resilience in place. Mm-hmm. I think there are a lot of trends that are coming in recent times when it comes to technology. So what's one technology trend you think practices are underestimating? I think, to be honest, I'm going to flip this back a tiny bit. Cybersecurity, it's something that's really significantly underappreciated. The one thing that I've noticed about this industry, bearing in mind that I've been working in it for 22 years this August, which is significant, and like I say, I'm not a vet, but I've been surrounded by vets for a very long time, is that practices are like a low-hanging fruit.

Hackers don't go after them because of the vast amount of data, even though it is incredibly valuable, it's probably not as valuable to a hacker. They're targeted because it's just too easy. You find with these practices, they've got a sign outside their door saying, "Please come in." The front door's wide open, the key's in the door just in case it shuts. The windows are open, and it even points them to exactly where they need to go. Because we're not putting in the appropriate measures to keep the information, the data, and our systems safe, which is so fundamental in this modern day and age. The amount of cyber attacks that you're hearing on a regular basis is significant, and it's just because it's too easy.

You're getting spotty teenagers that are getting bored, that are essentially using things like AI to try and learn and fiddle and just muck around, and you happen to be the victim, which can end up, in some cases, putting you out of business. So I feel that cybersecurity and general resilience is the thing that's really underappreciated, undervalued, and really significantly should be looked at, because if you don't get that part right, you are putting yourself at significant risk. And that's not to scare people, it's just a known fact. And it's not that you need to become Fort Knox. There are some really basic, fundamental things that can be done to make your life so much easier and to know that you've got that reassurance of, "I've done everything I can to keep my data and my client data and my staff data safe to allow me to thrive in my area."

That's amazing. Dr. Amanda, I'd like to bring you into the conversation as well. Now, as these technologies become more common, how important will leadership and communication be in helping teams feel confident using them? Like mentioned before, it's vital that leadership is not the one that is the only reason for the change and the implementation happening, or is the only person who's bought in with it. Like I said before, it's very important that everyone understands what problem it's trying to solve. It's even more important for you to identify, as a leader, how this directly impacts that individual person. How does this make their life easier?

How does this make them able to do their job better, provide better patient care? Because just the collective why is often not enough for everyone to keep doing it every day when they're so used to doing things the way they've always done it, which is unfortunately one of the worst themes in veterinary medicine. We're a highly resistant to change profession, but each person needs to feel like they understand why this is helping, not just the practice, but them and the patient that they directly work with. Because other than that, they're going to stick with what they know, what's easy, and often tell you that they understand what's going on when they don't.

All right. Dr. Krista, do you have anything you'd like to add into that? Yeah. Actually, with what Dr. Amanda was saying, I would caution us as leaders not to make assumptions that people might know about something or know how to do something. Make assumptions and already have those questions answered in your head, so that if they're not asking those questions, because sometimes they don't know what questions to ask, you're actually introducing that information ahead of time, so that, "Yeah, okay. Yes, I was thinking that, but I didn't think to ask about it." So I think being a little bit proactive about that and already answering those questions ahead of time in case they have a tendency not to want to speak up.

All right. Thank you all. I have to say, this has been incredibly insightful conversation. We've covered a lot of ground, but I'm sure many of our attendees have questions of their own. So let's open the floor and hear what's on your mind. And as a reminder, just letting you know, if we don't get to your questions tonight, don't worry. We'll make every effort to follow up after the webinar where possible. We have a few registered questions that I would like to start with. Roselle had asked, "What cash flow strategies can help small clinics stay financially healthy year-round?" I would maybe like to start with Dr. Kristi. Can you repeat the actual question?

Yes. What cash flow strategies can help small clinics stay financially healthy year-round? Yeah. I think if you are not familiar with how the lean concept works- Mm-hmm ... especially in startups, trying things. Give yourself some room to experiment, but also realize what some of the risks are in doing that. Try your best to minimize those risks and mitigate it. But allow yourself to experiment a little bit, and that might be having a team outside of the normal team doing the duties. Start testing some new ideas and things like that to throw into your operations. But you want to make sure that you have everybody on board, everybody is aligned once you start to implement those ideas. But yeah, just making sure that you're staying fully transparent in the transformation is what really kind of leads to success in this very difficult task of doing that.

Mm-hmm. Dr. Amanda, I'd love your perspective as well. How do you think staffing decisions and team efficiency also influence financial health? Well, when it comes to that, I think it's really important that we I think every role in a veterinary hospital team feels uncomfortable having talks about finances and discussing that with clients. We are constantly trying to battle feeling like a used car salesman, and so trying to demystify what that is for everyone to truly believe in the services that we're providing, why it's important. I could even just, for an example, like dental care. A lot of times, that can really be something that is hard for a client to be able to find within their budget. But it's very important if we have our staff that are communicating finances to clients, whether that be the doctor or any other role, that they really have to understand why it's important so that it comes through authentically. And for me, that's probably one of the most financial important conversations I could say when it comes to just team wellbeing, is that they have to truly feel like these tests matter. They give us information.

This treatment really matters, but also to meet the client where they're at. I will always say that, too. We can't force anything on anyone, nor should we. We should always have a goals of care discussion and invite the client into allowing us to know what it is that they have to work with today, what their goals are, and trying to kind of make that conversation a little bit easier to have. Because I know it's uncomfortable. All right. So we've got another question from Lisa Lane. "How can healthcare practices successfully market proactive wellness care in a world where most patients are conditioned to seek reactive care?" Maybe Lester, we could start with you.

Sure. Yeah, I think it's a great question. I think the biggest thing to understand is that we are not just fighting another clinic, meaning fighting for our competition, or we are fighting a habit. Most pet owners call the vet only when something feels wrong, their dog is sick, or their cat is not eating, or something feels urgent. That urgency type of approach. But wellness care has to be marketed in a different way, in my opinion. I would say do not lead with animal exams, or something that sounds more of like a task and a bill. Because the way you position wellness care can actually-- It matters on whether they would actually choose that treatment or not. So I would say lead what they really care about because more healthy years is what actually matters for a pet.

So the peace of mind, catching small problems before they become scary, expensive problems, then educate them in simple ways. So I would say a short post about dental disease, a quick email about senior pet checkups, a reminder about vaccines or blood work. So pet owners do care about these things, so they just need to understand why early care matters. And finally, make it easy to say "Yes." So use simple wellness plans, clear pricing. Always remember, the pricing needs to be very clear. If it's too confusing to understand, I'm not going to choose it. And text or email reminders, so they don't have to remember everything on their own. So the simple answer is this.

Basically, change the message, educate often, and make the next step easy for them to say "Yes." And when you do that, wellness care stops feeling like an extra cost. It actually becomes part of helping pets live longer and healthier lives. Dr. Amanda, from a communication and client education standpoint, how do practices encourage those conversations before a pet becomes sick? That's a great question. And Lester, I think that you actually answered it pretty well as well. So for that, it's something that we have to have with our whole team, having a cohesive message of how we discuss wellness with our clients. And again, there has to be a deep understanding of what those wellness visits can do for us. And I often feel that we have to have discussions with our teams with even just having team member patients or pets, their own pets, having wellness exams done.

And all of a sudden, even though we did this blood work and everything seemed fine and that we didn't seem to have any symptoms or problems, we found something early. And now this team member has a story that's authentic that they can share with their clients with why routine blood work matters. Same thing with doing routine dentals, where our patients often don't show symptoms of dental disease, and they've often been dealing with infection and pain in their mouth for years. And now we're taking radiographs, and we find it. And so having those discussions with your team on a regular basis with hopefully the clients that may already be taking advantage of wellness visits. And what are we learning?

What new knowledge are we gaining on our patients so that we can actually continue to use that in conversations to encourage others for us to be able to proactively do things for our patients so that we can find things early and have less invasive treatment. And often are going to be able to offer those treatments at a much lower cost to a client as well. So many things, but it takes consistent conversation, just like everything else. All right. We have two more questions to go. Nancy Carter, she has asked, "What is the right way for a practice to review and adjust pricing throughout the year?" Dr. Kristi, I think maybe you could start with that one.

Yeah. You want to make sure that you are doing your own audits, and I would recommend probably at least a couple of times a year, maybe even quarterly. Yeah, making sure that you know exactly what's happening under the hood, and you have a clear understanding of what drives growth, and what are things that might pose risks to yourself and your operations and your finances are concerned. So like I said, I probably would start there. All right. One more question from Jeff Stanford. How should a practice responsibly inform patients about its use of AI and apply it in areas like the exam room, reception, and data management at a time when the public is becoming more skeptical of AI?

Jack, I think this is definitely a question for you. Absolutely. Yeah. No, it shouldn't be something new to us. So quite a number of different hospitals and practices have already integrated solutions like CCTV, and that is to sort of help develop the team and protect the team, and obviously to retain and collect sort of information to enhance the whole experience. And realistically, we should have things in place already with that type of solution. Now, the types of things that we sort of have noticed is that generally it will be included as part of the agreement, the sign-up with the client. So initially, it's kind of them, if they're aware of what it is that is being captured, and I appreciate not everyone reads those documents, but obviously that's covering you from a legal perspective.

But equally, I appreciate I'm not legal, and I'd always say seek your legal representative's advice around that sort of side. And I think it's really just trying to, especially when you've newly integrated something, this is why it's the really significant component of getting your team on board and understanding the value of the technology, because if they don't see the value, they're definitely not going to sell it to the client. If you go in and say, "Well, this blasted thing's listening to every conversation I'm having, and I really don't like it," then the client's going to be like, "Well, I'm not very comfortable about this. Can you stop this?" And so you're going to have to sort of go through the basics around what are the types of questions that clients are likely to ask for that particular type of technology. And it's an interesting conversation because there are certain elements or certain processes where the client may never be aware that there's actually AI being used, and it's a bit of a contentious subject, because I've noticed that some people within the profession have the attitude of, "Well, look, if they don't know about it, they don't need to know about it." And there is an aspect where maybe there are certain elements where that is okay, as long as obviously you are absolutely integrating that human validation, which at the end of the day, with any form of AI, there has to be that human validation.

There is no discussion around who's responsible for the final result. It is you as a professional, and I think that's something that we really absolutely need to bear in mind. So, if you're sending off something from a diagnostics point of view, but you're at least having it come back, or even if it's a differential diagnosis where you're using some form of clinical AI and the information's coming back, you have to use your knowledge and your experience to provide the final answer. And if that is the case in how you're using AI, then actually maybe it's okay not to inform the customer that you're using AI because you're using it to make yourself more efficient and it's just expanding your knowledge set.

It's not like you would go and let them know that you're going and looking up a particular condition on peer-reviewed content. What's the point? That's a waste of time, right? So, why would you do the same thing with AI as long as you're adding your final bit to it and you believe and you agree with what it is that's being provided? But where there are aspects where, for example, you're using a scribe within the actual practice or you're recording calls to sort of look at what the quality of the call was like and how the client was feeling, that is maybe something where you might want to explain it, especially maybe in a consultation room where you can say, "Well, look, this is the reason why we've integrated this technology."

And you explain to them the benefit of what it is providing. "It's allowing me to provide a greater experience to you." And be prepared for some people who are going to sort of push back and go, "I don't feel comfortable with that." And that is because we're also at this period where not everyone understands this technology. Not many people do explain this technology, especially when you've got a black box in the background when you really start digging in. No one understands it, let's face it. But at the end of the day, if someone is not comfortable, then you have to have the necessary measures in place to be able to kind of go, "Okay, we're not going to use that on this occasion, and we'll go back to the existing system because I don't want you to feel uncomfortable," especially when you're dealing with things like PII, personally identifiable information, which may make people feel uncomfortable. So, and there are quite a number of different checklists out there, and this is where the due diligence comes in.

Due diligence is so key with any solution that you integrate. So, you can use quite a number of different measures. I'm not completely hot on the American ones. I know what the UK and the European ones are. But there will be a number of different acts out there that will guide you through the process of correctly implementing and integrating AI, but also making sure that you're ticking all the relevant boxes from a consent perspective. Thank you so much, Jack. Kristi, I'd love to hear your perspective as well from the clinical side. How do practices embrace AI while ensuring clients still feel that human connection and trust? Yeah. So, as several of us have pointed out, is letting technology and artificial intelligence do what it's meant to do for right now, and that is to supplement you in your research and giving you a little bit deeper dive in what you can offer.

But really focusing on how you're delivering that message, focusing on the client's Response to the messages, making sure that you are fine-tuning and customizing what you need to do in that moment to ensure that family, client, and patient are all experiencing what's satisfactory to them, and you're actually giving them what they need. All right. Thank you so much, everyone. Thank you for joining the live Q&A, and again, reminding you, if we haven't got to all of your questions tonight, don't worry. We'll make every effort to follow up after the webinar. All right, so before we wrap up, I'd just like to leave you with one final reminder. So if tonight's discussion has sparked ideas about growing your practice, strengthening your marketing, or improving your online presence, don't forget to take advantage of that complimentary marketing strategy meeting from ECBA Marketing. If you haven't already, be sure to scan the QR code on your screen or use the link that's been shared in the chat. It's a great opportunity to receive personalized insights tailored to your practice. We'd certainly encourage you to take advantage of it. So as we begin wrapping up tonight's discussion, I'd like to finish with something we ask all of our panelists.

We've covered a lot of ground this evening, and I know our audience has plenty to think about, but if there was just one idea you hoped every attendee would remember after tonight, what would it be? Dr. Kristi, maybe we could start with you. Yeah, and it helps me to finish up my thought about pricing strategy. Price everything on value. Focus on that, the value that you bring that justify what you're charging, you're asking your clients to give you in exchange. That is where you're going to find your differentiation among other competitors as well, is focusing on that one or two things that you do really exceptionally well and building your moat from that.

Mm-hmm. Dr. Amanda? Sure. I would say feedback is your best friend, and really learning how to get comfortable with doing that is an important thing for every team and every leader. And if components that I could leave someone with in order to give effective feedback, especially one-on-one, it would be first and foremost always be specific with the situation and what occurred, with the impact that it has on that individual, the team, the client, the patient. And in the future, what that looks like if that behavior continues. And that can be for positive or corrective feedback, but those three steps allow you to have that few minutes that you spend giving feedback actually move the needle and get you somewhere, especially with more clarity.

Mm-hmm. All right. Maybe we could, Leston? Yeah. So if there's one idea I hope every attendee remembers it is, I think, marketing is not just about getting more attention. It's about being found, being trusted, and being chosen at the moment a pet owner needs help. So a pet owner may not know your clinic yet, but when the dog is sick or the cat is sick, or they need care, they are looking for a new vet, or they're basically going to search. So the practices that win are not always the biggest practices. They are the ones that show up clearly, look trustworthy, have strong reviews, and make it easy for the pet owner to make the next step. So, my main message is very simple. Do not guess with your marketing.

Know where you stand, fix the gaps, and build trust before the pet owner even calls. So this is how marketing becomes more than promotion. It becomes more of a storytelling approach. So it becomes a growth system for the practice and a better path to care for the pet. Thank you so much. Jack, we could end with you. So for me, I feel like the biggest opportunity, and this is really ironic coming from a tech, is not to make veterinary practices more digital, but to sort of ultimately make them more human. When we integrate this technology properly, it removes the friction, it protects the business, and gives the team the time and the confidence back.

So in my view, everyone wins, and that's all stakeholders. So that's the practice, the people, the clients, and ultimately, the patients that they care for. All right. Thank you so much. That brings us to the end of tonight's webinar. On behalf of everyone at the Veterinary Business Institute, I'd like to extend my sincere thanks to our outstanding panelists for sharing not only their expertise but also their practical experiences and thoughtful perspectives. So thank you to each of you for spending your evening with us and for contributing to such an engaging discussion. I'd also like to thank everyone who joined us live. We know your time is valuable, and we're truly grateful that you choose to spend part of your evening with us.

So we hope today's discussion has provided you with practical ideas, fresh perspectives, and actionable insights that you can take back to your own practice. Before you sign off, we'd really appreciate if you could take a moment to complete the brief feedback survey that will appear at the end of today's webinar. Your feedback is incredibly valuable and helps us continue improving these sessions and delivering content that is most relevant to the veterinary community. Thank you once again for joining us. We hope you enjoyed today's discussion, and we look forward to welcoming you to another Veterinary Business Institute webinar in the future. Have a wonderful evening, stay safe, and take care.

Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks very much, guys. Great to meet you all. Yeah, you too. And you. Good to meet you all. Bye. Bye-bye. Bye.