You have worked so hard to get a client into the exam room. You went to vet school, you started your own practice, you hired people to work for you, you took on so many responsibilities and have taken so much risk. Now you can enjoy the fruits of your labor; you have a client in the exam room, needing care. You are eager to go to work; to make your diagnosis, your recommendations and to have another interesting case to deal with and to be paid for.

You are overlooking one important detail though; the client has to say ‘yes’ before you can take care of their pet. Do all your clients say ‘yes’ to your recommendations? This is impossible. But how many do and how many do not? Do you even know? Did you know, most of those who say ‘no’ do so because you did not show enough value in the service. If you don’t know all this, you are going around in circles; you think you are working real hard and going somewhere, but in reality you are going nowhere.

In this article I will therefore share a few useful tips that if applied, will help you increase your client compliance. The good thing about this is that even a small improvement in client compliance over a year, will make a huge difference in your profit!

Tip #1: Asking powerful questions

Before clients can trust your recommendations, they need to feel you understand them. We are all emotional creatures and we all make buying decisions based on emotion, not logic. We only use logic to explain to ourselves why we need the product or service we WANT to buy.

A big mistake most veterinarians make in the exam room is bombard clients with facts and data. In other words, only speaking to their logic. However, as people make buying decisions based on emotion, the doctor’s logical approach falls on deaf ears. Are you beginning to see why so many of your clients say they want to think about your recommendations, or some other excuse?

The best way to show you understand your clients is by asking them questions which touch their emotional need. However, asking powerful questions is not easy as we are used to only asking weak questions. Keep reading and you will see what we mean, then you can decide if you want to learn to ask better questions.

Powerful questions are questions which send your clients searching inside themselves for what’s true for them. On the other hand, weak questions stem from a belief that you already know what’s best for the client. Just because clients come in to see you doesn’t necessarily mean you know exactly what motivates them and what turns them off. Having such a belief and asking weak questions will thus prevent your clients from revealing to you what motivates them to say yes. Even though weak questions may give you your desired results, more times than you care for, they will not.

What distinguishes powerful questions from “weak” questions, then?

1.      Weak questions are close-ended; powerful questions are open-ended.

2.      Weak questions can be answered with Yes or No; powerful questions cannot.

3.      Weak questions keep listeners on the surface of the matter; powerful questions send them searching deeper and in the direction you want them to go.

4.      Weak questions can make your clients “lose the purpose” of your service; powerful questions will move them further toward realizing how unique you and your services are.

5.      When you ask weak questions, you usually are not really listening; you are making assumptions,  while when you ask a truly powerful question, most likely you are listening to your client and can detect what matters to them.

6.      Powerful questions will lead you to build a stronger trust with your clients.

7.      The best way to tap into your ability to ask powerful questions is to trust your intuition. Your intuition and your ability to ask powerful questions are incredible tools to give you what you want in life, including better client compliance.

8.      Typically, powerful questions start with: “What”, “How” or “Where”.

9.      Weak questions stem from listening to clients’ words; powerful questions spring out from listening to clients’ words, tone of voice and body language.

10.  Once you learn to trust your intuition and listen to your clients on a deeper level, it will be very easy for you to ask the right powerful questions.

Some examples of weak questions:

• “Do you want me to run these tests today?”

• “Shall we try this treatment for now and see how he does?”

• “Is that test ok with you?”

• “We can do plan A or plan B, which one would you like me to do?”

Do you see how limiting these questions are? At most they are directed to your clients’ logic, leaving their emotional-self out.

Now let’s take a look at what powerful questions look like in the exam room in various situations:

Some areas powerful questions can improve client compliance are:

a) Making clients understand there is a problem:

If she could talk, what do you think she would say about this?

He may have….. What do you think this may be doing to him?

b) Making clients see the impact of the problem:

How do you think this is influencing her life quality?

How do you think this is affecting his ability to interact with you?

c) Finding out the perceived benefits of solving the problem:

What did you have in mind when you came in today?

How is my explaining you what the problem is going to affect your decision?
There is a very good chance, if we do…., that he is going to be back to normal. How would that be for you?

d) Reiterating and removing client concerns:
You want to prescribe a procedure requiring anesthesia but you’ve noticed with your intuition that your client is concerned about it:

“I understand you are concerned about the anesthesia. What else can I share with you about our rigorous anesthesia protocol that will alleviate this concern?”

“How does the value of treating her condition stack against the risk of anesthesia for you?”
 

Can you see how these powerful questions come from a deeper emotional level of self?

Now, let me ask you a few powerful questions:

• What do you need to let go of to ask powerful questions in the exam room, and frankly, in your work?
• What would higher compliance rate give you?
• What still stands in the way of your ability to ask stronger questions?
• Where do you begin?

Tip #2: Using the right words to increase client compliance

You see, the vast majority of your clients have no way of telling whether your service is better than anybody else’s. That is why, if you use stronger words, your compliance rate will soar. Your words always have a significant impact on your clients whether you are aware of it or not.  In other words, the words you use determine the response you get from your clients.

How often do you use scripts? Actually this is a trick question.  We all use scripts all the time. Our scripts are written down and practiced or they are unwritten and casual. Scripts are defined as a collection of organized words. If you think before you talk, you are using a script. The only question is: How much thought you have given it? If you think about it, most likely you have a specific way you introduce yourself when you walk into the exam room, there is a repetitive way to how you begin the exam, to the words you use when conducting the exam, to the words you use when diagnosing a problem and in how and what you recommend.

Any idea how this patterned script was formed? Most likely it was formed by chance and by trial and error. Some of it was probably formed by the way clients responded to your messages, by your beliefs and values and by what you knew or didn’t know at the time. You will have also noticed how the words you use have changed over the years as you gained knowledge and confidence in your profession. That’s awesome, but this was still in reaction to external circumstances.

Here, though, is a great opportunity for you to turn things around; by taking more control of the words you use in the exam room. Being on stage every time you communicate with your clients, how do you then decide which scripts and which words to use for maximum results?

The best way to improve your communication with your clients is to know exactly what you are going to say BEFORE you actually speak with them. This is where planned scripts are so useful in giving you better client compliance. Planned and predesigned scripted words are easily done because the vast majority of what clients want is the same everywhere.

The greatest benefit of planned scripts is that they actually allow you to be creative. As you grow more confident with your mental scripts, you no longer have to concern yourself with which words to use; you just know with certainty what you need to say. Like being on stage, though, you cannot just blurt out your scripts mechanically. This is where good scripts fit in beautifully with better listening and with an improved ability to ask powerful questions. Doing so will allow you to find out exactly what it is your clients really want. Then just open a mental drawer, pull out the right script and say it in a way that will make your clients feel it comes from an experienced and confident professional.

So, how do you create your own scripts?

Naturally I am not going to tell you what to say as we are all different people. As such, we have a different value system, different aspirations and drives. A good place to begin creating your own script, though, is by thinking through what you would like to achieve from your communication with your clients, with what you would like your practice to give you and, mainly, from what your clients want. From our personal experience, 90% of what clients want is the same. I discovered this by interviewing many clients, by taping many office calls and by inquiring with other veterinary professionals as to what their experience on the subject was. Putting this information together with what I believe is important for our patients and through experimenting and rehearsing our scripts, allowed me to develop an ironclad system to get outstanding client compliance.

Also, think of what the common 90% of what your clients want are and what they are most bothered with: cost of service, fear of anesthesia, trust in your ability to diagnose and treat the condition, whether the condition will come back, etc.  Give these points some thought and then write down what you think and what you feel your answers should be.  Combine what comes up for you with your knowledge of the case in question and with an enhanced ability to listen, and you will have your script.  Once you have a script you like and can work with, rehearse it with your staff members.  You are now ready to improve your client compliance.

By Dr. Steve Kornfeld

www.veterinarysuccessservices.com