A Case study – Real time monitoring

A few weeks ago we had a quarterly meeting with one of our clients and although business was good, vaccination numbers were dropping.

Some of you may or may not remember the general rule of thumb for veterinary clinics – in most small animal practices the number of vaccinations (adult and puppy courses) equals the number of consultations equals the number of active clients.

In this business although consults = active clients, vaccinations were lower, and previously had been similar. This business owner is a ‘good’ business owner so has ‘smartvetapp’ which runs a weekly ‘blood test’ on his business (much like a good pet owner that has 6 monthly geriatric bloods like Zack). With the help of smartvetapp we could see vaccinations trending downwards.

Here you can see an example of the monthly trend for a NORMAL clinic.

GREEN line =consultations, RED line=vaccinations, YELLOW line = repeat consultations
*Courtesy of SmartVetApp http://www.smartvetapp.com

In the client mentioned above, it was clear that the consultations (Green line) was significantly more than the vaccinations (red line). Below you can see a weekly trend of vaccinations, clearly dropping.

We discussed the likely causes of this concerning result and as soon as he investigated he found that internal reminder systems had been changed without his knowledge! He immediately changed them back and has conservatively saved himself $80,000 revenue loss this year.

For a case like this, it’s pretty clear to see that you would have difficulty detecting missed vaccinations very quickly, in fact the first sign of this illness would be a drop in revenue and then you would have to start investigating all the likely causes.

Much akin to a dog which presents with chronic weight loss, lower revenue is non-specific and possibly, just like our underweight dog, by the time you see this clinical sign, a lot of irreversible damage has already occurred.

However, if this was a geriatric patient that had 6 monthly blood tests, early renal failure may have been detected long before the weight loss – but you can only test kidney function if you have the right tools.

I am sure you would all agree that your business is well worth the blood test (how frustrating is that client that doesn’t opt for their pet to have one) – and best of all the results are automatically emailed to you once a week.

Act now and let us help you install real time business monitoring in your business, it can literally save you tens of thousands.

On-line community and quarterly theme

Zack is a dog who is a couch potato and has an unusual life experience. His owners who were once exciting vets have now become boring accountants. They used to bring him into the exciting vet practice every day, now they bring him into a boring accounting office every day. This gives him a unique dog’s eye view on both professions.

Pictured above: It’s possible to powernap in public too! 

I love people and I love animals, this quarter was designed just for me! Our quarterly theme until June is ‘Community’. This celebrates the building of an online community called the ‘Vet Business Think-Tank’ to which, of course, you are all invited. All you need to do is go to:
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7048288/profile then click on the ‘Ask to join’ button.
Or if you are a technophobe like me, just email one of my team at admin@aplaccountants.com.au and they will do it all for you!

By simply joining, you will already make a difference in the world! By joining you will make an impact by planting a tree in Borneo to help re-establish Orang Utan habitat. Yes, I love Orang Utans and I’d love them to have a better environment.

Furthermore, for every post you make on the forum, you will make an impact by providing a dog in Nepal with one day of Rabies protection. How cool is that! I’m so glad I live in sunny Brisbane which is rabies free.

If you want to find out how this works, simply go to:
http://vetbusinessuniversity.com/welcome-community/ and look at the ‘widget’ on the right side of the page.

We have partnered with global charity B1G1.com to provide an interactive ‘giving’ experience.
Using B1G1 seems, so far, to have been an interesting and enjoyable experience.

Each step of the way, twice a week, my team blogs our progress on building a community. For those of you interested in the blog visit:
http://vetbusinessuniversity.com/blog/ (remember to read it backwards as blogs are in reverse date format).

My suggestion to you right now is help build my community as I love having people friends so go to https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7048288/profile then click on the ‘Ask to join’ button. This will join you to the Think-Tank community and get an Orang Utan a tree!

You should also be a ‘good’ business owner and have a look a www.smartvetapp.com – this will help keep your business healthy just like my regular bloods keep me heathy.

 

Please Note: Many of the comments in this publication are general in nature and anyone intending to apply the information to practical circumstances should seek professional advice to independently verify their interpretation and the information’s applicability to their particular circumstances. In particular, please note that ‘Zack’ is a dog and does not have opposable thumbs so has to type with his nose.