Fleas and ticks are a major health problem, yet it’s easy for clients to ignore the growing problem until their pets are infested. How do you encourage your clientele to keep up with preventative care? How can you steer them toward your office, so their pets get the best treatment, while improving your clinic’s profitability? It’s fine line of using the right mix of promotion, education and tracking.
Why Go to a Clinic, When Medication is Available Online?
While ordering online may not always be cheaper than buying medicine from your practice, it is convenient. However, that convenience means they’re missing out on medical advice that can keep them from using the wrong medicine, or the wrong dose. Clients also aren’t likely to consider medication interactions that could harm their pets.
Post card reminders are a great way to encourage clients to contact your office about flea and tick control products. Emphasizing the importance of getting the correct medicine for their pet will make them more likely to schedule a visit, instead of buying products on their own.
Educate Clients: Fleas and Ticks are More than a Nuisance
Clients need to understand the risks of infestations, both for their pets and themselves. Both fleas and ticks can draw enough blood to cause anemia, which is a problem for adult animals and potentially deadly for puppies and kittens. Tick-borne diseases that can infect both pets and owners, putting the entire family in danger.
Increasing awareness of Lyme disease in the past few years has helped, but clients need to be informed of other diseases that treatment can prevent. For example, in the South, and especially in rural areas, Cytauxzoonosis is spread from bobcats to ticks. House cats bit by infected ticks can die from this disease. By cutting ticks out of the equation, owners in these areas can protect their pets.
Take a Direct Approach to Introducing New Medications
Parasite prevention is constantly evolving, giving us better tools to combat bites and diseases. However, it can be hard to get clients onboard. If their current regimen is working, why bother with a new, and likely more expensive, product? Concentrating on fliers, mailers and social media posts won’t be effective at getting clients to make the switch.
Instead, talk in person about why the change is right for them and their pet, and focus your marketing on getting animals in the door. Even if they don’t switch, any targeted treatment is better than no treatment.
Consider Filling Orders Online
While you probably can’t compete on price with big Internet retailers, you do have the local advantage. What takes days to fill with a national pharmacy can be delivered or picked up in hours at your pharmacy. You may not have the same profit margins on products after you pay for web hosting service and order fulfillment, but that’s better than losing out on sales entirely. The added convenience also encourages clients to stick with your practice when they fill other medications.
Remind Clients During Visits
The need for flea and tick prevention is universal, so you should build it into your checkup routine.
Asking about prevention should be part of office protocol when clients bring their pets in for visits. By adding prevention to your schedule, you can send reminders to clients when they need to refill or update their flea and tick prevention medications.
We Can Help You Keep Clients Coming Back
Are you looking for ways to encourage your clients to keep up with their pets’ health care? Positive Impressions, LLC has the products you need, including reminder cards, magnetic business cards and a wide range of promotional items. Need labels for your medications? We do that, too. We can custom print most of our items, adding your clinic’s contact information, and custom graphics specific to your practice. Get started by visiting our website, and check us out on Facebook to see our latest specials.