Client Relations & Marketing

One morning, I was stocking the food display in my practice's reception area when something caught my eye.

Nervous pets are often problem pets during office visits. Here's help.

Canines counting calories? Felines fasting? Raneé Baker, RVT, a technician at Kingsbrook Animal Hospital in Frederick, Md., developed a better plan to manage pets' weight.

Tips for talking about a pet's weight with an apathetic client

Print this PDF with tips to help clients exercise their overweight dogs

Print this PDF that clients can use to keep track of dogs' food and exercise

There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but it only takes one of these missteps to send clients packing.

A tool to help your clients with housetraining.

As pets age, their brains can slow down, too. Intervene early to give dogs and cats the best chance of staying sharp-and you'll help keep clients happy.

Whenever team members from Nassau Veterinary Clinic in Nassau, N.Y., set up a booth or table at a community event, they hold a raffle so they can gather potential clients' names and addresses.

Are your conversational skills lagging in the stretch? Use these tips to pull ahead by overcoming problems and winning clients' respect.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but when it comes to diagnostics, sometimes it's worth a thousand dollars.

The devil is in the details. So what are your clients noticing about your practice and team members?

Here are five ethical dilemmas, complete with guidelines for making decisions that keep you on solid moral ground.

Curb the 5 o'clock chaos with these simple steps to streamline your discharge appointments and send clients away happy.

Caring for a sick pet isn't easy. So when the team at Animal Hospital of Ashwaubenon in Green Bay, Wis., noticed the special challenges their clients who owned cats with kidney disease shared, they decided to bring this community of clients together.

What have I learned after 16 years as a veterinary receptionist? Certainly that I'm not just a receptionist. I've masqueraded as the kennel cleaner, the veterinary assistant, and the office manager.

It doesn't take a crystal ball to know who'll walk through your practice door next. All you really need is a meeting, says Cindie McDuffee, the office manager at Animal Hospital of Thousand Oaks in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

The recall has left clients questioning your recommendations-and you questioning manufacturers. Tackle the job of earning back trust one step at a time, client by client and case by case.

Make check-in and checkout out a snap for clients by placing a pet pedestal at your reception counter.

How do you handle bad behavior from good pet owners? Use this advice to deal with your most difficult clients and keep messy exchanges to a minimum.

A simple letter is all you need to help keep your clients up to date on the pet food recall.

When it's time to talk about a pet's weight with clients, be sensitive.

Your team can help heal the hurt pets feel with a pain management program that supports pet owners.

Q. Our team members make different product recommendations for heartworm and flea and tick prevention. How do we get them on the same page?

It's easy to feel warm and fuzzy over a furry feline or pooch, but other pets can inspire the same devotion from their owners. This is a lesson that my team learned after an uncommon encounter.

In the thick of media reports and hourly updates, we asked your colleagues how they were handling the pet food recall. Here are their tips from the trenches.

A white, sparkling smile is in, and that goes for pets, too. So when clients opt for dental care, show them what they paid for, says Beth Wallukait, a receptionist at Bryan Animal Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa.