Business

Seeing is believing for clients when it comes to pet dental health at Falmouth Veterinary Hospital in Falmouth, Maine. Video touchscreens in exam rooms show clients how quickly damaging plaque can build and harden. The screens also let clients type in their e-mail address and request that the information or Web site address for the video be sent to their home. After every dental cleaning, clients watch a video on brushing.

Want a say in how owners spend the practice's money? Try saving a little first. Use these cost-cutting steps to increase efficiency, consume consciously, and add bucks to the practice's bottom line.

Use this checklist to make sure you discuss necessary care recommendations with clients during visits.

If you plan to install new computers in your practice, think about how you'll dispose of your old ones-tossing them into the dumpster is a no-no.

When some clients brush off our post-surgery care instructions, they end up paying for it-twice.

How we communicate with clients can be a source of mutual understanding and positive action, leading to highly effective patient care, or a source of misunderstanding and frustration.

Discounts are a popular marketing tool to encourage clients and customers to pay faster. Many suppliers offer them to improve their cash flow. Like many professionals, some veterinarians offer a trade discount of sorts for immediate payment upon completion of services, but they may give little thought either to the cost of offering discounts or how much they might save by using discounts offered to them.

Publicly document all those freebies.

How business owners must balance the rights of smokers with those of nonsmokers.

This veterinarian will be testing for a black belt soon.

Use this questionnaire to help employees assess their roles and performance in your practice.

A few tweaks to your paperwork and front desk, and refill annoyances will be a thing of the past.

Some remarks from clients and colleagues can deflate your enthusiasm. Here's how to respond the next time their words make you ready to pop.

Dr. Hazel Holman was one of 34 veterinary practices targeted by Massachusetts environmental regulators in a medical-waste compliance crackdown.

Dr. Melisa Hicks and her team at Blue Cross Veterinary Hospital in Long Beach, Calif., improve compliance by encouraging clients to prepay for fecal tests.

According to Readex Research, pinpointing the factors that guarantee an effective ad is difficult but one way to improve an ad's potential for success is by adding color.

This Texas hospital is anything but modest and can boast the client growth to prove it.

The six principles of adult learning provide a framework for building a protocol for ongoing client education.

What you can do to get clients on board with your dental recommendations.

Here in the Midwest, it's been a stormy season. Some states have seen record numbers of twisters, and we've had to kennel our dog during thunderstorms so many times this year we've stopped counting. If you've ever lived in an area where tornadoes are common, you know the chill the tornado siren sends when it starts to moan.

One tip: Offer giveaways printed with your Web site's address

Can I question my employee who's revealed a history of mental illness and prescribed medications to control it?

It's time to face facts. you've spent years dreaming of the perfect veterinary facility, but your pockets are only so deep.

"The waiting area smelled of urine and pet odors." "The surroundings were dirty and depressing." Don't let these comments be from your clients.

The colors, textures, proportions, and "mood" all work together in a place to communicate something about what you're supposed to experience there.

It's a jungle out there. With so many different species of practice owners running around, how are you supposed to know how to interact with them?

"Oh, Doctor, how can we charge $18 for this service?"

This Texas hospital is anything but modest and can boast the client growth to prove it.

It wouldn't surprise me if a certain percentage of readers who merely scan this month's piece do so because they don't see what relevance the topic could possibly have to the practicing veterinarian. I understand completely because, at first blush, it doesn't seem possible that any "investigations" would need to be carried out in an animal hospital and, even if one did need to be done, how complicated could it be?

I'm no longer feeling mellow about the Yellow Pages after its colossal mistake.