Firstline Live 2009: The psychology of phone shoppers

Psychology has a lot to do with how to get phone shoppers in your door. Dr. Jim Kramer, CVPM, told the Firstline Live audience today that the concept of anchoring is important to helping clients understand the value of recommendations.

Anchoring works like this: People assign a certain worth to a service or product based on what information they learn first. So if they're told about price first, they judge the item based on its cost, says Dr. Kramer, owner of Columbus Animal Hospital in Columbus, Neb. If they're initially told about performance, they'll judge based on how well the attributes of the product or service live up to their expectations. And that's where you want phone shoppers to focus.

By simply explaining why your service or recommendations are valuable before you name the price, you've trained phone shoppers-and clients-to value your service because of its performance rather than its cost. In other words, you've anchored them to consider merit over money. This allows phone shoppers to focus on why your offerings are best for their pets rather than getting hung up by price. And that's the best part: You're helping more pets get top-notch care and you're bringing more clients into your practice.