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Why good practices sometimes go bad
If your success is starting to slip, it could be that you no longer offer the care you so eagerly gave clients in the early days of practice. But it's not too late to get back on track.
It's called the Success Syndrome, and it occurs when successful practices begin to rest on their laurels and take their success for granted. Symptoms include indifference to clients, deteriorating service, and the naïve belief that you can do no wrong. Many businesses and professional practices fall prey to this problem. Here's how this sometimes tough-to-diagnose condition develops.
Stage 1: During the early years of getting a practice off the ground, the team gives new clients the red-carpet treatment. At every visit, clients get high-quality pet care, personalized service, and all the niceties. Absolutely no detail is too small. The payoff: extremely pleased clients and numerous referrals.
Stage 2: You're enjoying strong, steady growth, and your days sometimes get hectic. You get behind schedule and think, "I was a little short with that client, but it'll have to do. Others are waiting." There's no longer time for the little things to which you and your team were so attentive in the early days.
Stage 3: You've let service and standards slip, and you're the last to know your lack of attention shows. Your clients have been seeing the change for a long time and many decided not to come back. You might blame their defection on the economy or low-cost competition.
To make ends meet, you may try to get by with fewer employees or cut corners on other overhead expenses, thinking clients won't notice. But they do, and things go from bad to worse.
If you recognize the problem, you've taken the first step in curing the Success Syndrome. Here's the key: When client referrals slow down or revenues slump, don't look for excuses outside your practice. Instead, ask whether you and your staff are making the same effort you used to—providing quality care and personal service, and exceeding client expectations. If not, draw up a checklist of problems and focus on correcting them. Client referrals and revenue will rebound. I've seen it happen countless times.
Veterinary Economics Editorial Advisory Board member Bob Levoy is a seminar speaker based in Roslyn, N.Y., who focuses on profitability and practice growth, and the author of 101 Secrets of a High-Performance Veterinary Practice (Veterinary Medicine Publishing Co., 1996).
Bob Levoy
