How To Improve Your Veterinary Practice’s Key Performance Indicators
A veterinary practice is a straightforward business. People love their pets, and you and your practice are here to help keep those pets as healthy as they can be. What isn’t as plain and simple is learning how to keep your practice where clients will always see you first.
Thankfully, there are lots of ways to stay on top of your business and keep tabs on your veterinary practice as it performs. One of those ways is keeping an eye on- and improving- your veterinary key performance indicators.
What are Key Performance Indicators?
To start, what exactly are key performance indicators (KPIs)? KPIs are a measurable value that shows exactly how effectively a business reaches its key business objectives. These objectives can vary between businesses and industries, but overall, are used to monitor and evaluate the success of individual organizations at reaching their internal targets.
Some key performance indicators referred to as ‘high-level KPIs’ will focus on overall performance. On the other hand, ‘low-level KPIs’ will instead focus on individual efficacy, like marketing, sales, HR, and various other departments.
A veterinary practice will benefit from improving its KPIs in a myriad of ways. One of the most important reasons to measure your business against your own goals and gain an edge over your competition is knowing exactly which KPIs to track to reach your goal.
Which KPIs Should Your Veterinary Practice Track?
While every business chooses unique KPIs to track and focus on their individual objectives, a few are ubiquitous across veterinary practices. Some of those KPIs include but are not limited to:
These are industry benchmarks that most veterinary practices will measure their performance against across the board.
To explain further, let’s break those three down.
1. Increasing Website Traffic
The first KPI you should be interested in tracking is site traffic. This one is straightforward because clicks and unique visits mean more eyes on your service and your content, which translates to more potential clients and patient visits down the line.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
One way to do this is to improve the amount and quality of traffic driven to your site by optimizing your website using search engine optimization, or SEO.
SEO helps drive traffic to your practice by using targeted strategies to help your business stay ahead of the curve and keep you on the first page of search engine results like Google. Most users will only browse the first page of any search result, so keeping your business directly where most clients will be able to see it is crucial.
Take control of your search engine rankings with consistent content generation and a local, targeted medical SEO strategy for your website.
Original Vet Content
Keeping your clients interested in your content means knowing what users will want to see on your site. This goes beyond just using social media posts to engage with your new and current clients. The internet is a never-ending fount of resources that you can use to your advantage in producing and controlling the content that builds your business’s brand.
Think of using content that your audience will find valuable or useful. You can
- Highlight useful pet owner tips
- Publish pet safety and care articles
- Produce videos or soundbites that pet owners and clients will find useful
Keeping your content fresh and informative is a good way to secure your client retention, maximize your website traffic, and even help build your brand reputation among your client base.
Learn More: Veterinary Video Marketing Ideas for Your Practice
Google My Business
Google My Business is an online tool that will allow you to manage and optimize your business through Google. It’s crucial to create a business profile that will carry your veterinary practice’s relevant information and be the first thing new clients will see when searching the relevant terms on a search engine.
This is what appears in search results, including your location, business hours, website URL, phone number, and Google reviews. A Google My Business profile allows you to access, manage, customize, engage with your clients, and enhance your business profile, all for free. Keep your Google My Business profile accurate and up-to-date.
Read On: How to Claim Your Google My Business Listing
2. Book More Appointments
Appointment growth is another key performance indicator worth keeping an eye on. Knowing just how busy your practice is and the ratio of new clients to active clients is crucial to adjust your business as you grow it. This simple data holds the key to several metrics your business needs to do well.
Online Booking
Keeping a booking system is integral to any practice. Your practice using an outdated booking system is guaranteed to put off your clients, who live fast-paced, one-click lifestyles. Providing your active clients a way to secure an online booking is the only way to do it right.
Keeping your booking process automated and online will allow you to manage and book a certain number of client appointments for your practice within a certain timeframe (3, 6, 9 months, etc.).
Make Booking a Vet Appointment Fast and Easy for Clients
Add Online Booking to Your WebsiteHelpful Reminders
Maintaining a reminder system for your active clients should go hand in hand with your online booking service. Not all patients will remember to come back to your hospital for their pet’s next appointment, especially some that come in for simpler services like wellness exams.
That is where a reminder system should come in. You can achieve this either by utilizing an email reminder system or even an automated text system. However you choose to do it, don’t downplay the importance of directly reminding your clients of their follow-up appointments with your veterinary practice.
Online Reputation
Any business should keep an eye on its online reputation. Reviews are some of the first things that show up when a potential client engages your services through a search engine and are one of the first things users check out when seeking a veterinarian in their local area. Providing excellent service is all well and good, but ensure that excellence is visible where you need your clients to see it.
Getting 5-star reviews from your clients can help encourage potential clients to come to your practice, build your business reputation on search engines, and put you on top of the search results.
3. Improve Your Veterinary Practice’s Financial Performance
One of the most crucial KPIs that practice should track is total revenue. An industry benchmark through and through, knowing exactly how your practice is performing financially, is the metric that helps you decide the rest for your business down the line. This is one of the KPIs that can definitely answer some of the larger questions you may have later as your business grows:
- Is it time to expand?
- Do you need to hire more employees?
- What is your average client transaction?
- What needs to change in your practice?
One way to see an increase in revenue for your practice is to make the most of using targeted ads. Targeted ads help narrow down a client base for your practice and focus your marketing on clients with higher revenue services like surgical or dental treatments, lab tests, boarding services, and many more.
Define the Success of Your Objectives
While KPIs can seem a little complex at first, learning how they work and reading them is absolutely important to your business’s growth. Being able to track these KPIs and compare them against other practices can help you track expenses, identify ideal potential clients, and keep an eye on your profit margin.
These KPIs are like your practice’s pulse rate and blood pressure—they are tangible signals that help you make important decisions regarding fees, workflow efficiency, and the services you offer your clients.
Don’t be afraid of the data. Just because it sounds complicated or too technical doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to understand it. KPIs are there to help you simplify and narrow down exactly what your business is doing well and what needs to improve.
Every practice will have different KPIs, and you can always adjust yours accordingly. Remember to regularly evaluate your key performance indicators (monthly and quarterly) and apply KPIs that you want your practice to meet.
VetMatrix Makes it Simple to Keep Track of Your Practice’s Metrics
Running a veterinary practice is hard work all on its own. Let us at VetMatrix take care of the technical side and help you optimize your practice to dominate in the online marketing sphere.
Visit us now at our website and book a consultation for your business to help you and your practice gain an edge over your competition and grow your revenue.
