Avoid the Conflict-Keep the Client
Dr. Hayley Schafer examines Cabo,
who is owned by Brittany LaMarche
and her son Gage, at Caring Hearts Animal Clinic in Gilbert, Ariz
|
In the New York Times, Sunday Business section for February
23, 2013, two and a half pages of coveted news space was given over to a topic
near and dear to my heart, Vet Debt!
The article explained, in vivid detail, how veterinarians graduate from
school in debt, often in amounts 3x their starting salary. This is the cost of following
their passion and reaching the coveted title, Doctor of Veterinary
Medicine. These students, soon to
be doctors, are a rare breed. They choose to treat patients who cannot speak to
them and tell them of their ills.
Rather, they must rely on an emotional human guardian to convey
important observations and information about the non-human patient before a
diagnosis can be made.
Vets are often better observers and listeners than
communicators. This is their
strength in diagnosing their non-human patients. It may, however, be an impediment to their interaction with
the patient’s human guardian. Vets
often run the risk of inciting conflict because they can be seen as
un-responsive to their client’s emotional caregivers. These caregivers/guardians are often offended by a
veterinarian’s bedside manner.
From those feelings and perceptions a conflict can blossom.
With the debt described in the NY Times article, a vet’s
credit rating cannot afford the loss of a client over miscommunication. The application of old-fashioned
communication methods, in a new way, will give vets a leg up on keeping their
current clients informed and happy.
These happy clients willingly are an unpaid sales force, encouraging
other pet owners to come over to the light side! This can be the difference between just surviving as a vet
or becoming the practice everyone envies.
Last week I taught a new class called, “Vetting the
Conflict” to students at Colorado State University - Veterinarian School (CSU)
in Fort Collins, Colorado. The
course examines a new way of speaking proactively to your clients about
conflict in a way that keeps them as clients and makes the vet the ‘go-to’
practitioner they aspire to be. Given the debt/ratio economic scenario,
learning how to avoid/address conflict, keep clients and have a steady stream
of new clients coming into the practice is key to remaining profitable and
meeting debt load post graduation.
This 3-hour program does not run from or ignore conflict. It
grabs conflict by the horns and deals with it. It teaches life and practice skills to budding
veterinarians. Learning alternative conflict resolution (ACR) techniques will
enable veterinarians to identify potential or festering conflict in its early
stages. Engaging in a proactive
non-confrontational dialogue often leads to a resolution while the conflict is
still a blip on the radar. It also
teaches them methods for taking a step back in order to re-engage an already
enraged client.
I was honored to have the opportunity to teach third year
students the art of speaking to their clients in conflict. This topic was a perfect addition to the
triangle of conflict conversations already part of the fabulous business
practice curriculum at CSU led by Dr. Christine Hardy along with Dr. Jane
Shaw’s Argus program. “Vetting the
Conflict” taught CSU vet students, faculty and local veterinarians the benefit
of implementing ACR to their bottom line.
Proactively
collecting feedback from their clients provides the necessary information to
utilize their ACR toolbox. They
can then affect a practice-wide check and balance so an immediate response to a
misunderstanding or disagreement can be made. These responses use the more effective language of ACR when
opening a dialogue between doctor and client. A new meaning for Stop, Drop & Roll helped them address
highly agitated clients in conflict, retain those clients and avoid costly
litigation.
The “Vetting the Conflict” seminar also fit beautifully into
the Argus curriculum at CSU. Dr. Shaw spends several semester modules teaching
new vets how to speak and listen to their human clients as they relay the symptoms
or behavior changes observed about their non-human patients. Dr. Shaw provides
continuing education training to experienced veterinarians as well. She created
the Argus program to help veterinarians better serve their mute patients. Her students, both in school and in
practice, come to see the importance of communication at such stressful
times. They learn how to be more
careful listeners, speakers and thinkers. Their inquiry is fine tuned with a
view toward compassion. They ask
questions, engage their clients in the process and really listen to their
answers. These doctors learn a
more general and gentler probing technique that enhances their ability to find
out all kinds of information about the patient, enabling them to deliver a more
appropriate diagnosis.
My “Vetting the Conflict” presentation, taken along with the
Argus Institute and Business Curriculum at CSU, gave both new and old vets
clearer insight into their own preconceived bias’ and perceptions. They
recognized some of their responses didn’t work and implemented new ones. After our work together these
veterinarians were true believers in the benefit of early intervention of
alternative conflict resolution practices.
—Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton
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