The Power of Conversation to Improve Veterinary Clinic Sustainability with Dr Meg Irvine of Vet Lifeskills – ep 142
The Power of Conversation to Improve Veterinary Clinic Sustainability with Dr Meg Irvine of Vet Lifeskills
Today, Dr Meg Irvine continues to share her secrets to achieving positive outcomes in veterinary practice.
In this episode, she dives into topics such as overcoming client complaints, improving time management, and boosting NPS scores and conversions to procedures through effective communication skills.
Dr Meg emphasises the importance of good and effective communication as a tool of choice in achieving these goals.
Dr Meg Irvine – quotes, topics and timestamps
Measuring Success in Veterinary Practice:
“I think some of them are measurable and some of them aren’t measurable.”
— Dr Meg Irvine [00:02:53 → 00:04:40]
Receptionists as Key to Managing Time in a Veterinary Practice:
“Your receptionists usually are the best people to tell you about that because they are the people that are eyeballing the people that are waiting in the waiting room. And so your reception team have a really good idea who doesn’t stick to time.”
— Dr Meg Irvine [00:05:03 → 00:05:52]
Improving Veterinary Client Communication:
“I think where you’ve got a whole team that’s really struggling with that culture piece, sometimes actually just talking about and coming up with a plan about how we want to communicate should be team based.”
— Dr Meg Irvine [00:06:01 → 00:08:58]
Dealing with Clients in Distress:
“I think once a client gets into that hind brain fright and flight situation, there is very little benefit in pursuing a sensible conversation about a procedure or a situation.”
— Dr Meg Irvine [00:09:39 → 00:11:40]
Communication Skills in Veterinary Practice:
“I would challenge anyone to say that they couldn’t improve the way they communicate with clients because, and I think I said this to you in the preamble, it was something I felt like I was pretty good at until I learned a few new things. And it’s just been life changing.”
— Dr Meg Irvine [00:12:02 → 00:15:32]
Requirements for Participating in the Healthcare Institute for Healthcare Communications:
“You had to have a couple of letters of recommendation to be able to participate… You had to prove that you were able to share that information and that you had a process with how you were going to share that information… Had to have been a veterinarian for five years to be able to do that… Had to have a process of paying for the license fee, which is not insignificant. So they wanted to know all of that before you get accepted into the process.”
— Dr Meg Irvine [00:15:39 → 00:16:10]
The Importance of Communication Training for Veterinarians:
“Well, there’s a heap of research around it because in recent years it’s been well researched that patient outcomes and client satisfactions vastly better when clients are seeing veterinarians who’ve been communication trained.”
— Dr Meg Irvine [00:16:23 → 00:19:12]
Improve Client Consultations:
“Picking a skill…and practicing that until it’s embedded behaviour, simple but not easy.”
— Dr Meg Irvine [00:19:45 → 00:21:45]
The Importance of Wellness and Connection in the Veterinary Profession:
“There’s so much to be gained by really working on it, being sustainable for you. And some of that is around the wellness piece, around boundaries and time management and things like that, but some of it is just to connect with people and really remembering to remember all the cool things that we do every day.”
— Dr Meg Irvine [00:22:05 → 00:22:39]
The Power of Veterinary Medicine:
“And I think if we can focus on all the good that we do and the cool stuff we do and the amazing people we meet and the amazing pets that we service, then we’re winning.”
— Dr Meg Irvine [00:23:31 → 00:24:07]
Dr Meg Irvine’s first episode
How to contact Dr Meg Irvine:
You can contact Dr Meg Irvine at Vet Lifeskills and/or email her direct
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