Ways to Boost Your Pet Health Plan
As you know from experience, the preventative healthcare regime for a pet is extremely important when it comes to their overall wellbeing and welfare. Furthermore, a poorly pet can often lead to an unhappy owner – particularly when that ill health could have been avoided. That’s why it’s so important to provide your clients with a Pet Health Plan that you’re confident in.
It’s also important, however, to ensure that your clients are getting the most out of their Pet Health Plan and understand how it works. Are they aware of exactly what they’re entitled to on their plan? Do they realise that it’s a preventative care product and not an insurance product?
We truly believe that encouraging both proactive and responsible pet ownership is the best thing for a beloved family pet, and a Pet Health Plan linked with quality insurance provides the most comprehensive cover.
With this in mind, we have put together some useful ways you can boost the effectiveness of your Pet Health Plan, so that your clients can continue to be proactive and responsible pet owners.
Ensure your client knows the benefits of a Pet Health Plan
A good Pet Health Plan helps to keep pets healthy with regular preventative and routine healthcare. This is often included alongside regular veterinary checkups. Ultimately, a Pet Health Plan should allow you to pick up problems in clients’ pets a lot sooner than you otherwise might.
A Pet Health Plan can also be a great budgeting tool for your client. A health plan can really help spread the cost meaning that they can receive preventative and routine healthcare for their pet, saving them money as they are paying monthly instead of upfront as required.
There are many reasons why a Pet Health Plan is beneficial to your client, but it is important to realise its benefits in practice too. A monthly plan can really help to bond your client to your practice whilst delivering the all-important monthly recurring revenue. A monthly plan also can remove the need for your team to keep on top of selling monthly preventative healthcare treatments, as the cost of routine care is already covered – so you simply prescribe and dispense products included on the plan.
It’s important to establish an effective brand identity, which will help set your practice apart from the competition and help build its reputation among potential employees and clients. Your brand is the image you wish to portray to the world and is one of the practice’s most valuable assets. Create a brand identity that will resonate with veterinary graduates and convey the personality and value of working at your practice.
Less admin for your team!
A good Pet Health Plan supplier should take care of the administrative side of things meaning you don’t have to. This includes collecting direct debits, sorting failed direct debits and cancelling/re-instating plans when required. They should also be promoting and selling plans on your behalf, but it’s vital for you to promote the plan too. Utilise your team’s saved time in setting up the plans and put that towards them focusing on promoting the plan, whilst the admin side is completely taken care of by your supplier.
Keep the team motivated and enthusiastic about the plan!
Staying motivated and talking about the plan to clients doesn’t have to be complicated or challenging. Little incentives, like a special gift or treat (for example every ten times a staff member signs up a client) could help keep motivation strong. This could be done by means of a chocolate jar, or a sweet pot. Mixing these incentives up each month will stop it becoming routine, or you could do a quarterly incentive where the person who has signed up the most plans that quarter receives a free lunch, or voucher!
Add value and peak interest
Why not provide your loyal Pet Health Plan clients with further discounts and exclusive member offers? Perhaps a discount at their local dog friendly café, or money off dog walking services. You could be promoting other local small pet businesses whilst they provide your members with discounts and promote your health plan in return.
Posters and leaflets are great ways to help your team introduce your plan to clients. If you already have a Pet Health Plan supplier you should be working together with them to create a really attractive, informative leaflet to put in your waiting room, or reception area. Or they may be able to help you with the content for your website.
Keep your clients engaged
Keeping your clients engaged with their health plan can be an important step towards keeping them as a customer. Puppy and kitten owners will automatically see benefit from their health plan as they will save costs on their first vaccinations and neutering, but how about once their pets get a bit older? Offering annual blood tests and discounts, such as on dental treatments, weight checks or urine tests, could help keep your customers with older pets interested in your plan.
As your customers pets reach senior age, you may begin to notice they only come in to practice once a year, generally around the time their booster is due. Now is a great opportunity to offer your senior pets discounts on food purchases or accessories, so they keep coming in to make repeat purchases.
Website Promotion – The biggest revenue generator!
A website should stand out and be easy for the client to use and understand. A really good website will have information on the Pet Health Plan right on the homepage, meaning it is the first thing your client reads when they open your website. Key words, such as “Try now!” rather than “Buy Now!” will come across more positive to the reader. Maybe add a button to your home page to direct your client directly to the online set up page or contact details of the health plan. This way they won’t have to search for it and its easily accessible. You want your Pet Health Plan to be the biggest source of revenue that your website can deliver!
Combine your Pet Health Plan with an insurance policy
Now, the above will help with making your plan successful, but it’s wise to realise that a Pet Health Plan is only a preventative measure. It’s important for your clients understand that Pet health Plans only cover the cost of preventative care. A pet insurance policy is the only way to provide cover for accident and illness. Combine a Pet Health Plan with a pet insurance policy, and you really do have the best possible product for your client!
Remember, Vetsure will offer your clients a 5 weeks’ free trial off their pet insurance so they have complete flexibility to look around whilst knowing their pet has their trial in place. Furthermore, a Vetsure Pet health Plan member will receive 5% off their Vetsure Pet insurance premium.
For further information on Vetsure Pet Health Plans, Insurance and other services like our Buysure for Vets and Buysure Platinum Buying Groups, please feel free to contact us.