Prevent bad client behavior by setting clear expectations with the client—including consequences of suitable and unsuitable actions. Let us start with a simple premise: Everyone on the team deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. Each team member, whether a veterinarian or a kennel attendant, fills a vital role to the success of the veterinary practice. Everyone works hard to provide the best patient care and client experience possible with the tools at hand, so it is vital for practices to retain staff and fill shortages. Jessica Volgelsang, DVM, is one of many in the industry who point out the plight of veterinary technicians, specifically, many new credentialed technicians leave the field after only five years because they are treated poorly, underutilized, and underpaid.1 Rebecca Rose, CVT, says 20 percent of veterinary team members are currently dissatisfied and plan to leave the field. The reasons cited for leaving included, “low pay (38 percent), lack of respect from the employer (20 percent), and burnout (14 percent).”2 So how can practices show their team the respect and recognition they deserve? Create, implement, and follow an expectation of good behavior from clients and their pets. Fostering good behavior When a practice owner or manager allows a “good client” (i.e. someone who spends a lot of money at the clinic or has been with the clinic for many years) to abuse any staff member mentally, emotionally, verbally, and/or physically, they destroy team member trust—in the practice, the supervisor, and the practice owner. Employees who can no longer trust management to keep them safe, leave. They may leave the practice for an employer who values their employees or leave veterinary medicine altogether.3 A trusted employer demonstrates employee value by refusing to work with abusive, non-compliant clients; paying a living wage (think from the lowest $43,000/year in KY to the highest $61,000/year in HI),4 and providing benefits employees can afford to use (costs no more than 9.5 percent of employee taxable salary with deductibles under $1,000 and co-pays under $50).6 On the other hand, it may be difficult to trust an employer who acts as if “the customer is always right,” and will do anything to keep clients, even it means added work for a lean staff. Untrustworthy employers will give discounts to appease clients who abuse staff and threaten bad Yelp reviews while denying staff benefits and raises, citing poor revenue. Cases in point To have a better understanding of how dealing with clients—regardless of their behavior—impact the business, let us look at two examples: Scenario one: Mrs. Jones is a long-time client who spends whatever amount of money necessary to keep her beloved pets in tip-top health. She loves the practice owner and manager and has worked with them pleasantly for many years. The practice owner and office manager bend over backward, giving discounts, allowing pickups outside of office hours, and generally treating her like royalty. Mrs. Jones eats this up and treats the clinic team like indentured servants. She shows up out of the blue demanding immediate service, snapping her fingers, and screaming to attract attention. She is rude when checking in and out, using phrases with the practice staff such as, “Do you know who I am?” and “You better watch it, I’ll get you fired.” The staff at this clinic bring these concerns to management, who agrees Mrs. Jones is out of line and promise to speak to her. If management calls her, she immediately denies any wrongdoing and the matter is dropped. Mrs. Jones never changes her behavior toward the staff and the cycle repeats. The staff no longer trust management will provide them with a harassment- and discrimination-free workplace. CSRs begin to call out on the days Mrs. Jones is scheduled. The remaining staff are not available to help when she comes to the clinic. Non-abusive clients suffer through Mrs. Jone’s lobby tantrums and go to the clinic down the road where people behave respectfully. Tired of being told to “suck it up,” the staff eventually leave the clinic despite loving their teammates and patients. The staff believe they are not safe, supported, and valued. Scenario two: Mrs. Harried is having a stressful day. She just paid a larger-than-expected invoice for her dog, Sparkles’ dental procedure and is worried about how Sparkles will do after five extractions. Mrs. Harried signed her credit card in a huff, snatched the medications out of the RVT’s hands, snapped up Sparkles, and threw the hospital pen back at the CSR, hitting her in the shoulder. The affected staff brings the incident to the attention of the practice manager who reviews the notes and surveillance video from the lobby. The practice manager (PM) calls Mrs. Harried the next day and, after asking after Sparkles, explains her behavior from the previous day is unacceptable. The PM cites Mrs. Harried’s actions of throwing the pen, snatching things from staff, and rudeness during her interactions with the CSRs. Mrs. Harried immediately apologizes and explains her worry. Mrs. Harried additionally writes an email to the CSRs and RVT apologizing for her behavior and thanking them for their care of her beloved Sparkles. Mrs. Harried is now more cognizant of her feelings and modifies her behavior appropriately. The staff, in this scenario, feel supported. They can trust their PM to back them up and follow through by ensuring Mrs. Harried’s bad behavior does not continue. Prevention is key Have you ever noticed it is much simpler to prevent a disease than treat it? In this case, the disease is bad behavior. The prevention (like a vaccine) for bad behavior is setting clear expectations of suitable and unsuitable actions and their consequences. The prevention, or vaccine, against bad client behavior should be administered prior to the visit. The treatment for bad behavior is much more complex. Like a disease, the client’s bad behavior must be assessed, prognosed, and then treated. Treatment could range from a verbal warning for a single angry outburst at the hospital (think deworming for roundworms); to firing the client and making a police report for swearing, screaming, throwing items, or hitting staff (like euthanasia for a patient with rabies. Unfortunately, there is no cure. The rabid patient is a danger to anyone who comes in contact with it.) A client behavior contract specifies how the client agrees to comport themselves and advocate for their pet. Additionally, the contract specifies the ways the clinic’s veterinary professionals will treat the client and their furry, feathered, or scaled family member while they are working with the practice.5 If clients behave badly, the clinic professionals who experienced the bad behavior need to bring the instances up to management to be handled, and document them in the client record. Clients should be confronted with their bad behavior and given the opportunity to make amends. This may mean they are required to write a letter of apology to the staff member they treated poorly before they are allowed to return to the clinic. This could also mean they are banned from the practice. The same treatment should be applied to clients who allow their pets to behave badly, refuse appropriate pain or anxiety control medications, refuse to allow muzzles, laugh at staff injuries caused by their pets, or encourage their pets to bark and bite staff members. Abusive clients who raise their voices, use profanity, threaten physical violence, touch us without our permission, or assault us, need to be reported, arrested, if possible, and fired from the practice. Let’s take the time starting in 2023 to keep everyone on the team safe. Allyne Moon, LVT, RVT, has been working in veterinary medicine since 1992. She received her LVT license in 2003, her RVT license in 2004, is an expert witness for the State of California, and is a former VMB hospital inspector. Moon lectures nationally and locally on a variety of subjects, including veterinary forensics, shelter medicine, radiation safety, suicide prevention, compassion fatigue, and veterinary law. Her love for animals led her to work for an open-admission municipal animal shelter in Southern California, treating a wide variety of animals and conditions ranging from upper respiratory infections to gunshot wounds and vehicular trauma. She now works as the assistant executive director of the Southern California Veterinary Medical Association. References Volgelsang, Jessica. Four Reasons Techs Leave the Field. drandyroark.com. 2016 November 11. https://drandyroark.com/four-reasons-techs-leave-the-field Rose, Rebecca “Should I Stay, or Should I go?!” CATALYST Veterinary Practice Consultants 2018. https://www.isvma.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ShouldIStayorShouldIGo.pdf National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America “2016 NAVTA Demographic Survey” 2016 April 15. Kagan, Julia. What is a Living Wage?. Investopedia.com 2022 January 22. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/living_wage.asp NC State University “VH- Client Expectations” NC State University 2022. Miller, Stephen, CEBS. What’s ‘Affordable’ Coverage Under Health Care Reform? 2014 February 12. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/what-is-affordable-coverage.aspx
