October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month, which offers your practice the perfect opportunity to make strong, valuable connections in your community. Giving back to the community isn’t just good altruism, it’s also good business—and can help you make roots with the locals.
So what are some things you can do to build local connections, and what can it do for your practice?
How can you build local connections?
Partner with a local shelter
It’s very common for veterinary practices to partner with animal shelters, because there are all kinds of benefits each has for the other. You can volunteer your time and services by treating sick rescue animals, and by providing free or subsidized check-ups for shelter pets.
Did you know that this partnership can extend beyond your practice doors, though? There’s a lot you can do without even leaving the practice, like hosting BBQs, charity runs, or adopt-a-thon events, or collecting donations on behalf of local shelters right at reception. This both helps local animals, and can help spread the word both about your practice and about the local shelter.
Build a practice network
Not all connections need to be charity-based. If there are other practices in the area who aren’t considered competitors, or who cover a different field of focus than you do, it can be a good idea to create a network between you.
If you, for example, don’t work with birds and exotics, you can send those pet owners to a practice that does—and they can send dog-and-cat-specific clients to you.
How will it grow your veterinary practice?
Make your practice known
Getting involved within your community helps your practice get seen by locals, and can lead to a boost in your clientele. Building connections in person translates into new online connections too, which can help improve your local SEO results to make your practice easier to find online.
Looking for ways to help your practice rise to the top of search engine rankings? WebDVM websites can help you with SEO!
Improve your transparency
When pet owners see that you are involved with their community, they get to know the human faces behind the medicine. Transparency helps build trust with potential and current clients, which can ultimately lead to better compliance and client retention—and better treatment for sick and injured pets.
Build your practice’s reputation
It takes time to build a strong reputation, and it won’t happen through advertising.
On top of building trust with pet owners, staying involved with your community also helps you create a closer bond with locals. Clients see how much you truly care about their pets and the neighborhood you share.
With a great reputation, not only can business keep booming, but you’ll also gain traction with client education programs too!
Network with industry animal experts
In order to meet the demand for pet owner education, it’s important that your team continues to learn as well—and networking with local animal organizations is a great way to start.
Creating symbiotic relationships with other practices, like the one we mentioned earlier, can help you bring in new resources for your practice.
By forging genuine, mutually beneficial connections with locals, your team can make a positive impact on the community—and improve the growth of your business.
Ready to seek connections in your community? Check out how the LifeLearn ECOsystem—now with ALLYDVM—can help your practice grow!
