Client expectations: Are we losing our patience?

In a service business like ours there are many opportunities for failure of expectations and client disappointment.  When people call into a veterinary hospital and they are unaware of the inner workings and complexity of the profession, they may think that having a doctor call them back is as simple as us sitting at our desk just waiting to return phone calls. In reality there are days when I never even see my desk or sit in any chair. 

Expectation is defined as, “a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future” and “a belief that someone will or should achieve something.”

I think the second definition is what gets veterinarians into trouble.  Client’s belief that something should happen the way they think it should happen.

Veterinary receptionists spend their day answering calls from concerned pet parents while they try to decipher the emergent from the ordinary.  They ask questions designed to read the minds of the clients on the other end of the phone, and without seeing the pet, decide how soon they need to squeeze them into an already packed schedule.  The doctors, working 10-12 hour days, are required to see patients that are ill, provide vaccinations, perform surgery, interpret radiographs, record everything -in detail - into computer charts, approve and write prescriptions, prescribe and dispense drugs, perform blood and urine tests, and then analyze and report those tests results to the clients.  These working doctors also have families and homes that they need to attend to.  At our hospital, we currently have two nursing mothers, who have to pump and store breast milk several times a day while keeping up with everything else.

Veterinarians and their technicians do what in human medicine would be done by a small army of people, and we do it all while the client waits.  When was the last time your human doctor called you back the same day, or reported your blood test results the next day?  

Our clients are most often very appreciative of our caring kindness, but sometimes there is a disconnect between what the client expects will happen, and what actually happens.  Then they may become angry either posting an ugly online review or hit us up with a frustrated phone call.  We hate that!  We are really trying to do our very best to make everyone happy, and an angry client is not our goal.

So, what can we do to help meet our client’s expectations?

We must improve our communication about the workings of the hospital and set boundaries.  Clients may get angry when we don’t do everything exactly the way they want us to, but if we communicate our boundaries, we let them know going in, what we can handle.  Clients don’t know that we have 8 other people to call, have a big surgery waiting, or have to run and pick up our kids from school in 20 minutes.  It is our job to communicate by saying, “Ms. Richards, I have only 5 minutes tonight to give you your pet’s results, but if we need longer than 5 minutes, I would be happy to call you again tomorrow so we can discuss further.”  Clients are thrilled to hear from us and love to spend time talking about their pet, so it is up to us to communicate our boundaries, and then have the mental strength to enforce them.  If clients get angry, we can calmly tell them that we are sorry that we have not met their expectations, however we are doing our very best for their pet.   Being honest with clients is the key to protecting yourself.  We need to take a lesson from our human doctor colleagues and train our clients to respect our free time so they understand what expectations should be.

It starts with honest communication by every member of the veterinary team to set the proper expectations.  Clients expect us to provide quality care for their pets while being kind and honest.  When they have unreasonable expectations about how we should schedule our time, it is up to use to set our boundaries and then let them decide whether they want to continue to work with us or move on to another caregiver.

“Assumptions are the termites of relationships.”―Henry Winkler

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”―Bill Gates

Dr. Julie Cappel

Join me on The Veterinary Life Coach Podcast!  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-veterinary-life-coach-podcast-with-dr-julie-cappel/id1451549730

Episode #39 - You are Uniquely Worthy

On this episode of the podcast Julie coaches on self-worth and the concept of being, and feeling worthy.  Feelings of self-doubt often develop into low self esteem and will snowball into stress, inaction and depression. All of us are uniquely worthy, talented human beings. If we work to learn about ourselves we can develop thoughts that are empowering and create a unique sense of self.   Realizing that all humans are uniquely worthy is the key to understanding your self-worth and creating better self-esteem. 

Check out this episode!

Dolphins are So Smart! - What they teach us.

This week I swam with dolphins!  Not just a few dolphins, but hundreds.  The experience literally brought tears to my eyes as I watched the wild Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins swim around, under, and past me, smiling at me in their cute dolphin way.  They squeaked and squealed, as they communicated with each other and because my face was in the water, I got to hear their song.  The sound’s only competition was the sound of my breath frantically going in and out of the snorkel that I had clenched between my teeth.  It is hard to say, “wow” and “unbelievable” with a snorkel in your mouth – but I did.   I was overcome with the beauty and the uniqueness of the experience.  Tears - for real. 

 

Myself and my husband Scott, along with six other passengers were on the ocean tour off the west coast of Hawaii’s Big Island.  The captain of the boat tour, Taylor, and our guide, Victor, are twenty somethings with a wild adventurous side and a love for the ocean.  They dropped us into the water three different times into large groups of dolphins.  We were lucky to see so many and we even got to see them jump and spin above the water. Two of the men in the group had Go-Pro cameras, so I hope to get some of the video from them.  At one point a helicopter circled overhead warning us of a large shark nearby, so we were asked to quickly swim to the boat. I did!

What life lessons did I take away from the dolphins?  (You know I love life lessons…)

Live in the moment!  Dolphins just live.  They take each moment and experience as it comes.  They do not stress and worry about time.  They don’t regret, blame or berate themselves.  They just live.  We spend so much of our time regretting what happened yesterday and worrying about what will happen tomorrow, that we miss what is happening right now.   What do we need to experience and learn in this moment?  We need to live more like dolphins.

Dolphins rely on each other.  When dolphins sleep, they only sleep with half of their brain at a time.  They have to stay half awake at all times in order to breath and monitor their surroundings, so they team up with a friend to allow the right half of their brain to sleep while their friend allows the left half of their brain to sleep.  Each relying and trusting each other for survival. We need to rely on each other and trust, like dolphins.

We spend much of our time with our faces glued to our cell phones, feeling bad about ourselves because we compare our lives to others. We don’t appreciate each moment that we are given, and we forget to enjoy life and just play.  We avoid sharing our struggles with others and don’t lean on our family and friends.   Take your lesson from the beautiful dolphins.

Live and appreciate each moment. Take care of yourself and your friends.  Remember to play.

 “You will love the ocean. It makes you feel small, but not in a bad way. Small because you realize you’re part of something bigger.” - Lauren Miracle

“There's no question dolphins are smarter than humans as they play more.” - Albert Einstein

Dr. Julie Cappel

Some Dolphin Facts: https://hawaiioceanproject.com/10-facts-about-spinner-dolphins/

Hawaiian spinners are primarily three colors. The skin on the dorsal area is a deep gray, while its sides are a lighter shade of gray. The bottom portion of the dolphin is white. The dorsal fin area has small white spots.  Because dolphins need to consciously think about breathing, when they sleep only half of their brain rests at a time. The awake half needs to tell it breathe and monitor its surroundings.  Though the dolphins primarily breathe through their blowholes, Hawaiian spinners have developed a method of breathing without surfacing from the water. They blow a bubble when near the water surface and then quickly draw breath from it. Dolphins are so smart!  When spinning, the dolphins can make up to seven complete rotations in the air! Though no one knows for sure, it’s believed the dolphins spin for the following reasons:

·      To clean their bodies of parasites (this is the most common assumption)

·      For courting members of the opposite sex

·      To communicate with other dolphins

·      For fun!

And they did spin!

Episode #38 - Dealing with The Negative Online Review

On this episode of the podcast Julie reads some online reviews and shares insights on why we allow them to affect us negatively.  Dr. Cappel shares tools to help us manage our minds around these and  how to respond in a professional and respectful way.  People who are hurting often hide behind the anonymity of the online review, and we need to embrace this concept in order to see each review as a reflection of the reviewer, not of us. 

Check out this episode!

You are Uniquely Worthy

This week I was listening to a podcast hosted by Ken Coleman while doing some housework on my day off.  Ken is the author of the book The Proximity Principle and he hosts a podcast for people struggling with career choices and finding their passion and purpose in life.    Ken’s podcast is interesting from the standpoint that he coaches people live on the radio and helps them work through their thoughts in order to help them accomplish their dreams.  Because I love coaching and leadership his show appeals to me.

As I was listening to him coach, he encountered a woman who sounded very discouraged and frustrated about the state of her life and career.  She mentioned something about not feeling worthy of attaining a successful career and expecting adequate pay.   Ken went into a small passionate speech about worthiness and how we are all worthy as humans and we need to embrace that concept.  When I heard him passionately speaking to this subject, it struck me that I have experienced the exact same thing with many of my coaching clients and colleagues in the veterinary field.  The thoughts that we are somehow not worthy continue to hold us back from creating a fabulous life and career. 

I immediately started writing a podcast about this and decided to write this blog today to try to encourage everyone to embrace their unique character and worthiness in the world.

The definition of worthiness is; having adequate or great merit, character, or value -being good enough.

When I think about being good enough, I realize that most of us want to compare ourselves to others in order to feel a sense of self-worth.  We see it as some sort of competition.  Are we more beautiful, more talented, wealthier, or smarter than the next person?  Who decides how much worth we possess? 

In truth, I believe as Ken Colman stated on his podcast that we are all perfectly worthy just because we are human beings placed on this earth.  We are all born with unique talents and ambitions which inherently make us important to the universe.  We all have something to offer and when we do not believe this or embrace the concept, we wallow in self-pity and waste the unique talents that we have been given.

You were born with a uniqueness and inherent worthiness that cannot be denied.  Your past trauma, your mistakes, or your work failures cannot change it. Your opinion of yourself is not regulated by any childhood experiences.  No matter how bad your parents treated you or how many horrible experiences you have had, you can choose to embrace your worthiness and love yourself. 

You are 100% worthy, just because you are a human. 

“Self-worth comes from one thing - thinking that you are worthy.” - Wayne Dyer

Dr. Julie Cappel

Episode #37 - How to Start Loving Your Job

On this episode of the podcast Julie talks about learning to love your job again.  She explains how some changes in your thinking coupled with new actions, will actually help you have better feelings about the work that you do. In order to move away from hating your job you have to remember the feelings that you had when you first started doing this work.  Taking stock of your current emotions and understanding the thoughts behind them will cause you to regain some of the love that you have for your important exciting work. 

Check out this episode!