how important are waiting room sales in your practice?

RE: how important are waiting room sales in your practice?

enigmaticat-uk — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 17:47:15 GMT

Quite like the look of the place but I shudder at the thought of having to dust all those tiny glass bottles & maintain suitable cleanliness there.

RE: how important are waiting room sales in your practice?

molladog — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 09:49:56 GMT

[quote user="Meow1950"]However, my last practice was out in the sticks and no pet shops near, and we sold toys, coats etc, sold well. Think saves people the travel in this case.[/quote]

Agree with this bit, very rural practices could benefit from selling the usual items as access to shops may be difficult for some clients.

RE: how important are waiting room sales in your practice?

Meow1950 — Sat, 02 Feb 2019 08:53:25 GMT

We do have a small food stand but other than that we keep the waiting room free of clutter and don’t sell anything else.

My boss likes to keep the focus on what we’re all about, and I have to admit I’m inclined to agree with him. Waiting room looks simple and fresh (no pics of it I’m afraid). Also, as you said we have big pet stores near us anyway so people usually buy there.

However, my last practice was out in the sticks and no pet shops near, and we sold toys, coats etc, sold well. Think saves people the travel in this case.

RE: how important are waiting room sales in your practice?

Selena Carnell — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 20:11:27 GMT

Love your waiting room, so non clinical and un white! (magnolia!) so much more friendly and calming.

RE: how important are waiting room sales in your practice?

Arlo Guthrie — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 15:49:42 GMT

James Colver Cert. Ed, RVN Do you mind if I share a few of those over on VetSurgeon.org - would like to know if anyone else is doing something similar (ie unique and individual boutiquey).

RE: how important are waiting room sales in your practice?

Robyn — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 15:43:23 GMT

That waiting room is MAGICAL! We do have all the standard food/notice boards/toys for sale. We try to keep it relatively limited as we d have a PAH very close by, but we do get a good number of sales from people who actively don't want to shop there -there really aren't any good independent pet shops nearby for our clients.

RE: how important are waiting room sales in your practice?

James Colver Cert. Ed, RVN — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 09:37:21 GMT

Absolutely! That's why we went for hospital grade antibacterial, wipe clean paint throughout :)

RE: how important are waiting room sales in your practice?

Anne Watkins — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 09:10:57 GMT

i think having a ‘cleanable’ waiting room is also very important - might look lovely but if you have chairs that might be urinated on and can’t be disinfected or walls that can’t be wiped then this is also unhygienic. Trying to achieve a balance of aesthetic + practicality is key :)

RE: how important are waiting room sales in your practice?

James Colver Cert. Ed, RVN — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 04:50:45 GMT

Thank you! Here's our smallest brach surgery and pups in the consult room, they are all kitted out in the same style, lots of antique microscopes from ebay and picture frames / old books about animals collected from charity shops etc.

RE: how important are waiting room sales in your practice?

Sal the 1st — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 00:24:47 GMT

must admit I like your lower reception desk also - I sometimes think ours is a bit more of a barricade than a desk

RE: how important are waiting room sales in your practice?

James Colver Cert. Ed, RVN — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 00:16:00 GMT

Ha!

Break the mould :) I reckon the waiting room should be a relaxed, comfortable place. In this day and age, information can be made available online, food can be ordered for next day delivery and how much are we really likely to make from a few collars and catnip toys, especially when the big pet shops can sell it all so much cheaper.

RE: how important are waiting room sales in your practice?

Sal the 1st — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 00:10:35 GMT

[quote user="jimbomcgrimbo"]

We don't have ANYTHING for sale in the waiting rooms of our practices.

[/quote]

This is our way of thinking also - its just when I speak to friends at other practices it seems like we are doing something really wrong? but I'm determined the waiting room shouldn't resemble some sort of jumble sale -apart from anything else opportunist sales in the waiting rooms I just think it confuses things ie trying to explain meds and take payment but all the client is taking notice of is the latest bling lead and collar or the child they also have in tow who got bored by the whole experience and is now chowing down on your cat or dog treats (true story I once had a child in the waiting room - sat there positively angelic while mum was in consult deciding if the cat was going to be pts or not, we all commented on how well behaved he was - was only when they left we found the empty wrappers, think he may have tried to eat his weight in the rat yoghurt drops)

RE: how important are waiting room sales in your practice?

Anne Watkins — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 16:28:19 GMT

We sell Royal Canin food, treats, toys and accessories and generally do quite well! We also tried with selling odour eliminating candles recently and they sold really well. Because we have separate cat and dog waiting areas, the species specific food/items are kept separate too.

RE: how important are waiting room sales in your practice?

James Colver Cert. Ed, RVN — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 10:37:59 GMT

No worries Arlo! It's an independent practice with a main hospital just behind the high street, and a few stand-alone branch practices. Our boss has a young family and is very driven.

I guess he saw the boutique-style as a means of succeeding against corporates! It's a nice place and we are very proud of it, we love showing clients around.

RE: how important are waiting room sales in your practice?

Arlo Guthrie — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 08:55:59 GMT

[quote user="jimbomcgrimbo"]We don't have ANYTHING for sale in the waiting rooms of our practices. Just comfy chairs, a coffee machine and very nice decor. [/quote]

Now that is quite possibly the coolest practice waiting room I have ever seen! (and I have seen a fair few in my time).

I wonder, as we see the decline of retail in the high street, and the rise of more sociable coffee shops, restaurants, artisan and pop up shops, and 'experiential shopping', whether more veterinary practices might move into the high street.

James Colver Cert. Ed, RVN - are you on the high street?

(BTW, I haven't forgotten your qualification request - tried to do it last night and made the whole system fall over, so waiting for techies to explain to me why I was being a klutz and will have another go shortly ).

RE: how important are waiting room sales in your practice?

James Colver Cert. Ed, RVN — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 07:04:07 GMT

We don't have ANYTHING for sale in the waiting rooms of our practices. Just comfy chairs, a coffee machine and very nice decor.

We don't want our clients to feel pressured into 'hard sells' - we want them to come in and feel relaxed / informal, and this rubs off on their pets too. We also don't have notice boards / posters or anything else like that.

This style has been received extremely well and clients who have been referred from elsewhere always comment on how nice it is. I think that the days of tatty waiting room displays and shelves full of tat should be long gone :)