Sacking clients: what to do when the relationship breaks down

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1 Vet Times The website for the veterinary profession Sacking clients: what to do when the relationship breaks down Author : Tracy Mayne Categories : RVNs Date : April 1, 2010 Tracy Mayne RVN, VHA, CVPM puts her foot down and looks at how to deal with troublesome clients from seeing the other side to refusing further treatment YOU RE sacked! Not words you often hear being directed at your clients, but they could be. We all have clients who visit our practices that make our hearts sink, but we have to remain professional and courteous at all times, no matter how the client makes us feel. In one of my very first jobs, I had a customer spit at me over reception. I had never been spat at before and found it very humiliating, especially as we ran open surgeries and the waiting room was full of people. Sadly, my employers, instead of supporting me, decided to interrogate me as to why the client would do such a thing without provocation. Well, I didn t provoke the client unless you call advising them they could not park their car in our car park while shopping as a good enough reason. So I had been spat at, humiliated in front of an audience, interrogated by my boss and thoroughly misunderstood by everyone. What I believe should have happened was for my boss to support me to speak to the client and, if an apology was not given, then the client asked to leave the practice. Such behaviour towards staff should not, in my view, be tolerated under any circumstances. Now, as we all know, pigs don t fly and the above action wasn t taken and I was forced to carry on working in a practice knowing this client would, at some point, return and I would be expected to be professional and courteous. 1 / 5

2 Sadly, I expect most of you reading this have had a similar experience. Perhaps you have been verbally abused, threatened physically, been subjected to emotional blackmail and/or have had to deal with people who argue about having to pay, bad debtors, rude clients and repeat time wasters. Sounding familiar? To a certain extent, we must expect when working with the general public that not everyone is going to treat us in a way we would wish to be treated. However, it is important to have a protocol in place to deal with those clients that are repeat offenders. Managing emotions Emotions are often running high for clients when they bring their sick pet to us. Clients are not only worrying about their pet s health but also, during these difficult financial times, the cost of treatments. We must ensure we all have the skills and support within our practice teams to manage these clients, so they feel supported and are not judged or misunderstood by us. No, it s not our fault our clients pets get sick and it s not our problem they cannot afford the veterinary care their pets need. However, our attitude towards a client is often what can lead to some difficult situations at reception. Think of the last time you were met by an obstinate customer service provider, perhaps you have needed to return an unwanted Christmas present. How did the staff member speak to you? Was she understanding and helpful? Or did she have an I couldn t care less attitude? How did it make you feel? Now, think about your clients. They come to you with problems and you need to find solutions. Everyone is happy when we find solutions, but when there are no solutions how do you behave towards them? Do you say: well, that s how much it is for a cat spay; no, we don t offer credit facilities; or no, we don t offer discounts to pensioners, students or clients on benefits. Or do you say: we have not increased the price of our cat spays for 18 months, to help support our clients during the credit crunch; or we don t have any discount schemes in place at present, but we may be able to get some funding towards the costs from Cats Protection or the Blue Cross. I think you can guess which set of answers is less likely to light the touchpaper. We may unwittingly 2 / 5

3 annoy a client, and clients may get upset or angry, but there is a fine line between what is acceptable and what is not acceptable behaviour from our customers. Some practices have adopted a sacking protocol, whereby a client that abuses a staff member in any way is sent a letter. The first letter warns the client that their behaviour (or in some cases, their pet s bad behaviour) in the practice has caused upset and distress. The letter should state they should refrain from behaving in such a manner in future, while in your practice. It is important to give the client the opportunity to defend him or herself. Although there is no excuse for bad behaviour, some people may have extenuating circumstances. If the practice finds the client still behaves appallingly or he or she continues to ignore your debt letters then they give you no option they must be sacked before any further debt can be accumulated or another staff member upset. We must take care not to use this protocol to get rid of clients we simply don t like or for those clients who seem ungrateful for our efforts. We had a client a few years ago who had a very sick retriever and the whole team put enormous effort into helping her and her dog. I am pleased to say the dog made a full recovery. During the dog s treatment over a period of several months, however, the client never thanked us, and never seemed bothered by anything any of us had done. I guess to the team she seemed ungrateful. About 12 months later, the woman returned with her dog for a booster and during this visit she said to me thanks for everything you all did for my dog last year, it was much appreciated. She explained it had been a difficult time as her husband had been dying of cancer at the same time and had, in fact, died while the dog was still under treatment. I had judged this person wrongly. She had been going through a very traumatic time and had little emotional energy to support herself, her family and her husband, let alone have the energy to praise us for the work she was paying us to do. A serious business Sacking clients is a serious business. I used to work in a practice that, instead of sending clients Christmas cards, at the end of the year they would send their sacking letters. I am not sure I would say this is good timing. However, I think in the same way you have a series of debt letters, you should have a series of letters warning against inappropriate behaviour. In our practice we have added a note to our final bad debt letter that requests the client seeks another veterinary practice in the future, as we are no longer prepared to provide further veterinary treatments for any of their animals. From what I have understood from the RCVS, you must send the letter recorded delivery, as the client must have received notification the practice wishes to cease providing veterinary treatment. You must provide reasonable notice so they can find an alternative source for their animal s 24-hour veterinary care. We have interpreted this to be about 10 working days. After this time, we state in our letter we will not be providing any veterinary services for any of their animals, ever. You need to specify this as they may purchase additional animals, and a poorly worded letter may leave 3 / 5

4 you open for the client to return. It is important to always remain professional, no matter how under pressure you feel. It is also important to understand your role when difficult situations arise. There are some excellent articles and books on handling difficult situations at reception or in the consult room. Time wasters are difficult clients to manage as they are often more interested in your time and company than your help and support. We have an unwritten protocol to manage these clients, which is to save each other by having another staff member interrupt the conversation by saying they urgently need your help with something out the back. This tends to be effective as the client will often get to the point quickly, and then either arrange something, buy something or, most commonly, just leave as they never had any intention of booking or as these clients do own pets that do need us to ensure they get the care they need and ignoring or dismissing this person may not be in the pet s best interest. Adding some time pressure to the conversation will often bring it to a head more quickly. Summary Always look at your own behaviour before judging a client s behaviour. Do you feel you have all the skills to handle these difficult situations? If the answer is no, pull out your VN Times and look for articles on dealing with difficult clients. These are tough times for our clients and, thus, for us. The practice should have a protocol for managing customers who fail to show staff the common courtesy they deserve. The protocol should also cover those clients who fail time and time again to pay their bills. Most practices have several thousand clients and among them will be a handful they all dread seeing. Does the practice really need them? If the team decides they don t, then perhaps sacking is the only option. THE RCVS SAYS: In the same way veterinary clients are free to choose which veterinary practice they use, vets are entitled to choose to whom they provide routine services. If a veterinary practice no longer wishes to provide services to a particular person, for example, because of the client s bad debt or inappropriate behaviour, generally they inform them in writing. Ideally, the letter should be sent recorded delivery, allowing a reasonable amount of time for that person to seek veterinary services elsewhere, particularly if the animal has ongoing treatment. (The veterinary practice should itself decide what constitutes a reasonable time, based on how easy it would be to find another practice). 4 / 5

5 Powered by TCPDF ( During this time period, the practice may continue to provide its veterinary services. Veterinary emergencies provide a potential area of difficulty. Ideally, the client will be with a new practice. If not, all veterinary surgeons have an overriding responsibility to maintain the welfare of an animal committed to his or her care, so he or she should not unreasonably refuse to provide it with first aid and pain relief. But, they may ask the owner to seek further veterinary care elsewhere, as appropriate. If the client leaves the animal on the premises and will not take responsibility for it, this may amount to abandoning and the practice may need to explore other options such as contacting the RSPCA to consider re-homing. If the client chooses another practice, which subsequently asks for the client s details to be forwarded, the clinical records of that client s animal may be passed on. 5 / 5