When COVID-19 struck in 2020, veterinary industry executives had few historical examples to draw from. Veterinarian procedures, playbooks, and continuity plans were tested as the number of patients, and the need for staff members and supplies increased. The increase in pet ownership and the global transition to telework were both primarily influenced by this dynamic.
Today, pet ownership is still at an all-time high– making it a good time to be a vet.
Veterinary executives challenged themselves, "How do we continue to provide required, high-quality care to thousands of pets each day while keeping our vital personnel safe and engaged?" during a global crisis.
Business performance plans changed to adapt to this new environment, and executives adopted a more comprehensive strategy to address their financial demands and workforce needs. This was primarily the result of creating new measurements and KPIs to measure the effectiveness of their processes and determine what needed to be altered.
In this article, we’ll cover some key performance indicators and metrics that veterinary practices can use to track the success of their practice. Starting with establishing a vision, goal, and purpose that each member of your vet team can support, you could succeed with key performance indicators.
Top 8 Veterinary Practice Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Understand Leading and Lagging KPIs
Both leading and lagging KPIs are present in a well-balanced performance management system. Lagging KPIs are measurements that are simple to detect and monitor, like sales or profit figures. Still, leading KPIs are indicators that might assist you in predicting the future, such as customer happiness or the amount of unique new clients. Although lagging KPIs are essential to a company's survival, these metrics rarely motivate teams.
Let's examine a case in point. Let's say you aim to increase sales by 15% on a comparable basis. As a volume indication in this situation, your top KPI may be the average patient fee, the number of patient visits, or new and unique clients (as a price indicator). You may count how many primary care veterinarians refer you to specialists and emergency areas. The lagging KPIs might be sales, profit, labor, or material costs based on practical situations.
Revenue by Source
It is crucial to track your income rather than just the overall amount. This is the basis for comparing costs and income. Your income quality may be improved by knowing if it comes from professional services, an internet shop, boarding, or renting space to a groomer. This is a significant key performance indicator for virtually any kind of business out there, but it can be beneficial for veterinarians with unique marketing sources.
Overall Revenue
Veterinarian clinics are no different from other businesses because they want to know how much money they generate. Tracking this KPI is crucial since it serves as the foundation for all other KPIs.
Total Active Clients
How many of your clients regularly bring their animals in? Monitoring this KPI will enable you to forecast future revenue and decide if you anticipate generating enough revenue to be profitable. Create a system for reminding clients of their appointments at certain intervals if you notice your business declining. You might be shocked to learn how many pet owners put off yearly checkups until they get a postcard, email, or text reminding them to do so.
New Clients
Do you have enough new customers each month? The arrival and departure of clients are unavoidable. Be aware of your customer capacity to retain a client base necessary for profitability. Make sure you have a website if you don't have one.
For prospective customers to locate your office and learn more about your goods, services, and veterinarians, you must have a web presence. Showcase not only your services but also any volunteerism or community activity that your veterans have engaged in. These last touches will win over potential customers and demonstrate your concern for the neighborhood where you do business.
Production by Provider
Particularly for veterinarians who are not owners, this measure is essential. Veterinarians generally generate five times their pay for the majority of operations. No of your degree of experience, this is true. For instance, you would anticipate a DVM earning $75,000 in salary to have gross charges of at least $300,000 to $400,000 per year before any modifications. Depending on the veterinarian's specialty qualifications and whether the practice is a small animal, big animal, or blended, practices may skew higher or lower.
Expenses vs. Total Revenue
Every vet (and business in general) must incur costs to operate. The ultimate objective is to maintain low expenses and high income. You can examine your overall expenses by keeping an eye on this KPI, and you can then decide whether there are any areas you can optimize to reduce costs. To acquire a more detailed understanding, you might wish to divide things up into other groups. How much work, for instance, is involved in each transaction? While you want this number to be low, you also don't want to compromise on customer service by understaffing your business. What about the price of the materials? Are there any alternative suppliers you might buy from at a discount if supply costs seem to be high?
All Transactions Divided by Average Charge
A transaction often generates money. Do you count the number of transactions you do each month? You can gauge the financial health of your practice by monitoring this KPI. Are you still making money even if you have a lot of transactions?
If your average transaction charge is low, it takes more transactions to reach your financial objectives. In this circumstance, look for opportunities to upsell services to clients or investigate additional goods or services your firm may provide. Observe your competition and pay attention to your clients to find out whether there are any other ways to make money.
How DashboardFox Can Help Your Veterinary Practice
DashboardFox is an easy-to-use dashboard and reporting tool that doesn’t cost an arm and leg like most of our larger competitors. So first and foremost, you can get the benefits of monitoring KPIs without the burden of a reoccurring subscription (see more about that below).
Veterinary medicine is as critical as any medicine, which is why these helpful metrics and KPIs will benefit those in the industry. These metrics will help veterinary clinics and hospital owners operate and manage their businesses without compromising quality or profit.
That’s why you would benefit from a practical and consistent business intelligence tool that can keep them going without worrying about exposing important files to anyone or having their files thrown away in all places.
With DashboardFox, you can create interactive dashboards indicating various metrics and KPIs that would help everyone see where things are going and what each metric means for the whole business. Apart from that, they also have unique forms of data visualization: charts, graphs, and even maps.
You won’t run out of things to do with DashboardFox.
Add to that their one-time payment scheme (which means no more subscriptions to maintain), a dedicated team to help you 24/7 and make you feel like a VIP, and its codeless report building, and you can be sure that DashboardFox is here to stay -- and then some.
So what are you waiting for? Book a free live demo session with us, or reach out to us through a meeting. Either way, we’ll be waiting!