15 May 2025
Ensuring the well-being of pets, staff and clients alike is a high priority at Harrison Family Vets. Group clinical director James Harris explains how this concept works for everyone and how a practice can develop within this environment
James Harris
Job Title
Image: Kalim / Adobe Stock
The veterinary industry, over the past 30 years, has in some ways changed a great deal. In the 1990s, there was a real focus on gold standard clinical care, a term which appeared in our profession on the back of marketing for the first licensed propofol product.
In 2001, Alison Lambert, founder of Onswitch, encouraged everyone to consider the customer experience and client journey, which was a paradigm shift in our approach to veterinary care in that good patient outcomes are achieved when we work with the people living with them.
In the past decade, the well-being of team members has become increasingly recognised, supported by numerous organisations such as SPVS and the RCVS. Currently, our focus is on contextualised care, which takes a more holistic and individualised approach.
However, despite all these positive changes, it could be said that the challenges in front of us have never been greater.
Harrison Family Vets’ management team grew out of the award-winning group White Cross Vets. From inception, the importance of clearly defined principles within a positive culture was recognised, as well as the need to avoid simply recreating the past. There is great excitement in the industry around developments in IT, client communication and new business models.
While all of this has great value, we should not forget the learnings of recent history and the question must be asked: “Why did we become vets and nurses?”
In response, I have rarely found a single person who doesn’t include the word “pet” or “animal” in their reply. To put it simply, most of us join the profession to make sick animals better or to stop them getting ill in the first place.
Kristie Faulkner and Tim Harrison decided to create a business with this in mind that was truly pet-centric. Putting the pet first is obvious, but can most of us honestly say that we do this on a daily basis? It sometimes feels like modern business gets in the way of what we truly care about at a cost to the pet, the client and most importantly ourselves. Is it even possible for modern veterinary business to coexist with this pet centric approach and if so, how do we create a structure to facilitate it?
In 2016, Marty Becker, in a packed lecture theatre at the North American Veterinary Community, Florida, passionately launched Fear Free. While inspired, it took some time to recognise the importance of the values he was setting in place and how, through education of not just vets and clients, but all pet professionals, he wanted to change our understanding and approach to the emotional well-being of animals under our care.
Founded on behavioural science, Fear Free has taken an evidence-based approach led by numerous specialists and experts, both in North America and further afield, creating a transformative initiative to reduce fear, anxiety and stress of the pets and animals we work with, while simultaneously improving the experience of all the humans involved.
Fear Free isn’t a fad or a cult; it is simply a better way of practising veterinary medicine. It isn’t rocket science either; many of the changes are more in the nature of minor tweaks than radical redesign and can be achieved equally well in an existing business and start up. It looks at both the environment we work within, as well as our behaviours to produce a result that, put simply, is just more enjoyable.
Although we put the pet first in our decision making, this doesn’t mean that only the pet benefits. Today’s clients love this approach, as do the practice team; we all want to work with happier clients with less stressed, calmer pets who actually want to visit us.
A pet-centric approach isn’t just the right thing to do, but also makes financial sense. It is widely documented that the veterinary profession is experiencing a slowing in year-on-year revenue growth, mainly due to decreased practice visits associated with longer intervals between visits and an increase in lapsed clients. The Bayer Veterinary Care Usage Study (Volk et al, 2011) highlighted two key issues affecting patient care, which will not be a surprise. Pet owners felt their pet hated going to the vet (58% feline and 38% canine) and even just thinking about a vet visit was stressful (38% cat owners and 26% dog owners); 22% of the dog owners reported they would visit the clinic more often if the experience was less stressful.
If the clients don’t interact with our teams when seeking veterinary advice or care, then with the best will in the world we cannot make a difference.
It is clear that fear, anxiety and stress, whether real or perceived, is a priority issue for our businesses and affects the frequency and engagement of client visits – especially for cat owners. Mariti et al (2016) found a clear link between the vet’s attitude to their cat and the client’s likelihood of changing practice. Stellato et al (2021) demonstrated that 86% of dogs showed fear at some stage of the veterinary visit. Fortunately, with education, engagement and commitment through the business, this can be improved.
One of the major barriers that Dr Becker has had to overcome is the belief that by putting the care of the pet first, then somehow the business must suffer. Concerns about slowing down your workflow, decreasing revenue or a significant increase in costs are natural, but the evidence tells a different story:
Practices that have integrated Fear Free protocols report not only maintaining their patient flow, but actually increasing it alongside a notable rise in revenue.
In fact, data from a 2021 study shows that Fear Free-certified veterinary practices experienced a consistent year-on-year growth in both patient visits and revenue, outperforming their benchmarks. These practices are setting new standards of care while also seeing a clear return on investment.
A further survey in 2022 highlighted the holistic benefits following certification:
White papers and published journals are all well and good, but what has our experience been at Harrison Family Vets? All our team members, clinical or non-clinical, are expected to complete the individual Fear Free certified professional certification within two months of joining us, with some finishing the nine hours of online CPD before they start.
Our clinic in Reading achieved the first Fear Free certified veterinary practice outside of North America early this year, followed by Kingswinford, and we aim to have all our clinics certified within 12 months. The difference between individual certification and clinic certification is huge, with the latter taking the approach to a whole new level.
To be a success, everyone in the practice needs to have the same approach, grounded in a supportive culture with strong leadership and management. Having super-keen vets and nurses is pointless if the booking system means they are always double booked, or if they are not allowed to purchase different types of treats for the consult rooms.
Behavioural change can only happen when supported by a management team that truly understands what must be done and what the potential outcomes will be. Strong leadership is just as important, but doesn’t always need to come from above – in fact, local leadership at the team level can be even more valuable. A Fear Free approach cannot be implemented centrally and then pushed down; it needs to be overtly part of the business culture, seen in daily activities and considered in every event and conversation.
We all know that success in this industry stems from employing the right people in the right locations with the tools to do their job well, and it all starts with recruitment.
The question of how to attract the best people is far from new, and it is intuitive that the highest quality vets and nurses would want to work in a Fear Free environment; using a different filter to look at who is “best” can make a difference, and an individual’s reaction to the concept of a pet-centric approach is telling.
Fear Free is an integral part of the induction programme, and the individual certification process both educates and rewards the new team member, as well as ensuring they are engaged and part of the team.
Fear Free also has a profound effect on working practices on a day-to-day basis. Many vets and nurses can feel overwhelmed by the conveyor belt approach that is easily taken in modern veterinary practice, and all too often a “get it done” mentality is prevalent.
Taking a step back, looking at workflow management, diary booking, pre-visit communication and then having an ability to make immediate decisions based on the simple parameters of “wants versus needs” and “is this the best course of action for the pet” can have a huge impact on quality of care, client engagement and, importantly, team member well-being.
Clients are more likely to visit and be engaged as they see their pet is at ease, which increases the likelihood of a successful clinical recommendation. When pets are far more at ease, procedures are more straightforward, with lower risks of complications (for example, anaesthesia). Many diagnostic parameters are easier to interpret (for example, blood glucose or heart rate) and an investigation is more likely to be completed if the pet is compliant.
The final piece is the team member who is more likely to recommend a procedure that leads to improved revenue.
Practising Fear Free can have an initial front-end timing impact, but in the medium term the effect is minimal. Booking further appointments becomes easier with this approach when the client has a more positive experience with less anxiety for their pet during the visit, which improves diary management and increases frequency of revenue-generating visits.
Client acquisition is also improved, by allowing a more refined marketing strategy and by opening up new marketing opportunities, appealing more strongly to the mindset of a wider client base.
The increase in new clients and visit volume is skewed towards “better” clients; the ones that would do anything for their pets who typically have a higher average spend. Client retention also benefits due to the higher level of care given, which is appreciated by clients and not as overtly offered by competitors.
Injuries from pets are less common in Fear Free certified veterinary practices, as demonstrated by the lower workers compensation (employers’ liability) insurance premiums in North America, despite a widely held belief that being Fear Free attracts “difficult” pets.
Challenges around recruitment have become an increasing barrier to business development. Our experience and the evidence from the US are that a pet-centric culture can be critical in unlocking the problem.
PetVet365 was the first 100% Fear Free hospital network in North America, with a waiting list of vets and nurses wishing to join. Most US vet schools and nurse training centres now include individual Fear Free certification, leading to recent graduates searching out certified practices.
Our experience in the UK has been similar, with potential team members approaching us directly, and will only increase with the expansion of Fear Free globally. Recruitment is not only easier, but we have found that team members who understand our philosophy are far less likely to leave and team member turnover is markedly reduced. Compassion fatigue, one of the factors prominent in the development of burnout, is decreased due to reduction in the significant trigger of pets in distress.
A pet-centric approach is not a radical change and does not happen overnight, but is more of a progression and can have a profound effect on your business.
As the practice takes on more of a pet-centric approach, clients take notice, pets are happier, and team members respond by pushing forward with further changes.
It is not a panacea and it won’t cover over the cracks of a poor performing practice, but with the right intentions can make a real difference to the care you provide within a successful business environment.
