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Practices have also been warned not to use AI when responding to client complaints.
Chris Simpson
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Vet practices have been warned against offering too many goodwill gestures to clients when resolving complaints.
Jennie Jones, head of the Veterinary Client Mediation Service (VCMS), suggested consistently doing so can have the opposite of the intended effect.
Speaking at BVA Live in the session, “Managing complaints post-CMA: what do you need to know?”, she said: “If you’re continually making those financial gestures, it can undermine the trust and encourages clients to push back.”
Asked about vexatious complaints, Mrs Jones noted clients may think their complaints are reasonable, but engaging in mediation can reset and adjust their expectations where necessary.
She also revealed that around half of the VCMS’ resolutions are non-financial and that of those that are, many result in clients settling unpaid bills with their practice.
Appearing on the panel alongside her, Thrums Vets director Gavin Durston advised delegates not to admit liability prematurely, but suggested “that old-fashioned reaction of ‘let’s find the reason why the client is wrong’ just doesn’t work”.
He said that listening to clients “is the key thing to good communication” and the “most important lesson” he has learned, “as sometimes my perception of the problem isn’t what the client’s perception is”.
Panel chairperson and BVA president Rob Williams echoed a similar sentiment, suggesting complaints are a “gift” as they provide “some insight into what we do that we don’t appreciate”.
He urged clinicians to read complaints from a client’s point of view in the consultation room and added: “Empowering your team to take responsibility is a hugely important thing.
“It’s not about fault, it’s about resolution.”
The subject of complaints also arose in the session “Ahead of the pack: leveraging AI to navigate the new CMA landscape”.
While Pennard Vets’ group clinical director Serina Filler suggested artificial intelligence (AI) could be helpful for tracking an audit trail of the communication between the practice and client, the consensus was to urge delegates not to otherwise involve it in sensitive processes.
Petscribers co-founder and equine vet Angela Jones said AI “shouldn’t touch euthanasia and complaints”, arguing: “It’s a human interaction, it needs to be human led.”
Locum vet Nick Jackson, chairperson of the BVA’s AI working group, said: “I personally would keep AI as far away as possible from communicating with clients about complaints right now.
“It’s a key skill of vets to be involved in those conversations.”
He concluded AI could be helpful in “automating some of those processes that we might not always get involved in, but the direct human-patient-client interaction is really important”.