PLOW THROUGH

While you're looking at average transaction amounts, take it a step further and examine how the doctors in your practice compare to one another. For example, if you have four doctors and three of them are doing $150 per professional transaction and the other one is doing $120, that can signify a problem, assuming they offer similar services. That $30 difference can account for a missed $96,000 by the end of the year.

Veterinarians often make excuses for their low professional transaction numbers—"I'm not board-certified like Dr. Smith"—but the most common reason that one doctor's average is lower than another's is fee sensitivity. Doctors don't offer services or products because they fear the client's reaction to a high bill. So they discount or give away services. To raise your numbers you'll need to require doctors to make their recommendations consistently and charge appropriately for services. You can also boost professional transaction figures by improving your marketing and communication skills.

And finally, a no-brainer solution to increasing client transaction volume is to increase your number of clients. Look at the number of new clients coming in every month. While you're doing that, go ahead and compare it to last year's numbers, and set a goal of how many more clients you'd like to attract each month. Not sure what's a reasonable number? Our industry averages 25 to 30 new clients per full-time-equivalent veterinarian per month. Then develop a marketing plan to reach that goal. You might improve your Web site, design or update your hospital brochure, upgrade your practice signage, or start an ambassadorship program or a graduated "thank you for referring" program.

But don't stop there. To determine if your efforts were successful, be sure to evaluate your client retention rate—how many clients return to your practice after an initial visit. The industry average—defined as new clients who return within 18 months of their initial visit—is a 60 percent retention rate. If your retention rate is lower than that, it's time to find out why. Send a questionnaire to all new clients, hire a mystery shopper service, and call those clients who haven't returned to uncover the problem.

You don't have to perform a complete operational audit to identify income problems in your practice. Rather, you can follow these simple steps to get your practice out of the hole and on solid ground. Remember, you have a choice. You can blame the recession and try to ride it out as best you can. Or you can continue to grow and prosper—even in this economy.