Do you have a favourite word when communicating with clients?
I’m sure you all have your own ideas on this – from the obvious to the downright inappropriate – but, for me, when taking a history, triaging or just engaging in small talk, I find one word focuses and directs the conversation.
I always find the typical welcoming words of “please”, “thank you”, “how”, “what”, “why” and “when” all help set the right tone for a conversation, but one word in particular always focuses the mind.
Getting details
Open questions are great for getting information, but at times you need to achieve focus, and it’s not really the client’s job to have that skill – it’s our job to frame conversations to get the details we need.
This might seem quite a statement for one single word, but it works for me. I’ve also heard people say this word is great to use when talking to people with mental health issues, so it may be helpful in speaking with clients and colleagues.
It’s a word that frames what you are asking, helps focus the answer provider and prioritises the present – being in the moment.
So, what is this magic word?
“Today”.
Yes, today – and it works on so many levels.
Focus to frame events
For those with long-term or short-term mental health issues, today provides a realistic boundary to assess their feelings.
For example: “How are you today?”
It allows a reply that frames where they are today, whatever day that may be. It doesn’t require extended discussions on how we got to that situation, but provides a platform for help and progress from this daily update.
For clients, it can provide a focus for triage or something as simple as making an appointment. While a story always exists behind every conversation at a vets, times occur where we need that information and times occur where we don’t.
Making an appointment
A well-run diary is key to a successful vet practice and keeping staff sane. In a previous blog, I mentioned a “red flag” of a team not coping can be the fake appointment – and this got quite a reaction.
Clearly, diary management is something we all struggle with, so it’s important to get right.
Most clients will telephone with the question “may I book an appointment?” and, obviously, the answer is yes. However, when that appointment is booked for needs to be decided, and you need to know more to ensure you meet both the pet’s and client’s needs, you can start finding out the information you need by asking: “How is [patient’s name] today?”
This gets the focus on the patient’s welfare and you can prioritise the booking around this, rather than around the client’s diary needs.
Triaging emergencies
We know there are emergencies and there are EMERGENCIES, so how do you tell the difference from what the client has to say?
What may be an urgent issue for the client may not be for us, and vice versa, so how do we get vet and owner to focus on the same thing and come to the best plan for everyone?
Again, while open questions can get a lot of information from a client in an emergency, you need to know why he or she came to see you “today”, because the pressures of life may mean this issue started as something different some time ago, and you need the history of that journey.
By framing the history with the timeline leading up to today, you can help focus the client’s mind once he or she has explained what is worrying him or her in general.
You have far more tools needed to communicate successfully with clients, but if you are starting out and trying different things, I would recommend trying open questions with the added focus of ”today” to see what happens.
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