Choosing the right name for your veterinary practice is something that should be given a lot of insight, as it can heavily impact your business in future.
Naming a veterinary practice has always been considered as a relatively easy decision, because one could simply choose a business name from their names, or the location of the business. I.e. Mary Jones Veterinary clinic, or Sweet Waters Avenue.
In Business, this can be referred to as marketing tactics, as it attracts a lot of patients, because they already relate to that particular veterinarian.
However, this is bound to present issues in future, as when it comes to transferring the business to another person, it can be hectic. Some people will not just agree to adopt the name of your clinic bearing your name but may want to change the name completely. Changing the name will completely mean a totally different thing to the patients because of things such as trust.
Clients tend to develop trust with doctors that they know too well. For the new person taking up the business, it may be hard to establish themselves, in terms of a good clientele base.
Give it a deep thought
When choosing a practice name, you should always give it a thought and think whether the name will pull in clients at its first mention. For instance, when you think of soda, what is the first brand that comes to your mind? For many, it would be Coca-Cola, probably because it is the most popular brand in the world. In fact, some of the drink’s success may lie in its name.
Brand names like coca cola, Safaricom, Kit Kat, generally affects how consumers respond to products and services. Not because the products and services are so exceptional, but because they have already established a brand name for themselves, over other businesses that might be offering similar products.
So how does one settle on a proper perfect Veterinary hospital name? while a name like Pet care animal Hospital might work just fine, A name like Vet and Pet Animal Hospital could work best because, it connects the pet to the vet, in that; there is a direct co- relation between this particular Veterinarian and his patients, which makes the clients want to be associated with the premise.
As one sits down to design veterinary premises, they should think beyond the rooflines, the parking lots and the equipment. All these fall in later, after finding a good brand name, for as long as you have the monetary power.
Today’s consumers are restless and empowered; they have the powers to choose what they want and leave what does not make them happy. To stay relevant in this competitive world, your business must deliver an entire brand experience that supports your carefully crafted image.
As a starter, your veterinary business practice may struggle with marketing and maintaining a clear and consistent brand. The key is to create an experience that goes beyond the services you offer. If you do this well, you’ll cultivate long-term clients.
When choosing a brand name, the following are what one should put into consideration;
- A simple name – Choosing a complicated name for veterinary brand may not attract as many clients as you thought. Clients like to relate with simple language that does not bother them to think what it really means. A name like ‘Recuperate Veterinary Clinic’ may not go very well with your target clients, because one may start to ponder their mind on what the owrd ‘recuperate’ actually means. A simple name like ‘Recover quick Vet Clinic’ is easily relatable among your patients, and they will trickle in because the words used in the brand name are easy and digestible.
- A brand name should be meaningful to the client. In that, you cannot plan to open a veterinary clinic and the brand name used doe not reflect any of these. Words like Pet, Vet, Animal Clinic, Paw, Furry, make it click in a client’s mind that, this is the place to make frequent visits with my pet.
- The name should also identify with the kind of practice you are running. Practice identity is highly crucial, as it pulls clients from all directions, simply because they identify the name with something. This again falls back to the choice of words one uses to identify their practice.
- Use professionally designed logos. Logos that look too tired, especially when marketing yourself on online platforms, will rarely attract people into your business. In veterinary practices, if you choose to specialize in treatment of pets, let the logo speak about the same. Make sure to get a good designer who does it perfect for you.
Actualizing the dream
When a veterinarian already has an exciting brand name in place, then it becomes easy for the rest of the things to also get across.
One should start by creating a brief positioning statement (about seven words or less) about who you are and what you do. Using a statement like “Let us be your other family doctor.” Could attract patients into a veterinarian clinic because an animal lover thinks ‘oh! I got a family doctor for myself, how about my furry or paw friend?
Choose a mission that clearly shows what you do. Having a mission like “To deliver quality services to your pet, that is meant to improve its welfare and human welfare’ would sound quite good to the target audience as it inarguably tells the client that having their animal treated in that specific clinic, not only betters the life of their animal, but their lives, in things such as avoidance of spread of diseases.
The physical design of your practice will need to be appealing to the eyes of your target patients. Architecture is the most compelling physical medium you can use to communicate your brand. The design of your practice should go hand in hand with the umbrella of your brand philosophy. If the building is already put into place, ensure that it an environment that animals will feel comfortable coming in.
Environments like noisy places may scare off animals, and they may turn to be aggressive as unexpected, and the veterinarian may end up not being able to treat it, because they may be in fear of an attack. This is despite being used to these creatures. We are all human after all.
The interior of your practice should correspond to your brand. Design it in a way that reflects that it is a veterinary hospital. If you are a practicing veterinary surgeon, let the premises say so about you. This should be evident in the facilities available in the hospital. For instance, an operating room, operating equipment, gloves, vet coats , masks and many more.
Use the web to create a stronger brand. In a highly developing country, technology is inevitable. People will always rush to the internet to look for new things around them.
One may be living in an area that they are not very conversant with and their pet falls sick. One thing I am sure is, they will rush to the internet to look for nearby veterinary clinics.
A Web site helps you brand your practice and appeal to clients. To help tie everything together, design your Web site using the same fonts, words, colors, and graphics that you use in printed materials such as brochures and business cards.
A successful brand is about relationships with people. It’s about an experience that goes beyond veterinary medicine.
Rebranding your practice
For one reason or the other, one may want to rebrand their premises. A veterinarian could consider moving to a new location or selling the business to a fellow veterinarian. The premises could be bearing the names of the owner and the buyer will consider changing it, to give it another name. The vet clinic could be named after a certain street its located in, but when moving to a completely new location, one might consider changing it all together.
When rebranding, think of the clients, because they are the main people keeping you in that particular business. Rebranding can cause some sort of confusion to the patients. This explains why veterinarians are advised to use general names that are catchy, and not their surnames, when putting up a veterinary practice clinic.
Rebranding a clinic named after yourself can be problematic when it comes to another party taking over. It would mean changing everything from the name, to protecting the previous person’s trust with the patients.
Sub sequential relocation or rebranding
After moving to a completely new location, one may want to maintain their clients, maybe because of their commitment. Ensure to keep communicating with your clients to know how your patients are doing, are the prescriptions working? Are they showing any improvements? Is there a need to come back to the hospital? Are they willing to follow you to your new location? Do they have any referrals in your new location? Are they adapting well to the new name of your practice? Did the new name cause any confusions among them?
All these will help you to establish whether your new business name is pleasing to your clients, or whether your newly found location affects them in any way.
