In-store marketing for a veterinary office is a powerful way to connect with pet owners who bring their animals in for emergencies, shots, and regular check-ups. It’s powerful because in-store marketing doesn’t just help you promote your business, it also helps you better serve your customers.
Despite what its name implies, in-store marketing isn’t just an advertising and promotional strategy. It is a tool for sharing important messages with customers, improving customer experiences, and building lasting brand loyalty.
Here are a few ways you can use in-store marketing to both support your business and the pet owners who bring their animals to your office.
Decrease Customer Stress with Digital Waitboards
No one likes to sit in a waiting room, especially if they’re waiting with their anxious or sick pet. While you may not be able to get animals in to see the vet faster, you can use in-store marketing to make a customer’s wait feel less stressful.
A study conducted by Software Advice found that 80% of patients at a doctor’s office said they would be less frustrated if they knew how long the wait would be. This stat says something about pet owners waiting at your vet’s office too. They will feel less anxious and annoyed if they know how long their wait will be.
To decrease frustration in your waiting room, add a digital waitboard to show customers their place in line and how long that estimated wait will be.
Then, turn your waitboard into a marketing opportunity by using other screens around the waitboard to showcase menu items and offerings from your office. It’s likely that your customers don’t know everything your office does. They may be there for shots for their pets and not realize you also offer grooming services.
So turn your waitboard into a marketing and customer experience tool by featuring wait times along with info about your products and services.
Inform & Entertain Waiting Customers with Animal-Focused Digital Content
Another way to make the wait more tolerable and comfortable for vet customers is by using other digital screens in your waiting room to provide both educational and entertaining content about animals.
The benefit of using digital content in your waiting room is two-fold.
- It provides relevant information that is interesting and enjoyable for your audience. Forrester reported that over 80% of consumers watch programming on digital signage when present.
- It provides a distraction that actually makes the wait feel shorter. Digital signage can make a wait feel up to 33% shorter.
Having a captive audience (that is also less annoyed by their wait) gives your brand an opportunity to share important content that makes the wait more enjoyable and to share marketing messages with waiting customers.
You could use your content to share graphics, videos, and animations about:
- Processes and procedures animals will have during their visit. This information can make customers relax as they can foresee what will happen during the appointment. Knowing what to anticipate will help pet owners prepare for their pet’s visit.
- Information about overall about pet health. This information could be about vaccinations, pet care, and tips that help pet owners keep their pets healthy and happy. Teaching pet owners about how to better care for their animals can lead to better health outcomes and lifespans for pets.
- Information about your office and staff. This information helps customers feel more connected to your office and team which builds lasting brand affinity and loyalty. A customer will be more likely to come back to your office if they feel a connection with your staff and office.
- Fun animal-related trivia or video clips. Not all content needs to be serious or information-heavy. You can also provide fun clips or animal trivia to entertain waiting customers so can relax their minds while they wait.
Don’t just let customers sit in a bare-bones waiting room. Place digital video walls and screens in the waiting area to inform, entertain, and market to customers while they wait.
Serve Customers By Offering Free In-Office WiFi
Screens on the wall educate and inform, and so do screens in a customer’s hands. Now more than ever before, customers use their phones to entertain them while they sit in a waiting room.
Make it easier for customers to use their phone while they wait by offering free in-office WiFi.
Free in-office WiFi not only gives your customers something of value. It also provides a marketing opportunity for business. When you provide free WiFi to your customers, you can:
- Direct them to custom splash landing pages that include marketing messages or promotions
- Collect their email address when they sign-up and use it for remarketing campaigns
- Learn about customer demographics by syncing it to social media accounts that allow you to get a look at your customer base
WiFi marketing gives customers an upgraded experience in your office while giving you an opportunity to reinforce your brand and create marketing opportunities.
Start Using In-Store Marketing at Your Veterinary Office
In-store marketing for a veterinary office isn’t just a way to make more from your customers, although it can do that too.
It’s a tool that improves customer experiences and makes pet owners and their animals feel more comfortable and safe in your office. It also helps customers learn about their animal’s treatment, your office, and pet care tips so they can be empowered to make better decisions for their pet’s health.
See how you can bring the in-store marketing tools mentioned in this post to your veterinary office. Contact Spectrio today to see how we can help you with install digital signage, waitboards, free customer WiFi, and more.
Or learn more about the benefits of using in-store marketing for a veterinary office by visiting our resource page.