This subject is the heart of marketing, which deals with the famous 4Ps, as outlined in the 40s by Neil Borden, and later by Eugene McCarthy in the 1960s but it was Philip Kotler who made them famous. We can include another P, of people, into them:

 P- place, location of the company (building)

 P- product or service offered

 P- charged price

 P- Promotion, advertising (communication)

 P- People (staff, suppliers, customers)

You should know all about it! How much should we charge for an appointment? Or a bath or grooming? Is it the same as charging for a product such as a soda, or rice bag or a sandwich?

There are products and services. The first are usually commodities, that is, something tangible, concrete, so called tangible. Services are intangible, they are abstract. Ask someone to read a book as it was. Some will say they were amazed, others did not make it through the first few pages! Imagine evaluating a lecture, a phone call, a doctor's surgery. All very intangible.

Therefore, charging a price means more than just putting a price into a product or service. The most important is the "value" that clients give to your practice. Many people in the pet industry are trapped on the price. Even worse, worried about the price others! That is, some "commoditize" themselves, by making customers see us as products, without differentiation. This is one of the main reasons why the pet market, especially veterinary medicine, has fallen into individual bad incomes.

Many veterinarians fight among colleagues by price, putting it down, and rarely to increase them! My concerns: when you charge lower, a professional will not have enough income to its proper living; will not have good quality of life, social status, good financial results for her/his family. This is bad in itself, and has been the rule today, unfortunately. The second point is that without sufficient revenue, the quality of service goes down, it inhibits the participation in specialization courses, conferences. There is also a third consequence: the low level of clinical care, less equipment! In other words, we need to get out of this vicious cycle.

What professional pet industry needs to understand is that customer, except for a portion of them, called the transaction or auction, they do not care for the price, but for the value of his experience during their stay in your business.

Value is what client puts on his head, consciously and unconsciously, according to his experience. When we give a price, what the customer sees as a cost, expense, he automatically starts to think if that price is worth or not worth paying it. This is done almost automatically in many cases, in others it really needs to think sometimes at home.

This research means that the data value will go through two essential aspects: the environment and the exam itself. The customer perceives the physical and psychological aspects of your company. If the location is beautiful, gorgeous, the value begins to rise in his head. The other point is the psychological factor, that is, people in contact with people generate comfort or stress on the customer's head. The value begins to be already given during the first phone call to you!

The customer first "buys" you as a person, then as a professional, as a vet. He will value you for care of the environment as a whole. Remember this the next consultation!

So when you want to charge more for some procedure, offer something in return, offer more benefits, that enhances value in her/his head.