Carolyn: Welcome back to another episode of Uniquely Small Biz by Selective Insurance, a podcast for small business owners to share their inspiring stories. I'm Carolyn McCardell and we're so excited to be bringing you another round of insightful conversations with small business owners who are as unique as their venture.
Today, I'm joined by the owner and chief empowerment officer at Family Pet Health PLLC, Michael Shirley. Michael is here today to discuss how he is changing the veterinary field and providing new and insightful experiences to both pets and their owners during a trip to the vet. Hear about how he got his start helping animals and the motivation behind providing fear-free care.
It's time for Uniquely Small Biz brought to you by Selective Insurance.
Conversation:
So, Michael, tell me, how did you initially find yourself in the business of helping animals? What was your draw?
Michael: Well, the long story short is that I grew up wanting to be a veterinarian. I got to college and realized that I didn't like to study, but I found out that I dated a girl that wanted to also be a veterinarian and we got married. So that's, that's the long story short. And we've been together ever since.
Carolyn: Do you think if it weren't for meeting your wife in school, that you would be a veterinarian now?
Michael: Well, I'm not a veterinarian. But I definitely wouldn't own a veterinary hospital if I hadn't met her.
Carolyn: Interesting. So you own the hospital, I guess - my bad. I just assumed that because you were the owner of the hospital, that you were also a veterinarian. So explain the situation, then, she's a vet at the hospital that you co-own?
Michael: That's correct. Yeah, we're 50/50 partners. If I had been smart, we would've made her like 51%, so she could be, you know, a primarily woman-owned business and open up some other opportunities, but we didn’t know those things back in the day.
She worked at one place for 10 years and decided that it was time to go and she had a non-compete. So she worked, what ended up being three years as a traveling veterinary before we were able to start our practice. And during that time, she never found the place where she wanted to go to work every day. When she came home and told me that she wanted to start her own business, I asked her why.
And she said, I want to create the type of work environment where I'm excited to go to work everyday. And I said, awesome - but don't ever forget that. And my wife is brilliant. She's a great veterinarian and she's really smart. Where she is strong in that area, she's weaker in the management of people side of things, the emotional intelligence, if you will.
Right, and that's where I'm very strong. And so when she asked me, I need your help running the business side of things. I need your help with team building and education of our team and our clients. Well guess what? As a teacher, that was perfect for me. So I get to do what I'm really good at. She does what she's really good at, and that's how we got started.
It was her and we had three employees at the time. I was teaching full-time and then working full-time at the vet office after I got off work from teaching. So it was really stressful there for awhile, but, but we've grown now. We have 15 employees, there are three doctors. And I'm no longer teaching full-time, I'm at the vet office exclusively. And so that's worked really well for us.
Carolyn: How many animals do you guys have at the house?
Michael: Well, we personally have two dogs, two cats and two horses and some sheep. So, they don't all live in the house, but the dogs and cats all live in the house. And then we have two children that are still on the house. So it's always fun around here.
Carolyn: It's a full house. So tell me what makes family pet health unique? Why do you guys stand out?
Michael: I think the thing that sets us apart from the other offices in town, and there's like 35 other veterinarians in our county and they're all great by the way, they all do a good job. What sets us apart is client experience. That's our focus. And when we talk about Dr. Shirley always wanting to create the type of environment where she wanted to work every day, well, what that has done is it's attracted other people that are like her.
And it's also attracted the right clients for Family Pet Health. We're not the veterinarian, nor do we want to be, the veterinarian for everybody. We can only serve so many people. Like we have a capacity. And so we fill it with the people that are looking for what we have to offer. And that's a positive that customer experience with quality care and good communication. I mean, and that's what sets us apart.
Carolyn: Yeah. I mean the backbone, when I was on your website, kind of snooping around, I really got the vibe that you are about customer experience and elevating the customer experience. So I'm glad that you mentioned that on this. I think that's huge for any business, but especially when it comes to family pets,
Michael: we, we are a customer experience business that happens to treat animals. That's what do. In veterinary school, for those viewers that don't know this, veterinary school provides zero or almost zero business training. So even though these veterinarians, most of them are going to end up managing or owning their own practice.
Well, I don't even know if it's a most of them, but many of them – will end up owning their own practice. They do not get business school as a part of veterinary school. They're learning just how to be a veterinarian. And so then they get out and they work for someone who's been doing it for a long time.
And that's where they get their business owner ownership, experience and management experience. Well, that's different for us. I came from not in the vet industry into ownership, so I was a pet owner more than I was a veterinary professional. Right. So when we were setting up the way that we wanted to run our business from the customer side of things, I was able to say, well, here's what I would like. And I just want somebody to communicate well with me. Tell me if I'm going to be waiting for a long period of time. I don't mind a wait, I just need to know. Somebody just needs to tell me that it's going to be a wait today. Having only worked in government jobs as a teacher, I knew what it was like to work with people that were getting paid more than I was, that were doing less work, just because they had been there longer, they were getting paid more.
I wanted to do the opposite of that with our business. And so it's taking the non-vet experiences that I had and merging them with what my wife was wanting in a veterinary work environment and putting those together that's what's made us really successful.
Carolyn: You guys are like a power couple. You've got two huge strengths on either running a business together. Like that's fantastic.
Michael: Yeah. And many people are scared to work for a husband and wife team, and I understand. But my wife and I are so opposite that our premarital counselor said it was either going to be like opposites attract and a great success or complete disaster.
Carolyn: That’s always nice, before you get married, to hear that!
Michael: Right. I was like um thanks? But it has worked out really well where I’m over the place with ideas. My wife is my anchor to bring me back to say, Hey, let's talk through some of those things. So I might come up with 12 new ideas a week and only one of them is any good but she doesn't beat me down for that. She encourages me to keep thinking and I can help her not to stress so much, like owning a business, super stressful, super stressful.
Carolyn: 100% of your income is coming from that business that is your responsibility. Not someone else’s.
Michael: Yeah. And not only for my family, but there are 15 other people that are looking to me to make good decisions so that they have a job.
Now, there's a shortage of veterinary professionals in our country right now, demand is hot and, and, and capacity is lower. So they can all go find a job wherever they want. Like if they get mad at me, they could quit. They could be totally gainfully employed tomorrow. They look at me to make good decisions.
They look at us, my wife and me together to make good decisions so that they have a place to come to work every day. That's also very stressful and worrying about, is everybody getting along or are we going to get sued today? You know, who are we going to make mad? And so all of those things are a challenge where that can really stress my wife out, but having managed a classroom with, you know, 150 kids coming through my classroom every day. And all of their parents emailing me with their demands and all of that. And management and the state dictating and the federal government dictating all these things. I'm like, this is nothing.
Carolyn: You came in with body armor on, you were ready to go when you hit the ground.
Michael: I'm like, you can't mess with me, I'm a teacher!
Carolyn: Exactly! Talk to me about your strategy of being fear-free. You mentioned that a lot on your website. So talk a little bit about that.
Michael: So, that was one of the things that I had never heard of until Dr. Shirley came home and told me that was part of what she wanted, to run a fear-free hospital. And I'm like, what does that mean? And fear free is a way to practice veterinary medicine that is focused on decreasing the fear, anxiety, and stress that is experienced by our patients as well as our clients, as well as our team members. The veterinary hospital is an extremely stressful place for people to work, for people to come in.
Our mission statement says that at Family Pet Health, we understand that the veterinary hospital is stressful for everyone who walks through the door and to combat that we are, our mission is to respond to the needs of family pets in a positive environment. And that positive environment is not just for the pets, but it's also for our team and it's for the clients. Do you have pets at home?
Carolyn: We're big dog people here.
Michael: Yeah. Okay. So have you ever been to the vet and gone into the exam room? And they're like, all right, well, we're going to take your dog back to the back. You ever experienced that?
Carolyn: Oh, yeah!
Michael: Oh, well, we don't do that because the back can be really stressful. It's already stressful to come in, because you're worried about how much is this going to cost? What's going on with my pet? The dog is like, what's all these smells? What are these noises? And now we're going to take them away from the one thing that gives them comfort, which is their owner? We try to do everything in the room. We try to keep our facility super clean so that when you walk in, you don't smell anything.
And we, we do a lot of treats and positive reinforcements when dogs are cooperating or cats are, or even hamsters and gerbils and Guinea pigs, are doing what they're supposed to be doing or giving us good behavior. We reward that positively throughout the appointment. And so everything that we do is designed to decrease the fear, anxiety, and stress that, that pets and pet parents are experiencing when they come to the vet hospital.
Carolyn: That's great. So it's for both, it's not necessarily fear-free for just the animal. It's just as much for the owner when they come in.
Michael: Absolutely, because owners transfer stress to their pet.
Carolyn: They can tell.
Michael: When you're nervous, your dog gets nervous because they're like, why are you? What's the matter with you? They can smell it. They can feel it. They can sense it. They don't understand it necessarily, like why? Oh, mom's worried that this is going to cost a lot and she's going to have to decide between taking care of me and putting fuel in the car. They don't understand that, but they can understand that you're stressed.
So we try to help the pet by making a calm environment. We try to help you by good communication. We put together care plans for everything before we get started so that we can work on that care plan together. So we're going to assume that everyone wants to do everything. We're not going to judge you when you say I can't afford that. We're going to work with you to decide what can we afford and what is going to provide the most care for your pet for what your financial constraints are. That's our approach to help decrease your stress.
Carolyn: I would imagine that your approach and how you operate by doing everything in the exam room, instead of taking your dog to the back by providing treats, by making, things possible so that, okay. I have to do this big surgery, but I can't afford it. We're going to work with you. All those piece parts. I would imagine that the loyalty that you have from your clients is huge because of all those things combined that has to work for you.
Michael: We hope so. Our area is kind of, it's growing a lot. So we've added a doctor this past year, which is great. And so we've been able to take care of the clients that we do have. We do have churn, which, you know, people that move on to other vets or they just move. But we are seeing that we are growing consistently year over year. And again, we've grown from one doctor the first year to two doctors. Now we have three doctors, but we're averaging over 30% growth each year. That's not sustainable if we don't get more team members and a bigger building. That's what we're about to start doing where we are actually hopefully are going to be breaking ground on a new hospital, which will increase our capacity and allow us to do that.
But yeah, we do have repeat customers every year and that's a lot of fun. We have a lot, I mean, the main way that we advertise and market is through client referrals and there's no better confirmation that we're on the right track than when people refer other their friends and family to come to us as well.
Carolyn: Isn’t that the biggest compliment?
Michael: Yeah, absolutely. And that means more to me than somebody going, oh, you had a really great ad on Facebook that made me come. I would much rather. Well, George told me that there was no other place in the world that he would bring his pets than here. That's what I like to hear.
Carolyn: Biggest compliment of all for sure. And speaking of Facebook and social media, you guys do an exceptional job on social media. Who is handling social? Is that part of your responsibility? Because if it is, you’re really good at it.
Michael: Yeah. At the beginning, it was all me. And so if, if people go to our Facebook page, which is just Facebook Family Pet Health - so we're at Family Pet Health on Facebook and Instagram it's FamilyPetHealthTN for Tennessee, we're on Tik Tok at Family Pet Health as well.
And people can follow us on our podcast, which is
thefamilypetpodcast.com. And they can listen to our podcast. All of those things are ideas that I've had. But now that our team has grown, I've been able to delegate and elevate some other of our team members. We just hired a new customer service representative and part of that interview process, I said how do you feel about Instagram? Because we're kind of slack on Instagram, but I'd like to turn that over to you. And she is doing fantastic with upping our presence in post content and things like that.
Now we're not just posting on all of those social media or are making podcast episodes just for ourselves, the purpose of all of those things, and it all works together, is that it is educational. We know that on the podcast, it says the family pet podcast is a podcast for curious pet parents, because we believe that the more you know about pet health care, the better pet parent you can be. That's it.
So it's just any business owner, just educate your target market, educate them on why your service is really important and they'll book it themselves. And it just makes the more education you can do on social media, I think the better your business will do. Because your clients are already gonna know what you
Carolyn: Your social media is so well-rounded too, though. You have such a good variety of posts and engagement with people. You're asking questions, tell us this, tell us that.
And then you've got information as well about taking care of your pet. So I just really liked the design and the layout and the way that you approach social media. And as everybody knows, social media is huge. You know, I understand the bulk of your business comes from referrals, and that is awesome. But social media does play a role. Those shares? They get to people that you didn't even, you never would've gotten to other ways or, you know, so it all kind of comes together very nicely.
Michael: Yeah, and again, it goes back to me being a consumer more than a veterinary professional, right? How do I use social media? I don't want somebody to educate me with a big book about parasites, right? I want it to be fun and conversational. And that's, that's the approach that we've taken with our social media. If you want to find the big details, that's when you go to the blog and read the articles and things that we've written.
I think that social media is really important for businesses that you make yourself easily found. The reason I'm doing this podcast is because it's going to help our search engine optimization. And it's just one more way that people can - if they're doing research - it's just one more way that they can learn about the Shirley family and Family Pet Health, so it makes them feel better about their decision to bring their business to us.
Carolyn: How did you figure all that out? That it would improve your search engine optimization. Like that's not something that just the everyday person knows that that would help did. How did that podcast and blog come to be?
Michael: The podcast came to be because I needed somebody to teach!
Carolyn: You had to get the educator in you out somehow!
Michael: I love to talk and I love to educate. I love to help people be smarter because I like to be smarter. And there's not really a good podcast out there to help general pet owners know about the things that they're going to hear when they go to the vet office.
For me, I was diagnosed at 26 years old, right after a year after we got married, I was diagnosed with type one diabetes. I didn't know anything about it. And going to the doctor was super stressful. I was really scared. I was being told that I had a disease that I was going to have for the rest of my life.
And my experience in finding a doctor and learning. And when I found a doctor, I wasn't happy I wanted to move, but nobody would talk to me. Like I just use those types of experiences to decide what can we do for our pet owners that are experiencing that same thing. And so it's just, education is just really important to me.
Like I just want people to know what we know. I want them to know the value of my team that we have, our veterinary professionals are so skilled and they're so smart. And the only way that that pet parents can know about those things is if somebody tells them and that podcast didn't exist. So I said, well, we're going to do it. And it helps us in the office.
Our team can can just say, oh, Mr. Shirley made a podcast about that. We'll send you the link. And it's evergreen content. It's there forever. And so that's, that's how that came to be. The blog and stuff is again, just educational. The more that our owners can know before they come into the office the better.
Carolyn: So have you, have you looked at the hits for the podcast, for the blog? Have you seen the numbers? Because the fact that that is evergreen material, I mean, anybody could read it, utilize it, take it in. I mean, I'm asking because as a fan, I want you to get this podcast out, this blog out, because any pet owner would benefit from that.
Michael: Yeah, that's actually been a challenge. Cause that's our goal is that we don't make it so specific to Murfreesboro that no one else would want to listen to it, but we've, we really actually have viewers or listeners on the podcast from around the world.
Carolyn: It’s always the content - I have found this in my work as well – it’s always the content that you don't really think twice about. You just think, well, I'll put this out there. It's good. You know, but I'm not expecting anything. And that's the stuff that takes off.
Michael: Whether it's a podcast hosts like yourself or a veterinary professional, like us, people just are intrigued by that because it's different.
Because the back, no one was allowed access to the back of the vet office and they're like, what's back there? And then all of a sudden we're like, boom, throwing the doors back and taking down the veil. People like to see what we're doing. It's pretty cool. Like our number one Tik Tok video is a Guinea pig abscess lancing. So it's like, you know, Dr. Pimple Popper? Dr. Pimple Popper ain't got nothing on us.
Carolyn: I can imagine - is the abscess like as big as the Guinea pig?
Michael: It's as big as the Guinea pig and it lasted for like at least 20 seconds of just squeezing and a constant tube. It looked like toothpaste.
Carolyn: I mean, I don’t want to see that, but I do want to see that. So now I gotta go watch it. Of course, of course.
Michael: And so I tell my team, cause I walk through, I’ll do like a Facebook live or something like that. You talked about being well-rounded and we just want to have fun. And our team has fun and I want to show our clients that we have fun. And if we do have to take your pet to the back, we actually let people come with their pet to the back. As long as their presence isn't making the fear, anxiety, and stress of the pet worse. But, we take the camera. I don't have anything to hide back there. And so people like watching those videos, it's random.
If you go back to the very beginning of 2018, when we bought our hospital, we did a remodel while we were open. So we would close the offices at six, and then that's when I would show up to start doing construction work. So from 6:00 PM until two or three o'clock in the morning, a lot of times we're doing construction.
I would just set the camera up and talk to people because I needed somebody to talk to you so I could stay awake.
Carolyn: That’s so brilliant though, it’s so smart.
Michael: And it brings people into the story, right. They got to watch the transformation. Like they were a part of that transformation.
Carolyn: It’s so real though, and that's what I love about it. It's not forced or fake or filtered. It's just you saying I'm building this if you want to watch. Cool. If you don't. I understand.
Michael: And if not, that's cool too. Part of the reason I'd recorded all that was for my own posterity sake. Like I wanted to be able to go back and remember what it was like to be there at two o'clock in the morning, knowing I had to be at school at eight o'clock in the morning to, to teach. And I'm like, oh my gosh, that remember that was terrible. That was so, but wow. It was so much fun too. And, and just being able to remember that it's, it's been fun to be able to go back and watch and listen to those things.
Carolyn: You're also proof though, that the hustle works that, you know, for you to be working during the day, then going at night and working overnight and helping build and doing construction. The hustle pays off and that's a whole separate lesson in this, I think too,
Michael: You know, for our team's sake, they believe and see that Dr. Shirley and I care about them and we get in there and do the work too. We’re working just as hard as they are. You know, they allow me to take breaks to do podcasts and things during the day
Carolyn: Cause in the end it benefits them, right?
Michael: It does, it does.
Carolyn: So what's next for you guys, Family Pet Health? I know you're, you're working on a new building, obviously. You're getting a bigger building, but what else? What do you have on the horizon?
Michael: We have a desire to change the veterinary industry starting right here in Murfreesboro. What we're in the process of right now is proving that the concept of client experience and taking care of your team. Number one, taking care of your team. That that works. That's a good business model that will prove itself valuable. Once we prove that concept, once I build that facility that matches the quality of care that my team provides our community. Then I would like to go on the road and share that.
How does it work with other people that are, are interested in doing the same thing? So my ultimate long term dream would be that one day, Dr. Shirley and I will sell this business that we've created, and we'll start like a mini retreat center where I can work with high school FFA and 4 H groups and fraternities and sororities and the colleges, universities.
As well as small business veterinary teams, where they can come and learn how to, how to create a strong team that makes their work environment, a place that they look forward to going to every day. That's my long-term dream.
Carolyn: I think any college, any university, any sort of educational forum would welcome that. I mean, 100% see that being an option for you someday.
Michael: Yeah. I love it. I love working with people. I miss, I miss being in the classroom, I was a good teacher. I enjoyed it, but the best part of teaching was to see my students succeed. I'm starting to see my former students have their own children and I'm starting to see my former students be successful in their career paths. And that's really exciting for them to come back and say, Mr. Shirley, thank you. Like I've got one student that called me, she's like, I'm going to be a teacher because I want to be like you.
And I'm like, I just want to help other people realize that themselves in the veterinary profession, because, unfortunately it's not common and it's a super stressful industry to work in, we deal with life and death every day and we deal with customers that are mad every day.
And demand is high and you know, it's stressful and you need to be surrounded by a team of people that support you and you need to be in an environment that's supportive. And I would like for us to be able to change the veterinary industry to make that more common.
Carolyn: Yeah. Wouldn't that be full circle for you too, to wind up back as an educator with this whole new wealth of knowledge. That's very cool. Well, congratulations on all your success. I see great things for both of you ahead. I really look forward to seeing where you go with this on everything.
It's, oddly to say, a blank canvas for you, even though you've done so much, you still have such a bright future ahead. So congrats on everything.
Michael: Yeah, thank you for the opportunity to join you and share our message. And, if anybody wants to learn more or talk to us about what we've done and how we've done it, we're happy to do that. And they can reach out to me. They can just go to Family Pet Health.com and they can find all the things that we've talked about are on our website. So Family Pet Health.com and my name's Michael, give a shout.
Carolyn: And also a plug again for your Tik Tok. What is your Tik Tok?
Michael: It's @FamilyPetHealth.
Carolyn: That's easy enough. Yeah. I'm totally going to watch that Guinea pig.
Michael: Yea - watch my poor wife. We just torment her with so many things. So send me ideas on how I can prank my wife throughout the day and let me know.
Carolyn: But there we go. It's Michael Shirley, owner and Chief Empowerment Officer at Family Pet Health. Thank you so much for being on with us today.
Michael: Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Carolyn: Joining us now to chat about some of the considerations for building a small business in the veterinary space from an insurance perspective is the Vice-President of Customer Experience and Mobility at Selective Insurance, Jim McKeown. You know, Jim, Michael shares that Family Pet Health is a customer experience business that happens to treat pets. So, this must be music to your ears as a customer experience professional. So, talk to us about how small businesses can learn to sort of adopt this mindset.
Jim: It was, you know, listening to Michael, talk about his passion for his business and how his family's involved. I gotta be honest with you - that's half the battle. When you show that sort of passion, you know, the thrill of doing business and work with your family like that, to provide such a great experience to the customer, and I guess ultimately the patient in this case, is phenomenal. You know, we often discuss how and why they started their businesses and all, you know, the answer lies in that secret sauce.
And it's that, that passion that you heard Michael talk about. So, you know, when you think about other small businesses, not everybody's in the family pet business, but many small businesses started out with a specific passion, whatever that passion is, I think that they need to find focus and how they are helping someone.
Whether you are, a roofer or a florist, there is something that you’re bringing to the table that’s going to delight that customer, or make them get through a difficult time. And I think that's what you heard from Michael. It really, you know, the no fear situation and remove.
That that makes the customers weary about doing business. No matter what your business is, I think is really most important part. you know, helping someone with their pet in this case is, is phenomenal with, you know, a lot of us have pets. And I know for me, I've two dogs and, you know, thinking, but thinking about bringing them to the vet is always a, I don't know who is more stressed, me or them near them, but, at the end of the day and I think their approach to it is simply around. You know, somebody going through a pain point and they're taking the time to remove it from that interaction and that journey for them. And I think that's a huge part of it.
Carolyn: I think as consumers ourselves, we can agree that an elevated customer experience, which Michael and his team at Family Pet Health are so all about that, that, that drives brand loyalty.
Don't you think? When you are so about your customer's experience and in this case, their pet as well, you want everyone to be happy. And if I walk away from his practice happy, and my dog is happy or whatever, I am way more likely to return and bring him repeat business and make recommendations to other people.
Jim: No, I absolutely, I think, you know, by delighting our customers, we're more likely to see repeat business. It's funny you bring that up. I'm working on a blog and I don't know, it's a little off, uh, it's on topic, but I want to share with you some statistics that I've been looking at today. 89% of companies that lead with customer experience perform financially better than their competitors.
63% of customers will pay more for a great experience. And 52% of customers will be willing to pay more, to receive a great customer experience.
Carolyn: Whoa!
Jim: Yeah, isn't that powerful. I think that, you know, Michael and his team are doing a great job and you know, there's a lot to be learned by what they're doing. And it hits home with me for sure. But like, we talked about a little earlier, depending on what you do and what your small business is, there is something in there. I think the challenge is digging a little deep, finding out what your purpose is, and then being transparent with your customers and making sure that they understand, you know, why you’re doing what you’re doing.
Carolyn: What do you think they should be thinking about? Things like technology or payment options or physical spaces, like what should they be focused on at this point?
Jim: I mean, I’ll give you the stock answer a little bit, but all of the above. You can't do any one of those without the other. You know, they all play a large role. You know, you have the choice when it comes to all three of these examples technology, for example, enables speed of transactions, ease of use.
It speaks to younger generations. You know, I talk about this in my blog recently. And when you talk about payment options and I know people now, that'll only transact through Apple pay or Android pay or Venmo for that matter. Right. And I think you have to. You have to embrace that. Again I’ll use an example from before, whether you're a roofer or a florist, I think times are changing where you can no longer sit still and say, you know, I'm only going to be a cash business or check or even credit card. I mean, at what point did we go from a credit card is an advanced customer experience to is really just a table stake for a payment these days.
Carolyn: It's scary to think that credit cards might soon be antiquated, but it does seem that that's how it's going. I mean, coins are going away slowly, but surely and paper, paper bills will probably go away. So it is kind of. Weird to think about that. It's true though.
Jim: I had somebody say to me the other day, if I have to pull out my credit card, and read the number, especially the security code on the back? So the effort of flipping that card over has become too much effort for some. And look, you can look at it one of two ways: you can either embrace it and give more choices for consumers to interact with you, or you can stay where you are and hope that it doesn't change. But as we all know, it will definitely change.
Carolyn: You know, going back to the sort of, for lack of a better term emotional part of Michael's business that we were talking about a couple of minutes ago, you know, they are really big on a positive environment.
They call it fear-free veterinary medicine. Focused on decreasing anxiety and fear and animals and stress for pets, his team, and the clients. Are there ways in your world that other non-veterinary, small businesses can sort of apply this approach to what they do?
Jim: Yeah. I think that, I think that approach is portable. You know, again, and we've talked about, you know, what is in it, what is the purpose of the small business that you may be in and look at what that removes for your customer?
Whatever your business is, I think that that strategy that Michael is employing is, is very portable. I think that you just need to, you know, focus on, you know, think about this. I know a dentist that advertises locally about no pain. It's very much like the no-fear that Michael is using.
That's a big fear of a lot of people have going to the dentist, right. Is the pain of doing so. And I think there's a couple of things that you have to think about when you do a strategy like that. So, you know, remove what they’re most concerned about. And then if that's what you're using to build your brand, it will reap benefits. It will reap rewards in actually doing so. And my point is, if you're going to say there's a no fear clinic or a no pain dentist, you have to live that brand promise,
Carolyn: So true, stand behind it.
Jim: Right? Because the minute you don't, you're presenting another customer experience issue. You do not want, in the world of reviews, you do not want somebody saying it was very painful or we were very fearful throughout that experience. So if you're going to go with something in that area, that vein, you need to make sure you succeed.
Carolyn: And social media, speaking of, of brand loyalty and just getting the word out is so important, obviously, for so many businesses. Michael uses social media for Family Pet Health and his business, but for businesses that aren't really skilled when it comes to social media, what advice do you have for them?
Jim: Well first, let me say Michael is extremely advanced. Everything that he talked about, I was very impressed to see a small business doing everything they're doing, social media to search engine optimization, but for somebody that isn't so skilled, you know, I think there's so many ways to be self-educated now.
I know that again, locally, I've seen in talking to people in our business, there is, you know, local municipalities and educational systems that provide education on anything from how to set up a Facebook page to drive a business profile on LinkedIn or Instagram. But quite frankly, I mean not to be too rudimentary, but you can find a lot out on YouTube and I've seen small businesses that we deal with. Now, when I talk to our, our agents and our, uh, some of our customers, it's amazing that they've educated me on that they found ways to do with simply through a Google search, YouTube. And, uh, I've seen some small businesses do these things with the tools that they have at their hands.
Carolyn: Yeah. YouTube is underrated I think. I've learned how to fix a bike tire or replace a bike tire the other day with YouTube, put a bike light on. I mean, I go to YouTube all the time. I'd fixed a vacuum with it. It's crazy.
Jim: I would agree. You can do anything if you have an internet browser. You could change the world.
Carolyn: You can. Awesome, but scary at the same time.
So let me ask you this. Do you think that a business having, or a small business specifically, having a mission statement, does that make or break them? Does a mission statement help you succeed?
Jim: I'll take that in two parts. Make or break? I think it depends. Does it help? Absolutely. For me, a mission statement is a point in time.
It will change over time, but you know, taking in Michael's case when, when he started this business, he talked about how it started, but his mission was day one, is probably different than it is today. I would guarantee it and providing a mission statement to say, you know, we're going to do X, Y, and Z is really important because you have to try to stay true to that because creating a small business is not easy.
It's difficult for many challenges along the way. And being able to go back and use that as your north star to say, you know, are we on mission? Are we going in the direction that we want to go? Is a great question to ask yourselves quite honestly. And if the answer is no, that's okay too. I think it's just as important to have a mission as it is to revisit your mission.
And it's like a book: there's many chapters and being able to look at it and pivot and understand what you did right, what you did wrong, and changing that. I know even many large businesses change their mission every 5 or 10 years, because direction changes.
Carolyn: Yeah. Life changes, technology changes, business changes.
And I like your point of sort of checking in with yourself on your mission statement. Am I still on point? Am I still who I set out to be? Who I wanted to be as a business owner? I think that's very smart to do, to check back in with yourself, keep yourself accountable really, right. Final question for you before we let you go, you know, Michael uses a podcast to educate his customers on pet care issues, which I loved.
I think that's such a great idea, but do you have any ideas of ways that a small business could educate their customers as a way to drive sales and loyalty as well?
Jim: Uh, you know, I think the podcast is a great example of how to do education, especially currently in these times.
But I will tell you, I don't want to lose focus on what I like to call the human factor, the human element. There's still an opportunity to meet with people in the ways that they want to be met. So if that is a tutorial, again, we can use his business as an example, if you want to have a tutorial on how to give dogs or cats, medicine - that is a challenge for some.
Again, I think there's ways to do more of that human interaction, the way that the customers might want to. If they want to engage through a podcast, that's great. So I think optionality is really the way to approach this, but I would say continue to offer human interaction. The world's going really fast towards an all digital engagement model, and while I fully support it, because I think it's important, I am not losing sight of the fact that human interaction is equally important and while not always popular with my peers, I think human interaction is something that we have to give focus to make sure that those interactions are valuable.
So, where a small business can still meet with people and discuss and have seminars and tutorials and focus groups on things that they want to educate on. I think it's, there's definitely an opportunity.
Carolyn: Yeah, I think that's really well said. I like the idea of, you know, technology is important and being efficient is important, but don't lose sight of that human interaction because that matters a lot.
Jim: It does. It does. As long as people can choose. Allow them to choose which channel they want to interact with. You'll be successful.
Carolyn: Yeah. Vice-President of Customer Experience and Mobility at Selective Insurance, Jim McKeown. Thank you for being on with us today. Really appreciate it.
Jim: It was a pleasure, I really enjoyed it.
Outro
That's all the time we have. Thank you so much to Michael Shirley of Family Pet Health and Selective’s Jim McKeown for joining us today. And thank you, the listener, for pressing play on this episode of Uniquely Small Biz. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave us a review on the podcast store and tune in next month.
For more inspiring stories from real small business owners. I'm Carolyn. And this has been Uniquely Small Biz from Selective Insurance.