2022 Trends for veterinary practices

2 mins

Around this time last year, we shared the following text in an article reviewing 2020 and looking ahead to 2021:

“From the moment you join the queue, you are full of expectations. You’ve already had a good look at the roller coaster, and you have a good idea of how the ride will go… You probably thought precisely the same about the New Year in December 2019 – good intentions, all the plans, and goals set. But even before the ‘waiting’ was well and truly over, the 2020 ‘ride’ started.”

Whether you liked it or not, 2021 seemed like the moment you realised the roller-coaster was going to do everything again but backwards. But because this ride too is finished, we would like to look ahead to 2022, this time, not with tips, but with trends. Nobody can predict the future (especially not now), but we came across a few things we would like to share during our research into what we might expect in 2022.

Trend 1: Even more online

After almost two years of working from home, online shopping, and ordering groceries, consumers (including pet owners) have become much more familiar with the ‘online’ environment. Forrester predicts that 8 in 10 consumers approach the world as ‘all digital’. If your practice has not embraced email, digital reminders, text messaging or online booking in your practice, 2022 might be the right time.

Trend 2: Don’t go it alone

When you ask an entrepreneur what they consider to have been the turning point in their success, frequently they reply that it’s the moment they started asking for help – working together and being open to help leads to quicker, positive progress.

Consider reaching out to entrepreneurs or companies in the same line of business, such as a pet shop, a boarding house or a farrier, for example, or perhaps a local entrepreneurs association, or even the local council. The key is that if you can align with your peers, greater success is achieved – after all, you’re probably all experiencing the same problems.

Source: Forrester

Trend 3: Different generation, different needs

Whether you’re Generation X, Generation Y, or haven’t a clue, you’ll likely think of Generation Z as a “future generation”, but did you know that someone born in 1996 belongs to Generation Z and will be 26 years old in 2022?

In all trend predictions for 2022, you can’t ignore Generation Z any longer – do you already have pet owners from Generation Z in your practice? And we don’t mean the 26-year-old with the family dog, but the 26-year-old who has a dog, cat, horse, rabbit or reptile themselves. You may have noticed that such owners have very different needs – they are fully immersed in the digital world (our first trend), so as more of them become pet owners, it’s essential you work to meet their needs, perhaps by using trend 2 above.

 

No doubt 2022 will add a few extra corkscrews, loops, and awkward photo-ops into our roller-coaster. However, all trends seem to point at more consumer confidence (and reliance) in a digital world, so if nothing else, reach out to your colleagues, peers, and us to work together to meet the digital requirements of pet owners in 2022.