The Importance of Selling

In a veterinary hospital, what do you think is the most important job? You might say that the veterinarian, or the veterinary technician, has the most significance. Both of these roles are very valuable to the hospital’s success and it certainly could not run without them, but, if your answer is as i expected, you are forgetting a very significant job, the receptionist.

As a former receptionist at a veterinary hospital, I can tell you that it is not an easy desk job where you can answer a few calls and play on your phone the rest of the day. Picture this: you arrive at the clinic at 8:30 am, walk in, sit down, and start pulling the day’s files off the shelves to be prepared for the chaos ahead while answering the phones that have already begun to ring even though the clinic hasn’t even opened yet. 9:00 rolls around and it is opening time. Clients bring in their animals and check in with you at the desk. You then write down what they are concerned about and which vaccines the pet needs to get that day after going through their file figuring out their last vaccine date. While you are ringing up your customer, two more phones start ringing, which you end up putting on hold in order to finish your previous task. Finally, you can answer the line and help the next customer. In the midst of all the chaos, barking, and animal’s nervous pee, you still need to find the time to sit down with clients to discuss flea and tick prevention because your job also includes selling those items. This process repeats itself until the day is done and it is closing time.

I never expected a receptionist job to be as difficult as it was. I had to interact with pet owners who had just got their first puppy, but also with people who had to part with their family pet for the last time. The job was hard, but fulfilling and I learned a lot while working there. I learned things I never knew I would as a receptionist.

Before I started my job, my boss, the doctor, asked me who I thought had the most important job in the hospital. I said that the veterinarian, of course. He looked at me and said, “No, you have the most important job. You are selling my business. You are the first and the last thing
my customers see when they walk through that door. You answer the phones and talk to people about their pets and make appointments for them. Always keep a smile on your face even when you’re answering phones because it will make all the difference. If I don’t have a good receptionist, I don’t have patients.”

This conversation struck me because it was a concept I had never thought about before; the job I viewed as the least significant in the hospital was viewed as one of the most significant by my boss. No pressure. I knew I had to sell medication, but up until that point, I didn’t think of my job as a sales job. I had to sell his business to new patients, but also keep selling his business to patients that would come in regularly. It was important to continue “selling myself” to my boss by doing my job to the best of my ability as well. Who knew that my job as a receptionist would be a little more than just answering the phones and a little more important expected?