25+ Years of Valentine’s Day Vet Visits at Pet Camp

This week, Michelle and I (that’s me, Mark) made our annual visit to about 35 veterinary clinics in San Francisco, San Mateo and Pacifica. Pet Camp has been performing this Valentine’s ritual for the past 25 years!  We visit the veterinary clinics, do a bit of smooshing/marketing, and leave a bag full of candy.  This is as old-school as small business marketing gets – sending the owner and general manager out to visit referral partners.  We get asked again and again – why are we still doing this? 

First, a bit of history.  When Pet Camp opened in 1997, there was no Internet to speak of.  Before we opened, we gathered a list of names to invite to our “grand opening” by having a booth at the Golden Gate Dog Show at the Cow Palace (while I miss attending the dog show, I don’t miss having a booth there).  We sent letters (remember those?) to all the veterinary clinics in San Francisco.  My allergist (I am allergic to both dogs and cats) suggested that we also personally visit each veterinary clinic on a set schedule BUT that we should avoid the winter holiday season because there was no way we could compete with what the veterinarians received from the pharmaceutical companies.  Based on this advice, we choose Valentine’s Day as Pet Camp’s scheduled time to visit veterinary clinics and have been doing so every year since.

So why continue?  In the age of social media, pay-per-click advertising, and private equity taking over veterinary clinics – does an in-person visit really matter?  To be honest, it is hard to say.  There were many years that even if the veterinary clinics were no longer a significant portion of our referral business, there was still value in these visits to keep up relationships with both the veterinarians and the front desk staff.  But over the years, the turnover at many clinics has made this relationship building more difficult.  At the same time, the turnover argues for even more visits – you are in constant need of making a relationship with a new person.

There is also value in seeing how the clinics have changed – has one been redone or expanded and another begun to fade; has a new clinic opened that we’ve yet to see on a vaccine record; is there feedback you need to hear but that no one is going to pick up the phone to tell you; and of course in reminding new members of the pet care community about their 20% professional courtesy discount.

So how does all of this balance out?  After another year of driving around San Francisco and the North Peninsula, I still don’t know.  Perhaps if pressed, I would say that we’ll keep doing this until it’s no longer fun to do so – even if the returns on the marketing efforts are hard to quantify.

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

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Pet Camp has been providing San Francisco’s pet parents with award winning dog and cat care since 1997.  If you are a pet parent in the San Francisco Baw Area in need of dog day care, overnight care for your dog or cat, dog training, bathing/grooming or pet transportation.   Give us a call and chat with one of our counselors.