April featured veterinarian: Dr. Stacee Santi, entrepreneur and clinician
by Mary Guiden
Dr. Stacee Santi is our featured veterinarian of the month. Veterinary33 attended one of her presentations at WVC 2023, where she shared details about a successful loyalty program she launched in her practice. Santi is the founder of Vet2Pet, a technology client engagement platform for veterinary practices. In 2022, she sold the company to Vetsource, and served as their director of client engagement. Santi has over 20 years of clinical experience in small animal and emergency practice and is based in Durango, Colorado. She has served on industry advisory boards, was past president of the Colorado Veterinary Medical Association and was also voted 2021 Educator of the Year for WVC. Santi obtained her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Colorado State University.
During her presentation at WVC, Santi said that her journey with loyalty programs began when she needed an oil change in her car. Working 60 hours a week, she noticed that she spent as much as two hours getting the oil changed, because she drove to a business that offered a free oil change after she paid for six.
Right around that time, in 2010 and 2011, Santi saw the economy was tanking. In Durango, there were six veterinarians in town vying for clients. She was building what would eventually become Vet2Pet and she said that she wanted to send clients a push notification for getting heartworm medication.
“I wonder if I could put a loyalty program in there, and wonder what would happen,” she told WVC attendees.
Santi decided to offer clients one stamp for every $100 spent at the clinic. Once they had accumulated 16 stamps, clients would receive a $100 credit.
Was it a success? Santi said, “I launched this program and things went off the rails.” Clients were asking: what else can I buy around here?
She said that she knew it was a huge success when a client who could sometimes be difficult saw that he was $20 short of getting another loyalty stamp, and asked what he could add to the bill.
“I nearly died,” she said. “The hardest client I have is falling into this loyalty program mentality.”
Among the tips and tricks Santi shared at WVC:
- Top performing loyalty programs boost revenue from customers who use them by 15% to 25% annually.
- 66% of consumers say the ability to earn rewards changes their spending behavior.
- 75% of customers in loyalty programs will buy more products from the companies they partner with.
On her own platform, Vet2Pet, Santi said that she found that clients in the loyalty program spent $267 more than they did the prior year. Clients who did not enroll in the program spent $61 more during the same timeframe.
“The higher value people get the reward more frequently because they are big spenders,” she said.
Tips for creating a loyalty program
- Keep it simple. If it’s too complicated, it won’t drive behavior. Your team should be able to easily explain the program to clients. Santi said she landed on money spent because everyone understands the value of $100.
- Make it universal. Make it so most clients in your practice can participate. Wellness plans don’t engage enough high value patients. If the reward doesn’t fit the client, they will be reluctant to engage. For example, cat owners don’t need a free nail trim for their pet.
- Reward often. Good clients should get the reward in a reasonable amount of time. On average, the first clients in the reward program got the $100 credit in less than one year, or 297 days.
- Drive the behavior you want. Avoid the obvious like, buy 10 bags of food, get no. 11 free. This doesn’t drive a high value transaction. Leave that to the pet food store and food manufacturer. Instead consider creative ways to drive veterinary visits like: After 10 nights of boarding, you get $100 off at the veterinary clinic. Aim to drive the visit side, high value service side as much as possible.
- Gamify it. People like to play games. They want to win and get to the next level. When you can make this a game, it engages the user. It’s different from offering a discount. Earning something means something to clients.
- Market the loyalty program. 68% of American women and 59% of American men engage with loyalty programs.
Santi said other approaches that have worked well for her include:
- Clients earn five bonus stamps for 12 months of parasite protection.
- Round up to the nearest $100 by donating to a charitable fund. A lot of people will round up, she said. Find a nonprofit in your community that you would like to sponsor, help raise money for a good cause.
- Use a “sorry you had to wait” stamp to replace discounting.
- Redeem eight stamps for $50 off a dental procedure.
Santi regularly posts veterinary practice tips on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacee-santi-dvm/
Contact her directly at staceesanti@gmail.com
Comments
Related Articles
Copyright © 2025 - All Rights Reserved
ISSN 2768-198X
List
Add
Please enter a comment