#49: The dreaded client complaint, with Dr David Tabrett.

For this episode, rather than casting our conversational net wide and seeing which topics come up, we have a very specific topic. We wanted to get insights into complaints made against us as vets. Our goal with the episode was to help you find better ways to think about and live with the threat of the official board complaint, with the end goal being, as always, a happier vet career. We think we found the perfect guest for it. Dr David Tabrett is an emergency vet and founder and director of the Animal Referral Emergency Centre in Newcastle, New South Wales. David has been a vet for more than 30 years - from mixed animal to general smallies work, and eventually emergency. He has his memberships in Medicine as well as Emergency and Critical Care and has served a 6-year term as Treasurer of the Chapter of Emergency and Critical Care of the Australia / New Zealand College of Veterinary Surgeons. He’s also a longstanding member of the local branch of the Australian Veterinary Association and has served in the roles of Treasurer and President. In addition to hosting a weekly radio show for pet talkback over the past 12 years, and teaching veterinary nurses in critical care for TAFE, David was recognised as the 2017 Australian Small Animal Practitioner of the Year by the Australian Small Animal Veterinarians chapter of the AVA. David started his own emergency hospital in 2004, and at present, the clinic has a team of around 75 people working 24/7 and also offers referral services in surgery, critical care, dermatology and rehabilitation. As you can imagine: in a career like that you’ll face a few obstacles, and you learn a few things. We’re privileged that David joined us to share a few of those lessons. What was meant to be a conversation around how to deal with client complaints turned into a masterclass on communication, on how to avoid complaints, how to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, how to talk about money, how to view complaints in a better light, and of course, how to think feel and deal with it when you are actually faced with a genuine official compliant. Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show. If you want to lift your clinical game, go to https://vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts. We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the Anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.