Warwick Vet Clinic has been a cornerstone of mixed animal veterinary care in Queensland’s Southern Downs region for over 75 years. Their highly trained veterinary team is spread across four clinics, and they use the latest equipment to provide a full range of services to patients, including general practice, large animals, pathology and diagnostics, and surgical procedures.
The Warwick Vet Clinic team have been led by Dr Chris Reardon for over 30 years. Under his leadership, the practice and brand identity have been refreshed and modernised, while still honouring its longstanding reputation in the community.
Why Provet? Choosing a reliable and established supplier
Being the largest practice in the region, inventory is a significant part of the Warwick Vet Clinic operation. “We order thousands worth a year in inventory stock and place orders twice a week,” explains Chris.
“Our business has been solely invested in Provet since it was formed under individual shareholders years ago and we’ve had no reason to migrate away from it. On our recall, revisits, and summaries only one or two errors have ever been made, so we’ve had good interactions with Provet from the very beginning,” he adds.
Working with Provet: Warwick Vet Clinic’s experience
Practice Manager, Tessa Sissman, communicates regularly with the Provet team and rates her interactions highly. “I talk to the team regularly over the phone, discussing substitutions for products among other things,” she says.
“Their communication is always really good; if there’s a substitute, they’ll recommend it to us, and they always go above and beyond to get orders to us on time and accommodate add-on products. It’s definitely a good experience,” she adds.
Having worked with Provet for many years, Chris has some strong insights into why Warwick Vet Clinic have remained a loyal client of Provet. “There’s respect within the veterinary profession for what Provet offers,” he explains. “Not only as a supplier of premium goods, their wide range of products, and their scale and serviceability but also because of how much they invest back into the profession.”
Examples include how Provet offers corporate sponsorship to the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) and through their support for Crampton Consulting Group (CCG) and the Animal Industries Resource Centre (AIRC) – both of which are designed to meet the training needs of practices, veterinary nurses, and animal carers in Australia and overseas.
“Paying it forward to the next generation through education is a big part of why I support Provet,” he adds. “I also like their novel approach in looking at ways to augment support, such as offering products like 4CYTE™ through their distribution. I like Provet’s business strategy and the way they’re going – it’s perfect,” he adds.
Tessa is very complimentary about the service their Provet team, provides. “It’s been really good. There’s always an open line of communication if we ever have any dramas. If there are ever any issues with returns, for example, the team are always very helpful. You can’t fault their communication when you need them,” she adds.
Warwick Vet Clinic have worked with Provet to help them set up their stock and inventory management processes. “We had things put in place that we’re still continuing with today,” Tessa says. “We use the same system that’s been kept up to date – it works really well, and everything is captured easily with data wizards,” she explains.
Provet Connect: A streamlined ordering system
She adds that the practice creates its orders automatically through Provet Connect. “We usually generate our orders automatically in the system. I just filter through and add anything extra that may be needed. From there, it’s seamless – it just goes straight through Provet Connect,” she explains.
“It tells you right away if any products are on back order or if there are questions with any of the products. It’s really easy to follow and easy to find substitutions. Everything runs really smoothly, which saves a fair bit of time,” she adds.
Chris confirms that Warwick Vet Clinic utilises the Provet PLUS reward program. “It’s set up and Provet offers it, so it’s silly if we don’t use it. We include this in our annual review of what products we buy and what discounts we receive,” he explains.
Crampton Consulting Group adds value
Another service that Chris and his team benefit from is the working relationship with Crampton Consulting Group (CCG). “We recently put our new grads through the CCG graduate course, which was really well received,” he says.
“The aim was to give our graduates a bit of a safety net, some outside experience, and some guiderails about how to conduct themselves individually and within a team. It also gave them some hard truths about the reality of working with clients in the real world,” he adds.
“We’ve worked with Mark and Sue from CCG for their skillset in doing a DISC analysis. We’ve found this valuable, as it helps individuals understand themselves and how to work better in a team.”
“We’re also offering our team business coaching, and we’re engaging in groups, receiving feedback, and benchmarking ourselves with other like-minded practices. We’re doing scenario modelling and working through the nuts and bolts of where we can improve.”
“I reckon one of the best ways you can learn and improve is seeing what other people do and how they’ve responded. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel – Provet provides us with the vehicle to engage and I commend them for that,” he adds.
Final recommendation
Given the positive engagement and support from Provet over many years, Chris is interested to see how Provet positions itself in the future. “It’s been a fantastic experience, and I look forward to it being the same in the future,” he says.
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