Setting KPIs for Your Practice: How to Know If You’re Winning or Losing
In a prior blog we discussed that Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are customary for managing a veterinary practice, but not all KPIs are created equal. Simply pulling a list of generic metrics won’t guarantee you’re tracking what really matters to your unique practice.
True success comes from setting the right KPIs, tailored specifically to your goals, your business model, and your team’s strengths. The following describes why co-creating KPIs with your business advisor and practice manager can transform how you measure success and ensure you actually know if you’re winning or losing.
Start with Your Vision and Goals (we’ve discussed this before, make them “SMART”)
Before choosing any metric, get clear on what you’re trying to build. Do you want more than one location, increase owner compensation, concentrate on a specialty, or create a practice that relies less on the owner to run?
Your KPIs must align with your bigger picture. Without this clarity, you risk measuring “success” that doesn’t match nor move you towares your real goals.
Co-Create KPIs with Your Team
Your business advisor brings financial and strategic expertise. Your practice manager brings operational insight and team realities. You bring the vision and leadership.
When all three perspectives work together, you create KPIs that are meaningful, actionable and balanced. A suggestion would be to host a KPI workshop meeting quarterly with your advisor and manager to brainstorm and review metrics collaboratively.
Focus on Cause, Not Just Effect
It’s tempting to focus on “end result” KPIs like annual revenue or profit margin. While important, these are lagging indicators.
Strong practices also track leading indicators — metrics that predict future success.
For example:
- Client compliance rates for dental or preventive care
- Number of wellness plans sold monthly
- New client conversions from marketing efforts
- Staff continuing education participation rates
Leading indicators give you earlier warning signals and more opportunities for course correction.
Keep KPIs Simple and Prioritized
Tracking 20 metrics will overwhelm you and your team. Focus on 5or 6 core KPIs that clearly tie to your goals, can be measured consistently and are easy to communicate across the team. Using visual dashboards or simple scorecards to keep KPI data accessible and actionable can help maintain awareness and progress.
Review and Adjust KPIs Regularly
As your practice grows and evolves, your KPIs should too. Ask yourself the key questions such as:
- Is the practice shifting from growth mode to optimization mode?
- Have we added new services that change our revenue mix? Has it improved or detracted from the bottom line or efficiency?
- Are staffing challenges impacting productivity? Should we be implementing standard operating procedures (SOPs) that may help improve efficiency without leading to burn-out and how do we measure that?
Quarterly KPI reviews with your advisor and manager help ensure you’re always measuring what matters most right now, not what mattered last year.
Measuring What Matters
KPIs aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet, instead they are your scoreboard. They tell you whether you’re moving toward your vision or drifting off course.
By co-creating the right KPIs with your business advisor and practice manager, yo will align your team around shared goals, focus your energy where it counts, create accountability without micromanagement and build a practice that grows intentionally, not accidentally.
Set KPIs that matter to you and you’ll always know if you’re where you want to be in your practice.
