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In this week’s episode:

• Consumer Experience Must Reflect Broader Expectations – Veterinary practices aren’t just competing with local clinics – they’re being compared to consumer giants like Amazon, which makes the client experience expectations significantly higher.
• Local Brand Building is a Superpower – Emphasising hyper-local, personalised strategies—rather than relying on national brand dominance – can help smaller veterinary businesses thrive, even on a limited budget.
• Show, Don’t Tell: Rethink Client Communication – Great marketing comes down to shifting from “what do we want to say?” to “what does our client need to hear?” – and delivering that through authentic, community-driven content.
• Every Role Has Changed, and We Must Adapt Accordingly – The role of receptionists has “mutated” in modern practices, reflecting the pressure of multi-channel communication and rising client expectations – highlighting the need for clearer strategy and better support.

Louise Cooke shares how applying consumer-first strategies and local brand thinking from big-name retail and food sectors can help veterinary practices connect more deeply with clients and stand out in a shifting market.

Additional Guest Spotlights

• Recommend Resource: Liz wholeheartedly recommends the Well Menopause resources – a powerful, expert-led toolkit that empowers individuals to confidently navigate menopause and support those around them.
• Next Episode Sneak Peak: Next week, we welcome Dan Tipney, co-founder of VetLed and former airline pilot, to explore how aviation and healthcare human factors can improve veterinary team wellbeing, reduce errors, and create safer workplaces. Dan shares practical strategies to navigate the complex challenges of veterinary practice for sustained high performance — a must-listen for anyone aiming to build stronger, safer teams.
  

Show Notes

• Out every other week on your favourite podcast platform.
• Presented by Jack Peploe: Veterinary IT Expert, Certified Ethical Hacker, CEO of Veterinary IT Services and dog Dad to the adorable Puffin.
• Louise Cooke has spent over 13 years working with some amazing consumer brands. In the last 9 years she led the Vets4Pets marketing team growing with the business to ultimately lead instore retail at Pets at Home, their integrated services marketing and their estate growth stream.
• Last summer Louise set up Louise Cooke Consultancy and now has the pleasure of supporting a range of businesses, products and founders across pet, vet and other industries both in the UK and abroad. From marketing and channel strategy, coaching and advisory to scale and growth planning.
• More recently, Louise has co-founded an exciting, disruptive venture within the industry, Luna Dental Vets. Luna focuses on delivering exceptional veterinary dental healthcare to pets, at affordable prices through dental clinics and preventative dental care subscriptions. Find out more here!

Transcription

Jack Peploe:

Coming up on modern veterinary practice.

Louise Cooke:

It’s not just the competition of your vet practice down the road, it’s what consumers are experiencing from other brands. And I think the vet industry and vet practices and services, I think there’s work to be done to push that consumer to the front. And you can see it coming through as some of the startups and you can see people’s ambition and intention, but it just sometimes needs a bit of a tweak or a strategic focus to really bring it forward. And I think there’s such opportunity in the sector for those who do it right, they’ll absolutely win.

Jack Peploe:

Welcome to the Modern Veterinary Practice podcast. I’m your host and veterinary IT expert, Jack Peploe. In this episode, I’ll be welcoming Louise Cooke to the podcast who will talk to us about how practices can apply bigger brand thinking and consumer focused strategies to connect better with their communities, strengthen their identity, and stand out in an increasingly competitive market. From her day’s growing challenging brands like Papa John’s to leading marketing at Vet for Pets, and now supporting businesses across the veterinary industry. Through her consultancy, Louise shares her insights on scaling without losing your soul, the power of local connection and why curiosity is the secret ingredient to brand success,

Louise Cooke:

Hi, I’m Louise. I’m director at Louise Cooke Consultancy. So I’ve worked in consumer marketing for just over 13 years now. I’ve worked for some brilliant brands and then in the last nine years I led marketing at Vets for Pets and then I went on to do in-store retail at Pets at Home, and that was really focusing on that seamless consumer experience across the services they offered, but also pet care centres as a whole. So I set up my consultancy a few months ago and it’s been incredible. I’m now working with some amazing founders, a range of products, different businesses across the sector and everything from pre-seed to really establish private equity backed and corporate. So it’s a real joy and it’s a real privilege supporting on the journey and there’s so much great stuff happening in the industry. So yeah, let’s have a great chat.

Jack Peploe:

Awesome, Louise. Well look, it’s so good to have you on the Modern Veterinary Practice podcast now. Am I right in thinking that you started from a pizza, the world of pizza, and obviously shifted to pets, which is obviously a really fascinating shift and I’m obviously really excited to dive into how your passion for curiosity and gives you a face focused change has influenced your work in the pet and vet space. Now from your time at Vets for Pets to the exciting projects you’re working on now, obviously through your consultancy, which obviously appreciate is new, but it sounds very exciting. There’s so much obviously we can unpack. So what I’m keen to kick off with is to pick on the Pizza to pets. So you’ve obviously worked across quite a diverse range of industries. Was it from Papa John’s? Is that right?

Jack Peploe:

Yeah, quite to Vets for Pets, which is cool. And what transferable lessons did you carry with you into the pet and vet sector and how do they still influence your work today?

Louise Cooke:

Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, you’re absolutely right. So add an extra piece. I started with Hamm, so philanthropy to pizza, to puppies, and then I ran out of peace, so I had to set up a consultancy. But yes, absolutely right. So when I started at Papa John’s, it was very much the chase of Brown to Domino’s in the uk. It was a really, really small office, I think were four of us in a very small churchy based office. And the approach was really, like I said, that chaser mindset, that idea that we knew Domino’s absolutely owned the space. They owned the consumer mindset, mindset, anything to do with students, they were kind of all over. And this was a good few years ago. The world looked very different than in terms of how people engage with brands and with products. But I think the real passion and what drove us forward at that time when we were a much smaller team was about the individual franchise model.

So understanding each of the franchise owners and what they needed from us. So some were multi-site franchisee owners and they really required something really different to someone who was just launching their franchise. Some were family run and pizza might not sound a very emotive topic, but for us it was about finding how we built that brand in the local area, how we created meaningful connections and how it wasn’t just a race to the bottom on price. We knew we were never going to beat Domino’s on price. And for me it was incredibly fulfilling because you had the freedom to test and learn a trial and iterate and we’ll come on to talk about it later, but really that bottom up pyramid. So rather than the top down national brand really building up from some of its parts. So that was a great experience. I was much younger and I did that endless energy.

I went to some very glamorous places in the UK and then I transferred that over to Vets Pets, which is of course a joint venture model. So really similar mindset of looking at each practice and each business individually and understanding what that practice owner needs and what it means to them being that satellite support for them. And again, that inverted pyramid of building from some of its parts and using that hive mindset and knowledge across everyone. And when I started at Be Pets, we were a tiny office in Kingston, Lyle, I think I parked my car on a horse and put its head over. I think there was even a bat in the office at that time, and they went on a real journey with them, which we’ll come on to. But at the core, that kind of obsession with the consumer, but also that love of local and really understanding each individual business and being able to see that actually building something from small local elements you can really compete and fight on a much smaller budget. And yeah, we’ll talk to it in a minute, but the world has significantly changed since COVID and community and local.

Jack Peploe:

I really want to hop on the consumer obsession there because you’ve been obviously a champion of consumer focused change in the veterinary industry. What does consumer centricity mean in space like veterinary care and what do you think is so important businesses to embrace this mindset?

Louise Cooke:

Yeah, yeah, consumer absolute consumer obsession is what it’s all about, isn’t it? So I think it’s totally okay when you look at a, let’s talk about a veterinary practice, you are always going to have competing strategic objectives and people obsessed with different parts of the business. I mean, you have to have a recruitment team who are absolutely obsessed with delivering the best possible experience for the vets and the clinicians within the practice. And it’s really important you have your finance team who are obsessed about that angle and you’ve got the clinical team who really want to bring that forward. But it’s really important that as a chair at that table for the consumer. And I think we look maybe 10 years ago and like I said through COVID, that consumer positioning, maybe it got lost or it meant something very different and now it’s so important, it’s at the front and you can kind of see that coming through, that it’s not just the competition of your vet practice down the road, it’s what consumers are experiencing from other brands. And I think the vet industry and vet practices and services, I think there’s work to be done to push that consumer to the front. And you can see it coming through with some of the startups and you can see people’s ambition and intention, but it just sometimes needs a bit of a tweak or a strategic focus to really bring it forward. And I think there’s such opportunity in the sector for those who do it right, they’ll absolutely win even with a smaller budget.

Jack Peploe:

Yeah, I mean it’s slightly daunting. I mean you sort of referenced COVID there and obviously other brands and when you are looking at something like Amazon where they very much do put the client at front detriment to other areas, I might in some cases things that we’re unaware of because obviously we’re the consumer because obviously you get access to a person very quickly and you pretty much get whatever you want. So if you’re not happy with something, you can have something replaced in no time at all. So that’s a little bit daunting for vet practice in a way because we’re sort of so used to having time to address and deal with things. And one thing that I’d noticed and something which I’m sure we’ll cover off a little bit later is the fact that we expect a lot from our team in many ways as well. I mean if you take the receptionist, the role has transformed, and I’m going to say not transformed, it’s mutated because I don’t think it’s a good thing. We’re expecting a lot from our receptionists to be able to deal with quite so much. It’s gone from just dealing with the phone, just a pain in the bum, and also dealing with the person in practise, but also now having to deal with emails and all these different channels that are available to ’em. So I mean it’s a little bit daunting that you think.

Louise Cooke:

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think there’s two streams on this. So I think there’s the operational consumer first. And my goodness, I’ve been in the trenches with vet practices through COVID, through the cost of living crisis, through the works going on with the CMA operationally, putting consumers first is really, really hard. And that doesn’t mean the consumer’s always right. So I think if we park that for the minute, right, that absolutely has to be a balance on it when the imbalance is in place to say just do whatever the consumer needs, that’s not necessarily the right approach. I think the second stream is looking at how you communicate to the consumer. And I think it’s as simple as, and isn’t all great strategy super simple, but it’s as simple as working out what does the consumer want to hear versus what do you want to say to them?

And I think it’s how you say it, but it’s also what you say and it’s where you say it. So I dunno, let’s look at fireworks night. You could push out a post to say, we are open X hours, you should do X, Y, and Z for your pet. Here are some statements we’re pushing towards you at time that works for us. And it’s stuff we want to say, flipping it around to be consumer first. What actually is it that that pet owner needs? And that’s where I’m talking about how things have evolved 10 years ago that was probably okay and that was helpful as long as it was delivered at the right time. The customer thought, oh, that’s really helpful. It’s come via an email now it’s about building brands. We say, show me, don’t tell me, show me what does that look like?

So show me from the inside of your home, use your customers as your champions. It’s much more powerful if you are showing individuals with the TV on or their top tips or how they can support their pet during fireworks. And I think for me, consumer first is yes, it is that operational focus and a lot of that comes through tech and brilliant investments in ai and we can definitely talk to that. But I think it’s about the consumer marketing and what you’re saying and how you’re saying, and I think it’s just challenging everything to say, is this because I want to say it? Or is it because the consumer wants to hear it?

Jack Peploe:

No, a hundred percent. So if we shift back to Vets for Pet today briefly, now obviously you talk about the fact that day one, you’ve got a horse nearby in the state, which is mind blowing really when you look at the brand now. So you’ve witnessed sort of firsthand immense growth and transformation, which is super exciting. What was the most challenging aspect of scaling a business while maintaining its core mission and what lessons can I suppose smaller practices take from that experience?

Louise Cooke:

Yeah, absolutely. You’re right, vets, pets has been on such a journey from those early days of companion care and Vets for Vets basically found a run. It felt very founder, a run at the start, huge growth and a bit of a scale back time where we grew very quickly. And I think in services, there’s a small learning therein services, it is not like selling a dog lead or a product. Services are very nuanced offering. And to scale it to quickly, there’s a whole different podcast on that. So there was a scale back and then growing in a really sustainable manner. And I think there’s so many journeys along the way. So I think one of the key things that we would spend a lot of time working at Vets, pets with the practice owners was about appreciating that you are part of this bigger brand.

But again, back to what I was saying at the beginning of this conversation, you are part of the sum of its parts and therefore each individual person has a part to play in that. And when we think about maybe brand health and brand storytelling, if at the maybe worst end of the spectrum perhaps Sona says, well, I don’t really care about how I’m going to reply to my clients, or I’ve had a really rude client and I’m going to just head in face-to-face to them, or I’m going to do something which works for my practice, but it could be detrimental to the bigger brand, but I don’t care. It’s those moments of actually understanding that kind of back to that inverted pyramid, the power of individual practices. You have to protect the brand and understand that your actions could implicate others. And if you all work together now, there’s 4, 450, 500 practices, the scale of each individual delivering amazing consumer comms on brand, and it’s those small touch points in the short term, it might seem quicker to print something at Vistaprint down the road, but actually taking two seconds to go, what’s the weighting of the card and what’s the correct Pantone?

And it sounds small, but it’s so important. So I think protecting the brand and understanding what your role in it is, I think that’s incredibly important. And then I think I was just very sorry. I was just going to say, and one of the other things that we learned was about as you scale, really holding on to what created the magic right back at the beginning. And that is so tricky because when you have 500 practices or stores or you could relate it to anyone constantly, you are pushed to do more with less. And it requires you to really think about that local mindset impact and planning, alignment, syncing things together. So we used to do our marketing on a quarterly basis to try and get our practices to move altogether at the same time with aligned messaging to try and build the sum of its parts. So those would be my key two takeaways.

Jack Peploe:

No, absolutely. I mean, I think definitely thinking back to sort of why you’re doing what you’re doing and really understanding the values is the most important thing. And I think that applies to any business in any sector, something which we are very passionate about. And I can imagine it’s going to be incredibly difficult as you scale when you’re dealing with multiple practices and it’s bad enough when you’ve got two sites, let alone several hundreds.

Louise Cooke:

Absolutely, absolutely.

Jack Peploe:

Out of interest, how did you deal with that? Because I mean, let’s just pick on practices that might end up having, I dunno, five, six, maybe 10 sites. How do you keep that effective communication? What are some of the methods that you guys have used?

Louise Cooke:

Do you mean between support office and practice? Or practice? Yeah,

Jack Peploe:

Yeah. Between support office and practice.

Louise Cooke:

Yeah. I think the key there is freedom in a framework. Everyone is really busy and you need to be focused on running your business. And in a vet practice, absolutely joke what you said at the beginning, it’s so busy and you need to be there for your team and your pets. So I think therefore, as a support officer, a head office function, there’s two things I talked on there. I think it’s freedom in a framework, be really clear on what’s coming up in service marketing. There really is no need for you to be doing a hand break turn. You should know what’s coming up in the year ahead. You should know when you’re recruiting that new, you should pretty much know this season’s come every year. We know when kennel cough season’s going to be. We know how consumers react across Christmas. Really, there’s a real basic marketing plan you should have in place and you could be planful for that.

And then that allows you for the 10% of time where you do need to pivot. So I think being really clear on that framework and then being really clear to the practice on when you’re going to engage with them. And like I said, if you can sign off the annual plan at the beginning of the year with a rough sense of budget and those points when we’re going to be sending things live, you’ve got to then run that in sync with the recruitment team and the colleagues team. There’s no point having a massive marketing push actually when all the staff are completely burnt out and they need to take some time on holiday. So freedom in the framework, annual planning touch points probably every quarter. Are we on track? How are we tweaking? And then working really closely with the operational teams. They’re going to be in there every month.

Give them that simple one pager to just keep building that trust to say we’re on track. What are we doing now? What are we doing next? What’s the impact later? And yeah, like I said, coming back to the beginning, if service marketing, whether that’s veterinary or dental or optics or feels me jerk and reactive, there’s something wrong. You can’t race to the bottom one. Price and service, it’s going to catch you up if a competitor is down the road. Hopefully you’ve done this brilliant community marketing and you’ve built real loyalty within the local area that you’re not having to chase on price, et cetera. And I think it’s about freedom in a framework and being really structured back to the practice owner, and you are there to support. You’re not there to take away from their time or cause confusion.

Jack Peploe:

Well, I can’t believe it, but 15 minutes has come back already, which is unbelievable. We are going to have to get you back on, Louise, I’ve literally got so many more questions for you, but obviously I want to thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. Today has been an absolute pleasure exploring your journey and understanding your passion for curiosity and creativity as well as the incredible insights you shared about consumer focused innovation in the pet and vet sector. Now, I know a lot of listeners are going to have probably a tonne of questions for you. If they do want to get in touch, how can they go about doing so?

Louise Cooke:

Yeah, absolutely. Yep. Just reach out. I’m always available. So if you want to have a look on LinkedIn, it’s Louise Cook consultancy, cook with an E, or you can email me at louise@louisecookeconsultancy.com.

Jack Peploe:

Louise, thank you so much. That’s an awesome episode.

Louise Cooke:

Thanks so much. Thank you.

Jack Peploe:

Recommended resources. Every week we ask professionals and experts to suggest a best business resource for our listeners. This week’s recommendation is from Liz Barton.

Liz Barton:

So a resource that I’d really recommend is actually is a bit of self-promotion here, but it’s the well menopause resources. I say this as somebody who has experienced the challenges of perimenopause, but I’ve experienced them empowered with a whole toolkit of lifestyle adjustments, understanding about how I approach my medical professionals to have these discussions, understanding of the treatments, understanding of how to talk to my workplace, thanks to the bite-sized content from expert providers that is available. So I would heartily recommend it, not just for menopause. There’s also plenty about men in the menopause or veterinary teams in the menopause, how to have these discussions with your friends families. Well perhaps not discussions with clients, but understanding how it might impact your clients as well. So I would heartily recommend them to anyone because we all know people who will be impacted by these symptoms of menopause.

Jack Peploe:

Coming up next week, we welcome Dan Tipney, co-founder and training director at VetLed, with a fascinating background. As an international athlete coach and commercial airline pilot, Dan brings a unique perspective on human performance and team culture. In this episode, we’ll explore how the principles of human factors pioneered in aviation and healthcare can be applied to veterinary practices, to improve team wellbeing, reduce error, and build a safer, more supportive working environment. From system design to leadership behaviours, Dan shares practical strategies for making great performance more consistent and sustainable. You won’t want to miss this one.

Dan Tipney:

There’s a saying in human factors, and it’s probably not specific to human factors, but it’s often used that people often claim to have simple solutions to complex problems and they’re usually wrong or something along those lines because these are complex problems. Because veterinary practice is a complex environment and complexity means that there’s probably not just one simple solution that one person needs to resolve. And so human factors that we’re recognising that complexity. That’s it for this episode.

Jack Peploe:

All links and recommendations we talked about are in the show notes. Don’t forget to subscribe and share the podcast if you found it useful. In the meantime, thanks for listening and see you next time.