Best UK Vets 2018 – the winner is…

As many of you will know the Best UK Vet awards are based on genuine client reviews; we know good reviews are vitally important for a practice’s reputation, which is why this is our sixth year of sponsoring the awards. Pet owners are encouraged to leave reviews on VetHelpDirect.com and Any-UK-Vet.co.uk, using a star system to rank the practice (one star for abysmal and five for excellent), plus any comments. We then total all of the four and five star reviews for participating practices, from the past 12 months, to find our winners.

Winners receive publicity from us, through our Facebook pages, blogs and press releases, as well as their own marketing packs to promote the win themselves. We also provide a certificate, trophy, banner, an awards ceremony and a party budget to allow them to thank all of their staff.

The 2018 results are finally in….and….the winners are…

Overall Winner

Briar House Veterinary Surgery, with an outstanding 944 top-rated reviews. This result left them a staggering 594 reviews ahead of the silver winner, showing their true dedication to client service and building reputation through collecting reviews. Hazel Mullen, from the practice, wanted to stress the impact this was having on staff morale – “We are absolutely delighted to win the Vet Help Direct Best UK Vet award it means so much to the practice and team.”

Silver and Bronze Winners

Vets 1 Group were awarded silver, and St Anne’s Veterinary Group bronze, with 350 and 330 top reviews respectively. Both runners up will receive their own marketing and publicity packs from VetHelpDirect to promote their result, and will be out to win Gold next year! Simon Power from Vets 1 put his finger on the root of his practice’s success, saying “4.5 years ago, we started this practice in a small dining room, in a small village with a few felt tip pens and a stethoscope…..now we have won 2nd place in the Best UK Vets Awards. How did that happen? I guess it shows what you can achieve with hard work and an understanding of customer service…”.

To recognise the achievements of practices in all shapes and sizes (and location!) we also run a series of Best-in-Category awards. To qualify a practice must either place in the Top 25, or have gained 24 reviews over the previous 12 months.

Best Scottish Practice

Lamond Veterinary Clinic in West Lothian.

Best Northern Ireland Practice

Cedar Grove Veterinary Clinic, based in Belfast.

Best Welsh Vet

St James Veterinary Group – Parkway Surgery in Swansea

Best Small Practice

Bridgnorth Veterinary Centre (for small practices – in this case, with one vet!).

Best Equine Practice

Penmellyn Equine Vets (for a second year, Penmellyn have held the title).

Best London Practice

Medivet The Vets Hendon who fought off stiff competition within the M25!

Best Mobile Vet

The Mobile Vet based on the Isle of Wight.

Top 25 Practices

We like to acknowledge excellence, and so here are the Top 25 Practices from the UK in 2017

Briar House Veterinary Surgery

Vets 1 Group

St Anne’s Veterinary Group

Lamond Veterinary Clinic

Runnymede Hill Veterinary Hospital

The Mobile Vet

Bridgnorth Veterinary Centre

Dunfermline Inglis Veterinary Hospital

Lime Trees Veterinary Hospital

Connaught Veterinary Hospital – Wolverhampton

St George’s Vets – Wolverhampton

Bright Side Vets

Penmellyn Equine Vets

Nantwich Veterinary Group – Nantwich Veterinary Hospital

St George’s Vets – Stourbridge

Penmellyn Vets St Columb Major

Monument Vets – Redruth

St George’s Vets – Merry Hill

Medivet The Vets Hendon – 24 hour Hospital

Connaught Veterinary Surgery – Kingswinford

St George’s Veterinary Group – Sedgley

Yorkshire Vets – Morley

Newton Clarke Veterinary Surgeons – Yeovil Veterinary Surgery

Medivet The Vets Sutton Farm

St George’s Vets – Perton Surgery

Why should you get involved?

Reviews are a great way to find out what your clients really think, offering insight into where you are excelling or where there could be improvements. They are also excellent for building your online reputation, which will give you the competitive edge over other local practices, ultimately leading to new clients. More than ever, people are using review sites to seek ‘real’ opinions, in fact a recent survey in the US found that 97% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses, and 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendation.1 While these numbers may not completely reflect the situation in the veterinary industry in the UK, they are quite staggering, and signal that reviews and online reputation is going to become increasingly more important.

We would like to send out huge congratulations to all our winners, especially Briar House Veterinary Surgery, Vet 1 Group and St Anne’s Veterinary Group. To start collecting your own reviews and to take part in the 2019 competition – give us a call!

References:

1. Bright Local survey of 1,031 US-based consumers, October 2017 https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/local-consumer-review-survey/#Q5