Two things Veterinarians all over the world have in common... First being their Vet degree certificate and the second being called "The Worst Vet Ever". I still remember surfing through the "Yellow Pages" directory for looking up for an electrician, a travel agent or a hospital and all the things I needed.
With the recent advances in the tech world, just like all service providers, veterinary clinics and hospitals also need to have an online presence. The idea being that it would help vet clinics highlight their services and help people to reach out to them. A decade back came a website which changed the way people looked up things on the internet "Hot Or Not" . The idea of this website was to allow users to voluntarily submit their photographs online, both men and women, and the users of the website would rate them on a scale of 1 to 10 based on their "Attractiveness". The idea of the website was widely slammed for its obvious objectification of men and women, however it went on to be one of the most popular websites. Things really changed after that, everything needed to be quantified by giving it a rating, be it a coffee at your restaurant , to how an airline service fared, to how much did your neighborhood veterinarian fare on a scale of 10 ?
We are living in an age, wherein any frustrated individual hiding behind a computer can tear down anybody's reputation and gain an unbelievable sadistic pleasure feeding their own egos. I have had a chance to work with many fine veterinarians in the last couple of years and I had the chance of knowing them not only as veterinarians but also as human beings. They are all extremely dedicated and hardworking individuals, but if you happen to look them up online, there would be at least a couple of reviews portraying them otherwise.
I have been to many service providers, be it healthcare, restaurants, travel companies. I never felt the need or the urge to go online and review each and every company. Who are the people writing these reviews. Its very simple, the first ones being the individuals who are extremely happy with your service and the ones who are extremely unhappy. It is the truth, statistically the most reviewed Veterinary clinics have either 5 Stars or a single Star. The reviews being so tangential makes one look like "Two Face" the DC comic Batman character.
An unknown proverb rightly states -
"We might be the master of our own thoughts, still we are the slaves of our own emotions"
I have often failed to predict how an individual pet parent may react with their emotions ruling them. We veterinarians fully understand how much your pet means to you. We Veterinarians are very emotional about animals and value each and every life ! The fact is, unfortunately, our love for animals is the one thing held against us.
Emotions can make people unpredictable, I once had someone write a bad review only because they had to wait 10 minute past their appointment time for a general checkup for their pup. This was unexpected as I had stepped out and explained them that I was attending a 13 year old dog who had a severe neck pain and I can't ask him to leave till the time he was comfortable. Bang... I woke up to a bad review the next morning.
There have been times where in certain diagnostics or procedures/surgeries have been advised, because we understand that if the diagnostics are not done at the right time it may prove fatal to their pets. There are certain conditions which are time bound and Pet-Parents are sometime late to bring in their pets and the delay in the medical attention sometime fails to save their pets. I have myself seen many pet-parents losing their pets. The guilt of losing a pet is very hard to bear, some individuals chose to make Veterinarians as a soft target to dump their guilt onto. A quick and a simple way to do so, is to go online and write a bad review on their Vet's page.
Harriet Beecher Stowe rightly said
"The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone"
I had the chance to work and to interact with some of the most amazing veterinarians across the globe. I understand the amount of passion and talent they have and how they are the "Go To" Vets in case of particular pet ailments. However, these online reviews create a speck of a doubt in the minds of pet-parents and they lose out on opportunity for their pets to be seen by these vets.
To summarize all I want to say is that, neither do these 5 stars make anyone a "Super Vet" and nor do the 1 Star make anyone the "Worst Vet Ever" . Take everything with a Pinch Of Salt !
