Maximizing Client Retention: How Reminder Systems Can Benefit Your Veterinary Hospital

For many veterinary hospitals, the focus is on attracting new clients, but maintaining existing client relationships is just as important and can increase your hospital’s bottom line. One effective way to do this is through reminder systems that promote appointment compliance and address clients who are past due for annual exams and vaccines.

To implement this, you can begin by reviewing reports from your practice management system. This will enable you to identify clients who have missed appointments in the past year so you can send them reminders to schedule a new appointment. These reports can then be reviewed to ensure that clients are acting on the reminders.

You can also set up your reminder system to send out the reminders automatically. The best way to review the accuracy of your reminder system is by setting up a “test pet” for each month of the year, such as “January Dog,” “February Cat,” and so on. The reminders should go to the hospital’s email address to confirm they are set up correctly and are being delivered at the intended times.

According to AllyDVM, veterinary practices send an average of seven reminders to pet owners, whether they are emails, postcards, or text messages. Though digital reminders are most common, postcards are effective and can generate a response rate of over 17%.

Despite all the reminders, over 35% of pets that are due for services neglect coming into the hospital by the time the last automated reminder is sent, according to AllyDVM. Reminder phone calls can help boost compliance, eliciting responses from more than 6% of the previously nonresponsive pet owners.

Ensuring your reminder system is working correctly and effectively can help improve your hospital’s bottom line and enable you to provide the best possible veterinary care for every pet, which is the ultimate goal.

If you have questions about how you can improve appointment compliance at your veterinary hospital, please contact KSM’s veterinary consulting team or complete this form.