Practice managers and owners often ask me, “Are my client reminders effective?” and “Am I sending too many?” They also ask about better ways to communicate with clients. Questions like those should be posed annually because we have ample opportunities to remind clients of the services that a pet needs. I recommend simplifying the process to improve compliance.
An easy solution is a mobile app that displays reminders and differentiates which services are due for which pet. However, for your app to be as efficient as possible in generating reminders, you must set up your practice management information system correctly. For example, does it:
- Show how a client wishes to receive reminders?
- Which services are due?
- Use specific vocabulary so a pet owner perceives value and schedules an appointment?
- Schedule reminders and, if the client doesn’t respond, secondary notifications?
Veterinary practices commonly send reminders in these categories:
- Annual exams, senior exams, fecal and heartworm tests, and vaccines.
- Bloodwork for patients receiving medication because of a chronic condition.
- Injections to treat allergies or pain and for heartworm prevention.
- Annual dental cleanings.
- Refills for preventives.
Identify all the reminders you deploy and look for missing ones and any you don’t need to send. (Legacy reminders might roll over during a PIMS conversion, confusing team members and clients.)
Get to the Point
Next, audit your reminders on these three factors.
1. Vocabulary
Reminders must be concise and specific to encourage pet owners to act. Sending a reminder that simply states, “Fluffy is due for services at ABC Veterinary Hospital. Please call to make an appointment,” doesn’t provide enough detail or a sense of urgency. Additionally, if a client receives multiple reminders for different services, the pet owner will ignore them, and your reminder system will fail.
Ensure that the reminder states:
- The pet’s name.
- The specific needed service.
- When the service is due.
- How to schedule an appointment.
2. Preferences
Ask clients how they wish to get reminders. Some PIMs and reminder systems allow for preferred methods of deployment. While many practices think clients prefer postcards or email reminders, most surveys indicate pet owners desire text messages and app notifications. Some text messages have character limits, so be brief.
To ensure your reminders are successfully deployed and received:
- Check a client’s phone number at each visit. For example, ask, “Mrs. Smith, are the last four digits of your cell phone still 1234?” Just asking whether anything has changed since the previous visit will likely yield a “no” as clients try to recall the last time they were at the practice.
- Review email bounce rates and flag a client’s account when it happens. Call to ask for an updated email address and confirm it at every visit.
- Review text message delivery rates. Flag client accounts when the reminder fails to deploy. Try to connect with the owner to verify a cell phone number.
- Use your practice app to its full potential. Push notifications are popular with younger generations, our fastest-growing clientele groups.
3. Timelines
When should you deploy reminders and follow-up notifications? Your clients are busy, and so is your practice. Therefore, audit reminders for their effectiveness and ensure that when you send them, pet owners have time to book far enough in advance to secure an appointment.
Here’s a sample calendar:
- One month in advance: annual exams, senior exams, vaccines, fecal and heartworm tests, and yearly dental cleanings. Send a second notification two weeks later if the client doesn’t book an appointment. Deploy a third reminder the day the service is due and a final reminder two weeks later.
- One month in advance: Bloodwork for patients receiving chronic medications if the prescription is due to expire. Send a follow-up two weeks later and a third bloodwork reminder on the day the service is due.
- Two weeks in advance: Parasite preventives and medications for chronic conditions if the refill date is approaching. Resend during the refill week.
- One week in advance: Injections to treat allergies or pain. Resend on the service due date.
Other Tips
Clients depend on reminders to ensure their pets receive needed care. However, a frequent complaint is, “They never told me.” Your practice must find effective ways to communicate with clients. This includes:
- Asking how they wish to receive reminders and other communication from your practice.
- Sending postcards to older clients who aren’t technology-savvy. You might need to flag the pet’s medical record to tell you to remind the client by phone.
- Deploying electronic reminders when the due date is two weeks or less away.
Make booking appointments easy for clients. For example:
- Permit 24/7 online scheduling directly into your appointment book. Don’t make clients email to request an appointment or call during open hours.
- Add QR codes to postcard reminders to take clients to your appointment tool.
- Add a hyperlink to email and text reminders so clients get to your online booking tool with one click.
- Embed an appointment hyperlink in your practice app.
Communicating with clients in ways that meet their needs improves compliance and long-term loyalty to a practice. Service reminders should focus not on the “what” but on the “why” and “how.”
NOW INSTEAD OF LATER
Veterinary practices can improve client compliance by forward-booking services requiring an exam or injection. Schedule the next annual or biannual exam, bloodwork and injections before a client leaves your practice. People accustomed to forward-booking dental, hair and nail appointments understand the concept. Visit Partners for Healthy Pets at go.navc.com/3VqTUf3 to review the tools available to implement a successful forward-booking program.