Appointment Reminders for Pet Services

Pet services frequently require appointments, and no shows or late cancellations are a financial drain. Whether your service is pet grooming, a veterinarian, or pet sitter or dog walker, appointment reminders can make your schedule more consistent and increase your revenue.

Types of Pet Care Businesses

There are many pet related businesses that can improve by sending appointment reminders. 

Veterinarian: Pet(s) need an appointment to be seen and many vets may need to be booked months in advance.

Grooming Business: Pet groomers typically operate from a schedule and require an appointment.

Dog Walking: Many dog walkers require booking in advance so that they can maximize their time and walk multiple dogs at once. This is better for the owner and also helps socialize dogs.

Pet Sitting: When using a pet sitter, a client needs to schedule in advance. This ensures that the sitter has enough space and time for a pet, and prevents scenarios of overbooking.

Why Pet Owners May Cancel or No Show

• The pet owner forgot about the appointment. This is especially common for maintenance appointments such as an annual check-up or routine vaccinations.
• The pet owner is sick and cannot bring their pet to the appointment.
• The pet owner cannot afford the appointment but forgot to cancel. Vet appointments especially can be very expensive.
• If the pet had an appointment for a sick visit, the pet may have improved and no longer needs it.
• If the pet needed to be groomed for the summer months but the weather changed. Lots of dog owners shave their pets ahead of a heat wave.

Many of these situations could be prevented or handled quickly if your business uses appointment reminders.

How Appointment Reminders Help Your Pet Business

There are several ways that automated reminders can improve your pet service business, including:

Pick-Up Time: For many pet services, the animal needs to be dropped off and then picked up at a later time. A reminder message is extremely useful for alerting the pet owner that their animal is ready to be picked up.

Appointment Details: There are many details that pet owners need to know for their appointments. For vets, this might be which animal to bring. Or a reminder to give the pet anxiety medicine before the appointment. Or perhaps the provider has changed the check-in procedure.

Routine Procedures: Pets need vaccines and annual appointments, but these are easy to forget because they are so spread out. Reminders can be extremely useful for helping pet owners remember existing appointments, or remember to book an appointment. For pet grooming, including bathing, nail cutting, or styling, these services also operate on a weekly or monthly schedule so a reminder can help an owner remember to show up or book it.

New Procedures: A pet sitter or dog walker may need to change their established procedures, such as dropping off or picking up the pet at a certain time. Reminders keep the owners in the loop.

Why Reminderly's Platform is Perfect for Your Business

Direct Communication

Reminderly makes communication with your clients easier. We offer two unique ways of communicating with clients, in addition to our text messages reminders, email reminders, and phone reminders.

1. Two-Way Communication: In our "Communicator" tool, you can message clients and they can message you back in real-time. This is especially useful if they need to let you know that they're running late to their appointment, to request a prescription refill, or ask a follow-up question after the visit.
2. Group Communication: Anonymity is important. When messaging groups, Reminderly offers a feature that automatically sends group messages as Blind Copies, or BCC, so your clients can’t see the other people in the group. Group communication is especially useful for contacting all of a veterinarian's clients on Monday's schedule, or all of groomer "X"'s clients to alert them that the caregiver is late, or needs to reschedule.

Wait List

One of Reminderly's unique features is the "Wait List." Reminderly can gather, maintain, and execute a wait list to save your practice time and money. Simply enter the date and time of your new vacancy, and we will contact all of your clients on the wait list to fill the appointment spot. Our Wait List ensures that your schedule is full, your staff saves time, and your clients are happy because they got in to see you soon.

Customization

With Reminderly, you can completely customize your messages. We recognize that your business is unique, so we allow you to create the automated reminders that are right for your customers. 

Payments: 

Use Reminderly to help with your billing. You can send a reminder to clients after their service that their bill is due. You can easily include a direct link to your payment portal.

Google and Yelp Reviews: 

Google is the most widely used search engine, and reviews left on a company's Google business page are important. They can also be hard to get. With Reminderly, you can automate the process of asking your clients for Google or Yelp review.

Internal Survey: 

When enabled, Reminderly will automatically send a two question survey to clients 24 hours after their appointment. This internal survey asks clients how likely they are to recommend your business on a scale of zero to ten, and why. You have access to these private surveys so that you can better gauge your business's efficacy.

Examples of Pet Service Reminders

Pet Sitter: "Hello <<name>>, please bring your pet to <<address>> between 2-4 PM on Thursday for their overnight visit. Don't forget to bring any special food, treats, medicine, or toys that they may need."

Veterinarian: "This is Metro Vet Clinic, this is a reminder that your pet <<name>> is due for their annual checkup and vaccinations. Please respond or call the office if you need to schedule."

Pet Groomer: "Your pet has an appointment for nail trimming today at <<time>> with our technician at <<location>>. Please arrive five minutes early to fill out paperwork. We look forward to seeing you."

‍