10 Tips for Handling No-Show Clients at Your Veterinary Clinic

Veterinary professionals like you have a lot going on in their day-to-days, and unexpectedly having to manage missed appointments can completely derail a productive work routine. When a client doesn’t show up for their pet’s appointment, not only does your practice miss out on profit but pets also miss out on the timely care they need from your team. It’s a real headache of a situation, but luckily there are actionable steps you can take at your own clinic to mitigate the pains of missed appointments and last-minute cancellations. We’re covering 10 ways you can start reducing no-shows, streamlining your operations, and boosting your revenue with ease.

1. Send automated veterinary appointment reminders

Sometimes pet owners simply forget about the services they’ve booked with you, or can’t make it to their appointments due to sudden changes in their schedules. No matter the reason, PetDesk’s automated veterinary reminder system is every clinic’s go-to tool for tackling the daily challenges of no-shows. We automatically send your clients a text, email, or push notification from our veterinary mobile app two days before they’re scheduled to visit your clinic, helping to keep their pets’ health needs at the top of their minds. You can also customize the reminder message to include any relevant information (like when and where their appointment is) or pre-appointment pet instructions (like bringing in a stool sample). Our reminder system ensures the right message reaches your clients in the right amount of time, reducing the risk of missed appointments and keeping your profits on pace.

2. Offer online booking for your veterinary clients

Since appointments play such a large role in every veterinary business, the way you let clients book your services can significantly impact your clinic’s rate of no-shows. PetDesk’s Veterinary Online Booking System helps to reduce no-shows by making the appointment scheduling process super easy for both pet owners and veterinary teams. Our booking software lets clients schedule appointments in real time, which means pet parents can only select an appointment slot that’s truly available to book at that moment instead of falsely seeing what was available to book five minutes before. This real-time booking functionality ensures in-the-moment accuracy to prevent more than one pet owner from booking the same appointment, which in turn means less scheduling errors for your team to deal with. By letting clients accurately book the pet services they need when they need them, they’ll be more likely to follow through with their veterinary appointments time after time.

3. Implement a clear cancellation policy at your veterinary practice

Oftentimes, a pet owner may not warn you when they’re unable to make it to an appointment they’ve scheduled at your practice if they feel like their pet’s health has improved, and if they believe there aren’t any consequences for not showing up. In reality, missed appointments interrupt your workflow and cause your team to pivot on a whim—not to mention the lost revenue. That’s why establishing a clear cancellation policy and proactively communicating it when clients are booking your services is extremely important for decreasing your rate of no-shows. With an official policy in place, pet parents will know the deadlines for cancellations as well as any potential consequences for missing an appointment, like having to pay a no-show fee.

4. Collect veterinary appointment deposits in advance

Thankfully, even if a pet owner does miss their appointment, there are ways to still secure your earnings and keep your revenue on track. PetDesk Pay is our cost-effective veterinary payment software that comes with features designed to alleviate the pains of missed appointments, like Deposit Solicitation. This feature makes it easy to request an upfront deposit or full payment from pet owners as soon as they’ve confirmed an appointment with you, which helps you stay ahead of the costs of no-shows by securing your income ahead of time. Holding clients financially accountable for the services they’ve booked will encourage them to make it to their appointments on time, reducing no-shows and last-minute cancellations for your practice.

5. Simplify all your payments with Text2Pay

You can further reduce your rate of no-shows by making things easier for pet owners at your veterinary practice, like how they pay you. Text2Pay is another PetDesk Pay feature that helps to streamline your payment process by sending digital invoices to pet owners through text message or email. This lets your clients pay you directly from their mobile devices, making the checkout experience more convenient for everyone. Pet owners and veterinary teams will enjoy spending less time with in-person or paper billing, and more time focusing on more important tasks. Pet owners can also securely save their preferred payment method for future use at your practice, creating a safe and straightforward checkout process. Text2Pay is designed to provide everyone with a simple way to send and receive invoices, ultimately letting clients look forward to a seamless, friction-free veterinary experience each and every time.

6. Onboard veterinary clients before their appointments

Our branded online forms help lock pet owners into the services they’ve booked by allowing you to onboard them ahead of their appointments. You can send your clients our easy-to-use forms to collect their pets’ basic information and medical history before their visits. This helps to speed up their appointments by providing you with everything you need to know well before they arrive. Plus, pet owners can easily manage any pre-appointment onboarding tasks through convenient communication tools like PetDesk’s Two-Way Texting, which saves everyone time from lengthy phone calls and in-person conversations while also getting client and patient information in your system sooner.

7. Strengthen your veterinary client relationships

The more comfortable a pet parent is in your clinic, the more likely they’ll follow through with their appointments. If a client has a preference for seeing a specific team member, or if a pet behaves more comfortably around certain staff, then the risk of that client missing their appointment significantly decreases. It’s important to try consistently booking pet owners with the same veterinarians in order to strengthen their relationships with your clinic, and make their experience as comfortable as possible. You can keep pet parents paired with their preferred veterinarian by using an efficient booking system like PetDesk Booking. Our 24/7, real-time online booking platform is loaded with all the scheduling rules and customizations you need to stay in complete control of the way pet owners book your services (like which types of clients can book specific services with who, and when).

8. Prioritize clear communication between your veterinary staff and clients

Every successful veterinary clinic focuses on providing clear communication to the pet owners they serve. Be sure that your clients have read and acknowledged your practice’s policies to avoid appointment and payment friction, especially those that are related to advance deposits and no-show fees. You can rely on a custom-built veterinary website, social media, emails, or newsletters to keep your clients informed of any new policies or changes to your practice, like a new no-show fee or a change in your business hours. Our Mass Messaging tool is an easy way to spread the word, too, letting you send customized messages to any number of clients in just a few quick clicks. You can also use these channels to educate pet owners about the negative impacts missed appointments have on their pets, your team, and your clinic’s overall success.

9. Keep your veterinary team informed

Just like the importance of keeping your clients informed with the latest changes at your clinic, it’s critical to ensure all team members remain aware of and are actively enforcing your no-show policies. When your staff inconsistently conducts business, like charging one no-show client a fee but not charging another no-show client, it runs the risk of pet owners becoming dissatisfied with your practice. With an increase in social media and online reviews to look out for and manage, it’s become more crucial than ever to maintain consistent communication with your veterinary team so that every staff member is following your policies and procedures properly. Make sure your team members from each department acknowledge any and all updates to your operations to confirm they understand the changes.

10. Track and analyze no-show rates at your veterinary clinic

It’s difficult to make informed decisions without the right information. PetDesk Booking comes with an appointment analytics dashboard, which equips your team with accurate data so you can easily monitor your no-show rates to identify trends in client behavior, and address any areas that need improvement. By studying this information, you’ll be able to refine your scheduling strategies and discover any underlying reasons as to why pet owners are missing their veterinary appointments.

Lose the pains of no-shows and win your revenue

Completely eliminating no-shows is hard, but with the right strategies and tools, you can make it significantly easier to decrease your no-show rate and secure more income. PetDesk’s automated reminders and confirmations are just one of the many scheduling tools we provide to cut down on missed appointments, just like how Bluemound Animal Hospital reduced their no-show rate by 38% with PetDesk!

Whether you’re already experiencing a high rate of missed appointments or simply want to stay ahead of the friction, PetDesk has your back. Reach out to our team today to see how we can make no-shows become no problem for your practice—in no time.