Understanding and Reducing Appointment No-Shows in Veterinary Clinics

No one enjoys a missed appointment: clients delay the care their pets need, teams waste valuable time, and clinics lose out on revenue. It’s a daily domino effect of problems for veterinary practices, and understanding the root causes of no-shows can seem daunting.

We’re walking you through the real reasons why pet owners miss their veterinary appointments, the many impacts missed appointments have, along with the sure-fire strategies you can use to prevent no-shows and make them become no problem. Plus, we’ll discuss the powerful tools PetDesk specifically offers to help no-shows disappear from your clinic—not your clients.

Why do pet owners miss their veterinary appointments? 

When pet owners don’t show up to their appointments, sometimes it can feel a bit personal. It’s important to note that while forgetfulness and poor planning can often be the culprits of no-shows, other factors like lack of transportation and sudden emergencies can cause clients to miss their appointments to no fault of their own. We’ve put together a list of the reasons why appointments are missed so you can stay in the know:

Forgetting the Appointment: Pet owners are people, and people are often busy. Sometimes it can be as simple as a client failing to set or receive a reminder that causes them to forget they’ve booked an appointment with you, or their schedule became busier than expected.

Lack of Transportation: Not everyone has reliable means to easily get from place to place. Pet owners who don’t have consistent transportation they can count on are far more likely to not make it to their appointments.

Concerns with Cost: Sometimes it all comes down to money, or the lack of. Pet parents who are more worried about the financial burdens of pet care will often skip the veterinary appointments they’ve booked, or look for a cheaper option elsewhere.

Anxiety and Stress: We’ve all seen a nervous pet in the veterinary clinic, but their owners can be just as anxious. When a client feels worried or stressed about their veterinary appointment, they’re likely to cancel it at the last minute or completely skip it altogether without warning.

Poor Communication: Clients can only make it to the appointments they’re reminded about, and missed appointments can be the direct result of communication breakdowns from the clinic. No-shows can also happen when a pet owner meant to cancel or reschedule their visit, but never communicated that to the veterinary team.

Inconvenient Scheduling: When a pet owner only has a few available appointment slots to choose from, it might force them to book a time that isn’t truly convenient for their schedule. Even if they’ve confirmed their appointment with you, their scheduling conflicts may lead to them not showing up.

Emergency Situations: Not hearing from a pet owner before they miss their appointment can be the result of unplanned events or emergencies. Even if the client has already confirmed their visit and seems to be looking forward to your pet care, there’s always a chance they’ll have to unexpectedly miss it at the last minute.

Changes in Pet Health: We can’t always know exactly how a pet is feeling, and sometimes an issue that once seemed highly concerning turns out to be nothing to worry about. When a pet owner sees that their pet’s condition has improved, it may make them believe that the appointment they’ve booked at your clinic is no longer needed.

Perceived Unimportance: Unfortunately, not every pet owner is an active participant in their pet’s health journey. Certain clients of yours may not realize and understand the importance of preventive care and the benefits of taking their pets in for regular check-ups, leading to them missing or skipping their routine visits.

Negative Experiences: If a pet owner has a poor time at a veterinary practice, it can prevent them from returning for future pet care. They may believe that bad communication from the veterinary team, for example, is a reflection of the care being provided to their pet, and be discouraged from coming back without giving any notice.

Lack of Team Trust: Similar to how a poor experience can prevent pet parents from returning for more care, a client may not come back to a clinic if they don’t have trust and confidence in the veterinary team. Inconsistencies or not having an open dialogue with the staff can put clients on the fence about choosing that clinic for care, and cause them to stop showing up for their appointments.

Scheduling Errors: It’s certainly not always on the client when an appointment is missed. Mistakes in the veterinary practice’s scheduling process can cause missed appointments, or create a poor experience—like a double-booked appointment—that prevents a client from wanting to show up in the future.

What impacts do no-shows have on veterinary clinics?

Missed appointments are missed opportunities for quality care and clinic revenue, but they can also negatively affect your practice’s overall efficiency and risk you losing out on loyal pet owners. Knowing the specifics behind these negative impacts will help you understand the importance of preventing missed appointments in the first place:

Delayed Health Journeys: Pets need regular veterinary visits not only to stay healthy, but also to ensure early detection and management of any health-related issues. When a client misses their pet’s appointment, it can result in delayed diagnosis and treatments that put the pet’s health at greater risk.

Reduced Team Efficiency: No-shows are no walk in the park for your veterinary team. While sometimes a missed appointment can mean a much-needed break, no-shows disrupt your staff’s workflow and cause them to scramble as they’re forced to figure out next steps. These inefficiencies can decrease your team’s overall productivity and morale, ultimately leading to burnout.

Lost Clinic Income: More than losing team productivity, missed appointments lose valuable revenue for your veterinary practice. Each appointment slot you’ve set up is designed to generate income while providing excellent pet care, neither of which are possible when pet owners don’t show up for their visits. Over time, no-shows can seriously impact the clinic’s financial health.

Diminished Client Relationships: When missed appointments happen more and more, it can strain the relationship between pet owners and veterinary teams. Frequent no-shows can lead to a lack of trust in clients and reduced satisfaction for your team, which can affect client retention and referrals.

How can I prevent no-shows at my veterinary practice?

Add a Reminder System: If clients are actively reminded about their appointments at your clinic, they’ll be more likely to come in for the services they’ve booked. You can keep pet owners on track by sending them convenient reminders through emails, texts, and push notifications from a mobile app, instead of bothering with a phone call.

Provide Flexible Scheduling: When pet parents have a convenient way to schedule the services they need on their own time, they’ll be more likely to show up for their appointments. Offer clients a way to book online so they can set up appointments whenever they need to, wherever they are without having to give your clinic a call. 

Communicate Everything Clearly: Efficiency is in the details. Make sure your appointment instructions are highly detailed and well-written so pet owners know exactly what to do and what to expect every time they book a visit.

Educate Your Clients: Make the importance of regular veterinary visits clear to pet owners by using things like blogs, newsletters, and in-clinic materials to spread the facts and raise awareness. Providing your clients with transparency and education can create a stronger community for your clinic and lead to more responsible pet owners booking your services.  

Address Transportation Issues: Consider partnering with a pet transport service to help clients who face transportation challenges. This provides an easier way for these pet owners to keep their pets’ health journeys on course without the risk of missing their appointments.

Offer Financial Assistance: At the end of the day, veterinary clinics are businesses, and you can only provide the care that pet owners can pay for. That’s why it’s important to be transparent about the associated veterinary costs, and offer payment plans to alleviate financial concerns for pet parents. Being up front and honest will let your clients know what to expect from their appointments and prevent them from booking services they can’t afford.

Reduce Anxiety and Stress: Just like your veterinary team, pet owners have a lot on their minds. Help your clients feel less overwhelmed by providing clear pre-visit instructions and setting their expectations, along with in-clinic comfort that steadies their nerves. A detailed process and calm environment will encourage pet owners to follow through with their appointments more often.

Handle Emergencies Efficiently: Emergencies can happen at any time, so it’s important for your clients to know that your veterinary team is always prepared. Create clear policies for emergency situations in your clinic that give pet owners peace of mind and trust in your team, and provide emergency contact information so clients know what to do and who to reach out to in unexpected situations. This will further strengthen your relationships with pet owners and keep them coming back.

Promote Positive Experiences: Keep your quality of care consistent and professional to instill trust and improve client satisfaction. It’s a good idea to regularly seek feedback from pet parents to make sure they’re happy with the services being provided to their pets, and to know which processes in your clinic need improvements.

Ensure Accurate Scheduling: Double-booked appointments and scheduling errors can significantly slow your team down. Be sure to train your staff and use reliable scheduling software to avoid errors and keep things running smoothly. An accurate scheduling process will help promote more positive experiences for pet owners more frequently.

Here’s how PetDesk makes no-shows no problem

PetDesk has the veterinary-specific solution to make your appointment management easier and more efficient than ever before. Our appointment management tools can help you reduce no-shows, enhance your team’s productivity, and ultimately ensure pets get the timely care they need without delay. Here’s how:

Automated Veterinary Reminder System

What better way to keep pet owners and health journeys on track than through the simple convenience of email, text, push notifications from a mobile app, or postcards by mail—PetDesk’s automated veterinary reminder system does just that by alerting clients about their pets’ appointments two days before they’re scheduled to come in, giving them enough time to prepare and follow any pre-visit instructions. You can customize your reminders to include things like the date, time, and location of the appointment without relaying this information in a time-consuming phone call. Plus, our reminder system provides clients with an easy link to confirm or make changes to their appointment well before their visit. Our veterinary reminder system is proven to be powerful, reducing the rate of no-shows at Bluemound Animal Hospital by 38%!

Two-Way Texting Tool

Convenient communication is most important in between the time a pet owner books a service and when they’re scheduled to come in for their appointment. PetDesk’s Two-Way Texting feature makes it easy for pet owners and veterinary teams to stay in touch, letting clients ask and answer health questions, send and receive pet images, and confirm their appointments all through the convenience of text messaging. You can use our Two-Way Texting tool to send additional appointment reminders to reduce the likelihood of clients missing their appointments, and they can simply reply with a text or through our veterinary-specific mobile app. You can also use Two-Way Texting to encourage clients to schedule routine visits when their pets are due for care. It’s simple, easy, and effective communication that will help build stronger relationships with pet parents and reinforce your clinic as their preferred place for veterinary care. Even better, our tool will save your team tons of time from lengthy phone calls and tedious follow-ups, like how Care-Pets Animal Hospital saved 12 hours a week with PetDesk’s Two-Way Texting!

Online Veterinary Booking System and Appointment Management

PetDesk Booking lets clients schedule appointments anytime, anywhere and on any device without having to make unnecessary calls or visits to your clinic. Rather than stopping what you’re doing and putting pet parents on hold, PetDesk Booking offers 24/7 online appointment scheduling for clients to book their visits on their own time, not yours. With real-time functionality, pet owners will only see the appointment slots that are available to book at that specific moment, instead of falsely seeing what was available to book five minutes ago. This ensures in-the-moment accuracy to prevent scheduling nightmares like double-booked appointments, which can deter clients from coming back to your clinic for more pet care. With an efficient and user-friendly platform for pet owners to book your services with, you’ll create an effortless veterinary experience that keeps clients coming back to your practice.

Veterinary Client Engagement Features

PetDesk’s industry-leading veterinary mobile app is a great way to ensure every appointment reminder reaches every client, without having to give them a call. With our veterinary-specific mobile app, you’ll be able to stay in touch with your clients and let them self-serve anytime, anywhere. In-app features like automated reminders, payments, two-way texting, mass messaging, loyalty programs, and easy-to-use forms create seamless communication between veterinary teams and pet owners. Our app also provides an unmatched level of transparency into pets’ health journeys by letting pet parents access medical records, manage prescription refills, receive notifications, and even set their own personal list of health to-dos for their pet, all on their own power. With 6.5 million users enjoying the PetDesk app today, we’ve managed to cut time on the phone booking appointments by 20%, and saved one clinic over 953 hours a year! The PetDesk app is a great way to keep pet parents on top of the services they’ve booked and save your team time from less important touchpoints, all while creating a stronger bond between clients and your clinic.

Digital Veterinary Forms

Convenience plays a large role in keeping pet owners on track with the services they’ve booked. When a pet owner arrives at your clinic for their pet’s appointment, having to fill out all of their information as they try to keep their pet in control is never a great experience. PetDesk Forms provides your clients and your team members with easy-to-use, veterinary-specific online forms that replace the pains of manual paperwork with accurate automation. Before clients visit your clinic, you can instruct them to quickly fill out their pets’ health details online without having to keep track of and carry around physical documents. Plus, when a pet owner has already taken the time to share all of their information with you ahead of their pet’s appointment, they’ll be much more likely to hold themselves accountable for making it to your clinic as scheduled. Meanwhile, your team has all the information they need to prepare for the pet’s visit ahead of time, ensuring a faster and smoother experience for everyone.

Veterinary Payment Software

Sometimes the in-clinic checkout process can be long and chaotic, providing a poor experience that prevents pet parents from coming back. With everything you need for efficient processing along with competitive rates on transaction fees, our veterinary-specific, cost-effective payment software—PetDesk Pay—completely changes the way you handle payments. PetDesk Pay has features like Text2Pay that let you request payment directly to a client’s mobile device, making it as easy for them to pay as it is for you to retain your earnings. Deposit Solicitation, another powerful PetDesk Pay tool, makes it even easier to reduce no-shows for your practice by allowing you to request pre-appointment deposits or full payments to a client’s mobile device. This is especially useful for getting ahead of no-shows and preventing last-minute cancellations from more risky clients, helping you to secure your pay and keep your revenue on track. With a more convenient way for pet parents to pay their bills, they’ll enjoy a seamless experience that they look forward to each time they visit your clinic, without being overwhelmed or having to wait in line.

Put no-shows in the past for your veterinary practice!

From the simplicity of forgetfulness to the complications of poor communication, pet owners can end up missing their veterinary appointments for a number of reasons. Regardless of why, the negative impacts are clear: pets don’t get the care they need when they need it, veterinary teams become less productive, clinics lose out on valuable revenue, and client relationships can be put in jeopardy. That’s why it’s important to stay ahead of missed appointments at your veterinary practice, and use the right strategies coupled with the right tools to make no-shows no problem.

If your practice is experiencing a noticeable rate of missed appointments, it’s crucial to address the issue immediately—and PetDesk can help. Our veterinary-specific solution equips your team with everything they need to stay efficient, providing staff members and pet owners with key appointment management features like automated reminders, two-way texting, 24/7 online booking, a user-friendly pet health mobile app, digital forms, and powerful, cost-effective payment software. Start making no-show appointments disappear—not your clients—by scheduling a free chat with a PetDesk product expert today! You’ll see what we can make possible for your specific practice, with no pressure to sign up.