Text messages are a cheap and effective way of communication with customers, they can be personalised, scheduled in advance and automated.
Those stats show how effective text marketing is and why businesses love it so. In this post we are going to show you how veterinary practices are using SMS to communicate with their customers.
Below we have added the 4 most popular ways that vets are using SMS. We have also included an example message for each section, to give you a better idea of how SMS works.
Appointment reminders
A huge proportion of text messages that we see go out from vets are appointment reminders. 98% of all text messages are opened, compared to email at just 20% – so if you send email reminders, 80% of those aren’t getting read.
Appointment no shows are always a big problem for many businesses, and this is the same for many veterinary practices across the UK. The NHS are currently using SMS for appointment reminders after they found they could save 162m a year using SMS as a reminder service (Source: NHS England).
All it takes is a simple text message, which can be sent automatically or manually at the end of each day, reminding everyone of the time and date of the appointment.
“Hi Bill, don’t forget your appointment tomorrow at 10.30am with Dr Smith, this is for Poppy’s annual check-up”
Other reminders
Pet Insurance – Remind customers of their pet insurance renewal date, how much it will cost, and how they can renew, change, or cancel their insurance.
“Pet Insurance reminder – Your insurance is up for renewal on the 23/03/2018 and will cost you £123.11. To renew now follow the link www.link.co.uk”
Medication – Set up automated reminder messages of when a customer needs to collect their pets medication, or when the pets needs to get their jabs.
“Hi Sophie, your medication for Muffles is ready to collect. We are open from 8.00am till 7.00pm Monday to Friday”
Outstanding invoice – A text message can also be used to remind and collect outstanding payments. Remind your customer of the invoice and include a link or phone number they can call and pay on.
“Don’t forget you still need to pay your invoice of £230 for the operation on Waddles. Please pay by the 30/04/2018 by calling us on 0123 456 7890 or follow the link www.link.co.uk.
Marketing
Marketing/sales messages don’t just work for fashion stores, any business that sells a product can use SMS to sell their products. Why not send a bulk SMS message to all your customers who own a rabbit, with a sale on hay, or a new toy you have got in just for rabbits.
You can segment your customer data and send unique offers based on the pets they have. Or send individual messages after someone has had a check-up or operation, offer them a product that would help their pets recovery.
“Huge sale for all rabbit lovers – get 30% of all bundles of hay and straw. Offer ends 25/03/2018 www.link.com”
Update customers
Keeping your customers up to date and informed about what you are doing is a great way to keep customers engaged. Are you closing over the Christmas period, or changing location?
You can also update customers with their order. Set up automated order messaging where they will get a text message when they have placed the order, the order is out for delivery and another one with the exact time and date of when it will be delivered.
Most major retailers have now implemented delivery text messages and have seen a huge increase of customer satisfaction.
“Hi Debbie, your order of the Mitchel’s Premier Dog Kennel has been dispatched and will be with you in the next 2-3 working days. We will send you another text message with delivery date and time in the next 24 hours”
If you are a veterinary practice and feel that you could use SMS to communicate with your customers, why not sign up with a free account today and trial the system. Every account comes with 10 free SMS credits to test, and with our amazing double credits offer, you can send text messages from as little as 1.65p per SMS.
If you have an ezvetpro account, you can integrate our SMS platform into their veterinary practice management software easily by following our integration guide.