Animal Welfare Professionals

Hi, I work for a veterinary clinic that has been trying to conduct a monthly low-cost vaccine clinic for about the last year. Our turnout hasn't been as high as we would have liked and I was wondering if any one had advice and tips on how they market and conduct their vaccine clinics to increase turnout and improve retention of people coming to the clinic instead of creating an appointment for their boosters. 

Our clinics work by having limited slots per every 30 min and you must purchase a ticket to attend the vaccine clinic, basically putting a deposit down that you are going to come, it is non-refundable. However, we deduct this amount from their final bill when they check out after the clinic.  We require only one ticket for the household and all pets you want to bring but we ask you to please give us each pets information prior to the clinic, but we aren't rigid on needing that info first.  Currently we only really market it through social media, post it on google, and through the clinic, but in 2024 we hope to send out a monthly newsletter that would have the link to purchase a ticket on it.

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Nicole McGeeney
Marketing/Fundraising
Pet Care Coalition
CO
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Hello Nicole! 

 That's an awesome program to offer! How about contacting local rescues, and your local government shelter to help promote your low cost vaccine clinic days. I know our local county animal services organization actually has something on their website that links them to different vet offices and have some of them marked as "low cost". 

I hope that helps!

Erin

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Erin Waughtal
Jane of all Trades
Big Dog Ranch Rescue
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I would suspect that this process is the problem: "limited slots per every 30 min and you must purchase a ticket to attend the vaccine clinic, basically putting a deposit down that you are going to come, it is non-refundable". 

Many lower income folks who need this kind of service are not going to risk putting some of the little money they do have into a nonrefundable purchase for a specific date and time. They often have very unpredictable schedules and may not know whether they will be available or not. They don't know if they will be able to get transportation or child care or gas money or be off work that day, etc. Or they simply have no idea about the clinic at all because they don't see the advertising for it. 

I was recently at a free vaccine event and while there was the option for people to sign up early to save time filling out paperwork, the vast majority of attendees did not do that. Many of them only found out about the event the same day because they were walking by or someone else saw it and told them. 

So your sign up process might be something to consider updating to make it easier for people to come.

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Maria Saucedo
GIS Analyst
Pets for Life at HSUS
Baltimore, MD
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This!! That up front payment. That is a problem. 

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Nancy Ramirez
Animal Rescuer (Not Registered, asterisk asked)
Percy's Crew
TX
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-02-2024 09:12 AM
From: Maria Saucedo
Subject: Conducting successful monthly low-cost vaccine clinics

I would suspect that this process is the problem: "limited slots per every 30 min and you must purchase a ticket to attend the vaccine clinic, basically putting a deposit down that you are going to come, it is non-refundable". 

Many lower income folks who need this kind of service are not going to risk putting some of the little money they do have into a nonrefundable purchase for a specific date and time. They often have very unpredictable schedules and may not know whether they will be available or not. They don't know if they will be able to get transportation or child care or gas money or be off work that day, etc. Or they simply have no idea about the clinic at all because they don't see the advertising for it. 

I was recently at a free vaccine event and while there was the option for people to sign up early to save time filling out paperwork, the vast majority of attendees did not do that. Many of them only found out about the event the same day because they were walking by or someone else saw it and told them. 

So your sign up process might be something to consider updating to make it easier for people to come.

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Maria Saucedo
GIS Analyst
Pets for Life at HSUS
Baltimore, MD
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Nicole, Maria nailed it on the deposit. Non-refundable up-front money is a hard no for the population that needs these clinics most. Their schedules are unpredictable and their margin is too thin to risk losing it. That is almost certainly the biggest single drag on your turnout.

But I want to take Maria's diagnosis one step further. The deeper structural fix is not to change the deposit policy. It is to change the delivery model.

The clinics that produce the volume you are looking for go to the people instead of asking the people to come to them.

Pet Care Connect, run by Dr. Antonio Caldwell, runs door-to-door spay/neuter signups in high-intake neighborhoods. They average roughly 160 signups per event. They use 311 call heat maps to pick deployment areas. They provide transportation to the appointment because transportation is one of the biggest barriers in this work. The program is funded by city general fund money, which is its own argument for how serious and replicable the operational model is.

HSUS Pets for Life runs a similar door-to-door model with the longest longitudinal data set in the field. North Charleston went from 21 percent sterilization to 69 percent in five years. Their pre-intervention baseline was 88 percent unsterilized and 70 percent never seen a vet. And the single most important operational finding for any clinic operator is the follow-up effect: 30 percent completion with limited follow-up versus 80 percent or higher with thorough follow-up. Same program, same neighborhoods, only variable was follow-up.

If you want monthly turnout, you do not market harder. You walk the neighborhoods you serve. You sign people up at their door. You handle the transportation. You follow up the week of the appointment. The clinic stops being a destination people have to find and afford their way to. It becomes a service that shows up. Also engage the local organizations like churches etc. Many would be happy to help knock on doors and spread the word about your program.

Marketing on social media and Google works for the population who already has internet, transportation, time, and disposable income to use a vet. That is not the population the low-cost clinic is for.

Happy to share contacts and the data sets if it is useful.

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Join The Shift To Prevention.

BJ Adkins
Founder/Director
Animal-Angels Foundation
Pinson, AL
calendy.com/animal-angels
bjadkins@animal-angels.org
animal-angelsfoundation.org
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