I am looking for more info from folks who are doing appointment based adoptions in their shelters. I know it was popular in 2020-2021 but am curious if shelters are still operating this way and what successes or pit falls they've found with this?
Are you seeing a difference in your adoptions stats?
Have you seen a decrease in return rates?
How did you go about discussing this idea with your Board of Directors or higher ups?
What advice would you have for starting this change?
What lessons have you learned? (Pros/cons)
For context- we are a high volume intake shelter who takes in owner surrenders as well as transferring in stray animals from the municipal shelter next door. We saw about 8,000 intakes last year. We moved to appointment based owner surrender appointments several years ago and have found great success with that. However, our adoptions are not scheduled. I feel we could offer better customer service, find better placements, and improve staff mental health if we looked into appointment based adoptions but I also am not sure how feasible it would be in the long run. Also, I would need to look into the number side of things in order to get my superiors and our Board to entertain the idea as I think they could see it as a decrease in adoptions numbers.
So any info or feedback would be helpful!
#AdoptionsandAdoptionPrograms#DataandTechnology------------------------------
Sarah Reida
Director of Programs and Services
Kansas Humane Society
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