The situation

A five-person veterinary practice in Tamworth managed around 1,200 active patient records. The North West Slopes and New England region has a strong mix of companion animal and working dog clients, with vaccination cycles that run year-round. The practice manager was working from a monthly list of due dates, phoning through as many clients as possible between consultations. On a busy day, the list did not get touched. Reminder follow-through sat at roughly 25 percent: three in four clients due for a wellness visit were not hearing from the practice at all, and many simply did not rebook. The appointment book had gaps that did not need to be there, and the practice was leaving preventive care revenue on the table while also providing a lower standard of pet health support than it wanted to.

The flow we built

A daily export from the patient management system feeds a Make.com flow that segments and sequences outreach automatically:

  • Each morning the patient management system exports a list of pets with vaccinations due in the next 30 days. Make.com ingests the file and updates a Mailchimp audience segment for each client.
  • Clients in the 30-day segment receive a personalised email addressed to the pet by name, with a one-tap link to book an appointment online. The email is sent under the practice's own domain name and matches the practice's visual identity.
  • If no appointment is booked within seven days, an SMS is sent to the client's mobile with a short message and a direct booking link.
  • A separate monthly Mailchimp campaign targets clients who have not visited in 18 months, with a reactivation offer and a reminder about annual health checks for their pet's age bracket.
  • All sent communications and booking conversions are logged in a Google Sheet so the practice owner can review campaign performance monthly.

The platforms

The practice's existing patient management system for due-date data. Make.com for the file ingestion, audience management, and campaign triggering. Mailchimp for email delivery. Twilio for SMS. The setup runs on a Professional Bot Care plan. The monitoring flagged a change to the patient management system's export file column order within the first month and the ingestion mapping was updated before any reminders were affected.

The results

In the three months following deployment, wellness appointment bookings lifted by 34 percent compared to the same period the previous year. Reminder follow-through moved from roughly 25 percent to 59 percent. The practice manager recovered around five hours a week that had gone to manual phone calls, most of which are now handled by the automated sequence. The reactivation campaign in month two brought in eleven clients who had not visited in over a year. Two of those had dogs with health issues that were picked up at their reactivation appointment.

The practice owner's summary was straightforward: the reminders now go out every day without anyone having to remember to send them. Consistency was the entire difference.

What this could look like for your veterinary practice

If your reminder process depends on a staff member working through a list when time allows, a schedule-based flow like this one can run across your full patient base every day without adding to the team's workload. Small business automation in Tamworth is a natural fit for veterinary, allied health, and professional services practices across the New England and North West regions.