Patas e Cia Veterinary Clinic (real case — data altered under NDA), with two surgeries in the Setúbal district and a database of 2,800 registered animals, faced a silent but devastating problem: approximately 35% of booster vaccinations and follow-up appointments were never attended. Not because the owners did not care about their animals, but because they simply forgot. Dr. Mariana Costa, the clinical director, calculated that these missed appointments represented more than €48,000 in unrealised annual revenue — and, more importantly, animals at health risk due to a lack of preventive care.
The Problem: A Clinic Held Hostage by the Telephone and Paper
Patas e Cia's recall system was entirely manual. An assistant spent approximately 3 hours per day calling clients whose animals had vaccinations or appointments due. The process was inefficient for several reasons: the list was generated manually from the clinical software, many calls went unanswered, there was no centralised record of contact attempts, and the assistant frequently prioritised urgent tasks over recall calls.
The result was devastating in numbers. Of the 120 daily calls that should have been made, only 40 to 50 were actually completed. Of these, approximately 60% went to voicemail or received no answer. Of clients successfully contacted, only 70% actually booked an appointment. And of those, 15% did not attend. By the end of the chain, the effective recall rate — the percentage of animals that actually received care within the appropriate timeframe — was a mere 28%.
Beyond lost revenue, there were real clinical consequences. Dogs without parvovirus booster vaccinations, cats without biannual deworming, geriatric animals without annual check-ups. Dr. Mariana regularly saw cases that could have been prevented had the animal come in for their appointment at the right time.
The Solution: Intelligent Automation with a Human Touch
Our approach focused on three interconnected components: a digital profile system for each animal, multichannel reminder automations and an online booking platform that eliminated the need for telephone calls.
Component 1: Digital Pet Profiles
We created a client area on the clinic's website where each owner could access their animal's complete profile. This profile included vaccination history with booster dates, record of previous appointments with the vet's notes, recommended health plan with upcoming actions, weight and metrics over time, and documents such as test results and X-rays in digital format.
The profile was fed automatically by the existing clinical software via an API integration. Every time the vet recorded an appointment, vaccination or test, the information appeared on the digital profile in real time. For owners, it was like having their pet's "health booklet" always in their pocket.
This component solved a fundamental problem: owners frequently did not know when the next vaccination or appointment was due. Now, they had that information accessible 24 hours a day, with clear visual alerts when something was pending or overdue.
Component 2: Automated Multichannel Reminder System
We designed a reminder sequence combining email, SMS and push notifications from the app, triggered automatically based on the dates recorded in the clinical software:
• 30 days before: Informative email with a personalised subject line ("Max's vaccination is nearly due") explaining the importance of the booster and including a direct button to book online. Educational tone, no pressure.
• 14 days before: Short, direct SMS: "Hello [Name], [Pet]'s vaccination is due on [Date]. Book here: [link]". The SMS had a 97% read rate, far higher than email.
• 3 days before: Push notification via the app (for those who had it installed) with a single button: "Book now". For those without the app, a second SMS.
• On the due date: If the appointment had not been booked, a final email with a slightly more urgent tone: "Max's vaccination expired today. Protect him by booking now."
• 7 days after expiry: Only at this point did a human intervene. The assistant received an automatic list of unresolved cases and made a personal call. But now, instead of 120 calls per day, there were 15 to 20 — the cases that genuinely required human intervention.
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The third pillar was an online booking system that completely eliminated the need to telephone the clinic. The client chose the service (vaccination, routine appointment, deworming, emergency), selected the preferred vet, viewed the available slots in real time and confirmed with a single click.
The integration with the clinic's diary was bidirectional: bookings made in person or by telephone immediately appeared as unavailable online, and vice versa. There was no risk of overlapping. Furthermore, the system automatically sent a reminder 24 hours before the appointment and another 2 hours beforehand, drastically reducing no-shows.
A detail that made an enormous difference was allowing bookings directly from the recall reminders. The client received the SMS saying "Max's vaccination is due in 14 days", tapped the link, and was directed straight to the booking page with the service pre-selected and the pet's profile already associated. Two taps and the appointment was booked — instead of a 5-minute telephone call that the client kept putting off indefinitely.
Implementation: From Legacy Software to a Modern System
The greatest technical challenge was the integration with the veterinary clinical software Patas e Cia already used. It was a legacy system, installed locally, with no native API. The solution was to create middleware that extracted the relevant data (vaccination dates, upcoming appointments, pet profiles) from the software's database and synchronised them with our cloud platform every 15 minutes.
The complete project took 8 weeks. The first 3 weeks were dedicated to technical integration and data migration. Weeks 4 and 5 focused on configuring the automation flows and testing with real data. Weeks 6 and 7 involved a pilot with 200 selected clients. And week 8 was the launch to the entire base, accompanied by an email explaining the new system.
Staff training was surprisingly quick. The assistants, who initially feared the system would replace them, quickly realised that the automation freed them up for more rewarding tasks — welcoming clients, assisting in consultations, organising the clinic. Dr. Mariana reported that team satisfaction increased significantly after the first month.
Results: The Numbers Speak
After 4 months of full operation, the results exceeded all expectations:
• Effective recall rate: from 28% to 79% — nearly tripled. Four out of every five animals with pending vaccinations or appointments received the appropriate care on time.
• Additional appointments per month: +85 monthly appointments that were previously lost, representing a revenue increase of approximately €3,400/month or €40,800/year.
• Assistant time on recalls: from 3 hours/day to 30 minutes/day — an 83% reduction. The freed time was redirected to clinical support and client care.
• No-show rate: from 15% to 4%. Automated reminders at 24 h and 2 h before the appointment virtually eliminated unnotified absences.
• Online bookings: 62% of bookings were now made online, including 40% outside the clinic's opening hours (evenings and weekends).
• Client satisfaction (NPS): from 45 to 72. Clients particularly valued access to the digital pet profile and the ease of online booking.
Impact on Animal Health
Beyond the financial figures, the most significant impact was on animal health. Dr. Mariana reported a 60% reduction in cases of vaccine-preventable diseases in the 6 months following implementation. Geriatric animals began receiving regular check-ups, enabling early detection of conditions such as kidney failure, cardiac problems and tumours — conditions that, when caught early, have radically better prognoses.
This is perhaps the most compelling argument for automation in veterinary clinics: it is not just about revenue or efficiency — it is about animal health and welfare. Every automated reminder that results in an attended appointment is potentially a life protected.
Conclusion
Patas e Cia transformed from a clinic that was losing a third of its follow-up appointments into a benchmark for preventive care in the Setúbal region. The total investment — including development, integration and training — was recovered in less than 3 months solely from the increase in attended appointments. But the true return is impossible to quantify: healthier animals, more reassured owners and a clinical team that can finally focus on what they do best — treating animals, not making phone calls.
