How do I Create a Phone Message for the Answering Machine of a Veterinary Mobile Office?

Provide a pet owner with the information he needs to help his pet.

When you have a mobile veterinary office, you may not be able to answer every call that comes into your mobile office. If you don't have a back-up receptionist taking calls for your mobile office, these missed calls can also result in missed business. A pet owner may want to know that you are able to help him with his pet and how long it will take you to help him. If you don't have an answering machine message recorded for clients to hear, you may run the risk of the client taking his business elsewhere.

Instructions

1. Ask the caller to leave his name, telephone number and the physical address/location of the pet. You should request the type of pet and the pet's pedigree. You can also request the name of the pet since it is possible that you will have clients with multiple pets.

2. Request in your phone message that the caller summarize what is going on with his pet, such as the symptoms the pet is experiencing. You can also request the owner to state steps he has taken to remedy the pet's issue.

3. Advise the caller how long he can expect to wait to receive a call-back from your mobile office. For example, within 15 minutes, one hour or 24 hours.

4. State in the message what the pet owner should do if the situation with his pet is an emergency. If you have an emergency pager number, include the number in the message. However, you should stress that the pager number should only be used in the case of a pet emergency.

   If you don't have a pager number but you are partners with another on-call veterinarian or clinic for emergency cases, you can leave the telephone number and address for the on-call veterinarian or emergency clinic.

References

• Emergency Veterinary Service