Increase compliance in your practice by implementing multiple touchpoints to clients—including text, email, and calls. You advise protecting pets year-round from fleas and ticks, but pet owners average six doses per year.1 Parasiticides are 42 percent of pharmacy sales.2 Do not risk medical consequences for patients or money losses to third-party pharmacies and retailers for your practice. Rethink your refill strategy. How can you improve medication adherence and keep more pharmacy sales? Refill reminders Vaccine reminders drive checkups. Apply the same proven strategy to flea and tick reminders. Write text and email templates for each brand so you can promote rebate and reward programs. Refill reminders should include: Drug name and purpose Refill deadline Promote rebates and autoship savings Link to your online store Option to pick up at your hospital Drive clients to click (not call) to order 1) Send reminders 30 days ahead. The purpose of reminders is to increase medication adherence. A late-to-refill study of 735,218 human patients who used 8,000 Walgreens pharmacies found refill response rates were strongest for reminders sent 30 and 14 days before maintenance medications ran out.3 The study found 46 percent of patients refilled medications at the 30-day notice, 33 percent at the 14-day notice, and 17 percent at the seven-day notice. Patients who received reminders were more likely to refill medications within the first 14 days of their expected refill date and had higher medication adherence over 365 days. Sending notices 30 days in advance allows time for: Shipping through your online store with timely home delivery. Letting clients pick up refills weeks before medications run out. (Bonus: Reduces the volume of same-day refill requests) Sending a series of reminders as the refill due date nears. 2) Send multiple reminders. Increase the sense of urgency in messages as refill dates near. Clients will choose their preferred communication method of text, app, or email, which will be noted in your practice-management software and sync with third-party reminder systems. Reminder series for flea and tick preventatives: 3) Send more texts than emails. Texts have a 98 percent open rate and 45 percent response rate.4 Most clients will see your messages, and nearly half will respond right away. Research shows 90 percent of people will respond to texts within 30 minutes.5 Hospital managers should monitor reminder response rates quarterly. Constantly get more clients to opt-in for text or app reminders due to higher response rates. Each quarter, run a report of clients who have not opted in for texts. Email them about faster scheduling and refills via text. Include a link for clients to opt-in and select texts as their preferred communication. Your third-party reminder service may have pre-written campaigns to convert clients from email to text. Put a quarterly alert on your calendar to run reports and send email campaigns. Be persistent and persuasive. By comparison, emails average 20 percent open rates and six percent response rates.3 Emails may get overlooked or buried in clients’ inboxes. Call clients once refill dates reach zero because the prescription is now expired. Your client service team can make calls daily. 4) Use action words. You want most clients to refill medications after the first notice. Use action words in reminders such as: “Needs” indicates the medication is medically necessary Click here” or “order now” is a call to action “Instant rebate” lets clients know they do not have to wait for a check or reward voucher in the mail “XX days” is a countdown timer, letting clients know the prescription is about to run out or expire (set up a data field to automate the number of days left) Use all caps to increase urgency Promote instant rebates Clients love the immediate gratification of saving money now rather than waiting for a check or prepaid credit card in the mail. Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck, and Elanco use Greenline Pet to manage instant rebates and coupons. Your hospital will set up a Greenline Pet account to apply instant rebates and coupons. Instant rebates can be applied to in-clinic and online store purchases through your hospital. Your practice will receive reimbursement checks weekly for rebates and coupons that have been submitted through the Greenline portal. Instant rebates on Greenline’s platform save clients an average of $8,000 per hospital.6 Your inventory or hospital manager will invest about four to eight hours for a one-time setup of refill reminders. Text and email communication will be automated through your reminder system and go out daily. Your only staff labor will be having client service representatives call clients when prescriptions expire…and counting money because your pharmacy sales will soar! SAMPLE SCRIPTS FOR ’SCRIPTS Get efficient in sending out reminders with these templates: Text messages 1st text. <Pet name> needs a refill of <brand> for flea/tick protection before <date>. Click here to refill in our online store with home delivery or reply Y to get curbside pickup at our hospital. Get $__ instant rebate when you buy 12 doses of <brand>. 2nd text. <Pet name> needs a refill of <brand> for flea/tick protection in 14 days. Order now through our online store with home delivery or reply Y to get curbside pickup at our hospital. Get $__ instant rebate when you buy 12 doses of <brand>. 3rd text. <Pet name> needs a refill of <brand> for flea/tick protection in 7 days. Don’t miss the next dose! ORDER NOW through our online store with home delivery or reply Y to get curbside pickup at our hospital. Get $__ instant rebate when you buy 12 doses of <brand>. Final reminder. The last reminder is a phone call. If you get voicemail, leave a message, and then send a text as backup communication. Use the doctor’s name to bring authority to the call. Use the yes-or-yes technique to lead the client to refill now. Making a call If you talk to the client: “Dr. <Name> asked me to call you because <pet name>’s prescription for <brand> for flea/tick prevention is now overdue. We don’t want <pet name> to be at risk for flea/ticks. Dr. <Name> has approved your refill. Do you want us to refill the medication for pick up at our hospital, or shall I text you a link to order through our online store with home delivery?” If you get voicemail: “Dr. <Name> asked me to call you because <pet name>’s prescription for <brand> for flea/tick prevention is now overdue. We don’t want <pet name> to be at risk for flea/ticks. Dr. <Name> has approved your refill. I am sending you a text now. Let us know if we should refill the medication and you will pick it up at our hospital. The text will include a link to our online store if you prefer home delivery. If you have questions, text or call us at 555-555-5555.” Backup text: I left you a voicemail because <pet name>’s prescription for <brand> for flea/tick prevention is now overdue. Dr. <Name> has approved your refill. ORDER NOW through our online store with home delivery or reply Y to get curbside pickup at our hospital. Get $__ instant rebate when you buy 12 doses of <brand>. Text or call with questions. Wendy S. Myers, CVJ, has taught communication and client service skills for more than two decades. As founder of Communication Solutions for Veterinarians, Myers teaches practical skills through online courses, onsite coaching, and conferences. She was a partner in a specialty and emergency practice for five years. Visit YouTube.com/csvets and Csvets.com for more. References Lavan R, Tunceli K, Zhang D, et al. Assessment of Dog Owner Adherence to Veterinarians’ Flea and Tick Prevention Recommendations in the United States Using a Cross-Sectional Study. Biomedical Central. Available at: https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13071-017-2217-2. Accessed Jan. 10, 2023. McReynolds T. Veterinarians Outselling Online Retailers When It Comes to Pet Meds—But Not for Long. AAHA NEWStat. August 2019. Available at: https://www.aaha.org/publications/newstat/articles/2019-08/veterinarians-outselling-online-retailers-when-it-comes-to-pet-medsbut-not-for-long/. Accessed Jan. 10, 2023. Taitel M, Mu Y, Gooptu A, Lou Y. Impact of late-to-refill reminder calls on medication adherence in the Medicare Part D population: evaluation of a randomized controlled study. National Library of Medicine. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5338963/. Accessed Jan. 10, 2023. Cote S. The Future of Sales Follow-Ups: Text Messages. Gartner. Available at: https://www.gartner.com/en/digital-markets/insights/the-future-of-sales-follow-ups-text-messages. Accessed Jan. 10, 2023. Meyer B. 29 Best Text Message Templates to Increase Sales in 2022. Omnisend.com. Available at: https://www.omnisend.com/blog/text-message-templates/. Accessed Jan. 10, 2023. Greenline Instant Rebates flyer. Data on file with Greenline LLC.
