3 Strikes and You’re Out!
Well, not exactly. Honestly, not even close. If you are reading this, you may have just received notice that your family is no longer able to schedule appointments in advance at Apex. This doesn’t mean we are mad, it doesn’t we do not want you to come back, it simply means that you have not shown up for a scheduled appointment on at least 3 separate occasions and these multiple appointments could have gone to other pets in need.
Strike 1 happens to the best of us. Flat tire, bad traffic, your significant other is a doofus and forgot that there even was an appointment. No worries! We’ve all been there and no hard feelings!
Strike 2 is when we start to get concerned. Again, accidents happen, people forget, and life gets busy. We can even overlook a second incident because we are all human. Having said this, the batter starts to get a little nervous when there are 2 strikes on the board.
Strike 3. Nobody wants this to happen, but we do have to set some boundaries. This is the third time that our team set aside an appointment to see your family and we were stood up. If your high school sweetheart stood you up for 3 dates after you showered, got dressed, +/- makeup, and were prepared for a great date, what kind of stance do you think you would have taken?
BUT, we’re not looking for a break up! We still want to be able to help your family when needed! We just need to do it in a different way that may even work better for your schedule. Typically after we reach the third strike, we are happy provide the following options:
- Drop off services on one of our full days (Not Saturday for example because we close at noon). This is a reservation that we make for your pet to spend the day with us. You bring them in early in the morning and spend a couple of minutes getting them checked in, our fuzzy friend spends the day with us and our doctors see them in between appointments, if we have a cancellation, or maybe even give up their own lunch break to make sure your baby gets seen. We then call you to let you know that your pet is ready for pickup after that call, any time between then and the end of discharges at 5:30pm.
- Same day scheduling. Instead of an appointment scheduled days or even weeks in advance, we ask that you call us that day and see if there are any appointments available. This is our way of minimizing the “forgetful factor” and increase the likelihood that your family will be able to keep the appointment.
When we really get down to it, it’s not that we are upset with you guys. We are honestly trying to make things better for ALL of our clients. If you can’t make it in for your appointment, please just call and cancel or reschedule. This allows us the ability to offer that time slot to another pet that is in need of veterinary care.