How a small practice gets more new clients, step by step

It's 9:30 on a Thursday night. The practice owner opens the website to change the holiday hours, finds the team photo from 2019 and closes the laptop again. A one-star review from Monday still has no reply. Nobody on staff does marketing, so nothing changes until something breaks.

Two streets away, a family has just adopted a puppy. They search for a vet on their phone, compare three Google listings and book with whichever one lets them. This guide is the order we'd work in to get more veterinary clients at a small practice, starting with the gaps that cost almost nothing to close.

Why new clients take more work now

Visits are down while prices are up. Vetsource data reported by Today's Veterinary Business shows visits fell 3.1% in 2025, and wellness visits fell 3.8%. Fewer appointments are now shared among the same number of practices.

Independents still win most of that work. Today's Veterinary Business also reported that 70% of dog households and 68% of cat households used a local or independent clinic in the past year. A new client, meanwhile, is worth far more than one exam: one industry estimate puts each client at about $622 a year per pet.

So the goal isn't more noise. It's making sure the pet parents already looking for a vet near you can find you, reach you and book.

Step 1 of 6 Answer the calls you already get

Before you spend a dollar on ads, count the calls nobody picks up. Today's Veterinary Business reports that 25 to 30% of calls to small and mid-size clinics go unanswered. Most of those callers, about 85%, never try again.

Picture the late-morning rush. One CSR is at the counter with a cat carrier, talking a pet parent through a bill. The other is on hold with a pharmacy. Line three rings six times and stops, and the caller with a new kitten tries the practice across town.

Three changes close most of that gap. First, every unanswered call gets an automatic text from the practice line within the minute, so the caller can reply instead of dialing again. Second, unanswered calls roll to a backup phone before voicemail. Third, an AI receptionist answers during the lunch hour and after closing, books routine visits and passes everything else to your CSRs.

If you're deciding between a live answering service and an AI receptionist, we laid out the trade-offs in our answering service comparison.

Step 2 of 6 Fix the Google listing pet parents see first

Most new pet parents meet you on Google Maps before they see your website. Your Business Profile is the first thing they judge, so give it an hour this week.

Check the hours, holidays included. Choose the right main category and list your services: wellness exams, dentals, surgery, exotics if you see them. Add current photos of the building, the exam rooms and the team. Put a booking link on the profile so a pet parent can book without calling.

Then keep the listing active. A short weekly post about a seasonal topic, a new DVM or a change in hours shows Google the practice is open and current. Questions posted under the listing need answers too, since they stay public until somebody replies.

Step 3 of 6 Take bookings while the desk is closed

A lot of vet searches happen after dinner, when the house is quiet. A site with nothing but a phone number loses those people to the next listing. Vetstoria's 2026 report found 34% of the pet parents it surveyed couldn't book online when they wanted to. It also found 29% had passed on a clinic after seeing its website.

Online booking doesn't mean giving away your schedule. Done well, it runs on rules your practice manager writes. Maybe only wellness exams and vaccines go online, only for two DVMs, and never less than a day out. For first-time clients, the slot can be held with a small deposit or a saved card. If someone types a worrying word into the reason box, the page stops and asks them to call the practice instead.

Use one booking link everywhere: the Google listing, the header of each site page and the reminder texts. Direct Booking is how we set this up for the practices we work with.

Step 4 of 6 Ask every pet parent for a review

A pet parent comparing three practices on Maps looks at the stars and the review count first. A practice with 40 reviews looks smaller than one with 400, even when the medicine is just as good.

This works best as a daily habit, not an annual campaign. Each morning, text yesterday's pet parents from the practice line with a link that opens Google's review box. Happy pet parents rarely think to write one on their own. Many will when you ask once, at the right moment.

Answer every review within a day or two, five-star ones too. Keep each reply short, and never mention the pet's visit or records in public. Our team answers reviews in your practice's name as part of Reviews & Reputation.

Step 5 of 6 Make the website earn its keep

A practice site earns its keep when visitors leave with an appointment booked. That means quick loading on phones, a booking button in view on each page, and the common pet parent questions answered before anyone has to phone.

Give every service you want more of its own page: dentals, puppy and kitten visits, senior care. Add pages for the nearby towns you draw from, so a search one suburb over finds you too. Show your actual team and building, not a stock golden retriever.

Search is shifting as well. Some pet parents now ask ChatGPT, or read Google's AI summary, and never scroll down to the list of vets. Those tools favor practices whose pages clearly state the town, the species seen, the services and how booking works. We build veterinary websites that way, then keep them current with local SEO and city pages.

Step 6 of 6 Spend on ads last, and track every call

Ads pay off once the phones, the Google profile, booking and reviews are in shape. Before that, you're paying for clicks that land on voicemail or on a site with no way to book.

As for budget, dvm360 puts mature practices at 0.5 to 1.0% of gross revenue on outside marketing. For a practice taking in $1.5 million a year, that works out to about $625 to $1,250 a month.

Start with Google search ads on the searches that mean someone needs a vet soon: "vet near me", your town's name with "veterinarian", and "emergency vet" if you take same-day cases. Then run Facebook and Instagram ads aimed at households within a few miles of the practice.

Give every ad its own tracking number, and judge it by booked appointments rather than clicks. Your practice pays its ad spend straight to the ad platforms, and our team runs the campaigns and reports which ad brought in which new client.

Keep the clients you win

A new client who comes once and never returns barely covers the cost of finding them. Winning the second visit counts just as much as the first.

Reminders should go out by due date, and a household with a dog and two cats should get one text naming all three. Check in two days after a first visit to ask how things went. Book the next appointment at checkout, while they're still at the counter. Then track new clients each month next to retention, as we explain in the monthly numbers worth watching.

Where to start this month

If you only get to three things this month, pick these. Set up a text that goes to every caller you miss. Update your Google profile: hours, photos, a booking link. Start asking every pet parent for a review the morning after their visit. None of the three costs much, and each one makes later marketing pay back faster.

How CompanionBooked helps

CompanionBooked gives small practices the pieces in this guide on one plan. Our team builds and edits your website, keeps your Google profile current, writes the city pages, runs the ads and answers your reviews. On the software side you get the phones, texts to missed callers, rule-based online booking, reminders, and an AI receptionist that covers lunch and evenings.

You don't have to become the marketing department. All three come in one monthly plan, priced on a 30-minute call. Month to month, no setup fee, live in 14 days.