Vaccine Reminder Program Launch Checklist
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A pre-launch audit and setup checklist for veterinary clinics switching on automated vaccine reminders, covering records, message design, sequence timing, staff ownership, and measurement.

[ ] Pull a list of every active patient with a vaccine given but no due date recorded, and fill in the due date from the product label.
[ ] Merge duplicate pet records so a single animal does not receive two sets of reminders or drop out of the list entirely.
[ ] Confirm the rabies interval in your system matches the product you actually stock (one-year or three-year label) and the rule in your state or county.
[ ] Verify phone numbers and email addresses for every client with a vaccine due in the next 90 days.
[ ] Flag pets that are deceased, rehomed, or transferred to another practice so they leave the recall list.
[ ] Decide how pets with incomplete or unknown vaccine history are handled, and write down who makes that call.
[ ] Draft one message template per vaccine that names the pet, the vaccine, the due date, and what a lapse means in plain language.
[ ] Include exactly one action in each message: a booking link or a number to text back, never a vague request to call the office.
[ ] Write a consolidated version for households with several pets or several vaccines due in the same month.
[ ] Read every template aloud and cut anything the front desk would not say to a client standing at the counter.
[ ] Set the first notice far enough ahead to cover your current booking wait, which for many clinics means somewhere between two and six weeks before the due date.
[ ] Add a near-date reminder with the booking link, a short overdue notice, and a trigger for a personal call after a set number of weeks.
[ ] Confirm the sequence stops automatically the moment an appointment is booked so nobody is nagged about a visit they already scheduled.
[ ] Define a fallback channel for clients who opted out of texts or email so an opt-out never turns into silence.
[ ] Choose the send window by day and time, and keep messages out of late evenings and holidays.
[ ] Assign one person to own the recall list and name a backup for vacations and sick days.
[ ] Brief the whole front desk on what each message says so replies can be answered without hunting through the system.
[ ] Check that you hold messaging consent for each client and that opt-out requests are honored promptly in line with your messaging provider's requirements.
[ ] Record the baseline: vaccine due dates from the last 12 months and how many still have no matching visit 60 days later.
[ ] Pick the one metric you will report monthly, such as completed visits within a set window, broken out by vaccine and by channel.
[ ] Schedule a 30-day and a 90-day review to compare results against the baseline and rewrite the templates that convert worst.
[ ] Keep a short list of pets that never respond to any channel, because those are the cases a human should call.