Vet-Tech-Elaine

Marketing Your Microchipping Program

Educate

Educate your entire team on the importance of pet microchipping

  • According to a 2009 study, pets with microchips are up to 20 times more likely to be returned to their owners
  • Collars break and pet id tags can fall off; some pets don’t even wear collars
  • We don’t like to think about it, but disasters can happen and pets can get displaced from their homes and owners
  • Microchips are permanent identification that can help prove ownership if a pet is stolen
  • Microchips are required when traveling internationally

Teach your entire team how to scan for a microchip

Add www.petmicrochiplookup.org to your clinic’s website FAVORITES

Through this site, anyone can enter a microchip ID number and see which pet recovery service a pet may be enrolled  – or if it is not enrolled.  The contact numbers for various national pet recovery services are published so pet owners can call to verify their microchip enrollment information is up to date.

Reinforce

Require team members to scan a pet each time it sets foot in your practice

  • Scan the animal at the front when they put him on the scale.
  • Add microchip scanning to TPR, and make it TPRS – Temperature, Pulse, Respiration , Scan

When scanning a pet, your team can easily educate pet owners about the importance of microchipping

Even if you don’t think it has a microchip, you might be surprised.  Some pet owners don’t even know their pet has one!   If the pet doesn’t have a microchip you can discuss the many ways microchips help reunite pets and their owners and offer to implant one during their visit that day.

For pets with a microchip, you can double-check the microchip has not shifted and all is still working properly.  It is also a good opportunity to remind pet owners to check their enrollment information.  Many pet’s microchips are not enrolled or the pet owner contact information is out of date.

Introduce microchipping with each applicable client visit

On new patient information forms:

  • What is your pet’s name?  Breed?  Gender?  Spayed/Neutered?  Microchipped?

Add “Do you want your pet microchipped?” to all client facing forms

  • Spay/neuter paperwork
  • Releases required prior to dental cleanings or any other time a pet is put under anesthesia
  • Boarding and kenneling check-in sheets

Promote

Promote microchipping at your practice

  • Run a pet microchipping promotion in June – it is “Pet Microchipping Month”
  • Discount microchipping when added with other procedures
  • Bundle microchipping into your puppy and kitten wellness plans by including it with their vaccinations or spay/neuter procedures
  • Put microchipping brochures in each puppy and kitten pack – call AKC Reunite for complimentary brochures
  • Have an Open House with a microchipping clinic