Google review management for a veterinary practice
A veterinary practice lives on its local reputation. Asterias follows your Google reviews live, writes an answer that picks up what the customer actually mentioned (the animal called by its name, an emergency seen that same evening, the price of the consultation), and leaves every decision below four stars to you.
Why it’s different for a veterinary practice
A veterinary practice gets reviews written in states of mind few trades ever see. A share of its low ratings are not complaints at all: they are grief, and treating them as complaints is the one real mistake available here.
The four recurring situations
A review written after the animal died
The most frequent cause of a low rating, and the one that is not handled like the others. The reply opens with the loss, never with the record, and justifies nothing: someone who has just lost their dog is not disputing a protocol, they are saying how much it hurts in the only place they can write it down. A reply that explains the clinical choices in that context reads as a defence, and turns a sad review into a hostile one.
The size of the bill
Veterinary medicine is not reimbursed, and the gap with what people imagine is enormous. The reply notes that an estimate is drawn up before any planned procedure, that investigations have a real cost, and offers to go through it. It never itemises a bill in public, which would amount to publishing what was done to the animal.
The out-of-hours emergency, and the wait
Two thirds of these reviews come from people who were not clients. The reply explains how a veterinary emergency works, why a life-threatening case goes first, and what to do next time. It informs the next reader, who is often in the middle of looking for an out-of-hours vet.
A disputed diagnosis
Usually after a second opinion obtained elsewhere. The reply never argues the substance in public: it notes that a record can be transferred to the practice of their choice, which is the client’s right, and offers an appointment to go through the findings. It is the only answer that does not make things worse.
Two replies, in full
My cat died after going to them. They took 340 euros for nothing. I would not recommend them to anyone.
Hello. We are truly sorry about your cat, and we understand what that loss means. We will not discuss here what was done, because an animal’s record is not something to comment on in public, but we want you to know the door stays open: if you would like a vet to go through the whole record and the investigations with you, calmly, call us on [phone] and we will take that time, with no consultation charged. Our thoughts are with you.
It opens with the loss and never defends itself. It neither denies the amount nor justifies it: it offers the only thing that can still help this person, an explanation face to face.
Two hours waiting on a Sunday evening with a dog that was vomiting. Nobody tells you anything.
Hello, and thank you for writing. Two hours with an animal that is unwell is a long time, and worry makes the wait longer still. The emergency service takes patients without appointment and cases are seen by severity rather than by order of arrival: when an animal arrives in respiratory distress it goes first, and the same would happen for yours. You should however have been told the estimated wait and the reason for it, and that is what we are going to review with the duty team. We hope your dog is better.
The reply holds its ground on triage by severity while conceding what genuinely failed, which was the lack of information. That is what makes it credible rather than defensive.
When the reviews arrive
June and July concentrate vaccinations, microchipping and travel certificates, so a high volume of mostly positive reviews, written by people getting ready for a holiday.
August is the month of passing-trade emergencies and abandonments, and the month when the harshest reviews arrive, often from people who were not clients.
December and January bring festive poisonings, chocolate and cooked bones above all, with expensive emergency consultations and therefore reviews about fees.
Spring brings back parasite treatments and litters, so calmer consultations.
What a public reply must never do
A veterinary surgeon is bound by professional confidentiality. The animal’s record belongs to its owner, and nothing it contains is commented on publicly, even when the owner has already talked about it in their review.
In practice: a reply never names a diagnosis, a treatment, an investigation or an amount. Nor does it say that a decision to euthanise was taken or refused. It acknowledges what the review expresses and offers to go through the record at the practice, which is the only place it can be discussed.
A second rule, particular to this trade: never answer a grief review the way you answer a complaint. A bereaved client is looking for acknowledgement, not an argument. A reply explaining why the care was correct is technically unimpeachable and humanly disastrous, and it is what makes those reviews permanent.
On a veterinary practice no reply is published without your approval whatever the setting. A review mentioning a death, a euthanasia or an alleged error comes to you in every case.
Every rating, its own treatment
4 and 5 stars
Answered automatically
A personal thank-you that picks up what the customer liked, published after a natural delay. Nothing for you to do.
3 stars
You approve
Asterias drafts an answer that acknowledges the problem and gives a reason to come back. It lands on WhatsApp or Telegram: one button to publish, one to rewrite.
1 and 2 stars
Nothing without you
Never published automatically by default. You get the review and a suggested reply. Send it, rewrite it, or let it go.
Common questions
How do you answer a review left after an animal has died?
By opening with the loss, and never defending. The record is not commented on in public, and a reply justifying the clinical choices turns a sad review into a hostile one. What helps is offering an appointment to go through the record, with no consultation charged.
A client disputes their bill in public. What do you say?
That an estimate is drawn up before any planned procedure and that investigations have a real cost, then offer to go through the bill at the practice. Never the detail: publishing a line of an invoice amounts to publishing what was done to the animal.
A review comes from someone who was never a client. Can you say so?
No, and it is counter-intuitive: denying it would confirm, by symmetry, that the others are clients. If the review breaks Google’s policy, report it. Otherwise the reply deals with the subject raised, usually the phone or the out-of-hours service, without ever discussing who the author is.
Is it worth answering the good reviews of a veterinary clinic?
Yes, and Asterias does it on its own. They are the majority, they carry the rating, and they are what the next worried owner reads when comparing two clinics at midnight.
Try it on your own reviews
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