Form questions

Vet client survey questions for after the consult

Ask 8 to 10 within a day of the appointment. Never skip the overall satisfaction rating, whether the likely cost was explained before treatment, and one open question on what to do differently. Cost surprises and rushed explanations cause most complaints, and those three questions catch both.

A vet client survey has to find out whether the owner understood what was wrong, knew what it would cost before treatment began, and felt their animal was handled with care. These questions ask about each of those separately, within a day of the appointment, while the bill and the conversation are still fresh.

The questions

The visit

  1. SpeciesDropdown

    The same list as the new client form, so answers can be read by animal.

  2. What was the main reason for the visit?Dropdown

    Check up or vaccination, illness, injury, surgery or dental, emergency, follow up, other.

  3. Was this your first visit to the clinic?Single choice

  4. Which vet did you see?Dropdown

    Only in a clinic large enough that one vet's answers cannot be traced to a single owner.

  5. How long did you wait past your appointment time?Single choice

    Seen on time, under 10 minutes, 10 to 20, 20 to 40, over 40.

  6. Were you told why there was a wait?Single choice

Explanation and cost

  1. How clearly did the vet explain what was wrong?Single choice

    1 to 5, not at all clearly to completely clearly.

  2. Where there was a choice of treatment, were the options explained?Single choice

    Yes, no, there was only one option, not sure.

  3. Were you told the likely cost before treatment started?Single choiceRequired

    Kept apart from the options question. Asked together, an owner given one and not the other cannot answer.

  4. How did the final bill compare with what you were told?Single choice

    About the same, higher, much higher, lower, no estimate was given.

  5. Did you understand the aftercare instructions when you left?Single choice

  6. Were the aftercare instructions given to you in writing?Single choice

Care and the clinic

  1. How gently was your pet handled?Single choice

  2. How well did the team acknowledge how you were feeling?Single choice

    Asks what staff did rather than whether they were compassionate, so the answer describes behaviour.

  3. How easy was it to book the appointment?Single choice

  4. Rate the clinicRating grid

    Reception, waiting area, cleanliness, parking, paying, each 1 to 5 with not applicable.

Overall

  1. Overall, how satisfied are you with this visit?Single choiceRequired

    1 to 5, very dissatisfied to very satisfied, worded the same every month.

  2. What is the main reason for that rating?Long text

  3. How likely are you to recommend the clinic to another pet owner?Single choice

    0 to 10 as eleven options.

  4. What should the team do differently next time?Long text

  5. May the practice manager contact you about this visit?Single choice

  6. Your name, only if you said yesShort text

Which questions to make required

Two questions are required: the overall rating, because a response without it cannot be counted, and whether the likely cost was explained before treatment, because that is the answer a clinic changes its process on. Everything else stays optional, so an owner who came in for a vaccination can skip the treatment options and aftercare questions without inventing an answer.

The form built from these questions

A static copy of the finished form, from its own example page.

New client registration

Paddock Lane Vets, Kenmore. One form per pet. About six minutes.

Owner

The pet

Optional, and it makes the file easier to match at the desk.

Consent

I authorise the clinic to examine and treat my pet, to contact my previous vet for records, and I agree to pay for services on the day. I understand estimates are given before any procedure over $300.

Three ways to change this bank

After surgery, send it three days later instead of the next morning, and replace the waiting questions with the discharge: was the pain relief explained, did someone call to check on recovery, and did anything at home worry you that nobody had mentioned. For a mobile or house call vet, remove the waiting area and parking rows, and ask whether the vet arrived inside the time window, whether they called ahead, and how the animal coped being examined at home. For a first visit by a new client, add three questions about the start of the relationship: how easy the new client form was, whether records from the previous clinic arrived in time, and whether the vet had read them before the consult.

Questions people ask

When should a vet clinic send a client survey?

Within a day of a routine appointment, while the owner remembers the wait and the bill. After surgery or a hospital stay, wait until the animal is home and settled, usually a few days. Send one survey per visit, and set a gap so a client with a pet on weekly treatment is not asked every week.

Should a survey go out after a pet has been put to sleep?

Not the standard survey. Remove those appointments from the send list, because a request to rate the visit arrives as a painful reminder. If the clinic wants to learn from end of life care, send a much gentler optional note weeks later, asking only whether the family felt supported and what could have been handled better.

Why are cost and treatment options asked separately?

Because they fail separately. An owner can hear three good options and no price, or a clear price for the only option offered. A single question about options and costs cannot be answered honestly by either owner, and the clinic cannot tell which part went wrong. Two questions give two answers a manager can act on.

Should the survey name the vet who saw the animal?

Only in a clinic with enough vets that a rating cannot be traced to one conversation. In a two vet practice, the vet will recognise the owner from the comment, and owners write less when they know that. Small clinics can drop the question and read the answers against the appointment book instead.

How should a clinic read the results?

Split them by reason for visit before averaging anything. Emergency visits score lower on waiting and cost for reasons no process will fix, and blending them with vaccinations hides real problems. The response export is a CSV with one column per question and option labels as text, so the split is a filter, not a formula.

Is a 0 to 10 recommendation question worth including?

It is useful for tracking one number over years, and it costs one tap. It should not replace the five point satisfaction rating, which is easier for owners to answer about a single visit. If the survey must be short, keep satisfaction, the cost question and the open question, and drop the recommendation score first.

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Other question banks

On writing the questions themselves, read How to write survey questions. For everything the builder can do, see the form maker. Step by step: Create a form with AI, then View, export and manage your responses.

Sources

Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .