16.1. Understanding Client Types

*THE BIG WHAT
Before making appointments, it’s important to understand that we have two main client types in HQ: public clients and volume clients.

Public Clients

Public clients are regular, everyday pet owners that bring their animals to your clinic to get spayed and neutered. They typically pay when they pick up or drop off their animal, and HQ doesn’t generate an invoice for this occurrence. The lack of an invoice is one of the main differences between public clients and volume clients.

Volume Clients

Volume clients include shelters, rescues, and TNR. A good rule of thumb is that any client who brings in more than ten animals a year should be set up as a volume client.

*Feral cat trappers can be considered a public client or volume client. Generally, if they only bring you one batch of cats and do not trap for an organization or as a hobby, they can be left as a public client. If the trapper will more routinely bring you cats, you can set them up as a volume client. If they are first set up as a public client, but then you want to convert them to a volume client, you can do this. To do this, you would set up a new volume client profile in HQ and then merge the first profile, the public profile, into the new volume client profile.

Ownership versus Client

It is important to understand the distinction between who the client is and who the owner is. Much of the time the owner is in fact the client. Here are the following scenarios, with clarity on who the owner is and who the client is.

1. A public owner, Jane Smith, brings in a cat. In this scenario, the owner and the client are one and the same.

2. The volume client, Beagle Rescue, brings in the animal. The animal does not have any owner besides Beagle Rescue. In this case, the owner and the client are one and the same.

3. The third scenario, though is where the differentiation between client and owner becomes apparent. In the scenario, the volume client, Beagle Rescue, brings in an animal. However, the animal actually has an owner. Perhaps the animal came in on transport. We call this owner the “volume client owner” or the “VCO.”