How to Properly Express Condolences for Pet Loss
When a pet dies, the grief is much like that of losing a close friend or member of the family, as a pet often offers great companionship and love to humans.
As a veterinarian, it's important to properly express condolences for pet loss. By offering comforting words for the loss of a pet, you help cement your personal and professional relationship.
Positive Impressions offers multiple high-quality options for pet sympathy cards that can help you adequately express your sympathy to clients. As their veterinarian, you're an important part of their pet's life, and hopefully of theirs. Expressing your heartfelt sympathy for their loss will remind them of that relationship and keep you in mind when they need veterinary services in the future.
We recommend keeping a supply of sympathy cards on hand. Positive Impressions offers many designs with the option to add a message or your clinic's name and address. These full-color cards measure 5-by-7 inches and come with white mailing envelopes. They're affordable and professional-looking, and by taking just a few minutes to write a short message and your name, you'll enhance your clinic's reputation and strengthen your relationship with clients who have lost pets.
In writing a personal message, we recommend using the pet's name and, if possible, recalling a specific memory of the pet. When selecting a message for the card ask the staff member who most often saw the pet to help pick the message to give a more personal touch. If the pet was euthanized, remind clients that they did everything they could for their pet and made the right decision.
Be as personal as you can in writing the message, while remaining honest. For example: "We are all thinking of you and remembering the first time we met Toby. We could tell you had a special bond with her and that she loved your family."
If you didn't know the client well, try a message like this: "Thank you for letting us care for Fido. We hope you know we're thinking of you during this difficult time."
You can also offer referrals to pet loss resources or support groups, and you should always provide contact information and offer to answer any questions the client may have.
You can add an artful sympathy insert, or a stampable insert, that your client will likely keep in remembrance of their pet. Choose from several 25-pack cards that measure 4 ¼-by-6 ½ inches. One of our cards even features a poem authored by Positive Impressions staff. Another explains rainbow bridge, where pets wait for their humans to meet them again in the afterlife. Yet another bears a poem about a forever pet and what that means. Choose your favorite, or mix and match, to tailor your choice to the client.
Positive Impressions also offers a range of other memorial products, like cremation jewelry, memorial seed packs and more. Browse our site for additional ideas to build lasting relationships with customers who have lost a pet.
Source:
https://www.veterinarywisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Helpful-condolence-phrases-2021.pdf