Under the CMA Order, an initial digital consultation booking confirmation must state the consultation price and link to the practice’s price list. This applies to email, text and other digital confirmations. Review the message that actually confirms the appointment, including bookings made by telephone. Read the CMA’s confirmation guidance.
PetsApp supports online booking and appointment reminders. Use the checks below to review your own setup and the messages your owners receive.
What the CMA says about the initial confirmation
For the wider requirements and timetable, start with our CMA compliance overview.
The CMA’s explanatory note says that an initial digital communication confirming a consultation booking must state the consultation price and link to the practice’s price-list webpage. This includes email, text messages and other digital communications. A later appointment reminder should not be your first opportunity to provide that information. See paragraph 63 of the explanatory note.
Check the phased dates in Article 3 of the 2026 Order. Treat this as a review of every booking route your practice uses, including appointments made by telephone and confirmed digitally.
Separate a request from a confirmed appointment
Some owners choose an available slot and receive a confirmed booking. Others submit a request that your team needs to accept. Those messages should make the status clear.
Read both journeys from the owner’s perspective. Can they tell whether they have an appointment? Does the message that confirms the consultation include the relevant fee and a working price-list link?
Include partner booking systems in the review. If a partner sends the initial confirmation, check that actual message rather than assuming your own email template covers the journey.
Make the consultation fee easy to understand
Put the price near the appointment information, where the owner is likely to read it. Explain the scope of the fee in language your reception team would use.
For example, the following is illustrative wording for a fictional practice charging £60:
Your consultation with the vet costs £60, including VAT. Tests, medicines and any additional treatment are charged separately. We will discuss any recommended additional care and its cost with you. You can view our full price list using the link below.
Adapt the wording to the appointment and your actual charging policy. A vaccination appointment, nurse consultation or plan-covered visit may need different information. Test those cases separately instead of applying one generic paragraph to everything.
Keep reminders consistent
Appointment reminders help owners prepare for a visit and tell you if they cannot attend. They are also a useful checkpoint for inconsistencies: a different clinic name, an old fee or a link that takes the owner to the wrong branch.
PetsApp supports appointment communications and reminder workflows. When reviewing your setup, compare the initial confirmation with the reminder the owner actually receives. Check the pet, location, date, time and any price information side by side.
Be especially careful with changed appointments. Moving a pet from one appointment type or clinic to another may change the information you need to communicate. Agree how your team will explain that change to the owner.
Test a complete journey
Use a test owner account and run through the routes your clients use most:
- Book a standard consultation online and read the confirmation on a phone.
- Accept an appointment request and check the message sent after acceptance.
- Make a telephone booking and inspect its digital confirmation.
- Reschedule to another clinic or appointment type.
- Follow the price-list link without being signed in.
- Read the subsequent reminder and compare its details.
Keep the resulting messages together so your team can review them as one journey. A template preview is useful, but a received message also reveals broken links, missing fields and awkward mobile formatting.
Give your team one place to point owners
Connect these checks to your public price-list process. Reception should know where the published information lives and who to contact when something needs correcting.
Book a PetsApp demo to review your online booking and client communication setup with the team.
Reviewed against CMA publications on 9 November 2026. Consultation confirmation checks form one part of the wider requirements.
