Effectively Managing Equine Adoption Inquiries During Busy Times

During busy times, including Adopt a Horse Month in May, you may receive more adoption inquiries than you can effectively handle. With many adoption organizations having a waitlist of horses that need help, it’s important to recognize that adopters are an essential part of your lifesaving work and should be treated as such. When a horse gets adopted, that means you can help yet another at-risk horse. Here are some quick tips to ensure that you keep adopters interested and excited, whether or not you have the right horse for them right now.

Respond Promptly

It may seem like common sense but responding to your potential adopters as quickly as possible can be hard to do in practice. A 24-hour response window is ideal, even if the response is that you’ll be in touch within the next week. Setting expectations will foster trust and transparency.

Personalize Your Responses

Pre-populated responses may save time on your side, but they can occasionally be frustrating to potential adopters. For instance, if they ask a question but receive a response that points them to fill out an application survey, they won’t get their question answered and may feel discouraged. Taking the time to personalize your response, answer their question, and ask them to fill out an application survey is important to making a potential adopter feel heard and respected.

Even better? Respond via the potential adopter’s preferred communication channel. If they like to talk on the phone, call them. If they texted you a question, respond via text.

Recruit Volunteers

If your organization is small and you don’t have the resources to respond to potential adopters in a timely manner, try bringing on a new volunteer position. This person should be customer service orientated and love talking to people. With a dedicated position, they can quickly respond to inquiries, answers questions, and help potential adopters through the process from beginning to end.

Managing Inquiries That Aren’t the Right Fit

What should you do if an adopter isn’t a good fit for the horses currently in your care? Help them with alternatives! This can look like:

• Inviting them to volunteer or take a riding lesson with a local instructor so that they can further their skills while they wait for the right match.
• Asking them if they’re comfortable waiting longer to adopt. You can let them know as soon as the right type of horse enters your program.
• Becoming their adoption concierge by looking at other programs and helping them find their dream horse. Myrighthorse.org is a great way to search for horses in one, streamlined place.

With their permission, share what they’re looking for in the Horse Adoption Resources Facebook group. Another organization will likely have the horse they’re looking for.