064- Common Client Questions
Summary:
After some back-to-back meet and greets left us feeling a bit rusty after being closed down for so long, we breakdown some of the most commonly asked new client questions. Additionally, we're so happy to annouce a new segment with Natasha O'Banion, from Start.Scale.Sail. Each week Natasha will address some frequent pet business questions.
Topics on this episode:
A brief note on George Floyd
Common Client Questions
Natasha O’Banion - Question with a pet business coach
Main takeaway? Start practicing your responses today!
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
clients, pet, questions, dogs, business, pet sitter, people, greet, megan, curfews, natasha, pandemic, operate, pet sitting business, reviews, website, answer, reach, boarding, scale
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin, Natasha
00:17
I'm Collin and I'm Meghan. And this is
Meghan 00:20
pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Hello, and welcome to another episode of pet sitter confessional. We appreciate you joining us today. This weekend we were able to kind of get away. We didn't have any clients that booked us. And so we cancelled our Friday daycares and spent the weekend at Collins dad's house, which was very nice. It's in the middle of nowhere and we were just able to relax and just
Collin 00:57
be by ourselves, be by ourselves and enjoy each other's Company this this weekend with everything going on. It was a nice reprieve.
Meghan 01:04
And so with that we wanted to just briefly touch on everything that's going on, at least here in the United States.
Collin 01:11
We didn't want this episode to go out without at least acknowledging the murder of George Floyd, by a police officer in Minneapolis. We want you our listeners to know that we find this abhorrent and wrong in every imaginable way. And a while ago, we had mentioned that the pet sitter confessional group and community was a safe place for those who were dealing with issues with their business. Both Megan and I want you to know that our group our community, is a safe place for everybody in all walks of life, in all races, ethnicities, creeds, and and religions that this community is for you as dog walkers as pet sitters as pet care providers.
Meghan 02:03
And so with everything that's been going on, there have been some curfews in some major cities like Chicago and elsewhere. And so some pet care providers are not being able to provide service after dark
Collin 02:14
because of curfews in larger cities.
Meghan 02:16
And so just keeping that in mind that you know, once it gets dark, around nine o'clock or whatever time where you live, if there is a curfew, just know that you need to explain to your clients that you will not be able to provide service after this time because of everything that's going on, and also for your safety as well.
Collin 02:34
Again, Megan and I want you to know that we we do see everything going on. And we do know that there is an immense amount of pain on both sides of this and that this is going to get ugly, but that what we need is community and for people to be listening to each other
Meghan 02:56
and positivity during this time.
Collin 02:58
So if you have something thing that you would like to share about your experience whether during these curfews or anything else, please do not hesitate to give us a call or reach out to us on email or social media. We want to hear how you are being impacted by this or maybe impacted through through other ways that you don't feel like is being heard enough,
Meghan 03:21
because your story will help other people. So for today's topic, we are going to talk about
Collin 03:26
questions that you may get asked by clients. We recently had three meet and greets kind of back to back and that was kind of weird for us. We hadn't done a new meet and greet in a really long time It felt like especially with the with the lockdowns,
Meghan 03:41
and then having three was, you know, a good boost to our competence of, hey, people are gonna start traveling a little bit and wanting us a little bit more.
Collin 03:50
And I could definitely tell that at least I know I felt a little rusty as far as how to respond to certain questions or how to lead the conversation both Megan and I thought it'd be kind of interesting. To sit down and answer how we would some of the really common questions, if you go online and Google questions to ask your pet sitter, one of the first ones that's going to come up is from care.com. We want to sit down and answer those questions.
Meghan 04:16
And so the first one is
Collin 04:17
what type of pet sitting experience do you have? Well, this
Meghan 04:19
is going to vary based on how many clients you've had, how long you've been doing this. And so explaining to the client I have done this for x number of years I have watched this many pets and I have provided this array of services. So for us, we would say, we have been doing this we have been pet sitting for almost nine years, we have watched hundreds of clients in multiple states. And we have done in house sitting. We started off house sitting we've moved to then daycares boarding and dropping checks.
Collin 04:49
Yeah, this is a really good time to note, as Megan mentioned, not just the length of your care but also the diversity of care that you have provided and many different animals that you've cared for maybe if you have a specific training and a certain thing that now is the time during this answer to highlight that,
Meghan 05:07
right? So if you have first aid certification, CPR certification,
Collin 05:11
if you have experience administering medication, even if you don't think that the client that is asking you that question needs medication administer to their pet, it still shows something about you still shows a level of experience and a level of professionalism. So this next one is, how do you operate?
Meghan 05:29
So that's pretty simple. I operate either in my home or in your home, we would say we do both. A lot of people do both. Some people who don't board just operate in the client's home.
Collin 05:41
And being very clear about that sometimes the the lingo or the jargon in the pet sitting community can be a little confusing. What exactly is a drop in versus a daycare versus a boarding and now would be a really good time during this question to differentiate that and let them know exactly what services you offer. But fill them out and let them know that hey, whatever you feel like is best for your pet. If you're able try and meet that for them.
Meghan 06:09
Another commonly asked question is do you have any business credentials? And so we just talked about this a little bit with pet first aid and CPR training. But this also goes into Do you have insurance? Do you have
Collin 06:21
are you bonded, right? Maybe Are you registered as a professional pet sitter with some sort of organization? Are you listed in your city? Do you have a website? Do you have these kind of things that say it's an actual business and that you can show and talk about to people?
Meghan 06:38
Are you better business bureau accredited? Mm hmm. That's another one.
Collin 06:41
possibly even having background checks, or having that option available for people to check your background or hand those out to people to see what kind of background you have.
Meghan 06:51
The client may also want to know if you have any pet specific training. So if you have any dog behavior certifications, or dog training certifications, if you've gone through any classes or even read books, listen to a podcast, anything really helps because you are more knowledgeable than the typical dog owner
Collin 07:09
use this question to address maybe a specific problem that you dealt with with a pet during your time and how you corrected it. Or maybe you had a specific question from a client they asked you of, hey, how do I cannot train my dog and you can tell the new client. I've helped kill train dogs I've helped least trained dogs I've helped potty trained dogs. Those kind of things can be addressed in this kind of question. Maybe you're not necessarily certified in any of these. But these are tasks and these are skills that you have developed over time that you can put on this, treat these kind of questions as a resume, and be ready to kind of throw stuff out there that you know that you've done. You may also get asked for references.
Meghan 07:56
So if you are on a platform like rover or wag or cat dot com, the person contacting you will likely have already seen your references, but they may either want to see more. Or if you aren't on those platforms, then you may potentially have reviews on your website, Google My Business Yelp reviews, so their Facebook reviews. And so there are lots of ways to get people to write you a review.
Collin 08:20
And I would add that reference maybe a little bit more involved than just a review, that a reference maybe somebody that the new client wants to call in ask specific questions about your character, but they might not be able to see just on general reviews,
Meghan 08:35
so much like a job interview.
Collin 08:37
Exactly. So there you have three, maybe five people that you just have on a piece of paper, that you've notified them that you're going to be handing them out as references, and that they are prepared to answer certain questions about your character and how you run and operate your business. So there I would select past clients to speak to how you how you care for That's if you have maybe a personal references that can speak to your character and mix them in there a little bit. But don't just have them all be clients or all be people who you've never watched pets for, you need to have a little bit of both.
Meghan 09:15
Right? It should not be your mom, your grandma, your aunt,
Collin 09:18
you know, another question that a client is going to have that may not be necessarily spoken, but is going to be? Are you going to get along with my pet? And to this, we would say, meet and greet? Yeah, do it. And it's it's sad that you have to say this, but remind the client to bring their pet to the meet and greet. They might not
Meghan 09:42
think to do that. And we just had this last week. Yes, she, she had a client had scheduled the meet and greet. And then the next day had asked, oh, I need to bring my pet with me. Right. And I said yes, the whole
Collin 09:55
point of the mean
Meghan 09:58
but reminding your clients that You know if they've never done this before, or if they this is their first pet ever, they may not know what this looks like. And so reminding them, yes, your your pet needs to be there so I can interact with them so I can assess how we are going to get along. If you bring another dog to the meet, greet how they are going to get along. But this is an interesting question because some pet sitters are doing zoom or FaceTime, meet and greets these days.
Collin 10:28
And as a pet sitter, it's important to remember that yes, we like meet and greets, because it allows us to get to know the pet. But this question of do you get along with my pet is going through the owners mind the entire time. So remember that they are watching you and how you're interacting with their pet during the meet and greet. They're gonna want to see how you pet them, how you reach out to them, how you talk to them, how you play with them. You are being watched and interviewed in that process to Yes, it's important that we get hands on with the animal and that we get to interact with them so we can assess If they're going to be a good fit with other clients or with us and how we operate, the owners watching you to make sure that you're not doing anything bad or things that they find offensive.
Meghan 11:09
Well, and for most of us, that's pretty easy. We got into this because we love pets. We love dogs, we love cats, we, some of us even love snakes. I am not necessarily one of them. But all pets are wonderful. And so we got into this so we could love on them. So that's pretty easy. For most of us.
Collin 11:26
It is especially on for most days, I think. But on those days where we aren't in a good mood and we are feeling rushed, and we've got other things on our mind. It's kind of easy to let the meet and greet go on autopilot. So being really present during that time, so that you can have your clients potential clients full attention, and you have your full attention on the pet because your clients are going to see that that will come through at that time.
Meghan 11:55
What's the next question?
Collin 11:56
Will we have a signed pet sitting agreement or contract
Meghan 12:00
Yes, this Yeah, definitely, as we've discussed on the show before, this is very important, not only for liability reasons, but just so the client knows what to expect, what services you provide your cancellation policies, your late fees, hours, you operate, just everything needs to be covered in that contract that they sign. And even if they don't read it, that's not your problem. They have signed it, you know that they've signed it, and you can cover your butt as much as possible.
Collin 12:31
Right. And this speaks to one of the earlier questions of Do you have any business credentials. Having a formal contract or agreement really speaks to professionalism and that this is being taken seriously. So don't skip out on this. It may be easy sometimes to not have somebody sign up because it's rushed or you have other things you want to be doing. Don't skip out on this one.
Meghan 12:54
We also wanted to go over some of the questions that we have been asked. I mean great. Some of these on the list. We have been asked, but there are others that weren't on the list. And one of those is why did you start pet sitting?
Collin 13:08
And as Megan alluded to earlier, this is gonna be previous this can be a pretty easy answer for most of us. But I think for Megan, I, we would answer this by saying, We grew up with pets. We grew up with dogs, we grew up with caring for them and training them training that is very natural process to get into that. And when we were in graduate school, we had a need to earn extra money and start pet sitting. And we didn't really know where it was going to go. But we knew we loved it. And now almost nine years later, we're still here. And it's it's a bigger business than we ever expected it to be for us.
Meghan 13:45
And it's different because we started off house sitting and doing dropping checks. And now we're primarily doing boarding and daycares. So it's evolved for us over the years.
Collin 13:54
Another question that we get asked an awful lot is Will there be other dogs during Fido's day.
Meghan 14:01
And the answer most of the time is yes. So we got asked this two weeks ago during the meet and greets, and we said, probably not. I mean, we can't tell you for sure, because it was this day is still a few weeks away. But with the pandemic happening, business has been really slow. And so during the weekends, we haven't really had a lot of clients. And so the likelihood of another dog being here during the time is probably pretty low. But before the pandemic, we would say, yeah, we we have a limit of dogs that we take in our home, but yes, it is very likely that your dog will be around a couple other dogs we don't operate like a kennel. So it's not a large amount of dogs, but there are a few here
Collin 14:44
and we use that time to ask them, How does your dog get along with other dogs, big dogs, small dogs. We also describe if we know we also describe the temperament of the other dogs that are going to be at our house during that time and discuss how how we handle skirmishes or aggressive behavior and how we can separate and how we can deal with those kinds of issues that come up. Right.
Meghan 15:08
But a lot of times this is handled before the main greed in the initial question that I pose back to them once they've contacted us, I will say, Does your dog or dogs get along with small children and other dogs, right, because those are our two main concerns because a lot of times we do have other dogs here. And of course, we have our two and four year old always running around. So those are our two main questions. Now for those doing drop in checks, this likely won't be an issue because you won't have any other dogs to interact with. But for those who offer pack walks or walks with multiple dogs, that may be a question that you want to ask them as well does this does this dog get along with others? And we know that a lot of these questions on this list will likely be answered on your website if you have one or your Facebook page
Collin 15:57
or a new intake form for a new client. That before you even get to a meet and greet or any sort of communication, they fill out a lengthy form of checkboxes or fill in the blanks that answers all of these kinds of questions,
Meghan 16:10
right. But as I mentioned with the contract, a lot of people won't read the contract. And there will be some people who just don't read your website, right. Which is very frustrating when you have it clearly outlined on your website of your hours or what kind of dogs you take, or who your service area, but a lot of times people just won't read that or they'll miss it entirely. And so being ready to answer these questions in your initial email back to them or at the meet and greet is really going to help you.
Collin 16:41
And if you feel like you're getting a lot of these questions, a lot of the time or maybe you get the same two or three questions very frequently. Maybe that's a good sign that you need to elevate that information somewhere on your website, a Frequently Asked Questions page, or maybe posting more about it on social media or having banners or something So that you don't get asked those same questions over and over and over again.
Meghan 17:04
As Collin and I have said many times over the 63 episodes that we have done this podcast, we are not experts. We don't claim to be experts. We don't have all the knowledge in the world about pet sitting and pet care and running a business, although I wish we did.
Collin 17:22
That's why we have turned to you guys and wanted to hear your stories and learn from you and share what you have learned with other people. That's the whole reason why we started this podcast
Meghan 17:34
and so with that, we are very excited to to bring on a pet business coach. You heard her a couple weeks ago in Episode 59. Natasha, oh Banyan with start scale sale, it is her pet business coaching. And she's going to be answering some of the most frequently asked pet sitting business questions over the next several weeks. Right and so we are so excited. excited to have her on.
Collin 18:01
Right? So every Monday we're going to be including a segment with her on it, answering a question that either we see being asked very frequently or we get from you guys. So if you have questions that you would want Natasha to answer, please email us at feedback at pet sitter confessional.com.
Meghan 18:18
So here's Natasha.
18:22
This is Natasha Banyan pet business coach with start scale sale.
Natasha 18:27
And on today's question we have that many pet care business are starting to open up post COVID-19. And the question is, how can they scale back up quickly? Which I think is an amazing question because that's kind of where we all are right now. Every state is, you know, jumping on their stay at home orders or releasing. And what I would tell most pet care businesses to do right now is to focus on your marketing. So if you are the person who didn't have that much time previous to all that's happened before. This is It's time to say, Hey, this is kind of like your relaunch if you have you know that that comeback statement. So if you want to start honing down on your colors, your branding your themes, if you want to do events, how now Do you want to come back into your community? And show you know what your business is about there? How can you fail quickly? We all know that a lot of businesses, unfortunately are not going to make it. So I would invest in Google Ads right now. Because people have you know, some people who have been connected a baby's dog walker and some who say, hey, my Walker is not ready to come back in business, where whose neck, they're going to go online. So I personally would put the money into Google ads, I would make sure you have your social media up to par. So then when they do land on your page, they can see Oh, wow, this business, you know, someone that I want to consider same thing you would do when they first research. You know how to find a dog walker or a pet that uh, you want to make sure when they land on your business. It's a one stop situation. So again, focus on your marketing, focus on your ads focus on really putting yourself out there that you can stand out. So one thing we've done in our company as we started to get more into e commerce, we have now started to do like bow ties and leashes and harnesses and we do our dog walk. So now they're like, oh, wow, this company is really fun. They have color and they also sell stuff that I can buy, they are taking me to their marketplace. So I want to start introducing different avenues of our income source. So if you want to start scaling quickly, just make sure you're the person that they see when they first step out there. So the second part of this is if you have previously furloughed, your employees how to bring them back, what you would do is just be human reach out to them via text message call them say, Hey guys, we are looking to reopen the business on xy dateless they, you know, the first of the of the month Are you planning on returning So reach out to your Current staffers, most of them will say yes, I'm ready to go. That's what that was. I was kind of nervous. I'm like, Am I stalking to come back? I think they're making more money on on women now. Like, are you gonna come back? But just reach out all of them were like, definitely yes. Let's go. Let's do it. So I was like, Cool check mark, I already had my team back on. So see who you have. Because you also if you'd like, for instance, I'm in multiple states. So I need to decide, am I going to open all my escape? Or am I going to open the most that we have the most clients? First step is to see who's coming on board. So you know how many employees you have, then you want to reach out to your clients. Hey, listen, guys, we're reopening on the first I know a lot of pet sitters are sending out just like social media blast, but you want to go a step further reach out to every single client individually, because they will even tell you the day they're going back to work. So then that kind of gives you an idea. Hey, Susie, you know, we need you to start on, you know, the middle of the month. You know, I need you to start on the first The month you can kind of start bringing your employees back in one by one trickling, and then you don't want to go in and bring every single person and you have little to no work. So get an idea of who you have on hand, get an idea of which clients are planning on coming back, which plans are planning on coming back in the month or so, just so you have a full picture of what to do next. So that's kind of an idea of how to bring your staff back. But for me, this whole COVID thing is kind of A Wrinkle in Time. I think you want to kind of look at it as just if you were opening up your business in the first place, what would you do? You know, I would kind of take out the whole pandemic scare the whole frantic situation of being in a pandemic. take it step by step as you would do if you were going to open your company from day one. What do you have? What do you need and where are you going? So that's kind of the recipe to start scaling with taking out the fear factor and like Oh,
Meghan 22:55
are we gonna do this? Yes,
Natasha 22:56
you've opened up a company before you started a business before is the same thing. All you're doing is going right back in there with even more experienced this go around because you've already been there and done that.
Meghan 23:19
We thank you very much again for listening to this episode. If you want to hear more from Natasha or have her as your pet sitting business coach, you can go to our website, start scale sale.com and enter the code p sc 20 for 15% off her eight week course. And if you would like to get in touch with us, you can call us at 636-364-8260 almost got that or find us on any social media platform at pet sitter confessional. And we have a couple wonderful interviews coming up for you this week and we hope you will tune in and subscribe if you are not already. Thank you so much. Bye
