080- Customer Service in Pet Care
Summary:
Today on the podcast, Meghan and Collin discuss their personal approach to customer service and point out some best practices to ensure clients have the best experience possible. The goal is to provide the best possible care to the pet, but we can’t forget about how we treat the owners! On the ‘Ask a Pet Business Coach’ segment, Natasha O’Banion answers the question everyone has as they start to grow: how you stay connected and communicate with clients as you add staff.
Topics on this episode:
80 episodes!
What is customer service?
What are some practical ways to provide the best customer service we can?
Ask a Pet Business Coach with Natasha O’Banion
Main take away? It boils down to how we view the client. A) The opportunity to provide the best possible care or B) A way to make a buck. How you view your client will be how you treat them.
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
client, dog, customer service, pet, pet sitter, people, employees, customer, situation, episode, megan, service, expectations, business, owner, policies, provide, walk, hire, feedback
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin, Natasha
Collin 00:17
I'm calling
Meghan 00:18
and I'm Megan. And this is pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Hello, welcome to another episode. If this is your first time here, we thank you so much for taking your time to listen to this today. Welcome. And if you've listened to us before, welcome back. This past weekend was the July 4 holiday here in the United States and who, what a weekend it was for us
Collin 00:48
raid z, I think just in context of what the previous six months of 2020 had been like. This was really the first one that we were at Absolutely slammed.
Meghan 01:01
Yeah. And we had said that last weekend, we were really busy last weekend. But now even this weekend, it's even more busy. So that's good. And hopefully, you guys have been busy as well. So if you didn't have very many, or if you're just hearing crickets, which is hopefully not the case, but hang in there.
Collin 01:20
I know when we recently did a poll, and we were asking lots of people. I think about a third of people responded saying they were either not nearly as busy or they were hearing crickets. And it really is so spotty as to what restrictions are in place, or how comfortable certain people are in traveling. And that's what we are all going to be battling is our our clients, whether they can or should travel is a whole nother discussion. It's all based on whether they feel comfortable doing so and who knows when that will ever actually reach pre 2020.
Meghan 01:56
So making sure that you're communicating well with them. The guy guidelines that you have in place for when you go to their house or for when they come to you to drop off their dog, the cleaning that you do the mask wearing, the social distancing, and all of that stuff, making sure that you communicate that with them so that they feel at least a little bit more safe when they come in contact with you or when their pet comes in contact with you.
Collin 02:20
Because they are battling to different stressors while they are traveling, but they're coming in to contact with and then what's going on back home and the more you can communicate and show and explain to them your processes, the better off they are going to be mentally knowing that everything's okay,
Meghan 02:38
so this is Episode 80.
Collin 02:40
I can't believe that
Meghan 02:44
we have a whole back catalogue of interviews and topical episodes. And so we hope that you get a chance to go back and listen to some of those. I
Collin 02:52
just can't believe that here we are sitting at 80 episodes and it is because we do have so many In the back catalogue, you can go into our website and use the search function and type in Basically, anything that you would want to know about pet sitting. As far as keywords, and I guarantee you, there's at least four or five episodes that will have that in there, whether it's an interview or whether we talked about it just Megan and I, and we are so thankful for everybody who has come on the show for an interview to share their experiences and their stories, not just with us, but with you are listening. And we would love for you to be a part of that. Moving forward.
Meghan 03:33
When we first started off this podcast. We were doing one episode a week, and that was enough for us. And then when COVID hit, we really wanted to engage with you guys more tell more stories kind of keep up to date with things as they were rapidly changing, because nobody knew what this new world was going to look like. And so we went to three episodes a week, and that has over the past four months. That has been a lot of fun.
Collin 03:59
It really has. Yeah.
Meghan 04:01
We have interviewed so many people we have gotten to be connected,
Collin 04:06
I think on just a really good level with everybody and been really plugged in. It's felt like and it's been. I know it's been very edifying for Megan and I, and I hope it has been for you as well.
Meghan 04:17
Yes. And so we hope you have enjoyed the three episodes a week. For right now though, we are going to step back just a little bit and do two episodes a week now on Mondays and Wednesdays This will be the last week of our three episode Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And then from here on out for the foreseeable future. We'll just do Mondays and Wednesdays right? But we really hope to be able to, to go back to three episodes and really I would like to do Monday through Friday, because which would be a lot but there are just so many stories to tell and so many unique perspectives from everyone in the pet care industry. So many people offer different services. People from around the world do this and we I just can't wait until we have literally everybody on the show.
05:04
That's our goal is to have interviewed every pet sitter and gotten a perspective from them.
Meghan 05:09
Yes. Now, obviously, that's years down the road. But so for now, we're going to just do Mondays and Wednesdays.
Collin 05:16
And as changes occur on a global or national scales, whether that's COVID, or civil unrest due to Black Lives Matter, and how that impacts the pet sitting industry, we want to be able to tell those stories in real time and we are dedicated to continue sharing with them and how they impact pet sitters and the work being done on on all fronts. So as Megan alluded to, we do have a packed schedule of interviews in the works. And we're so excited for what's in store and we'd love for you to be a part of that. So reach out to us, and we'd love to have you on. So Megan, I did want to tell you guys about a recent experience we had with a client. They had a four month old lab named Margot and she is a durable and they brought it over Kind of last minute but we had sat for them before their previous dog and they had since died. So this is a new puppy for them. They brought Marco over as they were dropping her off, just deadpan stared at us right in the face and said, she's in a hole. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, and proceeded to hand us two to six packs of beer and several cake pops. And turns out, Margot is one of the best behaved dogs we have sat in a very long time
Meghan 06:29
she is going through some puppy training, so that's part of it, but we were expecting kind of the worst of she pees everywhere and she whines and barks and chews
06:37
and all this stuff.
Meghan 06:39
But no, she's her training is going really well. It's working for her and the owners are really taking responsibility for their dog and allowing her to flourish.
Collin 06:51
And it just shows and I think what also really helped is that we had a couple other dogs here that helped her be in a little bit better of a pack. mentality and sees how some house rules went that we didn't have to necessarily be on top of her or be teaching all of those things. There were other dogs that could help her integrate her a little bit. And of course, she was tired out from all the play.
Meghan 07:13
So it just goes to show that when an owner is truly invested in their dog, it is better for both the dog and for the pet sitter. Now on to today's topic of customer service. So we, as much as this business is about dogs and cats and furry critters. It is even more about owners. We deal with them on a daily basis with everything. And as Collin likes to say,
Collin 07:42
I've never been paid by Fido at the end of a walk or daycare. It's always the owner pulling out their wallet.
Meghan 07:49
And so this is kind of a follow up to our hard conversations topic from two weeks ago. Part of customer service will be having those difficult conversations with the client
Collin 07:59
and we've already talked about those. So if you're interested in that, you can go back and listen to some of our tips on how to go about having those hard conversations. But today, we want to talk a little bit more broadly just about customer service in all aspects of this business,
Meghan 08:16
right. And much of what is expected from customer service these days is the focus around transparency and timeliness of response and services. It is really crucial to be upfront with the customer. And to be prompt
Collin 08:32
here we're thinking about the expectations that customers have when they come into contact with you about what they expect customer service to be like. We all have experience with instantly order something with one click and if there's a problem, it's a few touches of a button and it gets resolved things happen quickly in customer service these days. And so that's an expectation going into it that you as the business owner should should know about that there is some immediate see as far as an expectation on the client side,
Meghan 09:00
so what exactly is customer service? Well, you could define it as the support of customers before, during and after a transaction before a purchase. But that's not really a very specific definition. It's really important though, for your company and for your employees or ICS. If you have them to think about what it means to you. What does customer service mean to you? What do you want the customer, your client to get out of the experience that they have from start to finish with you. So from the moment that they interact with your website, or they get a referral from somebody else, and they go to your social media page, the moment they enter your space, through them contacting you, and all the way through the stay, or the dog walk or whatever, all the way through the service that you provide from start to finish. How do you want them to have that experience?
Collin 09:57
Yeah, what would a another way to phrase it? What would a successful interaction with a customer look like about a not successful one? And you can think back on your personal experiences of both good and bad. We've all had them. We've all seen them recorded and posted online as far as good and bad one,
Meghan 10:19
right was something that I think about a bad experience is when you're at the store at a retail store, and you're waiting to buy something and the phone rings, the cashier answers the phone. That is very frustrating when you're trying to check out and they're like, hold on a second, I need to answer this phone call. So the lesson there is give your client your undivided attention. It makes them feel respected, it makes them feel important. It makes them feel like they are your number one priority. Even though you have a ton of other clients, and a ton of other responsibilities in your personal and professional life. When they contact you or when they come to you with something. Make them your priority.
Collin 10:58
In really these interactions come down to, are you? Or if you have an employee or I see are they able to adjust themselves to the personality of the client of the of the person that they are taking care of? It starts with us. And and we are the moderators and keepers of how those interactions are going to go. It starts with how we view our clients. Do we really want them to have an amazing experience at all cost? Or are we just wanting their money, how you view your client will be how you treat them, and will determine the outcome that they have when they leave your doors.
Meghan 11:41
So a time we learned to provide better customer service as pet sitters was x basically expectations with a client that we had a client wanted many updates throughout the day. And I typically do two to three pictures updates a day but the client had wanted more than that. So during their first Stay with us. They had to kind of not constantly but every few hours would say, how is my pup doing? Is he okay? And I learned quickly that they had wanted more updates than I typically provide. They're great clients, so I wanted to accommodate them. And so now I provide multiple updates throughout the day at various intervals, and they seem to be happy with that. Obviously, it's important to communicate those expectations beforehand, especially in the event that you either can't or don't want to provide as many updates or whatever the situation may be.
Collin 12:37
So how do we define customer service?
Meghan 12:40
Well, I think I talked a little bit about this before of providing a great experience for the client from the time they contact you until the end of their pets stay. Making sure that they are happy that they are satisfied and communicating with them as much as possible.
Collin 12:57
I would say the big thing for us is timeless. And frequent communication that is very important for us. And we want to make sure that the clients never feel like they have to ask for updates, we always want to be a step ahead of that there are entire courses degrees and careers dedicated to studying and applying the ideas, concepts and methodologies for customer service. But today, we just wanted to break down a few principles that we can all apply. And again, here we're trying to think of it from the viewpoint of who has control over the situation we do as the business owners as the people providing the service. So all these are, what we can do and what we can train our employees or independent contractors, if you have them.
Meghan 13:48
Right. And as you just said, pet care is a service industry. We are to service the pet and the owner. So listen to and take their feedback. So that Couldn't mean having them fill out a survey on the back end of their experience from when they first contact you how that was to dropping their pet off, or you going to their house and providing the service all the way through how their pet was at the end of the stay getting as much feedback from the client as you can so that you know where you can improve and if they were happy or satisfied or not.
Collin 14:22
And let them know how you are going to use that feedback that they give to you. I think this often gets overlooked. We tend to ask for feedback for reviews from people. We tend to ask for feedback and reviews from our clients. But we've never really let them know how that plays into how are we going to operate moving forward. So let them so tell them thank you so much for letting Fido stay with us or letting us care for Fido while you are away. We would really appreciate it if you could let us know how the service was during that time. That way we can review our policies and procedures that we have in place and talk with Our staff or look at how we operate to make it better and continue providing the best service that we can. There, you're linking that feedback into your policies, your procedures, and even into your training methodologies. That is a really concrete way to let them know that the feedback they give is useful, and you take it to heart.
Meghan 15:21
Also being honest and respectful about what you know about what you don't know.
Collin 15:26
And you could think of this from the aspect of if somebody asks you, if they, if their dog should be taking a particular medication or supplement, let them know you're not a medical expert and that you can't be giving that kind of advice. Now, if you do know where they could get more information, or have a vet that you can recommend them to provide them that be honest about what you don't know so that you never are misleading them in certain situations. And also be honest about expectations and the reality of outcomes. And I can just think of onboarding somebody, be honest about how long that process is going to take what is needed from them right from the very beginning, so that the very end of the stage, you're not having to continually ask them for more things. Clearly lay out those expectations right from the very beginning. So they know what's gonna happen along the way.
Meghan 16:20
Right. And Asha and Episode 79, had just talked about the videos that she needs from clients before she does a stay with them before she walks her dog. And so giving the client a deadline of before we can walk your dog before we can come over. This needs to be in our inbox within 72 hours before the state or whatever your timeline is.
Collin 16:43
And then, as far as being respectful, just I know, we've touched on this before already, but remember, without without our clients, I'd be without a job. I wouldn't be able to care for pets. And that is that's where that level of respect starts knowing because you're here. I can provide the best service. So now let's move forward.
Meghan 17:03
Part of being honest and respectful is also being empathetic to a situation and to the client and not having a robotic answer. That's not very helpful. The pets or their family are basically your family. And so being empathetic really helps everybody out in customer service and relating to the client.
Collin 17:21
So there may be a set answer, very clearly laid out in legalese in one of your policies or procedures. Maybe instead of just regurgitating that back out constantly, find a way to phrase it in a more friendly manner, you know, easier to understand or digest manner for somebody so that it comes across as a little bit more caring and understanding from there. And
Meghan 17:45
another big key in customer service is knowing your services, knowing your products if you have a store, but knowing your prices and your policies off the top of your head. You don't want to have to get out your phone and try to remember them
Collin 17:59
I know I can be bad at this. Megan is very good at remembering all of the the numbers, all of the intricacies and the ins and outs of the policies. And that is something that I do struggle with when interacting with somebody, especially a brand new client. I will have prepped for the services that they've asked for, for the timeline that they've asked for. As soon as they ask for something new. Nine times out of 10, My mind goes blank, and I have to defer to Megan because she knows them a lot better than I do, and that for whatever reason, that's just how my brain works. And yet another reason why I really enjoy working with Megan because she does have those strengths that I don't and so if you have employees or independent contractors that also struggle to remember those fine details. Make sure you have systems in place to get around that whether that is increasing training or whether that is getting a different software to help you and help you stay organized with them or whatever procedures you need to have in place. ways so that they are not out there feeling like they are struggling through that,
Meghan 19:03
right? If they're out walking a dog and somebody approaches them on the street and says, Hey, can you walk my dog, you want to know that your employee can say we charge x for this walk, right? If you live in this service area,
Collin 19:17
that's an example of somebody being able to take ownership. That's a big part of customer service, a phrase that I absolutely love is, it's not my fault. But it is my problem. Meaning we have to deal our employees, independent contractors have to deal with situations that we did not put ourselves in. And yet, we still need to take responsibility over it, take ownership of it, to find a solution. It's not my area of expertise. I need to be the one who seeks out help and get further details.
Meghan 19:52
Basically, though, we need to understand the customers needs. We want the best for their pet. They want the best for their pet where we're As a team together to solve whatever problem it is, and so we are wanting to do everything in our power to meet their need.
Collin 20:09
And then a big one that is a big misnomer and a big misunderstanding in customer service and exactly what it is. We've heard it time and time again. But no, the customer is not always right.
Meghan 20:24
Thank you Walmart. I think they are the ones who originally coined the customer's always right.
Collin 20:30
Right. So they're not always right. And we've been in those situations we've known No, you are wrong about this. So no, the customer is not always right. Just don't make them feel like they're wrong, meaning you're treating them with dignity. It allows them to, quote unquote, save face in those kinds of situations. And we must never see any sort of interaction as an opportunity to prove our superiority of knowledge. or experience or understanding of a situation,
Meghan 21:03
right, because in most cases, we want the client to come back if they have a well behaved dog or a cat or if they're a pretty easy client and tip us well and arrive on time and pick up their dog on time and always let us know when they've changed alarm codes, like those are good clients. And we want to keep those around.
Collin 21:22
And sometimes they're just honest mistakes are honest misunderstandings of what is going on an example from kind of the it and tech support world. Somebody calls the helpline and says my computer won't turn on. I think the motherboard is broken. The IT person will respond with could you blow the dust off of the power cord just to make sure now that any tech person will know what blowing the dust off the power cord does. It doesn't mean anything. But what the IT person is trying to do is trying to say is it plugged in, but they don't want to insult the intelligence of the person. calling them. So by saying blow the dust off the power cord. It allows the person on the other end to save face and go, Oh, yep, that fixed it gives them an out and allows it to move on without embarrassing or upsetting anybody. And I think kind of a similar example, in pet care. And this happens to a lot of people. Somebody calls you and says, Hey, I want my dog to want you to provide care for my pets this weekend. And you quote them back a price. And it's actually considerably higher than they were expecting and they start to get a little huffy with you, and they, they get, they start pushing back about that price. Now, you know, you're charging more because it's an upcoming holiday weekend, but they don't seem to have remembered or realized that it is to defuse the situation by simply saying, well, because our holiday rates are this. That is why it's this price. You're not pushing back on them. You're not saying Well, obviously it's a holiday weekend or de or anything like that. Just up front out your policies and your practices helps dissolve those kind of situations or those confrontations and allows them to go. Oh, yeah, you're right. Okay, and move on.
Meghan 23:09
Right. As we discussed in the hard conversations episode, Episode 74. It's all about taking the emotion out of it, for the most part except for empathy, taking the emotion out of the conversation, not getting heated, and just stating the facts. Everything that we just talked about is very easy to talk about. It's a lot harder to implement. And it's even harder to get across to your employees or your independent contractors. So bring them in on the process. Let them know what's going on. Ask for their input on how you can have better customer service and how you can best support them and making sure that they have great customer service when they are out in the field.
Collin 23:47
Allow them to share their good and bad experiences and allow them to express their need for tools and policies and procedures that will help them do the best that they can. But most people aren't born being amazing. Customer Service people. It takes practice, it takes training, it takes support. Most of all, I would say,
Meghan 24:06
well, especially if you got into this business because you want it to love on puppies and kitties, right? We all know that this business is much more than that. But if at your heart you just want to love on animals and the people is kind of a side thing, this can be a little difficult.
Collin 24:20
So getting both your employees and yourself on the right foot. We're working through some of these basic principles, as well as getting some of that other support in there will really help everybody give the best experience possible to the clients coming through your doors. On this week's Ask pet business coach, Natasha addresses a common question among people who are growing.
Natasha 24:47
So um, today's question we have How can I maintain a high level of communication with clients as I hire people? So I know a lot of people actually have this question because that's usually the reason And why I see people being reluctant to get staff, they're like, Oh, I'm gonna have to tell my customer that I'm hiring new people, I'm gonna have to kind of give them their background check and tell them the whole story of my new employee. You know, I know there's a lot of misconceptions on how they should go about, you know, communicating with their clients and telling them they're going to hire someone. My answer is your client is hiring and vetting your company. If your client loves you, they trust you. They are now saying, you know, when it Asha, I get to kick my toes up. And I know that your company is going to take care of my family and my dog or cat or whichever you need to keep that in your mind that your client is hiring your company that they have vetted. So once the client has vetted you and your business, they're now out of it. So now you get to pick up and say cool, my process my procedure. You know, my system of hiring is how we do it internally. Your client does not need to know you know, where you post your ad and where you get your clothes. From you know, all that is internal information. So I want to get people off that mindset where they have to kind of, you know, have this one on one and I one of my clients would actually take her new hire over to the clients house with her, you know the owner, so it'd be the owner and the new hire, they would take him to the client and say, Hey, this is my new person, that I'm going to have it that is culture. Okay, so remember, if you're doing something, you have to keep that up. So how in the world are you going to take every one of your employees over to each customer every single time and then we know in a pet care industry, turnover is turnover? It definitely happens. We try to keep our employees on average over a year, but sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. So are you realistically going to call your clients every single time walk into their house, you know, go through this whole situation. It's not realistic. So my process I'll let you guys know what I do. We have our software for a reason. That GPS tracker is your best friend. So what you can do is say Oh hey, we took rover on a walk today. We brought in his new dog walker Collin. And we made sure we showed Collin the full ropes rover loved him. It was an amazing experience but also knows about the food. They know about wiping the paws they know about, you know, the lockbox to know about your garage door access and all those details in so the client knows on that daily report that you did a turnover if you want to add turn it turnovers in your process. That's a great way to do it. Take your new hire out in the field with you show him the ropes, and make sure you write it down in your report. You can also take a selfie of your new hire in that report. So now it's your normal your normal day to day process. Going out taking that dog out you took a picture selfie of your staff so now they saw who that person is. And you also ensured that they know all the notes and the dog loves them and everything was great. If you do this for two days in the field. If you do this for a week, whichever you A sign of how long you do a shadow for say that Oh, today's a second day out with Colin, everything went smooth today actually step back a little bit and let Collin do the full service by themselves. And of course, everything went off without a tee Oh, today's the third and final day I did nothing. And I sat back the entire time and enjoying the walk and observe their interaction together. And it was amazing. So now you're kind of giving your client that peace of mind that you showed, and you brought your client into the process, right? So that behind the scenes, what does this look like in your post walk report, you did everything. And that's what you do each time. That's realistic, that's scalable. Now the owner doesn't even have to do this. Whoever was the last person to walk that dog will do the turnover. Also, you want to talk about this in your meet and greet process. You want to put this on your forms. We're team collaboration. So your client immediately knows that when I'm hiring this, this company I saw on their forms of team collaborative. So the question is am I going to have the same day dog walker every single time I get to have the same pet sitter every single time, 14 collaborated, we would never expect anyone to put all their eggs in one basket. If our Walker pet sitter, you know, got sick or whichever, you know, have you when you're out of town, we got you covered. We have someone else that's going to jump in and take care of you. That's how awesome we are. Right? So you're highlighting some of these positives that saying, you know what, if this person doesn't work out, they have someone else for me. And this person, they're going to show them and we have all of the notes in the system, and everything's recorded, and we're all gonna do it the same exact way. That's how you communicate what's happening. And they love it. They're like, if you ever look on my website, they're like, they're like four different markers from the company. They're all amazing. They all do the same thing. And sometimes it's funny because they've had what like, my seven year clients have had like seven people and they're like,
Collin 29:45
seven different bloggers and
Natasha 29:47
you would think you would cringe but they're like, they're all great, doesn't matter. They're all amazing whoever they said. So take some of that old, you know, thinking or you know that I want to make sure I'm doing it because it really gets can work out great clients are realistic, they know that they're not going to have the same person for life, you know, but they'll be using your business for 10 plus years, whichever you think you're just letting them know just what it looks like. I find that if you tell the customer your process in the beginning, so when my clients go online, and they booked me and I answer my meet and greet questionnaire, it goes over everything. Do you have a lockbox? Are you okay with new is your dog okay? with new people coming into the house being being being all these are Oh, this is what they do. Oh, this is what they do. Oh, this is how it's gonna be. So they know that new person could come in, you know, if you live in an area where there's snow storms or what have you in a nick of time, we might switch the Walker and they're like, that's totally fine with me. You've got to let people know what this is going to look like before I sign up. Because if you clearly tell people what they're getting themselves into, they now get to choose if that's going to work for them. And I promise you 10 times out of 10 if you let them know in the beginning Most likely they're going to say okay, but if you are showing this like perception and it's not true, and then you kind of throw in a monkey wrench like Whoa, I didn't know that was gonna happen. They have the right to then feel that way. And that typically brings the pet sitter dog walker on the defense, but it's really always the burden is on us because we have to kind of show them that throughout. Well that answers your question. And yeah, get your get your hiring on because it's pretty easy.
Meghan 31:34
If you would like Natasha to be your personal pet business coach, you can go to her website, start scale sale.com and enter the code p sc 20. For 15% off any of her personal business coaching. You can also listen to her wonderful episode it was Episode 59 where she talks about scaling her business and getting started. Also if you're looking to renew your pet first aid or CPR you You can go to pro training comm and enter the code CPR dash pet sitter confessional, and you can get 10% off any of their trainings and courses.
Collin 32:10
Thank you guys so much for listening this week. We cannot tell you enough how much we appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedules to listen to us talk and share some of the things that we've learned. And again, if you have stories or things that you've learned that you would love for other people to share, please reach out to us at feedback at pet sitter confessional comm check out our website, pet sitter confessional calm
Meghan 32:32
and if you feel that we have earned it, please go on Apple podcast and give us a rating and review.
32:37
Thank you so much. We'll talk to you next time.
