620: The 10 Non-negotiables You Need in Your Policies
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Non-negotiables aren’t just nice-to-have—they’re the backbone of running our pet care business. In this episode, we share the 10 essential policies and procedures we believe every sitter and walker should put in place. From cancellation and payment terms to health requirements and emergency plans, we explain why each matters and how we enforce them. We also talk about the dangers of bending rules too often and how exceptions can quietly become the norm. Through practical examples, we show how we protect our business, clients, and pets by keeping our boundaries clear and consistent.
Main Topics
Setting clear cancellation policies
Payment terms and cash flow stability
Booking procedures to avoid missed visits
Emergency planning and client communication
Health, behavior, and access requirements
Main Takeaway: “Without clear non-negotiables, you risk running your business on someone else’s terms instead of your own.”
When you don’t define your boundaries, you leave room for clients, circumstances, and even your own desire to be accommodating to dictate how your business operates. This can lead to burnout, lost income, and stress you didn’t sign up for. Non-negotiables aren’t about being rigid—they’re about protecting your time, your energy, and your ability to serve well. When you decide what’s essential and stick to it, you run your business with intention, not reaction. Take control before someone else does.
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Episode 446 on Aggregation Theory
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin
Meghan 00:00
Hi, I'm Meghan. I'm Collin. We are the host of pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Thank you for listening today, for joining us on this journey. Whether it is your first episode listening or your 620th we appreciate it all. We'd like to thank our sponsors, pet sitters, associates, dog co launch and our lovely executive producers, on Patreon for sponsoring today's show, if you are listening and love the podcast, have found value in the episodes and would love to give some back, whether sharing an episode or becoming a Patreon member. You can go to pet sitter confessional.com/support, to see the ways that you can help out this episode, we're going to talk about something that is absolutely foundational to your business, your non negotiables. These are policies and procedures that are not just nice to have. They are essential to have. They are the backbone of how you operate. They protect your business, they protect your clients, and ultimately, they protect the pets that are in your care. But here's the thing, we throw around words like policies and procedures. We've talked about them for 300 episodes that Collin and I have done together. We throw around these words all the time and yeah, we need to have policies. And we say, okay, yeah, we have policies for that, or we have procedures. We have SOP, standard operating procedures, a whole, whole training manual. But what do we actually mean when we say that? How do you know what's worth putting in writing? That's where your non negotiables come in. So we're going to walk through 10 of them that every pet sitter and dog walker should have. We'll talk about what they are, why they matter, how to enforce them, and ultimately, what happens if you don't have them in place. Before we get to the non negotiables. Let's talk about what that term actually means, because in business, you will be pressured to bend your rules. It's a fact, clients are going to have a lot of different opinions on what you do and how you do it. If you have a policy against last minute and you have a client's sweet old lab that absolutely needs last minute care, they have an emergency and need to go out of town right now, well, what
Collin 01:49
are you going to do with that? Or maybe we get this a neighbor, or somebody calls on behalf of someone looking for care or looking for information, or even a longtime client forgets to pay and says something like, Hey, I'll get you next month. Once I get caught up, if we don't know where our lines are, we'll say yes and yes and yes and yes, and then we regret it later, when we're stressed out underpaid or we're put in a sticky situation where we look back and go, I should never have been here in the first place. Or
Meghan 02:19
how did I get here in the first place of, oh, thinking back, well, I've let a lot of clients actually do this thing that it says in my contract not to do, but I just made exceptions, and now it's the rule instead of the exception, non negotiables are there to one keep you and your team safe. If you have employees, they need to feel like they are protected. It's also to there to help keep pets safe and healthy, also to keep your business financially stable and to keep your reputation intact. We said this last week on episode 618 but policies aren't walls, they're support beams. They're not there to keep people out. They're there to hold your business up under stress. They're there to give more clarity for how you operate, and because the more clearly you define them, the more consistent and confident that you become in your decisions,
Collin 03:08
we do have to be honest, though, and just state that when you have boundaries, when you have policies and procedures, it will inherently turn some people off. I know one example that we've turned back to a lot is we do have people who choose not to use us because of our cancelation policy. Now this is okay with us. This is okay with us because we know our cancelation policy is there to help keep our business financially stable so we can pay employees and keep the lights on in this thing. But some clients don't like it. They're not okay with it, and that could be because they want to, or they've had experiences where they want to cancel same day without any penalty, or maybe they want to pay after you they get back. Whatever that is, there will be people who are not okay with your policies and procedures. But we have to understand that if we want to run our business the way we want to run, we want people, both team members and clients, that are on board with the vision of the company. That's really what this is. It's a way of screening on people who get and understand that and who want you to serve them the way you are going to serve them. Okay,
Meghan 04:10
so let's dive in. Let's break down each one why it matters, and some real world examples up front. Let's add the caveat that these are 10 non negotiables for us and our business and what we believe is best. Your mileage probably will vary with these. You may not agree with everything that we say, and that's okay. You have your own pain points. You have your own way of running a business and a different set of services that will necessitate different policies and boundaries, but in general, these are what we feel are best. And the first one you just mentioned, this Collin cancelation policy. This policy is pretty straightforward. It's how far in advance clients must cancel to avoid charges. It's important because it prevents lost income. It sets that expectation that clients know, okay, well, I need to have my plans absolutely set in stone by this date in order to not get charged, or I'm going to be charged no matter what. And ultimately, it helps. Helps with scheduling fairness. You work really hard on that route planning, making sure that everybody gets seen on time when they want. And because of that, we feel we should be compensated
Collin 05:08
for it. Well, it also sets expectations for the client as to how you are to operate. Again. That's why we do policies just to begin with. But many clients don't understand what it takes to put together a good route or a good schedule, or that you are just going to be very busy and can flippantly request things here, cancel there, turn things on, turn them off, and expect no consequences. And like Meghan said, you put a lot of effort into all of the notes, all the studying, all of the route planning, all of the scheduling, all of that stuff goes into that all that work before you even show up to the visit. And that's time that you should and need to be compensated
Meghan 05:46
for. Yeah, it's really a lot of admin time that you're having to prep for the visit. How much food does this dog eat? What's the medication like, what's the routine and the bathroom break schedule like, all this admin work on the front of knowing the pets and knowing the home and knowing the layout and what you're supposed to do at the visit. And then, of course, on top of that, where are they located, in relation to all of my other visits before and after?
Collin 06:08
Yeah, and again, this helps prevent clients from just kind of thinking they can use an abuser service. Of Well, that's fine. I'll just cancel it later, and nothing's going to happen of this. What we look for, what we want with the cancelation is we want a level of commitment from our clients. We want them to be able to say yes to something and then really stick with it. Obviously things are going to come up that are outside the control, and this is again, where you, as the business owner, you get to decide, is this something that you will let slide for the longtime client who's always booked and done right by you and just has one thing where they need some help with because of a family emergency or whatever, or whatever that is. Again, you can choose that, but by and large, we're going, what's the standard? What am I actually looking for and want my company to look like? Because what we didn't want was 300 people who were all canceling the same day, and we lost out on all that money. So what we actually wanted people who are committed, who understand that there's an obligation to this, that it is a level of relationship that no we are guaranteeing we are saving your spot. We are committed to you. We need you to be committed
Meghan 07:12
to us. We once had a week where there were three clients that canceled the day before all prime time holiday spots, and so we learned that lesson pretty hard. Without the policy, there's hundreds in lost revenue. With a policy, you still get paid for your reserve time.
Collin 07:26
And importantly here, put this in writing to have them sign up front, go through the cancelation policy, be unashamed of this. Don't hide or shirk from this policy. This is one of the ones that you really have to be upfront and then send reminders, especially during peak seasons or just periodically throughout the year, because, just because somebody signed your policies and procedures one time three years ago, they have absolutely forgotten every aspect of them by this point. Send little reminders, little snippets about that. Have them when they book or whenever that is, but constantly remind people of this to make sure that it is top of mind.
Meghan 08:00
We feel that the cancelation policy is almost as equally as important as your payment terms, which is the second non negotiable. Your payment terms are going to outline when and how payment is due and what happens if it's late. We all know that cash flow is king, and you can't operate a business on whenever people get around to pain that's not going to keep the lights on. Now, thankfully, we don't. A lot of us don't have brick and mortars, so our overhead is exceptionally low. We basically have to buy leashes and some harnesses and some enrichment toys, and we can go however.
Collin 08:30
We have known sitters and walkers who go months without payment from a client and have basically worked for free. They've said no to other clients, other obligations. They have their own bills, and they're sitting waiting on hundreds or 1000s of dollars to come back to them because somebody has refused to pay or is late on payment again.
Meghan 08:47
Yeah, we've always said we never want to chase down clients. So you may be listening to say, well, all my clients have always paid me on time, but realistically, it just takes that one client to not pay you, and you're stuck chasing them down for payment and having done work for free. So getting ahead of it, requiring payment ahead of time and at booking is really the best bet here.
Collin 09:07
Yeah, require that payment upfront for services, especially for new clients and over holidays, during your really busy time. So you reserve and lock in that spot for them, because if a client doesn't pay, then you have to decide, well, do I continue services for this client? What if they're a client who's been with me for a while? I don't want to say no to them, and their dog's going to be their home, not being able to go potty, and their cat's not going to be able to be fed because they're on vacation, we kind of spiral down. And instead, we can avoid all of that conversation by just saying payment is due at time of booking, or payment is due before your trip, and then have a commensurate cancelation policy that that allows for some flexibility for them so they don't feel like everything's
Meghan 09:46
lost. Now, of course, again, clients are going to have their own opinions. We have lost clients because they did not like that. They had to quote prepay for their services. They said, Well, I don't do that for my car mechanic. I don't do that for my hairdresser. I get the service and. Then I pay Why is it not the same here? Yeah, so
Collin 10:03
you have to again, explain. Look, this is reserving your spot. I am guaranteeing you service. You are locked in and 100% on my schedule. People do have misgiving clients can't have misgivings over this because of previous bad experiences with other people who either didn't show up, didn't do the work, and just overall, ruined that experience for them. And so we come along and we say, Hey, we're pre we're quote prepay, right? We're pay ahead of time, pay at time of booking, and we guarantee service. And there's this level of distrust, especially for new clients, where they're uneasy about that. And so what do we do with this? Well, we have conversations with them, we educate them, we meet them, and we are personable with them so they can build that level of trust where they feel comfortable doing that,
Meghan 10:45
I think at the end of the day, for Collin and I though it's a lot more about chasing people on the back end. I don't want to waste my admin time messaging people day after day after week after month of okay, well, then they keep giving excuses like it makes for a really bad kind of toxic client sitter relationship that we just don't want to get into at all
Collin 11:04
well. And speaking of the cash flow thing, because we have employees who are doing visits, we have to pay them in a timely manner. And if I didn't get payment for the week long visit from a client, I have no money to pay for the person for the next pay period for my for my team. And so to help with that, to help with budgeting and cash flow and finances, it really helps to have all that upfront so that it's more real time. We do the visits, we get paid, we do the visits, then we pay out the expenses that go along with them very quickly after so we're not having to guesstimate and reserve and think about, well, how much money am I going to have at the end of the month so I can pay for the beginning of the month? Beginning of the month? And when is that money coming in? And actually I'm paying for these services with last month's services income. It really simplifies the whole process.
Meghan 11:50
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Collin 12:57
we don't accept requests through text, phone, call, email, social media, carrier pigeon, smoke signal, none of that. If it's not through our scheduling system, it does not exist to us. This protects us and the client. We had some bad experiences where our client wouldn't before we had this process, before we had our good system in place, clients would call us and say, Hey, I need you the 13th through the 15th, is that good? And we'd say, yeah, absolutely, we'll be there. When do you need us to start on those days? Oh, afternoon, and we'll get back in the morning. Okay, cool. But then the client changed something. Didn't let us know, and we showed up, or worse yet, they forgot that it was a longer trip, and they didn't have things in front of them. And so then, then that we were blamed because we didn't do the services that they thought in their head by make by putting this on the client. It's the client's responsibility to book the visits that they need. They can check the schedule anytime that they need. And it really prevents this, because also what happens is, if somebody calls me and I'm in another I'm doing something else, they call me. They need me to schedule if I don't remember to write that down at that time or do something with that, it's never going to get done, and then I'm the one that's causing the issues of those missed visits and whatever that
Meghan 14:11
is. Now we do have to balance this out with what type of business you have, because if you are a very luxury hands on, hand holding huggy, feely kind of business, and you want your clients to have more of a concierge type experience. Type experience. This may not work for you, but make sure that you have a process where you are covered. Your butt is covered, in case a client were to come back and say, No, that's not at all what I wanted. Or why would you Why did you do that?
Collin 14:34
Yeah, again, it's not specifically you must use software, not use software. That's not what we're saying here. But the thing is, is that you have to train your clients on your booking process. Do it early, remind them and do not make exceptions if they because you may start getting private text messages to you saying, Hey, I know you. I'm supposed to go through this thing, but I don't have time. Can you add this thing here or there? If you just have to train them on what the expectation is so that nothing gets lost?
Meghan 15:00
Expectations are super important when it comes to communication. That is our fourth non negotiable. This is how, when and through what channels, you will update clients. It's important because it provides peace of mind for the client and efficiency for you. There are an infinite number of ways that you can choose to update clients, but you can't have a bespoke way for updating each one. You can't say, okay, Facebook Messenger for you and my software for you, and text message for you and FaceTime for you. That's going to get very cumbersome and overwhelming, and it's going to be very hard to keep track of when you grow beyond a couple dozen clients.
Collin 15:32
Yeah, so we send a report after every visit with photos, checkboxes, written description through our software, clients know that if they don't see that report, something's wrong, and they're going to reach out, right? They're going to they're going to have questions. So we always say that for the remainder, onboarding is different. We go through a couple different methods of either a phone call or text message or email with them. However, once they become a client, we tell them, everything through the software, everything through the software, updates, questions, all that is through the software. Also included in this, as far as the communication expectations is, is when clients can contact you, you have to ask yourself, is 10pm okay for a client to call me? How about 3am we've certainly got messages and requests at that hour. This is part of setting those boundaries of this is when I am available for immediate access. You can also have carve outs here for if you are an active client, who I'm actively caring for you, I will be available during X extended periods of time, because I know that. You know I may be doing a visit at nine o'clock. You can call me. Then if you're an active client, whatever that is for you. Standardize the format, standardize the timing of all client communication. If you have a team, make sure that you have the standardized for the team communication. When can an employee reach out to you and ask about HR policies or ask about time off or ask questions for things that all of that is encompassed under the communication expectations? It's the when, then the what method are they able to do that?
Meghan 17:01
If you are in this business long enough, you know that you will need an emergency plan. That's another non negotiable that we have. You have to have one. It details the steps for an illness in a pet or to yourself, injury, lost pets, employee emergencies or severe weather. It is super important. The emergencies, you never know when they're going to come about, but they are. There's no time to figure out a plan when you're in an emergency, you have to have a plan beforehand. And this doesn't just include what happens in severe weather, because we talk about that a lot of okay, I have a hurricane or a tornado or a thunderstorm, I'm not going to be walking pets in a blizzard or in icy conditions, but what about when I get sick, or what about if a dog gets loose on my watch or jumps the fence?
Collin 17:45
Yeah, this is what's the first thing I do? What's the second thing that I do? Who am I contacting? Who am I roping in? How much time am I giving to this? And
Meghan 17:53
obviously it's going to depend on the emergency. You can't plan for literally everything, but you do need to have a roadmap for if, if this happens and this and
Collin 18:02
this? Yep. I mean, one time we had an employee walk in and found an unresponsive cat on the floor, right? Think through that you walk in, your team member walks in, unresponsive pet on the floor. What's the first thing that they do? Well, hopefully the first thing is that they assess the situation, right? They're going to look left, right, up, down. They're going to do what they never do in the horror films, right? They're going to turn around and look behind them assess the safety of the situation. We have a plan for that. Make sure that you're having backup information, emergency contacts, the vet information, all of that, lined out and importantly, above and beyond all of that, make sure that you are communicating this with the client. Work with them to develop this. Is it an geriatric pet? Is it a pet that has a serious chronic illness? Talk to them about what they want, what their expectations are, and how they want to be involved in the process, or not? We've certainly had clients who have said things like, Oh, if they pass there is a trash bag and put them in the freezer. Okay? This weird conversations, whatever. You also have conversations with people who say, whatever it is, do whatever it costs, and we'll make sure that it's everything taken care of. But you have to know the client's expectations, because if we just immediately jump in and handle it how we think that it needs to be done, you're going to be stepping on people's toes. And so bringing that client into them, into this process, also empowers them and emboldens them and lets them know that they are part of the care team in this and that they have, say, an agency over their pet, because
Meghan 19:24
we are going in and out of people's homes all the time. Another non negotiable for us is how you're getting access. So your access policy, it details how you're going to handle keys if you require lock boxes or codes or double method entry. It protects you and the client and allows for that security between you guys. So for example, we use lockboxes. If an employee is sick, another team member can still access the home, no scrambling, no issues. And we even had a client last night who locked himself out of his house and had to call us and say, Hey, what's the code to the lockbox? Because I can't get in my house.
Collin 19:58
Whatever you. Decide that your access policy is we know people who are fine with height of keys or putting them under doormats or whatever that is. Again, that's on you in this policy, make sure that you at least test the keys, test the method of entry at the meet and greet when you're talking with them. We have had people who have put keys in lockboxes or done it later and it was the wrong key. It was the key to their parents house. It was an old key, or it was something that they didn't even remember, that they put it in there, or they didn't test a lot of here's what happens a lot of times. A lot of clients don't use the keypad entry to get into their garage. Why would they need that? They have a little door opener in their car, or it's programmed in their car as well. So we come over and we use it. Battery's dead. Buttons are broken. All sorts of things happen. Test it at the meet and greet, so that you can get ahead of that and have backups if needed. Well, and
Meghan 20:46
this isn't just about testing the key or requiring lockboxes or door codes or two method entry, whatever it is, but it's also, what do you do if that method doesn't work? What is your policy for if you can't get into the house, say the power is out so you can't get into the garage, because the garage door is hooked up to the electricity, and they forgot to put out the hide a key that they always put out under the mat. Okay, well, what is in your policy now, as the sitter, what is your obligation? You're obviously probably not going to be breaking windows and breaking down doors here. I mean, if that's what the client wants, rocks and Windows, but make sure you have it outlined. Because it's going to save you. And now a word from Michelle with dog Collin, are you
Speaker 1 21:27
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Meghan 21:52
If you do require lockboxes, it is the client's responsibility to remember to put the key in there, just like it's the client's responsibility to update their profile if you have software. So outlining that too, what are the client responsibilities? That's another non negotiable that we have of what must the client provide to you? Is it the vet records? Is it access instructions? Is it the supplies, where the cleaning supplies are going to be, or where the food and medication is going to be? Do they need to provide accurate instructions, step by step, instructions of what you need to do inside a visit, so you both have clear expectations of what's going to be going on. When you do have those clear expectations, it avoids that last minute stress, that issue of, oh, I'm five minutes into a visit. I can't find the food. I now have to message the client and hope that they respond with the time that I have left. In our business, we require enough food for the entire trip before they leave, and then a couple days extra in case they get delayed or their flight isn't on time, if we have to buy more, then they get charged. They not only get charged for the drive time to the store, they get charged for, obviously, the product of whatever we're buying, and then the trip back to their home. We keep the receipt, we send it to them, and we charge them for
Collin 22:57
it. Another big one. Here are the cleaning supplies. Who is responsible for providing that for us. That is on the client 100% I don't want to have all sorts of cleaning supplies on our team. I don't want to have different levels stocked for different kinds of surfaces and different things like that. The client provides that so that we know when I use the carpet cleaner, it's not gonna burn a hole through the floor or make their carpet ugly, right? So you have to review these instructions regularly. Pets needs change. Homes change. Watery instructions change, and whether you have a set every quarter you go in and send reminders for people to update, or whenever a client books, you have an automated response that shoots out to them say, Hey, make sure everything's up to date. That's just part of that onus is on us, because clients change their lives all the time, and they
Meghan 23:42
never let us know about it, because there's no there's no need to there's
Collin 23:45
no need. They're not going to remember to update the dog walker or the pet sitter business about that. So we have to be the ones who are coming in saying, hey, so great to see Baxter again this weekend. Just a quick question, Has anything changed about the medical history or things like that? Because having requirements around pet levels of pet health or vaccination, is another non negotiable, whether this is proof of vaccines, Parasite control, that they're doing medications, that they're on, disclosure of any illnesses, right? This is a really big one, because this helps us prevent disease spread going from house to house. This also ensures safety of the pet, so that we know what we're walking into and what we need to be handling, or
Meghan 24:23
even hot spots, right? Those are big clients don't think to update us about hot spots that their pet has. And one time we walked in, the pet had a big hot spot with a cone on and then, oh yeah, there's medication with a detailed outline on the counter that we were supposed to do. But the client didn't let us know beforehand that all of this was going to be needed.
Collin 24:41
Also, periodically, we will see instances where kennel cough is going through a lot of the boarding and daycare facilities in our area, and then our inquiries have a big uptick. So we just have to ask, Hey, have you been diagnosed with this recently? Has your dog struggled with this? Or what you know? Have that discussion about illnesses upfront? Meghan, you mentioned about the cone. I know. Was also another time we showed up to visit to find that the dog had undergone pretty extensive surgery, and the client didn't tell us at all about it. And now there was a massive change through routine. There was all sorts of medications. They had moved there were gates and stuff all over the place, and now we just walk into that, and so you have to be able to adapt to that, but also do your best to stay ahead of this by asking questions of the client. In addition to making sure that the health information is up to date, we also want to make sure that we are clearly explaining to our clients what behaviors are unacceptable and when service will be terminated with their pet. So making a non negotiable for us is having an aggression and behavior policy. This protects the sitter safety. It prevents liability and make sure that we aren't walking into situations where we could be injured. We have had to deny clients service because there there was a sudden change in behavior to the dog, right? The dogs was actually they were jumping up so much and mouthing so much with their hands that they broke a sitter's glasses and almost broke her nose, so we pulled services and said, Look, we you can resume once this behavior is under control. Here, go work with a trainer. We will schedule an assessment in three months to determine if you can come back or not. Plain and simple, it was a behavior that was unacceptable to us because it made the visits miserable. We couldn't do what we need to get done, and sitters were leaving scratched and bruised with broken glasses. And that was that was not okay with us, because we believe that the services should be, should be fun, should be enjoyable. Now, we certainly work with a lot of fearful animals and a lot of reactive animals as well, but we know what we're that there's a there's a progression there, and we again, we have guidelines for what is and what is not acceptable that the clients are aware of. If you do this right, you have to specifically ask about the history at the meet and greet. Do that behavior assessment? Do trial visits. But more importantly, when you have a policy like this, you must document behaviors to the client, send videos, send photos, describe to them what's going on, what you tried to do, because if you just pop up suddenly and say, Hey, because of their behavior, we need to cancel this. That's not going to fly. That's really not okay. And so you have to be able to have that way of charting and tracking and documenting what's going on. If you're going to enforce this,
Meghan 27:18
something you will also have to likely enforce is your holiday and peak period of policy. This is our last non negotiable. It details out how you handle high demand dates, booking, windows, surcharges and stricter cancelations. It is very critical, because, as we all know, these dates fill very fast, and cancelations really hurt the most. Here. We open holiday booking months in advance with, like we mentioned a moment ago, full payment due at the time of booking, no refund policy. No, you're not getting your money back because you said you wanted Christmas, and now you don't anymore. We publish these dates on our website. We remind clients early. We have them in our contract, and our policy is in our emails. We try to blast them as much as possible, because we know, as pet sitters, having done this for now 13 years, the ebbs and flows and the big booms that holidays are, we want to make sure that we are able to service as many people as possible, and that means guaranteeing them a spot. And if
Collin 28:10
you are offering dog walks, right, there are peak times during the day where people want that, right? That 10 to two, that 10 to four slot, that's highly valuable for you, everyone's going to request that from you. So are you going to have different cancelation policies for that, or different pricing for that out versus outside of those hours where there's less demand that is for you to decide in how you want to structure this and how you want to guide your clients through this? Ultimately, here, this is all about getting your schedule set and protecting your business, fundamentally,
Meghan 28:39
so now we have our big, long list of non negotiables, cancelation policy, payment terms, booking procedure, communication, expectations, your emergency plan, access policy, pet health and vaccination requirements, aggression and behavior. Policy, holiday and peak period policy and the client's responsibilities. But how do we enforce them? Here's the kicker, having them written down isn't enough. Most times you have to enforce them every time. Again, don't make the exceptions the rule. Though. We are not saying never give anybody Grace ever like we all learned through covid that there are going to be times where you are going to have to bend things in order for clients to keep coming back. You can't be super strict. Hold the line all the time no matter what. There does need to be a little bit of wiggle room. But again, don't make the exceptions the rules. So this means one putting them in your client agreement. Have a contract, have them sign it on a yearly basis. Make sure you actually read through it on a yearly basis, and you are actually upholding or maybe need to change things, review the policies during the meet and greet. This doesn't mean that you have to sit there and read them 15 pages of your contract, but remind them of the basics of it.
Collin 29:41
Yeah, have a one pager that you can pass to them, or make sure that your email them or text them a PDF or a photo of that, whatever that is. Make sure that you do that in person. And this, again, this can feel very uncomfortable, because you're sitting there standing in front of a person, and now you're having to say, and by the way, if you cancel within 48 hours, there's no refund of the service. Yeah, this. It's not confrontational, though. Don't view this as confrontational. You are informing them of what it's like to work with you.
Meghan 30:07
If you have employees, and you're training them to do meet and greets as well. Make sure that they follow these same policies that one they know them. So have them read your contract. Make sure that they if there's anything weird that they see in their misspellings or policies that your company doesn't actually follow that you thought you did, have them point that out, have them review it on the yearly basis, just like you are yourself. As much as we are here for the pets, we're also here for the people. We are a people first business. So it can be hard to be consistent, even when it's uncomfortable, even when you're standing there in the meet and greet reviewing your policies, or when they give an excuse of, oh, I had an emergency and now I can't go. Or can you make this exception this one time? But it is important to always ask yourself, Is this in alignment with what I want or in alignment with my mission for my company? If it gets me closer to my goals, then maybe I do accommodate this time, if it doesn't, then no, I don't also
Collin 31:01
be sending out those reminders to your clients about what they signed. This isn't just a one time thing. You've got to send updates, reminders, send out a newsletter or text messages, whatever that is, so that you can say, hey, let me highlight this little part of the contract that you signed, because here's the truth, if you've been the non negotiable one time, you've now set a precedent, clients remember when you make exceptions, and they think that now they can take advantage of that. They text at 10pm at night. You respond back because you happen to be on your phone and thought it was no big deal. Well, now guess what? They know they can message you at 10pm at night because you did it the last time, and we get it. We are a caring profession. This is what we do. We care for people. We care for their pets. We want to help and be helpful, but protecting your business is also part of the care that you provide to your clients. Without your business, you can't care for their pets, and part of keeping and upholding your business and being in this for the long term is having non negotiables and policies and procedures that you stick to. So
Meghan 31:57
here's your challenge for this week, write down your top 10 negotiables in your policies, your procedures, how you operate, your business. These work for us and how we operate, but yours are going to be different. Probably our client agreement is pretty in depth. It covers a lot, but these are some of the hills that we will die on. So think about the gaps in your policies. And more importantly, are you enforcing the policies you already have? Policies aren't there to be mean or rigid. They're there to make sure that you, your clients and the pets that you're caring for, caring for, are supported, safe and happy. If you've got a non negotiable in your business that we didn't mention today, we would love to hear it. You can email us at Pet Sitter confessional@gmail.com or look us up on Facebook and Instagram. At Pet Sitter confessional, thank you for taking your time and listening to this today. We are also appreciative of pet sitters, associates and dog Collin for sponsoring this episode. We'll talk with you next time bye. You.
