698: Why Employee Retention Starts With Attention
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How do you keep employees happy when pet care is already a low-margin business? In this episode, we talk about why appreciation does not have to mean expensive gifts, bonuses, or branded swag. We walk through different types of employees, including practical, recognition-driven, growth-oriented, experience-valued, and stability-seeking team members. We also discuss why clear expectations, consistent communication, reliable scheduling, and field support are often more meaningful than anything you can buy. Ultimately, we remind business owners that appreciation is not about spending more, but paying attention better.
Main Topics
Appreciation without overspending
Individual employee motivation styles
Recognition beyond physical gifts
Retention through clear expectations
Communication and team support
Main takeaway: “Appreciation isn’t about spending more. It’s about paying attention better.”
Appreciation does not have to mean big bonuses, expensive gifts, or elaborate team perks. In a low-margin business like pet sitting and dog walking, the most meaningful appreciation often comes from paying closer attention to the people already on your team. Some employees value practical help, some need public recognition, some want growth opportunities, and some simply want stability and clear expectations. When we take time to know our people as individuals, we can show appreciation in ways that actually land. Employee retention starts when our team feels seen, supported, and valued.
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Pet sitter appreciation, employee retention, low margin business, individual appreciation, practical gifts, recognition-driven, growth-oriented, experience-valued, stability seekers, clear expectations, consistent communication, team events, handwritten cards, in-the-moment recognition, employee questionnaires.
SPEAKERS
Collin, Meghan
Meghan 00:01
Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are. Hi, I'm Megan. I'm Collin. We are the hosts of pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Today's episode is brought to you by our friends at pet sitters associates and pet perennials. We also want to give a huge thank you to our Patreon supporters.
Meghan 00:18
They are pet sitters and dog walkers, just like you who love the podcast listen to it every week and want to keep it going so they give back some of their hard earned dog walking to pet sitting money to the podcast. If you have found value in the show and it's something that has helped you in your business or even just made you feel a little less alone in what you do, you can support the show at Pet Sitter confessional.com/support, if you have a team, we're going to talk about something that you have struggled with and wrestled with at some point during your business. And this was actually a listener question submitted by Kristin dehaas. And we can't believe that we've never talked about this on 700 episodes, but here we go. This is a good one, so thank you for your question. We are also excited to announce that this episode is eligible for one CEU from both naps and psi. So if you need CEUs, you do three things, listen to the episode, click the link in the show notes, and fill out the form to get the certificate. How do you keep your employees happy? How do you show your appreciation for them without blowing up your margins?
Collin 01:15
That one is very important, because,
Meghan 01:18
let's just say it plainly, this is not a high margin business. This is a one for one. There's not a ton of extra cash sitting around for big bonuses or elaborate gifts or constant perks. And yet, your team is everything. They are the backbone of what you do. You could not do what you do without them. They are the ones in the homes. They're the ones with the pets, day in and day out. They're the ones representing your business when you're not there. So appreciation matters. You need to tell them how awesome they are and how much they mean to you. The real question is, though, how do you do it in a way that works, that works for you, works for them, works for the business, works to keep them around without this high margin business. And
Collin 01:58
this is something that we have a desire to do. We want to make sure that our team is taken care of. Because we don't hire people just to waste time. We don't hire people just to get stuff off of our plate. We want to hire the best people, the most amazing people, to be on our team. We want to make sure that our clients are cared for in a professional and amazing way, and so we want to pay them well, but sometimes we want to go above and beyond that. So how does that work? Right? We tend to default, though, to the same handful of things. And I see this all the time. Megan and I struggle with this, right? The first thing you think of is, let me get a gift card. Get a gift card to a restaurant, or a gas card. Right now, with gas prices being so high, this is a common thought, if maybe I can get that for them, or, you know, a place where they like to shop, if you know them that well, so you want to get them a gift card, just a general, generic Visa gift card. Or we tend to go to, okay, now it's time for me to give you a gift. So I'm going to give you a company hat where it's our brand and our logo, or here's a new T shirt or a new sweater, or, here's a new rain jacket, something for them to have that company swag. Or the other thing that we tend to see a lot of is, okay, well, I'm just gonna give you a bonus, just a cash bonus, of thank you so much for your hard work this past weekend. We know it was a lot. Or, hey, everyone really killed it over the holidays. So here's a little bit of extra money for you.
Meghan 03:22
We aren't saying these things are bad at all, but here are the issues. Not everyone values those things the same way. Some people love receiving gifts. Some people don't. So you give someone a mug, but they don't want a mug. You give someone a gift card, but they forget to use it, or it gets lost in their car. You give someone a hoodie, it just sits in their closet, maybe it's not the exact right size they like, or the style they like, and now you've spent that money, but you didn't actually make them feel appreciated, and that really is the disconnect in a low margin business. This stuff matters a lot, because wasted appreciation is ultimately wasted money, and we don't have money to waste in this
Collin 04:02
business. And this is where we have that tension of I bring on employees. I want to treat them well. I want to make sure that they feel appreciated. But if I don't know them, if I don't understand where they are, what they need, I then and just tend to, I default to buying gifts that I would want, or buying, getting things that I think would be, that I would value, and that misses the point. Megan, you said that's the disconnect of, oh man, I love coffee, so I'm gonna give a company coffee mug to everybody. And if I were to give a coffee mug to Megan, she would never use it for coffee. She might use it for tea. But there's this Miss point of what we were trying to connect on. And if somebody doesn't drink anything like that, well then it's just wasted. It's going to fill the kitchen cabinets. And
Meghan 04:49
that's why it's so important to know what kind of gift receiver they are. Do they like getting gifts, or do they not? Do they kind of shy away from it? So instead of asking, What should I give my team? Ask. What kind of appreciation actually lands for this person,
Collin 05:03
this person, again, it's this person. It's at the individual level where this is really important.
Meghan 05:09
Your team isn't one group of people. Yes, you can go out and say, Hey everybody, have a Starbucks on me today, and that that's one level of appreciation. But at the deeper core of getting wanting this person to really stay with your company, you need to be doing individual things well.
Collin 05:26
And it's more than just trying to get them to stay with the company. It's I want them to feel seen and known at a personal level of I want them to see I want them to know that I get them, I understand who they are, and I value them as a person. And, you know, again, a Starbucks gift card. We certainly done this. Hey, it's Staff Appreciation Day. Here's a Starbucks gift card. Everyone go get something you want for the day. Everyone can find something that they like or enjoy, or at least can tolerate at a local coffee shop or something like that. But to do something extra, where you hand somebody a gift, and they kind of go, oh, wow, I wasn't expecting that. And how do we do that again with all this in the context of, how do I do that without breaking the bank? Because I'm not giving everybody like a Ferrari.
Meghan 06:13
I'm not giving myself a Ferrari,
Collin 06:15
right? So what kind of people do we have on the team? And
Meghan 06:20
there are a few different types here. So the practical one, a lot of people would fall into this one. The person wants things that make their life easier. So this is gas money. This is cash. This is something useful. They don't want just another thermos or another mug. They don't want to clutter their house. They don't want novelty. You know, a $15 gas card means more to them than a $40 gift box of fufu snacks,
Collin 06:43
right? You can go online and buy the Hey. Here's the movie watchers gift box that includes candy, popcorn and access to one or two rentals or whatever from whatever, whatever. If they're not into movies, they're going to really value that extra gift card. They're going to really value just that straight cash at because it's practical for them. This is the kind of person who wants something that is useful to them, either in the job or in their personal life, and that is a distinction that we have to make of what am I trying to do? Maybe I can give a gift the of company swag, but if it's practical, and I give it to a practical person, they're going to value that more than just a random gift card that, you know, we put money on,
Meghan 07:26
yeah, if you have a raincoat that you've branded, and they're always complaining or saying, Oh, it's raining again, and I don't have the proper gear, well, now this is a practical thing. You have covered them, and they're going to be happy about it. So if they aren't a practical person, maybe they are a recognition driven one. This person wants to be seen. They want to know that they're doing a good job. So share a client review with their name on it, or give them a shout out in your messaging in Slack, if that's what you have, or highlight them publicly in some way on your social media. That costs you nothing and it means everything to them. They think, Oh, my boss loves me, or gets me or appreciates me. I feel seen and heard in this company.
Collin 08:09
I feel seen for my quality of work that I'm trying to do. This is that phrase of, Hey, your hard work doesn't go unnoticed, and you may notice this day in and day out of the people who do amazing work. I mean, you have people on your team who do amazing work. When was the last time you thanked them publicly or just thanked them to their face? That's what this is. This is the recognition of, Hey, today was really hard, and you absolutely rocked it. Thank you so much for putting that extra effort with Maggie. Because I know she didn't want to go for the walk, but you worked with her great work today, and if you do that publicly in Slack, that is, that is going to be worth more to them than all the cash you could give them. And I see this as a major driver in our own team of the people that we've worked with. And I see people you know, across the industry of public recognition, people crave to be seen and known, and a simple thank you, or a simple Hey, I know that was hard, and you did a great work at that. That is one of the most valuable things we can give to people, and it's one of the ones that we withhold the most, because we tend to be the only ones. I mean, when we if you have a team, when was the last time you had a positive conversation with your employee? Or if you scroll back to the slack messages or the text messages or the phone calls, was it all, Hey, you did this wrong, you did this wrong, you did this wrong, you did this wrong. Hey, you forgot this. You missed this. We need to flip that, and that's what this is getting
Meghan 09:38
to over the years, it has surprised us. Just how many people say, Wow, I've never had a job that actually tells me I'm doing a good job or doing good work. So thank you. So it does kind of give back in and of itself. Of we are saying we are appreciating the team, and in turn, they appreciate us. Your employee may also be a growth oriented one. This. Person wants to improve. They want more responsibility. They want to feel trusted. They want to move forward. They want to move up in your company. They don't want just to be dog walking anymore. They want to be training other employees and really having the team under them. So for this person, you do want to give them a role in training, or send them out into meet and greets or do boots on the ground marketing, or have them mentor someone, send them through certifications. That's going to mean something to them as well, that really is going to show your appreciation to them.
Collin 10:29
They are driven by seeking out more skills, knowledge. And I think you said that, Megan, they want to be trusted. That is, there are people who are wired to want to be trusted and have that responsibility now, and usually it's not born out of a selfish desire to be puffed up or to be appear to be better than other people. I think it really comes from somebody who wants to do an amazing job and give back, who wants to see the team and the company succeed as much as possible, and they recognize that they have a role in that. And there is some discussion here of, okay, just because I send you to now you are training people, you do need to consider whether you're going to be paying them extra for that. So there may be a bump in compensation for this. It doesn't have to be a lot, but just something to recognize that you've taken on more responsibility here. But for these people, these growth oriented the responsibility, in and of itself, will be enough for them that that extra bump in pay isn't what they're looking for, and a great way to just set to try and determine what kind of person is a growth oriented person on your company, if you don't know, make three or Four little short courses available to them. Hey, watch this YouTube video and take this quiz. Or, hey, here's this thing on psis pro pet, and you can take this one or this one, one a month, and send me into your certification. Once that's done, that, you will find the people who are naturally attracted to that and want to learn more. And that's the kind of person you can lean in and give little, little responsibilities to the business. Hey, can you check in with this way? X, Y, Z, hey, I want you to be the go to and people have questions about this client. Or however that is, that's a great way to show that appreciation.
Meghan 12:15
There are also, then people who value experiences. So this person really values moments, so team events or inside jokes or shared experiences, they want to feel part of the culture, part of the team, part of a collective body, not just somebody out here on an island alone doing visits and that's it. No, I am part of this team. We're all moving in the same direction, and we're all on this ship together, going to this awesome Island
Collin 12:41
again here, this doesn't cost money, except to put on events and stuff. But you're not giving money directly to somebody. You're making the team event open and possible for people to attend. You develop those inside jokes, that culture, that shared history, that acknowledgement of shared experiences that have happened in the past, whether with a particular client or whatever that is or Hey, remember they like those callbacks. Hey, remember that hailstorm of 2026, or whatever that is? For you, they want to be connected and feel like they're part of something bigger. And whether this is an event, here's a real easy one for you. Make a shared Music Playlist for your team. This is, again, whether they like music or not, but people who want to have a shared experience, a commonality with people, they're going to love this, to share their music, to be involved with one another, to know that they're part of something bigger in this interesting and specific way.
Meghan 13:35
Yeah, they don't care about stuff as much as they care about the connection the body together. We're doing this thing. Rah, rah, Team Spirit. Then there are also people who want stability. They are the stability seekers. This one usually gets overlooked the most because they don't need the hype. They don't need the gifts. They really just want a predictable schedule, clear expectations, consistency. They just want to know at the end of the day, is my boss happy? They want to know, did I execute well? Did I do the thing that I am supposed to do? Did I check all the boxes? That's what drives them and that's what makes them feel appreciated.
Collin 14:13
You will find this person because they don't really show up in Slack, they don't really engage at team events. They don't really want anything extra or to contribute in other ways to the team or anything like that. They're not looking for the extra money. They don't really seem thrilled when you get them a gift, but when they know what to do, and they know that their schedule is somewhat set moving forward, or they know that there's some consistency of clientele or or, or maybe just how you operate. These people love the the operational side of things, to have that consistency that's really big for them, because they they're not they. They want to know, like you said, I am, what am I supposed to do? And then let me do it.
Meghan 14:56
They want to do the job. Yeah, right, which is kind of crazy sometimes, because. Again, yeah, these people aren't flashy. They aren't out there. They don't really show up to things or participate in a way that a lot of other people do. So it can kind of feel like they're falling off at times. And you and I have had this of going well, I think we need to check in with this person, because they're showing up and doing a great job, but they're not doing they're not participating, or they're not sharing their Fave photos or doing these other things that we think an employee should do. And so you and I kind of freak out, and we go, oh, this person is falling off. They may quit soon. We are starting to see signs. And then we have a conversation with them, and they're like, No, everything's great. Everything's fine. I'm happy. I want to keep doing this job.
Collin 15:39
Why are you talking to me, you're right. Because we feel like, okay, in order to be a good employee, you have to be super invested and love all this stuff and like, really, really engage and talk all the time and show up at all the meetings and share all the stuff and do all this blah, blah, blah. And that's just not some people. They just want to know that there's work to be done, and they want to get busy about it. And one or two things are going to happen here. One, you're going to stress over them, and you may, if you misinterpret this, you may start to micromanage them and try and force them to do things that they don't want to do, and then they end up becoming dissatisfied, or they can completely become overlooked, entirely with no acknowledgement, no recognition, nothing is ever said to them in any way, and they just kind of sit in the background and you Don't know what's going on, and they and then that can lead to a level of disconnect. But when there's that mutual understanding of, okay, Dave wants work, Dave's always on the schedule on Tuesdays, and I'm gonna let Dave do his thing. It's this, and then Dave knows I'm always on Tuesdays, and here's the work that I need to get done, and I'm just gonna do it. That's a mutual understanding of what this person is looking for?
Meghan 16:42
Yeah, we've definitely seen over the years that we can't force people to do things, and we shouldn't. I mean, there are people who do a great job, who we can depend on, and who just don't want all of the fluff that we provide. So as you can see, as we've detailed all of these different people, these are individual, specific things. And I'm sure as we've gone through these people, you've known people on your team Past Present who have these characteristics, who want these things or don't want these things, you do not have the resources to meet every preference perfectly, and that's okay, you know. Again, we're not buying Ferraris here. We're not shouting to the rooftops. We're not shouting to Guatemala of how awesome this person is. Your goal is not to buy happiness. We don't want to just buy people things to keep them happy and be on the team.
Collin 17:31
Right? Then you feel like, oh, man, I just have to keep upping the ante here. I have to keep spending more money. I'm now chasing this. And then the only reason this person is here is not for the team or not for the work or not for the clients and not for the pets. It's for the it's for the gifts that I get them all of the time. And that certainly is a trap that we can fall into. Again, we're not trying to buy that person's happiness. You remember, you don't control the happiness level of the people on your team. You don't do that. That is not your responsibility. There are things within your control that you can do. You can talk to them and understand who they are and what they want. Our goal, as the owner, as the person hiring these people, is just to pay better attention to the people on our team, to get to know that person. There's some questionnaires, hanging out with them, doing your ride alongs, your follow alongs, spending time with that person. It will help you understand whether a $10 gift or gesture or service or whatever is if that's going to hit or a $50 one, or whether you need to spend the 50 because the $10 isn't going to work. The point is to know which one is going to work for your particular employee. And
Meghan 18:39
we're not even saying gifts here again. This could be recognition. This could be getting together as a team, or doing team meetings, or collaborating with each other on a problem. Client that you're having like this doesn't have to mean spend money.
Collin 18:51
Oh, I love that example that you gave of, hey, let's come together to all work on this problem client, those those employees who want more responsibility, who want a little bit more recognition or involvement, they're going to flock to that. They're going to love being part of problem solving in the business now, because
Meghan 19:09
I'm sure they have opinions,
Collin 19:10
yeah, now that can certainly go sideways here, of people just sharing their opinions and being negative and all this stuff and but like you can, you can work through that, at least providing some opportunities, whether that's on a short team meeting of hey, let's talk about one problem that happened and come up with a solution. There are going people who just love being able to contribute and help others.
Meghan 19:31
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Collin 20:19
Oh, snap.
Meghan 20:19
Life happens. Things happen. They get unsatisfied. They leave. You know, we want to respect their schedule. We don't want to overload them. We don't want to constantly change things last minute. Now this is hard because we have clients who do change things last minute. People add things, people cancel their walks. The weather happens, and we have to delay things. This business is constantly in flux, but we do want to minimize that the best we can
Collin 20:44
well, and this is where why I think Megan and I are so such big proponents of shift scheduling when possible and when workable in your particular area, I know there are different rules and regulations of how this needs to be implemented. So check your local labor laws, because it may mean that you have to pay for all of the time that somebody is expected to be available. Other areas, it's easier to have sort of an on call expectation and shift however, when you have shift scheduling as best you can do this, what this means is that your employee knows the expectations of when their schedule is supposed to be, and this allows them to schedule the rest of their days and times and weeks around that they know that in one year, if they're still with you, they will be working the same shift on the same schedule. Now, what's in that bucket of time is going to be completely different and is going to change, and it can change from day to day even within the same day. However, when you have that time expectation that helps set them up for success, because that's not changing. I'm not moving them from morning to afternoon to evening to weekday to weekend, and back and forth and back and forth and all over the place. They can't plan a life around that. We want to be able to give that to people. You want them to have that time off, to schedule that when they request that, sure you may have to work with them. Find extra coverage. Plan ahead, block off certain dates. That's all on for you to do. But this is respecting when we respect their schedule, I'm respecting them. I'm respecting their time. What's
Meghan 22:11
also going to make a difference to them is having clear expectations. They know exactly what to do if you have a checkbox list for them, that's probably even better. They know I need to do this and this and this. They know how to do it as well. They have proper training. They know the company expectations. They know your expectations for what it means to do a good job, a great job. Do they know what it means to wow the client? Make sure that they're not guessing on visits, because that leads to unhappy clients, unhappy employees, unhappy you. And they need to know, I need to do this and this and this, to do a great job and end the day well,
Collin 22:47
well, and so you talked about that, hey, do they know how to do it? So this reaches all the way back into your training and onboarding. Do they know when I'm standing in a visit, not just what I'm supposed to do, but what steps does the company do to accomplish that? How, if you send somebody in and they've never given insulin shot to a cat, do they know how to do that? Do they know the expectations, and it's everything that falls from that? Did they know to bring in the mail? Did they know to do double clip on the dog? Did they know to check the window for this particular client, or switch the lights on or off for them? Do they know these things that falls to us to do, because when our team is left guessing in the field, it really decreases their job satisfaction, because they feel like they're just having to make it up. Now they may have good instincts, they may be really well versed in things and be doing the right kind of work, but when the pressure falls to them, when that, if this, then that kind of statement falls to them to figure out what to do, that is added stress in their life that they don't need and they don't want.
Meghan 23:54
And speaking of expectations, they need to know that they are supported in the field again, that they're not on an island alone. Of course, people don't want to be micromanaged at the same time, they need to know that there is someone. They can call for help when they need it, when something goes wrong. They're not alone. Yes, they can make judgment calls, but at the end of the day, things need to be escalated. When they need to be escalated, they can call you, they can get help. They can trust that you've got their back and the team has their back. They can go to the team as well for other questions,
Collin 24:25
when, because a lot of this stuff is very time sensitive, and when they have that question, sure, you can prepare all you want for visits. You can do whatever you want. I'll spend all of your time studying and reviewing the notes, but things are going to come up that are unexpected, and they need help, and they need to ask that question, do they know when to contact you, if you've got team managers or daily managers or team leads or general manager do do they know who to contact and what they're contacting them for? If you say, Okay, you only contact me when somebody is bleeding or on fire, and preferably both well that. Certainly one level of communication versus any question that you have at any point in time, let us know
Meghan 25:05
well and also what's worthy of a Slack message versus what's worthy of a phone call.
Collin 25:08
Yes,
Meghan 25:09
if something's burning down, that's an immediate phone call. Don't wait for me to respond in Slack,
Collin 25:13
because at each step, they want to know that you can help support them, that you're going to be there to answer their questions. This is an independent job where people are operating in their home, in clients' homes, driving around towns at all hours of the day without your direct oversight. In a more traditional brick and mortar job, they'd be able to turn to their left and ask you, or walk into your back office, or turn to their fellow team member and say, Hey, I don't understand this. We don't have that here. So yes, we hire independent people, and we hire people who are motivated and do what work well by themselves. However, no one is an island, and you've got to have that backup, and that's what we can provide them,
Meghan 25:52
along with that consistent communication. So again, not just hearing from you when something is wrong, go back through your past conversations with people. Is it all you do that you did this wrong and you did this wrong, and why did you forget this and now somebody else has to clean up your mess because you didn't do this. People don't want to hear that. I think the rule is like you need to say 10 positive things for every one negative thing that you say. That's a lot of positive things. So get to it. Your employees want to hear you did that well, or the client loved that update. That was handled exactly right. You did a good job. That was a really tough cat that you worked with. That cat is not very social, but you were calm, and you did that well.
Collin 26:32
I love finding those moments to be able to congratulate and uphold and shout out their judgment calls for when they when they made a judgment call. Maybe they didn't have time to reach out for help, or maybe they didn't think they needed to, or maybe they just did and let us know about it later, and they did a really good job with it. Well, I'm going to make sure that I applaud them and say, You know what? That was a really tough call, and you made the right one. You upheld our company's standards. You did right by the client. Thank you so much for that great work.
Meghan 27:05
And again, notice here these things that we're talking about don't cost you money. It costs you nothing. To cost you nothing to be a kind person, to be a nice person, to say thank you or we appreciate you. It's more powerful than almost anything you can buy now, probably not a Ferrari
Collin 27:22
big one.
Meghan 27:23
But again, we're not buying those.
Collin 27:25
But again, what we're doing, we're layering here, and here's the benefit of this, ready when you have scheduling, respect for people, when you respect people's time, when you set clear expectations, when you support people, whenever you have good communication. Guess what? This? This doesn't just mean happier employees. All of this actually means a better run business, and you can meet your client expectations a lot better too. This means that those client preferences don't just slip through the cracks or fall off somebody's plate. This means that you are capturing the institutional knowledge of your business and giving it to each employee who walks through your door and saying, Here's what it means to be excellent and execute well, not just in my business, but at this client and this client and this client and this client and this client, you're being clear. You outline those things, having those good visit SOPs or client. SOPs gives them power to be able to come in, be confident in what they're doing and then execute well, and then we congratulate them. And it's this beautiful cycle that we work through,
Meghan 28:25
because again, nobody likes going to their job and just being told all the things they've done wrong, day after day after day. Yes, there are some hurdles and hoops we have to jump through in the beginning of training to our standard. And there are going to be times in the beginning, where I do tell you, kind of repeatedly, the same things and when you mess up, but in the hopes that dies down after the first week or two and you are more in sync with our company
Collin 28:52
well. And so here's that actually looks like very practically, if you have a really tough week, maybe it's spring break, or maybe it's an unexpectedly busy weekend, or that employee stepped up it to cover some visits because somebody else was sick. Write them a handwritten card, send them a note in the mail. You have their address. You hired them. You can do this. It takes exactly three minutes to do. You have to scrounge around for a stamp, sure, but buy a few extra because you want to. May want to do this again. I know this is actually something that Joey Coleman talks about. There's a never lose an employee again book that he does, and this is one of the things that he mentions in that book of, hey, just do a handwritten card. Because why? Why is that so impactful? A, nobody gets nice things in the mail anymore. B, it actually costs us just a little bit sure the stamp, but also the time to write it. Text messaging, emails, Slack, pumble, those are cheap to do. You can fire one of those off without even thinking, and have aI write it for you and write and have it automatically sent out. These days, a handwritten card is different. It just hits different. Just a thank simple, thank you to them. Megan, you mentioned this. This one earlier. If someone has if a client recommends or writes a five star raving review and mentions the employee by name, make sure to share that out yes on social media. Tag it on your internal messaging software so that the rest of the team can see that and they get that recognition for what they've been working on. If
Meghan 30:17
somebody's been working extra hard lately and they ask for a little bit of time off, try to grant that for them as much as possible, and have others chip in. If there's a client that they love spending time with and they mention that to you, maybe accommodate that and try to always give them that client, their preferred client, if they have been excelling well lately, give them some ownership in a small area. Maybe it's being in charge of meet and greets or being in charge of more admin tasks, route planning, approving visits anywhere where you can give them a small win is going to make them feel appreciated or even a quick Hey. Great job message that's very specific. Great job on working with that client. Great job on handling that well when the client was home unexpectedly, even a small cash moment, $10 $20 or a gas card, like we mentioned earlier, paired with I saw what you did there, and that mattered. You are a great employee. We are so glad to have you on the team. Words matter a lot to people more, probably more than you think. So make sure that you are puffing people up, making sure that they know how much you appreciate them well,
Collin 31:21
and what's impactful about that, that you mentioned Megan, it's the in the moment recognition. It's not waiting till their quarterly review. And spoiler alert, you should be doing regular check ins and reviews with your employees, but don't wait till that time to do these shout outs and these recognitions. They don't mean anything by then, they've probably forgotten about that, that extra effort that they put in three months ago on that one random visit on a Tuesday you wrote it down. Sure, good on you, but they're not going to recognize that. So try as best we can in the moment to and in the moment means, within a couple days, do the shout out, send the recognition. Thank them for that. This
Meghan 32:00
episode is also brought to you by pet perennials. If you've been in the pet care industry long enough, you know this truth, the way you show up during the hard moments is exactly what clients remember. Pet perennials helps pet businesses do exactly that. They create beautiful sympathy and milestone gifts for pet parents, and their gift perks program makes it easy to send those gifts directly to your clients. No inventory, no packing boxes, no running the post office. You simply choose the gift and pet perennials takes care of the rest. They also include a handwritten card and gift wrap at no additional cost. It's a thoughtful way to support grieving clients, while also building the kind of long term loyalty that great pet businesses are built on. Learn more and open a free gift perks account at Pet perennials.com after employees are onboarded with us for a few weeks, we send them a questionnaire ways to get to know them. So what's your favorite way to spend a day off? Or if you could have any superpower, what would it be? Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of work to try to get to know them? More of when we do send them a gift or when we do something special or nice for them, what are they going to want? What are they going to look for and feel appreciated the most by, you know, what's their type of favorite, type of music or band? What do they like outside of work? That's going to really help you craft some gift ideas for them, bespoke for them,
Collin 33:14
sure, and it's more than just, you know, if we ask, Hey, are you a coffee or tea person? And so that, if they say tea, I'm only, only going to give them tea, you know, exotic teas, or tea, coffee mugs, that kind of stuff, forever and ever. It's just saying, hey, what kind of person who likes tea? What else would they like? And really, it's just these silly little questions of getting to you, Said, getting to know you. Because when we are so disconnected from our employees. We never see them on any given day. Now we do weekly team meetings, and I want to encourage you, who are this, try and do something like that, where they're very short, they're 15, maybe 20 minutes, but you have that connection outside of that. When do you talk to these people? What are you sharing? What do you have in common? What do you know about them and have that connection, so that not that you can be best friends with them, but that you can show appreciation in ways that are going to be really meaningful and impactful to them
Meghan 34:08
well, and we have a document for each employee. And so when we find out these little things about them, whether it's on a phone call or something that they just tell the client of, Oh, I saw you. Have this picture of a palm tree in your house. I love palm trees as well, and thought it was so pretty, or whatever, these little quirks that they tell you without telling you in the moment. It's important to write those things down to better inform how you work with them moving forward, and how you can appreciate them in those tough moments sometimes
Collin 34:40
and again, just because they say, oh, man, I really love taking vacations to beaches. Well, that I'm not going to give gift them a beach vacation. I can't afford that, but maybe I can give them a puzzle, a puzzle of a beach, or, you know, these little things that are more reminiscent of the beach or that kind of atmosphere that. Kind of life that they would appreciate and enjoy. That's what this comes down to. And Megan, I love how you said, what you just said was you have to pay attention. And we mentioned that earlier, but they're going to mention things about their life, their past experiences, things that they like, don't like, that's just going to come out in conversation. Now, first off, you have to be able to have those conversations. And then second, when you do have them take those notes, write those things down, because you will forget them. But that makes it so powerful to know when they briefly mentioned something, you write it down. The next time you show appreciation, it's related to that thing that they said. Like when you know a gift that we gave, you know a guy, it was a Funko Pop, right? And it was a rock Funko Pop, because he really likes rock. Well, he just thought that was so fun, because, did he collect funkopop? No, but it was rock themed, and he was like, hardcore rock guy, and he just thought it was so cool that we thought of something like that to give him. And it really meant a lot more than the than the $10 that actually cost now,
Meghan 36:02
it's also important to remember that sometimes we get these things wrong. Just because we have somebody pegged doesn't mean that that's exactly, you know, the gift, if that's going to work for them, or the shout out that's going to they're going to just oh, they're going to be glowing for days after we've said thank you so much for working with Maggie. Sometimes we get these things wrong. Sometimes they're not going to show appreciation for the gift, some or whatever it is. Sometimes, you know, we're going to send something in the mail and then never hear anything back, a thank you or anything. And kind of be wondering, did they actually get it? Did it go to the wrong address? What? What's the status of this thing? And then it feels awkward to check in of, Hey, did you get that thing I sent you? You don't want to do that, but we have to keep in mind that we need to be doing this with a charitable heart and coming at this from we don't need them to say thank you back. We're trying to show our appreciation, and sometimes with certain employees, that only works one way
Collin 37:01
well, and like you said, it may mean that I think I found somebody who needs shout outs and appreciation on Slack, but really they're more practical. Maybe I misjudged my conversation with them. Well, don't be afraid to pivot and try out a couple different options to see what's going to make the biggest and best impact for them. One of the worst things that you could do is just always stick to kind of the same thing, of the same gift to all the same people, no matter what. And that's just what you do. Why do why do we give gift cards? Because that's just what we always do. We always have and we always what. We don't do anything
Speaker 1 37:33
different.
Meghan 37:33
Or the other big mistake you can make is giving everybody the exact same thing. Now, sure is, could this work for gas cards, because, yes, everybody needs gas or Starbucks, they can find somebody something there that they like, but in general, do not give everybody the same thing. This is also different for swag. As a company, everybody gets a t shirt. Okay, that's different, but not everybody is going to get a cactus plant for their for their one year. Some people don't like plants at all and are not going to appreciate a cactus. So everybody should not get cactus. Yeah.
Collin 38:04
Also avoid over promising on bonuses that you can't sustain, basically saying, hey, yeah, everybody always gets a bonus at x time, or x time or whatever that you don't know if you'll be able to make that work or not. And I think there's, there's some difference in nuance here, if you have a hiring bonus, or if you have a referral bonus, if you have those kind of things, but be very careful about what you are promising to people, because what you say matters. You're the boss now. You're the business, and when the business says things, employees, listen, clients, listen, your community listens. We have to be ready for that.
Meghan 38:38
It's also important to recognize everyone. Try it as equally as you possibly can. So if you ignore the people at the top because they're already doing a great job, and they know they're doing a great job, but the people at the bottom who need a little help, a little encouragement to get up to where the top people are, well that's not going to make the top people feel awesome. It's going to say where's my recognition? I'm doing all of this hard work. I'm putting in a lot of my blood, sweat and tears sometimes. And where is my appreciation?
Collin 39:08
Yep, and this is one of this is extremely easy to do. The top performers. You're never going to hear from them. You don't need to talk to them. You don't need to mention them. You don't need to address any issues. So you stop talking about them, or to them, or even thinking about them. We have certainly gone through that phase where we have these amazing performers on the team, and we don't even know when they're in the field, because we're not worried about it, stressed about it, thinking about it, monitoring what they're doing, they're just off operating. What that tends to do is it means that I never say anything about that, and like you said, Megan, we then focus on all of the poor performers and the people we're really working on, trying to get them back up, get them into the team, really work on them. And so I'm showering them with praise to help encourage them in these ways. And it means that those top performers end up believing because they didn't get appreciated. Man, I was busting it this whole time. I did everything they asked me to, and yet. I was never recognized. And you may think, Oh, well, I didn't think I had to, because
Meghan 40:04
you're doing such a great job.
Speaker 2 40:05
Yeah.
Collin 40:05
And they'll go, I tell me that it's, it's really, it's really that simple. And
Meghan 40:10
when we think of appreciation, we hope by now, through through this episode, you don't think that it equals stuff or gifts. It doesn't have to be again saying words to them positive, affirming words of how awesome they are, is going to mean more than you think it does, because really no other job says that. They don't, you know, they don't really give them a gold star for just showing up. But we do. We need to be doing that because it's so important. We rely on these people, day in and day out, to do the work, to care for the pets, to notice the little things about them. There are definitely ways that we can mess this up. We can not show appreciation at all. We can show appreciation in the wrong way. We can give the same thing to everybody. But there are ways that we can do this exceptionally well, and that means pay attention. Pay attention to what they say to you, to the nuances in the conversations that you have with them, at the team meetings or at the team events. What kind of conversations do they have? And this takes time. This is not an easy thing. This is not a flippant thing. That's just going to take five minutes and they answer these five questions and you've got gifts and stuff for them for the next five years. No, this is an ongoing process that you're going to have to get to know them in deeper ways over time.
Collin 41:26
And it's some simple thing, like, let's say somebody you talk about getting, no people, it takes time. Let's say one of your employees. They have a kid who's in dance class, and, you know, they're going off to this big competition. Maybe a way that you show appreciation for that employee is by getting the rest of your team to write them a go out, get them best of luck hoorah kind of card as they go out to celebrate, you're cheering on their kid, but you're also encouraging the parent. And that parents going to know, oh my goodness, these people know me. They understand me. They get me, and when they ask for time off, they know what this means, and and they're encouraging me in this way that comes from us saying hey, and it's not tied to work at all. It's not saying, hey, great job. Scoop and litter boxes today. We know you'll do well at competition. No, it's just hey, you know, hope your trip goes well. And from here, from everybody here, on the team, we hope the competition goes well. We'll be cheering on for you. That lets somebody know I'm man, that I really feel seen right now
Meghan 42:27
Well, and again, at brick and mortar, at office settings, this is so much easier to do. You have water cooler conversations. That's literally the term for it, that you just get to know other people, and you share the gossip and whatever else. We're not gossiping here, but you share other stories about yourself and what's going on in your life, and you get to know other people that way. And so this is so much easier in that setting, and that's why we have to get creative in our setting, in our world, because it is harder for us to get to know our people, but it is equally, if not more, so important, because we want them to know they're not alone at the end of the day, appreciation in this industry isn't about spending more. It's about paying attention better. It's about knowing your people. It's about recognizing what actually matters to them and meeting them where they are. When you get that right, you don't just keep employees happy, you keep them. And that's the whole point of this. We want to keep people for years to come, because they do a great job, because we see value in them. They see value in the work that they do by serving other people, and we can all collectively serve our community better. If you have found value in this episode, and we hope you have, please share it with a dog walker or a pet sitter friend, and don't forget, this episode was eligible for one CEU from both naps and psi. So now that you've listened to the episode, click the link in the show notes to take the quiz and get the certificate. We also want to thank our sponsors, pet citizens, associates and pet perennials. And we thank you so much for listening. We hope you have a great day.
Collin 43:54
Bye. You
