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What does it take to build a pet care business where clients, sitters, and owners never have to guess what happens next? Max Vickers and Nelson Kahr share how they are building Paige’s In-Home Pet Care in Illinois and Bentonville Pet Care in Arkansas while adapting their systems to two very different markets. They discuss why listening is at the heart of sales, how simply answering the phone can dramatically improve conversion, and why professional pet care has to communicate its value beyond price. Max and Nelson also explain their rigorous approach to hiring, sitter accountability, technology, and creating enough operational capacity before pursuing additional growth. Their experience is a reminder that sustainable expansion comes from continually refining the systems that create peace of mind for both clients and the people providing the care.
Main topics:
Building Capacity Before Growth
Selling Through Better Listening
Answering Every Client Call
Hiring for Reliable Care
Creating Systems Without Guesswork
Main takeaway: “We want to be able to give them what they’re buying for, which is peace of mind and love for their pets and animals.”
This is the heart of professional pet care.
Clients aren’t simply purchasing a 30-minute visit, an overnight stay, or a dog walk. They’re purchasing the ability to leave home knowing someone dependable is going to show up, follow the instructions, communicate clearly, and genuinely care about their pets.
Creating that peace of mind requires more than loving animals. It takes intentional hiring, strong systems, accountability, communication, and enough capacity to deliver what you’ve promised.
In this episode of Pet Sitter Confessional, Nelson Kahr and Max Vickers share what they’re learning while building pet care businesses in two different states—and why their goal is to create a service where the client, sitter, and business owner never have to guess what’s happening.
About our guests:
Max Vickers is the co-founder of Paige’s In-Home Pet Care in Illinois and Bentonville Pet Care in Arkansas. After years of using different pet care providers with his wife Paige and their own rescue pets, Max saw an opportunity to build a professional service around reliability, strong processes, and exceptional care. His professional background in sales and technology influences his systems-oriented approach to operations, communication, automation, and growth. He is focused on building businesses with the infrastructure and capacity to grow without sacrificing the client experience.
Nelson Kahr is the co-founder of Bentonville Pet Care and has been caring for pets professionally since one of his first jobs after moving to the United States. Originally from Venezuela, Nelson later built a career in technology and sales, including work at Amazon, where he met Max. Now based in Bentonville, Arkansas, he combines his sales experience with a lifelong love of animals to help build a professional pet care company focused on communication, reliability, and peace of mind. Nelson remains active in the field so he can understand firsthand what great care should look like for both clients and sitters.
Bentonville Pet Care’s current website identifies Nelson and Max as founders and pet sitters and describes the company’s focus on customized, professional in-home care. Paige’s In-Home Pet Care similarly describes its mission around reliability, professionalism, and providing the standard of care the owners expect for their own animals.
Links:
Bentonville Pet Care — Pet sitting, dog walking, and cat drop-ins in Bentonville and Northwest Arkansas. BentonvillePetCare.com
Paige’s In-Home Pet Care — In-home pet sitting, dog walking, and cat care in Illinois. PaigesPetCare.com
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Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Pet Sitter Confessional, its hosts, or sponsors. We interview individuals based on their experience and expertise within the pet care industry. Any statements made outside of this platform, or unrelated to the topic discussed, are solely the responsibility of the guest.
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
Collin 0:02
Welcome to Pet Center Confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Today, we're brought to you by our friends at Timed Pet and Pet Sitters International. Growing and starting any pet care company has its own unique challenges. How do we make sure that we overcome those well, serve our clients with excellence, and grow at a pace that still gives us good boundaries. And what does it look like to be connected with others in the industry as well as we grow? To talk about this and a lot more here, I'm really excited to have Max Vickers and Nelson Carr with Pages In Home Pet Care and Bentonville Pet care as well. There's a connection there, I promise, and we're going to talk about that. So, guys, I'm so excited to have you both on the podcast today. For those who aren't familiar with you or your work, Nelson, we're going to start with you. Tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do.
Nelson Kahr 0:55
Absolutely. So, as you said, my name is Nelson. Originally from Venezuela, came to the U.S. about 12 years ago, and and the first job I got was a dominoes. The second one was as a pet sitter. So I've been a pet sitter for quite some time, and I've been around dogs and cats pretty much since I I got memory. Then I, you know, started in Miami. Then moved to California for a tech job, and then Seattle, where I started to work at Amazon. Met Max at Amazon as well, and you know, have been in in tech for quite some time. And I maintain a major love for animals, which is basically what kind of like led me to take on this opportunity with Max and open up a pet sitting business here in Bentonville, where we basically we try to hire and develop a business as if we were doing it for ourselves. Like some of the pet sitters that we have here watch over Coco when I travel, so we, yeah, we hold a very high bar for what we do, and and we love doing it.
Collin 2:11
Awesome, Max. How about yourself?
Maxwell Vickers 2:15
Yeah, I'm Max. Currently live in Libertyville, Illinois, but grew up in Southwest Michigan and lived on the West Coast for the last last several years in different places, which is where I met Paige, my wife, and grew up around around animals. But she's the one that converted me into a true animal lover. She's through and through been an animal lover her whole life. She's had cats, dogs, parrots, you name it. And so, when we lived in Seattle, we rescued our our first cat there, and then that turned into another cat, and then rescuing a dog, our dog Cami. And over the years, living on the West Coast, we hired different you know pet care services, whether it be from Rover, WAG, independent pet sitting businesses, and you know, thankfully never had a terrible experience, but definitely experienced varying levels of of care and comfort with those different services. And we moved back to Illinois beginning of last year, and we wanted to start a business on the side, and there was a company in Boulder, Colorado that we had used called Peer and Home Pet Care. And I reached out to the business owner, set up a call with him, and just kind of learned a little bit more about what it meant to be a professional pet sitter and run a pet sitting business. And that's how things kind of got started, and we started Pages in Home Pet Care last year, and things have been going going well. And kind of took our infrastructure and the things we learned, and launched Benderville Pet Care this year.
Collin 3:52
That's a lot of a lot of growth and expansion, pretty quick. Was that in the cards from the very beginning? I mean, you said you started it as a kind of a side thing, right away, and then all of a sudden you've launching in a completely different state. What was when did that come into your mind?
Maxwell Vickers 4:08
Yeah, the the intention was to grow for sure. You know, we I've pet sat for friends and family before, but you know, never as a professional pet sitter, and so we we originally built the business and the processes and the infrastructure for the business with the intent to grow. Before we even you know had our first pet sitting gig, we had SOPs in place for the way that we operated. We had onboarding plans for new sitters, and initially for the for the Illinois business, it was my wife and myself doing most of the jobs just to you know learn and understand you know what our clients were looking for with with care. You know we had we had some idea with our experience and with our own pets, but that's kind of how it how it began. And the the floodgates opened. Quickly for the business, and that had its own growing pains with just operational capacity and you know being able to fulfill the the jobs and the requests that we were getting. But we started to get into a good rhythm with that. And Nelson and I both work in in corporate and identified Bentonville, Arkansas, as a location where kind of fit the customer demographic that we were looking for, and took a lot of the same kind of business practices and infrastructure there, but realized it's also a different client there, and so we've been kind of adapting to that. And Nelson's really been kind of learning the the market and what what people are looking for with pet care in Arkansas, Nelson?
Collin 5:44
What's that process been like for you? I mean, did you did you move there to start the the pet care company, or were you already in the on site?
Nelson Kahr 5:51
Yeah, I was already here, which obviously helped, right? And the process it's it's been great. Like like Matt said, "I mean, it comes with growing pains, but I'm also taking in a lot of the jobs myself, just to you know understand like the ins and outs and learn like what great looks like and be able to also speak to it when I'm training tutors and stuff like that. So the process has been great. We had probably like most of them were like great experiences. So yeah, it's it's been it's been awesome.
Collin 6:29
I love that phrase that you just said, Nelson. Of you had to learn what great looks like.
Maxwell Vickers 6:34
Yeah,
Collin 6:34
I'd love to hear from both of your perspectives. Why is that so important to you and how you serve your clients?
Nelson Kahr 6:41
Yeah, I'll kick it off. I think like being being a consumer of this service myself, and having experience like different levels of service, I think what we what we're looking for when we're away is peace of mind. We just want to know that our pets are loved and and cared for, and communication is there, so I think setting the foundation for what that should look like with our business is super important, right? Because we we want to be able to give them what they're buying for, which is peace of mind and love for their pets and animals.
Maxwell Vickers 7:19
Yeah, I I agree with that. I think too, like when when you're in the field to begin, you know you've got some expectation of what you're looking for as a consumer, but then you also experience all these different types of situations that you then want to account for and train your sitters on, and make sure that they're equipped to handle those types of situations and give that client that experience that they're looking for, and you also handle you know different types of of clients and you know different clients have different needs and we might have some expectations as consumers, but after you know dealing with hundreds and hundreds of clients, you kind of get a tell on the different things that they might be looking for in their service, which can equip us to train our sitters and give both you know our sitters and those clients that peace of mind that Nelson talked about.
Collin 8:10
And you you get that rhythm and that those especially a lot of the common and shared words that clients start to use. You pick up on that. You know, I definitely know of the hey, I'm doing a meet and greet with a client, and they're talking about a problem and a concern. And as I think, like, oh, like I can start picking up those patterns of, oh, I've experienced this before. And sure, everyone is is special and unique, and they're in their own thing. But then when you can start saying like, yeah, we've done similar things, you can just see that the tensions start to relieve from the shoulders. And one really specific for me. We had a client that they were really anxious. Their daughter just moved off to college, and she had always watched the dog. And this was the first time they were having somebody else. And we're just sitting there, and I'm just like, "Yeah, absolutely, absolutely." And the wife turns, she smacks her husband on the shoulder, and she goes, "We can go gambling again." Yeah, you know, you you live your life, right? We're we're here, and but you don't get to that point if you're not. It sounds like both of you have been very intentional about like listening to the client and listening. Was that something that was innate to you, or did that come from your backgrounds in in tech and what you were working on there?
Maxwell Vickers 9:22
We're both in sales, so I think that yeah, that that helps. You know, listening is an important part of of sales for sure. And there's there's the customer you know service component to it too. And so like we've you know dealt with all kind of varying levels of customers. Some of them complex, some of them not so complex. And being able to listen to them and get on their level and kind of service what they're looking for is is important for sure. A
Collin 9:56
lot of people come into this industry because they. Don't I mean we don't have there's no trade school there's no you know business school to go to to get wind up in so a lot of us don't have that background in sales I mean where how do you view sales because a lot of people they get uncomfortable around quote unquote selling because it's oh it's I'm talking about myself like how do you work through that process, or how do you view a true sales process of, hey, I have something that you want, you have something, you know, you have a need. Let's let's come together on this.
Nelson Kahr 10:32
I feel like probably like the biggest mistake that we can make as a salesman is to talk about ourselves a lot, right? We we have to give the floor to to the seller so we can understand exactly what they need, what they're looking for, and how they're looking for it. That way, we can pair what we have with what they need. Right? If we're not able to listen and understand what it is that they're looking for, like we're just we're just talking about ourselves.
Maxwell Vickers 11:02
Yeah, I I agree with that. I mean, I think you know an important part of that first interaction with um with uh with a pet owner is asking them questions, asking them questions of if they've if they're looking for overnight care, you know, if they've had overnight care in the past, what they're looking for that experience to be like telling us about their pet, and I think you know through through those questions we can learn a lot about the client and the pet, and you know understand how our service can be best fit for for them, and that's that's probably the most like important part of the the selling process. Our our services are higher priced than you know most of our most of our competitors, and so you know I think being able to start with that discovery and then share with them like, hey, here's you know the the parts of our service that we think are best for you and what makes us different compared to some other options. That's kind of how we go about it.
Collin 12:00
Is that a difference between your two locations? I think Max, you were kind of alluding to of you know it's a different clientele, different market. Like, is that are those things that you guys are working out of how do I sell this service at this price point in two different areas, or what's that been like now that you're in operating Across states,
Maxwell Vickers 12:23
yeah. So we, when we launched, we adjusted pricing downward for for a couple of reasons in in Arkansas. One, you know, the minimum wage is lower in that state than it is in in Illinois, and then two, although you know there are some affluent you know individuals in in Bentonville, Arkansas, the overall demographic in that area is is a little bit different, and the income levels are different, and so we wanted to to match that both for those two reasons, and we're we're still getting the hang of it. I would say, I mean, pricing is an objection that comes up with clients in both both geographies, but I would say more so in in Arkansas. And so we're looking at you know tailoring different service options, expanding our our suite of drop-in options, things like that to to better serve those clients.
Collin 13:24
Nelson, what's that like for you when you get hit with the that's too expensive? Because that's that's something that I mean, truthfully, like oh, I experience like we're just north of you, we're in the middle, you guys here in Missouri, and that's that phrase of like oh, I wasn't expecting that because it's and it's truthful. Like this is a this is a service that up until very recently was done by friends, families, neighbors, acquaintances, people they already know, like and trust, and got free, or they could barter something with food or flowers or you know beer. And now we come in saying, "Oh, this is a premium service. This is a professional service. We have processes, and it's costly. Would you like to sign up?" And boy howdy, there tends to be a lot of crickets on the other end.
Nelson Kahr 14:04
Yeah, I think we we do see that happening here. Not to the point where I'm concerned about it. I feel like like people see and can hear the quality of the service that we're able to provide, and also we we've been able to gather some good reviews. And I think going going above and beyond and answering the phone, it's it's super important, right? A lot of a lot of the clients that we've had for higher ticket services, they called us directly, and the only thing that we had to do was pick up the phone and figure out a solution for them, right? So, I think yeah, we're seeing some pushback on pricing, which is normal in any business. We obviously want to adjust to accommodate the majority of the population, and and. That's an exercise that we're going to continue to do until we until feel until we feel comfortable. But yeah, we get some pushback on on pricing. Nothing like really concerning, but definitely something to to pay attention to and and trying to monitor. But I think like honestly, like picking up the phone, being being able to communicate with the clients effectively, kind of shows some of that value that they're paying for upfront.
Maxwell Vickers 15:30
Collin, I think it was maybe an episode of your podcast that I listened to, and there I think it was a business in Florida, and they were talking about just this perception shift of you know a lot of things have changed in terms of price over the last several years, and pet sitting being one of them. And consumers are still thinking that they can pay their high school neighbor, you know, 15 bucks for the evening to care for their you know pets and give them a high level of care, and I think that's something that just like the industry and consumers are adjusting to in general. But we're we're starting to see it, and we're not like we're when when pet parents interact with us, like we're here to educate them and you know share with them the value of going with a professional pet sitter, but they're also experiencing it. Like Nelson, there was there was a situation where there was a pet parent that reached out to Bentonville Pet Care, and they decided not to go with our service due to price, and they found a sitter on Rover, and they called us two days into their their trip, and they said, "Hey, my sitter hasn't been to the the house yet. I can't get a hold of them. I don't know what's going on with with my dogs." And so, you know, we were able to quickly respond. Did did a wellness check on the dogs. Everything was okay, and we you know we serviced them for the remainder of of their trip. And I think on our end, like we we know that it feels good for us to be able to, you know, be there and respond to situations like that. But then we also know that, you know, that's that's someone that's you know now converted and they're going to be looking for you know the highest level of care, knowing that they have that peace of mind that Nelson talked about earlier.
Collin 17:17
Yeah, people, it's a weird service for for our clients, and we often forget that because we know that we're providing such a high quality of a high professional level of care with with details, and we're following. We've got SOPs, and we've got the backup, and we've got everything on the back end. But the client doesn't experience that, right? They they from their end, they're 1000 miles away. They're in a different time zone. They're on a different continent, and they're just getting updates that are trickling in. How do they know? And that's it. We always have to remember, like they experience us very removed from the moment to moment when we're in the visit. And how do we bring that in? And ultimately, that question of did you show up? Did you follow directions? That's fundamental to what we do, and we have to be able to show. I I've been thinking a lot of this in the context of could my business, could our work that we do be audited by an outside party? If somebody came in and said, "Okay, prove that you did the thing," do I have that? Are we able to do that? Can I showcase in that way? Because that's what the client's looking for fundamentally, we talk about that peace of mind. They want to audit our work, and that's that's just part of it. Have you heard of Time to Pet? Anne Marie with Sunshine Pet Care has this to say: I
Speaker 1 18:32
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Collin 19:01
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Maxwell Vickers 19:10
And like I think having that that standpoint mindset, like it's it's like one like you you feel good about the service that you're offering because you know the pets are getting the highest level of care and care that you'd expect for your own pets. But then, too, like we've had like situations where clients have come back to us and said, "Hey, I've got a question about this," or "Hey, were you were you here during this time frame?" And and having those logs and those reports and being able to look at those things and provide them to them, it's it's an important safeguard for the business too. Yeah,
Collin 19:45
yeah. I've I've long said I can do two things at one time. I can provide the client with peace of mind and comfort that we're doing our job, and I can cover our butts. Those two by doing one action, just take one photo, and you can do a. With that, yeah,
Maxwell Vickers 20:01
yeah, yeah, and I, I think we're like we're getting to a point now with both businesses where our our ideal state with like the way that we think about building these automations and business processes and things is there's no there's no guessing, like there's no guessing from the client's end, on the level of care that they expect, or if the person's at their home, or when they arrive to their home, and there's no guessing from the pet sitter's end on what the expectations are from the client on the care and the instructions and things like that during during the visit, and there's no guessing on our end whether you know the sitter is is there and providing that level of care and doing the things and following the subps that we tell them to. So that's that's you know something that like that's kind of our like north star right now is like build things to where there's like there's no guessing from any party's end in terms of the the service and what what folks are doing.
Collin 20:56
I I did want to talk about that. I know that you've experimented quite a bit with technology. I think I read about you know you're dealing with Meta AI glasses and all things like that. So from both of your perspectives, like how do you know when when a piece of tech, when a piece of you know when a new automation or a new software, how do you judge whether that's going to actually make something better or if I'm just making something more complex in the business?
Maxwell Vickers 21:21
I think it starts with you know the that that north star that I mentioned, but also just like the the client in mind. And like we have we have two clients. We got the the pet parent, and then we also have the the sitter. You know, they're our employee, and we want to make sure that we're providing them a good experience, and and they're enjoying the work environment and and everything that's in place. And so, if we can, you know, build things to where it makes their lives easier and they're enjoying the experience, like I think, like that's that's what we think about. And you know, a lot of it's like it's it's it's nothing crazy, right? Like like we're looking at like our operations and thinking like, okay, where is their manual effort today, and where can we reduce that manual effort through automations, or where can we increase our communication to the sitter or the clients to improve that you know that experience and you know get them to not feel like you know they're they're questioning whether we're connecting the highest level of service. So I think those are those are things that we think of. I know that you know in our in our space, like there's different tech platforms that people people use, and a lot of it's kind of like patchy different places, and we've kind of been learning like how to connect different systems and what makes sense for for us. You know, we explored some of the I don't like the word for it, like the not the summits, but like the coaching opportunities out there, and decided not to go with them because you know we're we're in our infancy, and we wanted to kind of understand like what needs we had, build things towards those needs versus you know just taking something else and trying to copy and paste it. But yeah,
Collin 23:12
Nelson had mentioned earlier about about phone calls. I do want to touch back on this because so many people are afraid of answering phone calls, and they don't know how to handle that. They'd rather just oh, I want to do text only. Do you see a difference in the success of talk to us about that, Max?
Maxwell Vickers 23:29
Yeah, yeah. I've I've spoken with pet care business owners that like in their voicemails it says no phone calls. Text text us and we'll respond to the texts. And you know they're great at responding to the texts, but I think you know a few reasons. Like you know, one, you're inviting this person and this company into your most intimate space, your home, taking care of your babies, and I think being able to you know initially speak with someone can change what direction they might go and decide whether they want to pursue you know, setting up a meet and greet or something like that, and then two, like I think, when someone reaches out to us, it's either because they are new to the area, they just got a pet, or they had a bad experience with a previous pet sitter, and so they're searching for a new service for them, and so they're on that journey. And if we can intersect them on that journey, and if they give us a call, like answering the phone, you know, there's a chance that they stop in their tracks and they say, "This sounds great," and they decide to pursue us and go with us. If we don't answer that phone call, they're probably still on their journey. They're probably still searching around, you know, maybe looking at other pet care websites, and so that's the other important piece for us is like, you know, one just being having the opportunity to speak with them and learn a little bit about them and tell them about us, but then also, you know, be there to intercept them on their journey and hopefully, you know, have them. Have them go with
Collin 25:01
us. It kind of stops them in their tracks. I like that. For sure. Kind of like, hey, if you're in there, if you're like me, I've got one browser open and I've got 15 tabs, and I'm flying through looking for my thing. And the first person who can kind of slow me in that, and I can connect with them. All of a sudden, I'm more like. It's also true as well because I mean, you guys are both you're growing teams in both locations, right? So you correct. Do you how do you view? Because this is something that I think is new to the industry as well. Of team based care, that's a different kind of service to sell versus a one on one kind of care. What is that changed, or like how you view what you're doing and how you're connecting with clients.
Maxwell Vickers 25:45
Yeah, I I mean for for us it's important to like have a condensed message on who's on our team, why they're on our team, how we've how we train them to fit the level of care that you know we're we're saying we're going to do, and so I mean that's something that we communicate with clients on every phone call, and you know most text correspondence as well is like we share with them like, hey, these are animal lovers with past pesticide experience that have gone through Pet Center International training, Pet First Aid training. They're insured, bonded, background checked, and have cared for our own personal pets before they're even caring for your pets. And so I think, you know, sharing that's important for them. And of course, you know, the the meet and greet is another component of that. But I think being able to like briefly describe like like who they are and why they're on our team is is important for sure.
Collin 26:44
I I noticed a change in language for Megan and I when we went it from from just being us because it was easy to say like the person you're talking to on the phone will be the one doing the visits to now all of a sudden having to say there's a this is a full service that's now coming to you. I mean, and and the problem that solves a whole new suite of problems for a client that they might not have expected. Because I know for a lot of our clients, it's a lot of oh well, they they'd get they'd try to do a patchwork of care for their pet while they were away, and Susie could do Tuesday, and they'd get their neighbor to do Wednesday, and they get this person do the flowers, and this person do this, and we can come in and say we've got it all. Right, and when somebody calls out, I take care of that. And if somebody gets a flat tire, I take care of that. You don't have to worry about coordinating, and it kind of adds this little bit of a layer for the from the client to the service of I'm coordinating that for you, so that you don't have to worry about
Maxwell Vickers 27:44
it. Yeah, and when someone, for whatever reason, experiences that, they're super thankful, right? To have a team-based provider versus you know an individual for sure.
Collin 27:56
Nelson, I you both share a kind of phrase or philosophy of of pets deserve better for you. Like, how do you make sure that that's not just a a marketing phrase? You know, because like that, I'm sure that sells great, but like at the end day, that has to mean something. So how do you how do you deliver that to the clients?
Nelson Kahr 28:18
Yeah. So starting from the point of being an animal lover and giving my own pet the best, I think going back to hiring the right people for for the team, we our hiring process it's it's pretty long and we have a lot of drop off and that's intentional, right? We background check, we do references. We do test walks. We do trainings, and in some occasions, I I travel a lot. And when I get the opportunity, part of the of the onboarding process is for them to do an overnight with Coco, with my with my dog, right, and. and obviously, like like many like many modern homes, we got you know front door cameras and all that stuff. So I'm able to know the level of care and and attention that Cedar is giving to to Coco. We measure also updates, like how many times a day she's sending me an update. Do I have to reach out to her for her to send me an update, or are the updates are the updates being proactively shared with with us? So I think just like I said, holding a very high bar during the hiring process, just make sure that we're we're able to give the best that we were able to come up with to to our clients, and and again, yeah, that's I think that's the that's the best that we can do, and that's what we can control.
Maxwell Vickers 29:57
Yeah, I think there's like that that. High level of accountability that we have with our with our sitters that Nelson talked about, and I also feel like like every pet sitter on both of our teams is just like truly an animal lover, and I know that that should be the case, but you know you could go anywhere and hire someone, and that that might not be the case, and so I think that just to me, as as a pet parent myself, like feels really good knowing that someone's gonna you know be there taking care of your pets and you know not just doing the bare minimum, but also just giving them love and affection like like their own pet parent would.
Collin 30:37
But but also recognizing that that's not enough. I mean, Nelson, you mentioned like our hiring process is extensive, and there's a lot of drop off, and it's intentional. And man, like when we first started hiring, when Meg and I, I, I, my weak spot, guys, I love seeing people succeed, and so there were moments where it's like, man, I don't think this person is a good good fit, but I, ah, come on, do it. It's like, no, I need to be more. I need to hold my standards and say no to these people more, and be saying no more often than I am saying yes. Because ultimately, who do I want to represent me? And I think that was the mindset I really, I finally had to get in. Of this person is representing my standards, and do I think this person is going to go out and do that, or are they just going to go out and do their own thing when I'm not standing right beside them?
Maxwell Vickers 31:30
Yeah, yeah. I, I mean, like through hiring, we've both had situations where, like, we've seen that drop off. But like, there was like one situation where we had seemingly a great candidate spoke with her in in person interview like everything went fantastic like seemed like a great communicator punctual and then when when things kind of shifted to more text based correspondence and I was seeing like days lapse in replies I was thinking myself, like, what happens when we enter, you know, a situation with a with a client, and a client reaches out, and there's a day a day lapse in reply. Not that it would come to that because we'd be auditing and, you know, pushing the the sitter. But we decided not to move forward with that client and you know stop the stop the hiring process right there with them.
Collin 32:24
Yeah, it's a it's an interesting field to be in because it's one of those where just like a service technician who's doing HVAC or who's doing home cleaning or doing this stuff, there's no oversight for them when they're in the field when they're doing any of the visits or doing any service of the client, and I think that's a level of that's a level of liability that we knowingly take on. So if you're listening to this and you don't have insurance, here's your here's the sales pitch to get insurance. But also it means that we have to be intentional about that hiring process because that oversight just doesn't exist except for I love how both of you have touched on. Hey, we do those check-ins. Max, you mentioned the auditing of. Hey, let's look at the photos. Let's look at the let's look GPS logs. Let's look at this stuff. I need you to prove to me you did because again, that's what the client is looking for. So we can be that screen. We can be that touch point to make sure that service is being done before the client gets there. And now a word from our friends at Pet Sitters International.
Speaker 2 33:22
Anyone can put up a Facebook post and call themselves a pet sitter. So what separates a hobbyist from a professional is not just love of animals or experience or even insurance coverage. That's why PSI released our global standards for professional pet sitting and dog walking businesses. This first of its kind public framework provides pet parents with an in-depth picture of what professional pet care should look like, and provides you with a roadmap for building a successful, sustainable business that provides consistent, safe, and ethical care for pets and peace of mind for your clients. Learn more at petsit.com/psc.
Nelson Kahr 33:56
Yeah, and Collin, I would like to do make a U-turn here to talk about the communication and taking the calls and all of that, because I I had an experience where I we we had the business already, and I was reaching out to pet sitting businesses on different states. I wanted to connect with them and just understand more about their business model. I had a list of around 14 pet sitting businesses, none of them picked picked up the phone when I called.
Maxwell Vickers 34:26
Sure.
Nelson Kahr 34:26
So, you know, I think that's that's that's a key conversion point, right? You need to pick up the phone call when you get the phone call. So I did two rounds of calls. On the first round, none of them answer. On the second round, only two answered the phone out of 14. So it's a big area of opportunity. If you're listening out there, pick up the phone.
Collin 34:49
It's it's one of the things where it's so it doesn't sound like much, right? Oh, I'm busy. I'll just let my phone ring. I'll have it screen. We have a voice service where there's a little AI agent. She'll come on and screen the call for you, and then I've got a lot of details, so I can just jump on and do it. Man, doing that cold call where I'm in the minute. I, you kind of have to get in that headspace whenever you. Okay, I got to switch on before I pick up this phone, and that's that's an intentional movement that we have to make as the business owners when we're making those calls, otherwise, yeah, you kind of just sit there and they don't. I mean, for you, okay, phone calls. How do you get in that mindset to make sure that it's going to like set yourself up for success?
Nelson Kahr 35:33
Been in sales for eight years, so
Collin 35:36
it's old hat at this point. Got
Nelson Kahr 35:38
a bit of an advantage there, but I think just sometimes just gotta jump jump into it, whether you're ready or not. You know, I think you know picking up the phone call is super important because imagine what the other person might be feeling on the other line. Like, is this how how things are gonna be like if I have an emergency and I need to call them to check on my you know like I think communication needs to be needs to be there.
Maxwell Vickers 36:07
Yeah, and I mean, if if you're the you know the business owner responding to those calls, there is probably not a question that they'd ask you that you can't answer, right? And so, like Nelson said, it's kind of just like pulling the bandaid off, you know, answering the phone call or calling them back and starting the conversation. A lot of people are excited to talk about their pets, maybe a little bit nervous to you know leave their pets in someone else's care, but it's all just you know starting that conversation and can flow from there.
Collin 36:38
Now I'm not saying I haven't had to pull up my own cancelation policy while on the phone with somebody because I don't remember the particular details. But look, I nobody's like, wait, was it 48? I don't remember. Yeah, you both. I mean, you have planned, done a lot of planning. Max, you talked about in the very early stages of hey, right from the beginning, you had SOPs, you had processes, you had things designed. You're launching in Bentonville. I am very curious how much of the business has been shaped by clients, as you've gotten feedback and as you've shaped that. Like, what where's that balance between seeing a vision through and allowing the business to be shaped by client needs as you're hearing back from them?
Maxwell Vickers 37:19
Yeah, I think early on, our it was a mix of you know our assumptions as as pet parents and what we'd be looking for with with the service, and then as I mentioned, I I spoke with a couple business owners in in the space and just asked them a ton of questions, you know. Understood some of the situations that they had gone through with clients. You know what services they were offering, the things that they did that made them unique and special. And that's that's kind of how we started with the foundation. But it's it's absolutely been you know shaped shaped from there. Like we've refined some of our like policies and operating agreements and our client agreements and things like that, as well as just the the expectations that we can set with our with our sitters as well. Like you know, early on we found that at first we were like the we were sending our sitters to meet and greets on their own, and then found that no, it's helpful to have for a new client like one of the owners there as well, just to put a face to the name and you know like really make that client feel confident and and you know want to want to use us for the long term. So I mean things like things like that that we kind of adapted to. Also, I'm not sure if you have anything to add.
Nelson Kahr 38:48
I think it's a. I mean, we were evolving every single day, right? And we also get like different types of requests, like multiple pets, different type of animals. So, I think also shaping like the services that we we offer to accommodate these specific scenarios is also also important. But yeah, I think Max, you cover pretty much most of it. Yeah,
Maxwell Vickers 39:13
and we've we found different like location specific things that we're adjusting to as well. Like the the pricing is one of them, but outside of that, we're we're kind of using Bentonville Bentonville Pet Care as a little bit of like a testing pool for for different things. Like right now, we're adopting Slack with our with our sitters. You know, start triaging jobs via Slack with some automation through through Zapier and see how that goes because previously we're mainly doing text-based correspondence through our phone tool, and so we're doing some things like that, and you know some some things around sitter retention too. We accept tips from clients; 100% of tips go to sitters, but we're. Looking at different things like a bonus pool that we allocate some of our funds to, and can have available to to send to sitters when we feel like they went above and beyond, but you know there might be not be a tip involved with the service. So we're doing different things like that too, that are more location specific to try out, and then potentially bring to the other business.
Collin 40:24
How do you not get too precious about ideas? Because I know it can be as the business owners, as the vision setters, it can be easy to be like, "Well, this is mine. I created this, and I'm just going to stick with this." Versus, I mean, sounds like you guys are basically going. I got to find something that works, and I got to work through these things. But I mean, how do you stay in that mindset through the process instead of getting stuck on the one thing and just trying to make it work?
Maxwell Vickers 40:56
I feel like we're. I mean, there's there's a reason why we're partners, and I and we're we're friends, we're coworkers, but also I feel like you know we've worked together in other capacities before, and we're we're pretty like open and collaborative, and so like I I think we do a good job of hearing each other out and hearing each other's you know standpoints, but also you know questioning and challenging and making sure that you know that idea is the the right idea for the business and and doing so in a way that you know isn't like emotional or personal. I feel like we do a really good job of that, and so you know we we're we're a young business, and so we're continuing to you know figure out ways to to make that business better, and I think having that having that mindset and that type of collaboration is is really important for a young business if if you want to grow it.
Collin 41:55
Okay, so you guys obviously want to grow it. You expanded into a different state entirely. What's the the future here for you guys? I mean, I guess a step back here. Did you ever consider taking the the the pages, you know, name and brand into Arkansas, or did you all had you already thought of always thought of making the own brand and business unique whenever you when you branched out?
Maxwell Vickers 42:22
Yeah, considered it. I think for for us, we wanted something that felt specific and local to that to that geo, and Bentonville Pet Care, Bentonville Pet Sitting, Bentonville Pet North NWA Pet Care NWA Pet Sitting are all available business names and website domains, and so we secured all of them, and you know thought that it'd be a great kind of marketing play as well because a lot of times when people are searching for you know pet care they might include you know the location of where they live too, and so we saw you know pretty great website traffic from the beginning, just based on the based on the name of it, and so that was an intentional play there for sure. But then also wanted to kind of like hedge bets a little bit, and if for some reason the Arkansas business you know, didn't pan out the way that we wanted it to. Having that diversification for us was important.
Speaker 3 43:29
Yeah,
Collin 43:30
I mean, Nelson, what's that like? I mean, for as far as that collaboration in growing this this brand, and then I, yeah, then where's where's this headed, guys? Are we going? How many states are we going to be in. I'm curious.
Nelson Kahr 43:42
51. I
Collin 43:46
love it.
Nelson Kahr 43:48
Yeah, I mean, like like Max mentioned, we we we work together and we have worked together for for for years now, and we we like to challenge the status quo, and we're okay with being challenged, and we're okay challenging the other. And like, it's super important to not take it personal. To understand that it's for the better of the service and the business, and it needs to be evaluated that way. You know, I've had ideas that Max had a disagreement on, and then he basically gave me his point of view, and I was, you know, what you're right, not a good idea, and it has happened. And
Maxwell Vickers 44:26
vice versa,
Nelson Kahr 44:27
and and exactly so, and you know, we're still friends, we're we're still growing the business, we still call each other, you know, and catch up for hours. So, I think collaboration has been great. The goal is always to grow 1%, be 1% better than the day before. Sounds kind of cliche, but that's that's what we're aiming for. And and yeah, 51 states coming soon.
Collin 44:54
Okay.
Maxwell Vickers 44:56
Yeah, there's there's um I mean there's there's. A lot of opportunity in the geographies that we're we're currently in with our existing services, and you know I think part of that is continuing to refine the business so that you know if we grew into a seven figure business in both locations, like we've got the capacity and the operations to support that, but then you know, two there's a there's a timing element of it, right? Like, like right now, if a client is absolutely so happy with their pet service, and that pet service is available to them, and there's no conflicts, like it's gonna be hard for us to acquire that client unless it was through like a merger and acquisition or something like that, and so there's like a timing element to that to that growth where you know if we can have the capacity, we can intersect people on their pet journey, provide them with the best possible pet service experience that they've ever had. If we can do all those things, then you know we'll continue to be on that upward trajectory every single year, I think, and then from there, you know, we could continue to do what what we're what we're doing today, and you know, look at other geos and you know, same or different states that make sense to expand into, and you know, potentially find local you know partners or things to help support those, or offer other complementary services. I mean, I think the the cool thing about our business right now is we offer pet sitting, dog walking, drop ins. But there's all these other things that these these pet parents look for. Like they might have a dog that goes to grooming, and they might be looking for a mobile groomer or brick and mortar groomer, and you know we've got hundreds of clients that we provide that service to, or you know maybe they're strapped for time and we need to you know send someone to pick up number two for for dogs in their backyard. So I think there's all these other complementary services that you know we'll continue we'll start to think about as we get the the main business just really dialed in and and and in a good place.
Collin 47:07
I like how both of you are thinking about the capacity of the business. This is this is a word that this Megan and I don't pick words of the year, but if we had to, this would be our word of the year: our capacity of do we have the capacity, and that's our personal capacity to take on more, but also the capacity of the business. And too often we go after and we chase the clients, and then we figure everything out on the back end. Well, that ruins the client experience because things get missed, dropped, they forgot, get forgotten, or they get put on hold, and then we've got to catch up to that, and so always thinking in mind of I have to have the capacity. That engine has to be running. Those systems have to be in place before I bring anybody in, because that's the only way they're going to have a good, consistent experience is if I've got that nailed down. Otherwise, we're just chasing after clients, and all of a sudden, our client churn goes through the roof, our ratings drop, right? And then we are having to constantly burn more and more to market and bring people in for a failing part of the business that we might not recognize.
Maxwell Vickers 48:13
For sure, yeah, it's it's. I mean, I think you know any business that starts off and is experiencing significant growth in the beginning will experience some sort of capacity constraints like that. I think for us, what we've learned is hiring is an evergreen effort. It's something that you do throughout the year, at least with with the state where our business is in, because we're not we don't have you know gradual growth like we're continuing to to grow on average each month and we got to hire to support that. Otherwise, I talked a lot about you know pet parents and their journey. Like we we might intersect them in their journey, not be able to service them, and then they're lost. You know they'll they'll find another service that you know hopefully fits their needs, and you know we we might not see them again. So that's that's important to us.
Collin 49:10
Well, guys, I want to thank you both for coming on the show today and talking about this this setup and this growth that you're working on. Your focus on the capacity and the client experience and the feedback that you're using to grow the businesses. I'm really excited about what both of you are working on, and can't wait. I got to have you back on to see how many states you're on here in another year or two. So just, just I'll put it on the calendar. Don't worry, I'll send it out. But for those who want to follow along, get connected, and see all the cool stuff that you guys are doing. How best can they do that?
Maxwell Vickers 49:44
On either website, I'd say pagespatcare.com, bentonvillepatcare.com, or pages in home pet on Instagram, or bentonville pet care on Instagram.
Collin 49:54
Awesome. Well, I will have those links in the show notes and on the website to get connected, and so people can follow. Along again, I want to thank you both so much. I know you got a lot on your plate, so it means a lot for you to come on, share your story, and talk about this today. Thank you both so much.
Nelson Kahr 50:08
Thank you, Collin. True pleasure. Thank
Maxwell Vickers 50:10
you.
Collin 50:11
My favorite part from our conversation was when they said we want to be able to give them clients what they're buying. What is that? It's peace of mind, and it's love for their pets and animals. That is fundamentally what we get to do every single day when we are operating and running our business, and not just for us, but it's important for us to make sure that our employees, our team, are looped in and on that as well, so that they have a connection to why they show up every day. Why do they walk through that door? Why do they clip the leash the way they do? Why, why, why? It's so people have peace of mind. Now, how do we do that? We have to make sure that it's not just an empty marketing promise, because that's where all this falls down. We can have the best marketing in the world, the best brand in the world, but if it doesn't mean anything, it's all a waste. So how are we building a business that meets this demand? That meets this. What is this? It's a promise. Who meets this promise? What systems, policies, procedures, training, oversight? What is in place when we have that? Everything else flows from it, and when we have a team on board with us, man, it's amazing. We want to thank our sponsors today, Time to Pet and Pet Sitters International, for making the show possible, and we also really want to thank you so much for listening. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your day, and we'll be back again soon.
