021- First booking! Now what?
You’ve started, marketed, and booked your first client. Now what do you do? On this weeks episode we share some experiences in preparing for your first client, and then discuss what qualities make an amazing pet sitter.
Getting organized!
Where are you storing a client’s info?
Where are you storing pets info?
Keys?
How will you accept payment?
Rover/Wag takes care of this
Cash
App like Time to Pet or others
Paypal
Review your notes from the meet and greet and fill in any missing information
Done research on the specific breed?
Health concerns?
Behavior?
Training needs?
Do you know their alarm code?
What to do with poop?
Do you have good shoes/visibility?
Checked the weather
Have emergency contacts programmed in your phone
Prep mentally:
Have your emergency plan in place
Be prepared for new or undisclosed dog behaviors i.e. bad ones
If house sitting or dropins, be prepared for messes and clutter that you may have to clean or work around
We reached out to Facebook and Instagram to see what other sitters suggested
Look at long-term growth verses “needing clients”. Is this client going to be a promoter or a detractor for your business?
As you accept new clients, continue to WOW them! Client referrals are key when building your client base.
Think about the type of clients you want. Always be marketing to your target client and be ready to lose those clients who are not ideal. It's ok to take them on at first, but if they cause you stress, they aren't ideal.
Make sure to build a relationship with other pet service providers in your area. Groomers, pet shops, trainers, vets... they can be your best friend and advocate, or they can be bad news for you. Show them you're wonderful with pets and that you care. Also, bring them treats and cupcakes because that will stick in their mind.
Establishing a sit routine.
Meet and greets, at least 2-3. Sometimes an overnight trial.
Evaluation!
-What makes a good pet sitter
Meghan’s list: loyal, dependable, caring, loving, compassionate, on time, respectful (of dog and items in your house), playful, active (so they can play with the dogs), has excellent review (or at least testimonials), available (if you travel a ton, your clients may go elsewhere if you aren’t available a lot)
Collin’s List:
- on time
- Communicative
- Let's you know if they're running late, before they're late
- greets your pet too
- Takes notes during meet and greet
- Upfront about prices
- Knows their limits - doesn't over promise
- Is honest about their schedule and other commitments
We asked other sitters what makes a good sitter,
Listen, greet pets, polite, interested in job, follow direction, level headed
Knows dogs not just likes them
Meets personal expectations and has same values in expected care
Mesh well
Professional website and photos of yourself
Takes their job seriously
Confident, empathetic, observant
Someone who will work with the owner, as a team member
As sitters, we tend to have VERY high expectations of other sitters
Remember, you will never be able to please everybody or meet their expectations all of the time. As the sitter, you have the power to say NO too. Be picky with your clients and choosy about what experiences you want to have. Focus on your strengths and seek out those areas in the market to have the best fit.
-now the stay is over so lets think about what you’ll need to be doing now:
Follow up with client
Card or gift?
Asking for review
Returning the key?
Possibility discussing anything bad that happened/concerns you have
If they didn't pay ahead of time, follow up about full payment or completing payment
Debrief on the stay-personally
Very first question, would you take care of them again? Why or why not?
What worked/didn’t
What did you like about it?
What can you control/ask next time?
Review any notes you took during the stay and make sure they are filed appropriately
These are things to instill in your employees, because they’ll have a first stay too
Then they need to check in with you, their employer, to debrief and discuss how the stay went for them
Next week, we’re really excited to have the founder of JETRO Taxes and host of the “Small Business Tax Savings Podcast” Mike on to talk all about your favorite topic… Taxes!
https://www.petbacker.com/blog/how-to/the-essential-guide-for-the-first-time-pet-sitter
Follow us on: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook
Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, & TuneIn
Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
Collin 0:16 I'm Collin. And I'm Megan. And this is pet sitter confessional. An open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Hello, and welcome back to another episode. This week we're talking about what you do after somebody has requested your services. You've gone through the all the hard work of marketing and getting your name out there and now somebody actually wants you to sit there pet. Meghan 0:39 Before we get into that we want to talk about a little bit of last week with the house at diva. She talked about whether housesitting is right for you, and we thought a good follow up episode to that would be what you do. After somebody has asked you to pet set for them. Collin 0:55 The very first thing that you want to do is to get organized, where are you going to be storing the Clients info, where are you storing the pet info, and something a lot of people don't consider is all of the keys that you may have to be dealing with. If you're going to be going in and out of the client's home, Meghan 1:10 we've seen some people organize their keys on a big key ring like you would see a janitor US and other people have a big board hung up where they hang each individual key with the dogs or the owner's name on it, Collin 1:23 just some place that is a central location to where you're always going to know where that information is going to be. Meghan 1:29 We also heard of somebody who just has them all in the center console of their car, and this kind of randomly has them in there. And so we do not recommend that that Collin 1:38 stresses me out just hearing about that. We keep all the client and pet info in Excel and Word documents that are linked to each other. That way we always have those to reference back with notes that we take during the stage and we know exactly where those are. Meghan 1:52 Once you're organized you will want to think about how you are going to accept payment. So if you are on one of the big platforms like rover and wag the Already take care of this. So you don't have to worry about it. But if you are not, if you are independent and on your own, you will, you may want to do cash, whether it's upfront or 50%, up front or afterwards, or an app like time to pet will allow the client to pay through there. Or you could do PayPal. I've also heard of some people using square for that as well. Collin 2:21 And squares really nice because you can have that adapter plugged into your phone and you can accept and take credit cards right there on the spot. Meghan 2:28 But also keep in mind that PayPal and square and maybe some other ones, they take a percentage out. So either charge the client, I think it's 3%. So either charge a client that 3% more, or you can just take the cut off of your end. Collin 2:42 Now this is assuming that you have done a meet and greet at this point because the client has agreed to have you render services. And we definitely recommend that you not do us it unless you do some sort of meet and greet and Meghan 2:54 our meet and greet episode is episode number three so you can go back and listen to that Collin 2:58 after you've nailed the meet and greet You've taken good notes, we typically will sit down after a meet and greet debrief with one another about things that the client said that they mentioned, as opposed to trying to do it while the person is there because that tends to be a little awkward sometimes. But that is something that you can determine as to how comfortable you are or not with but we'll sit down and debrief about all the information that was given out, maybe ask some follow up clarification questions through text or phone call, and put all that into a document, you're going to review that to make sure that everything's there. You can also go above and beyond that and do some specific research on the exact breed or kind of dog that you're going to be sitting. Do they have some health concerns that may be specific to them? What about some typical behaviors that they may be seeing for that breed or maybe even young versus old dog, for instance, Meghan 3:47 the Great Dane breed, they can have intestinal issues. Collin 3:51 It's a condition called bloat in torsion where the stomach actually twists on itself trapping Aaron side and confess a very difficult and concerning consequence. says up to and including death. And if you don't know those signs or don't know, to not play with the Great Dane that just after it's eaten and what to look out for, or you may even ask, has this been corrected ahead of time, we have sat gradings in the past where the owners have had preventative surgery on this where the stomach is actually tacked up inside so that it can't undergo this. Another thing that you're going to want to review is the alarm code hasn't been updated since they gave it to you last, did you write it down correctly in the first place? So it might be a good idea to send the alarm code that you have written down to the owner and say is this bill the current alarm code? before you try and go in and get the cops called on you also determine what the owner wants done with the poop? Do they want you or do they expect you to pick it up? If you do pick up? Where should it go? Sometimes the owners won't tell us exactly and we can't figure out where the poop goes. So we will bring it home. Throw in our trash cans in our trash can because we can take care of that. That's not that big of a deal. Meghan 5:04 I should clarify the dumpster Outback, not our trash can in the pantry. Have you checked the weather. Also emergency contacts. We cover this all the time. They're very, very important that you want to have them programmed into your phone. Another component of emergency preparedness is being prepped mentally as well. So have your emergency plan in place. You want to be prepared for new or undisclosed dog behaviors, particularly bad ones. Often clients will say yes, my dog is great, well behaved, doesn't have accidents in the house and then you come over to their house and they've peed everywhere or to something they haven't or if the dog or cat comes over to your house and starts barking everywhere. clients don't often know the bad behaviors that dogs exhibit because sometimes the dogs act out when a client leaves or sometimes the client is just oblivious to these bad behaviors. Also, if you are how sitting or doing drop in, be prepared messages and clutter that you may have to clean or work around. We talked a little bit about this in our house sitting and dropping episode. But some clients are a little bit messy. Collin 6:10 Some clients are a lot of bit messy, and they just don't see the clutter, or the dirt, or the dirty dishes or those kind of things in their home because they just live there. And that's what it is to them. Be prepared to see that and be prepared to clean it up if you have to to render the services that you're expected to. Also if you've never done housesitting or drop ins before, be prepared for an uneasy feeling of being in somebody else's home. And the can be very kind of awkward and disconcerting, especially at night time being in a new unfamiliar location. It can kind of creep you out at times, but just know that going in that those kind of feelings are normal and to be expected. Meghan 6:49 And usually the first night is the worst, the roughest because you don't know what to expect. There might be freaky sounds in the house, or the dog might be different than what you're used to Collin 6:59 just know that it is can take an adjustment period, we reached out to our Facebook and Instagram followers to see what other centers suggested it recommended that you look at long term growth versus just quote unquote, needing clients is a client that you're bringing on going to be a promoter or a detractor for your business. This gets into that conversation about good versus bad clients, how much of a headache? Could this person potentially be down the road, and whether you want to retain them and keep them on, or not a common discussion, when people are just starting out is that they tend to take on all of the possible clients that they can at any given time, because they just feel like they need to grow more and more, Meghan 7:39 which is what we did, which is absolutely Collin 7:41 what we did and honestly, is probably what everybody does, but you're going to reach a point where you want to start really honing down and refining and bringing on and retaining quality clients because quality clients mean a quality of life for you Meghan 7:55 and keeps you sane. Collin 7:56 A lot of these comments focus on around thinking towards the future. Which can be very hard to do when you're just starting out because there's so much going on in the here and now. But remembering the as you accept new clients, you're going to want to continue to wow them. So with this first client, really start thinking about all of the little extra things that you can should or maybe think about doing so that they can refer you to the next client and grow one client at a time. Don't worry about the next one, think about what you have to deal with right now. And wow them with your services to that they want to refer you because in this business, growing your client base is is almost exclusively word of mouth and referrals and recommendations Meghan 8:40 along with the clients think about what type of client you want, and it's okay if you have to say no to clients that you don't want. So if you only want to take small dogs, but you have a friend or a friend of a friend that has a large dog, it's okay to say no because you know that you are specifically targeting small like we mentioned, a lot of sitters at first want to take on everybody, and sometimes that's okay. But then kind of weeding out and focusing on who you want to pet it for in the long term really helps you to stay sane and causes you less stress in the long term. Collin 9:16 Yeah, that big ugly word that nobody wants to say. No. And oh, it's okay to say no. As you're also starting out. Another component to this is building relationships. After you get that first client. You can think about who else in the pet sitting community in where you live is an asset. Viewing others in the pet care profession as assets, as opposed to detractors can really bolster and lift everybody up to look at the other service providers in your area, whether they are groomers, pet shops, trainers, start making those connections now, so that you can give recommendations to your clients in the future if you start noticing some bad behaviors and their dog or cat how trainers two cards in your back pocket that you can recommend that to them, and you become an educational resource to the client. Because a lot of times as pet sitters and pet care professionals, we are a direct interface between the client and their pet needs. Because we see that their pet, sometimes a lot more than their clients during the certain times of the year. We can be boots on the ground, eyes and ears or their pet care and make appropriate and good quality recommendations. Start building those contacts now. Meghan 10:30 So another person had talked about establishing a set routine and that could include everything from the first time the person contacts you all the way up to the end of this day. And even after having that checklist of at the meet and greet I asked these certain questions. And during this dog stay, this is what I typically do, whether it's a house it or a doggie daycare, making sure that the pub gets enough exercise and medication on time and the correct amount of Food is having that checklist that you go down as you're with the pack. And then afterwards, knowing that there's still some things to wrap up at the end, Collin 11:09 having this kind of routine and checklist can really help, especially if you are a nervous person or if you are uneasy around certain situations and circumstances Meghan 11:19 or if you're not a people person, but you're a dog person. Collin 11:22 Exactly, where you want to make sure that you are continuing to provide a high quality level of service to everybody. And sometimes you're worried did I remember to do the things that I did? What did I forget? Having a routine and checklist can help you reduce some of those anxieties you may have Meghan 11:37 also potentially having multiple meet and greets so that you can work out any kinks that you may have. And maybe even an overnight trial would help as well. Collin 11:45 I know we've done overnight trials, especially if the person is asking for them to to the dog to stay in our home for long periods of time. Doing one overnight, few weeks out and then another just overnight, much closer to everybody. Can again start looking into that routine. And then finally, we had a really great recommendation about evaluation. I can't stress how important that this aspect is. Megan mentioned it towards the end of this day, you're going to think you're all done. You've turned in the keys, you've gotten paid, you've walked away. There's still the evaluation step. what went well? What didn't go well? Why what did you have control over? Are there things that you can change to be more prepared next time? Should you have even taken on this client to begin with? Will you take them on again, if they ask you Do not underestimate or undervalue the evaluation step of after the stage is completed, and everything's done, think about what happened and try to come up with ways to do better next time. Meghan 12:47 And so with that, we wanted to talk about what makes a good pet sitter and we have different lists. So my less shocking my list consists of somebody who is a boy dependable bearing, but he was playful and it's going to be active so that they can play with the dogs. Somebody who's respectful of the dogs and the items in the client's house that's very important as excellent reviews, or at least testimonials from friends and family who have used this person in the past and then being available. So if you travel a lot, your clients may go elsewhere if you're not available a lot, Collin 13:26 my list somebody who is on time, communicative, lets you know they're running late, before they're late. That's a really big pet peeve just in my daily life. And especially as a pet sitter, when somebody is running late, that that's okay, as long as they let you know about it beforehand because things happen. They greet your pet too. They don't just focus all their attention on you and they walk through the door. They take notes during the meet and greet or tell you that they will debrief afterwards and follow up with any questions as they have their up front about their prices. Step one that they need. know their prices, and they are upfront about them. And can you communicate them effectively. They know their limits. This is so important. I'm pet sitter, who doesn't over promise, and knows their limits throughout the day is very valuable, because you want somebody that is, is reliable. And they can only be reliable if they know their limit. And they're not over promising and book themselves back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back. so that by the time they reach you, your dog, or cat, which may be at the end of their service, they're completely worn out, and they're completely dragging the ground and aren't providing as good as services they are to that first client. And then finally is honest about their schedule and other commitment gets back to what I was saying with that previous one. They can tell you how many people they're sitting in a day where you fall in that or at least give you a range of expectations that you know, if my the first client Am I the last client and this this person, so And full that there's no possible way through even getting two hours of sleep at night. Meghan 15:05 Or on the other hand, if they have a full time job, and they don't let you know about that, and you want your dog with them all day, or just checked on every two hours, and they're not able to commit to that, Collin 15:16 you may have an anxious dog that requires somebody to be with him full time throughout the day. And that doesn't come up with the conversation or it does and they don't say anything, but to have a full time job. And so your dog doesn't get to see somebody throughout the day and anxieties are high. Meghan 15:31 We also ask other sitters. What makes a good pet sitter, and here are some of their responses. One person had said that they listen. They greet their pet, just like Colin had said that they were genuinely interested in this job and that they know the dogs, they don't just like them and think they're cute, but they know dog behavior and know how to interact with dogs. Collin 15:53 The other person said that they meet personal expectations and have the same value and expected care on this one. This tells you that clients have certain expectations. And you as a sitter have certain expectations of who and what kind of clients you want to set. Sometimes those do not mesh. Sometimes you do not mesh well just based off of expectations. And that is fine. You as a sitter do not want to be trying to meet the expectations or values of somebody that you don't hold yourself in the client doesn't want to hire somebody likewise. So if somebody says No, that's okay. They are looking for some very specific criteria. If you don't meet them, that's not a bad thing. Meghan 16:34 Because there are always more clients and they're always more pets. Yes. So also someone who is going to work with the owner as a team member. So like we just talked about, you get a you get a client and you mesh with them well, so you want to work with them. As a team. Collin 16:49 This gets out the concern that will the sitter follow directions will the sitter do is I asked him does the city have a genuine interest in the health and well being of my pet, not just this is another way to earn money, but somebody who is going to be observant, empathetic, that they are confident in their care in their abilities, and will really come alongside the owner providing outside resources and having a genuine care for all the pet is doing. Meghan 17:19 But remember, though, you will never be able to please everybody, or meet their expectations all the time. So it's really not even worth it to try as the sitter. Once again, we just said it earlier, you have the power to say no, you can be picky with your clients and choosy about what experiences you want to have. Because the guest this is about the pet, but it's also for your enjoyment as well. So you need to look after yourself as well. And what you want to take on focus on your strengths. And you can seek out those areas be your strength in the market, to have the best fit for you and for the client. So now that this day is over, but think about what you'll need to be doing now. The first thing is following up with the client. So are you going to give a card at the end of this day? Or after mail it to them? Or are you going to give them a small gift. Some people like to do a little baggie of dog treats, and a business card attached to it. Collin 18:14 When we were doing house sitting in a lot more, we would write out a card that had our, our name and our contact information on it. And we Meghan 18:23 got it from vistaprint. Collin 18:25 Yeah, we went to vistaprint. And had it printed out to have pictures of us with with dogs and our name and phone number on it. And it was a handwritten note about our state and how much we appreciated their business and how much we would love to be able to have the opportunity to come back and sit for them again. And then we would sign it and we leave it on the counter with the keys or whatever else we were leaving there. We would also leave a few business cards next to the notes so that they would be able to hand those out if somebody asked for a referral. The other daunting task of following up with a client is asking for a review. Meghan 18:57 How do you do this tactfully? Collin 18:59 So we typically We'll wait until the day after a status complete to reach out if they haven't left review somewhere by that time. And that's okay. We understand people are busy, I don't review every service that I get, either. So we understand will reach out will say something along the lines of really want to thank you for the opportunity to sit Fifi during your time away. And it was a true pleasure and honor and we hope to be able to do again sometime in the future, we would really appreciate a review on our website or the end this way. This is the point where you can insert whatever social media platform you'd like and mentioned that it would really mean a lot to to you and just leave it at that you don't have to go on rambling about how it changes your search results or how you need to get rid of a one star review that somebody left but just put it out there and ask and if they do they do if they don't, they don't and sometimes you just have to be okay with that. Meghan 19:47 Now if you are housesitting or doing drop ins, you will likely need to return the key. This is not the case if you have a code but if you have a key, you will want to return it to them as soon as possible as soon as they're ready. Sometime Owners ask you to leave it under the mat. But of course, there are security concerns with that. Collin 20:04 This is often a step that's overlooked during a meet and greet or the first visit, where you're so excited that you get the key. And then at the end of the day, you go, Oh, wait a minute, what do I do with this? Where do they want me to leave it to I put it on the mat? Do I just hold on to it? Are they a freak them out? How do I get it back to them? So definitely have that conversation. But before you get to this point, but sometimes it's okay, if both of you overlooked it at that point, just put it on that list of things to evaluate for next time of ask what to do with the key before the end of the day. Meghan 20:34 also discussing anything bad that happened during this day or any concerns that you have. And this can be a difficult thing to have a discussion with a client with. Collin 20:42 And this doesn't have to be just pet related. If there were concerns with the house that you were staying in as far as mechanically or if you saw weird activity of strangers around in the area. You can report that to them so that they know what's going on giving them those things. updates is just fine. Meghan 21:01 And of course, also keeping them updated throughout this day as well. Collin 21:05 Now, if anything broke, or is breaking, or you have a concern about safety wise, that is something to bring up as soon as you can during this day. But having a recap at the end of the day about these things, reminding them that those happened or any bad behavior that the dog exhibited. You always want to make sure that you are communicating in an open and honest fashion with the owners, they will really appreciate it, hearing about it from you firsthand, as opposed to a neighbor that witness something that happened but you didn't report it. Meghan 21:39 following up with a client about payment if they did not pay ahead of time. A lot of sitters will ask for a payment beforehand, or at least 50% of the payment beforehand. Also a lot of sitters will ask that 100% is paid by the start of the stay, or they will not complete the state at all. And this is often because a lot of people have been hurt by clients. Not Pain fully or waiting several weeks afterwards. And so that's why it's important to have policies in place beforehand with the contract that they sign stating when payment is due. Because sometimes people just don't like to pay. Collin 22:16 Yeah, if the client has reached out to you, and this is the first one, and they want you to sit there pet, and you don't have these policies in place, now's the time to get that done before the start of the stage so that you protect yourself. We've mentioned this a few times, up until this point, but you want to debrief on the stay. Personally, Meghan 22:34 the very first question you asked with that is, would you care for that pet again? And that also for that client again, would you care for it? Because it's not just about the pet? It's also the client. Would you care for them again? Why or why not? Collin 22:48 And there can be many reasons for this. Does the client stress you out because they ask you how their pet is doing every 35 minutes throughout the entire day. That's not worth it for some people. I We wouldn't take that person back on again, if the client would not let us actually do our job and was constantly trying to keep in touch because of some anxieties that they had. It could also be because of bad behavior of the pet while that's in your care, Meghan 23:13 also thinking about what worked and what didn't work for you, personally as a pet sitter, but also for the dog. So are there things that the owner said were going to happen or the things that the dog was supposed to do, but the dog didn't do? Collin 23:27 Then you can start thinking about what you liked about the stay. Which What did you like about the client? What did you like about the dog? And what happened? Did you have good systems in place that you need to make sure that you remember to write down in systematize, that they are still there the next time? If something didn't go quite as according to plan, was it in your control to prevent or was it something completely out of your control? If it was in your control? How can you think about preventing it next time so when we were sitting one time, the oven decided it was basically going to melt down That was outside of our control. It was a bad thing that happened. There wasn't really anything we could change for next time. Other than I guess asking, is your oven going to melt down that that's, Unknown Speaker 24:09 that's not really a question you asked during most meet. Meghan 24:12 And so then finally reviewing any notes that you took during this day and making sure that their file appropriately Well, some people will have a paper filing system and just regular standard file drawers and others will do it all digitally. And having a system like time to pet where you can, where it's all digital, and it's all within the app, all of your notes and all of the dog behaviors is a great way to stay organized. Collin 24:37 Now, we've talked about a lot of stuff that can focus on you personally. But these are also things to instill in your employees if you have them, because they'll have a first day too. So whether you include things like this or more in your trainings, that's awesome, and making sure that they know that they need to check in with you as your employer to debrief and sit one One on one and ask them, How did that go? How can I as your employer assist you better next time? What do you need from me? Or what education or training or things can we get in place to make sure that this is this that these continue to go well and get better. Meghan 25:15 So I think that wraps up everything that we wanted to talk about for having a client contact you and having the first day. So next week we are going to have the founder of Jetro taxes on he is the host of the small business tax savings podcast. His name is Mike and he's going to talk about your favorite subject taxes with the New Year upon us. It is very important that we lock these down and get them out the door because nobody wants to deal with them. And the faster you can do it, the faster it's over with. Collin 25:42 You can follow along with us on Facebook and Instagram at petzval. confessional. We're also on Twitter at PS confessional. If you haven't visited our website. It's pet sitter confessional. com, you'll find a ton of show notes and even rough transcripts of each and every single episode. And if you are not subscribed to this podcast and you do founders today. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen. We really genuinely appreciate it. Make sure you do subscribe wherever you listen, Meghan 26:06 and if you would like if you've gotten a lot out of this podcast, please leave us a review. We would really appreciate it.Keywords: client, pets, dog, sitter, dog sitter, pet sitter, person, review, services, owner, behavior, day, key, stay
