104- Setting Yourself Apart
This podcast is sponsored by Pet Sitters Associates. Pet Sitter Confessional listeners can get a discount when joining by clicking membership Pet Sitter Confessional discount code Confessional at check-out to get $10 off today. Check out the benefits of membership and insurance at petsitllc.com.
Summary:
There are thousands of pet care providers across the world so, many times we are left wondering how we can set ourselves apart from the pet sitter down the street. On this episode we dive into what it looks like to make yourself stand out in this industry.
Topics on this episode:
Services you offer
Your website
Customer Service
Causes you’re involved in
Products you sell
Community Involvement
Your Marketing
SSS Game Changers Summit
Main take away? People buy from people, so help your clients get to know YOU!
Links:
Check out the Game Changers Summit!
You can support us directly on Patreon here.
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
Follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, & TuneIn
Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet sitters, clients, pet, sitters, people, services, business, area, dog, communicating, differentiate, community, website, confessional, local animal shelter, training, care provider, marketing, setting, provide
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin, Natasha
Meghan 00:17
I'm calling and I'm Megan. And this is pet sitter confessional, and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter.
Collin 00:27
This episode is brought to you by pet sitters associates.
Meghan 00:29
Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening, wherever you are. Thank you so much for joining us on another episode of pet sitter confessional. If you haven't already done so please subscribe in your favorite podcast player and leave us a review on Apple podcasts. We would really appreciate it. We are going to be talking today about setting yourself apart as a pet care provider. This is a very common question that gets asked a lot in Facebook groups and among pet sitters in general. But it really depends on your service area and The exact services that you currently offer.
Collin 01:03
And we're going to break down a couple different areas that we can work on in setting ourselves apart. But obviously, you don't need to be doing all of these, look around at what others are doing in your area, and then see where you can start setting yourself apart based on some of these areas that we're going to break down.
Meghan 01:20
And also, if you live in a big city, Miami, New York, etc. There are tons of dog walkers, tons of pet sitters on basically every corner. And so you really have to differentiate yourself from the next sitter on the next block. Whereas in a small town like we are, we are really one of maybe three other people that really provide what we do, right and so it's a little easier for for us in that way. A lot of times when we think about setting ourselves apart from other sitters in our area, we first think of the level of care that we provide. We want to love on the dogs more give extra kitty kisses You know, run the dogs get out all their energy. But it's really so much more than that. Because in general, all pet care providers think that they offer the best service and the most love to the pets. And so we really have to go above and beyond that and think, what else can our business ourselves provide? That will help us stand out?
Collin 02:23
Right. And we're not saying to provide shoddy work and provide shoddy care to the pets, because pet owners can tell if their dog is happy if their dog is sad. They can tell if their pet has been well cared for, but they don't know the extra lengths that you go to or you go through while you're caring for their pets. So part of this comes into are you communicating with that and a lot of other aspects that we're going to dive into.
Meghan 02:47
So the first one that we're going to talk about is the services that you offer.
Collin 02:51
Pretty obvious. I know but
Meghan 02:53
yeah, but just because someone else offers dog walks, do they do them the same way that you do? Are the lengths the same? The location that if you do adventure hikes? They may not? And if you do if you both do then are they? Are the trails the same? Do you include treats? Or do you do training? All of that can be a standard part of the walk. But you may not do it the same way that the person down the street does it?
Collin 03:21
Yeah, the key there is it they can be part of your standard walk your walks, just include those things. They're not extras, they're not add ons. They're just the service that you get when you provide a quote unquote, standard walk. If you're providing boarding, do you have a facility or is it in your home? What are the rooms like? What kind of furniture do you have in that room? So is it very sparse? Is it very utilitarian? Does it feel more home? Like do they pets have access to a variety of options in play toys? And what about activities? Do you offer a range of activities that are planned Throughout the day, that are designed for specific breeds of dogs to do certain things, whether that's to reinforce training, or possibly, you know, just just wear them out or stimulate them mentally. All of these aspects you can think through whenever you're going, Oh, well, I do boarding these little things you can start adding on and doing and really start making sure that the services you offer are pretty unique.
Meghan 04:27
The second one is the online user experience. So that basically means your website and this is a big one. This includes How easy is it for people to find information about you and get their questions answered? Is it easy for them to find out how to book and get in contact? Is the process really streamlined and it takes them a minimal amount of time as possible? Also, do you have photos or a video introducing yourself on your website or your company?
Collin 04:56
Right and as you mentioned, there, a lot of this gets down to the process. Is that someone has to go through from first discovering you to booking the service? Is that easy? How many clicks does it take? How many forms do they have to fill out, try your best to simplify that as much as possible. So that it is very simple, it's very straightforward is easy to understand. They understand exactly what the next step is going to be, so that they can begin preparing for that and you as well.
Meghan 05:29
You're really having to differentiate yourself from rover and wag. If you're an independent pet sitter, you have to make that process as painless and as quick as possible because they do it. You can book you can contact them book somebody within 10 minutes if you want to do on their apps. And so you have to make sure that you are mimicking that fast process as much as you can.
Collin 05:54
And it's honestly very hard to walk through our own processes, especially if we design them and think about the pain points and trying to get rid of those. So ask your clients after they book was that process easy? Could How could I have made that better for you ask the people who are actually doing it, and then see what you can do to correct that and make that easier for the next person.
Meghan 06:20
But that can be hard because, like, I personally take things to heart. And I don't really want a lot of criticism, but at the same time, of course, I want the best process and the fastest process for my client,
Collin 06:34
right? And what makes sense to you is probably not going to make the same sense to somebody else and vice versa. So take that kind of feedback with a small grain of salt here, but if someone's like, yeah, you know, it took me 12 clicks to figure out when you're available. Okay, what can we do on the What can we do? Can we make that nine clicks? Let's let's work on that.
Meghan 06:54
And the same thing goes for your social media. Is it nice to look at? Do you post nice pic On your Instagram and Facebook, or do you post blurry action shots of dogs? I have unfortunately seen some of that as well. Your first impression is your most crucial if that's your website, if that's a business card, if that's your Facebook or your Instagram, is your contact information on the websites or on that business card. Correct. Easily accessible, you have to make sure that it is
Collin 07:24
the third one here is customer service. Another really, really big component of this industry.
Meghan 07:33
We say this all the time, but the dogs don't pay the bill. It's the humans
Collin 07:36
right. And we've we've done a couple episodes talking tangentially around customer service and providing good customer service here. But basically, you can think of customer service in three ways. How are you communicating with them? are you solving their problems? And are you meeting their needs before they know they need it? Communication here is really the best backbone of our industry. Do you inform them of what the what the what the booking process is going to be like before they go through it? That's communication even though they haven't paid you a penny. And then when they do book a service, what kind of communication Do you have going on there. And then customer service also involves solving problems as they arise, solving them in a clear headed, professional manner. And then again, communicating through that entire process. This is a big area to differentiate yourself from somebody else. Again, just because somebody is offering walks and they've got pretty photos, doesn't mean they're actually taking care of their clients and taking care of the people who are paying them. You can make that service really shine out whenever you are taking care of your your clients, your people clients.
Meghan 08:48
This is a very simple thing to say. But being kind, especially on the internet, people can get real crazy real fast on the internet, in whatever situation possible, but Remaining professional and being kind and whatever interaction you have with your client is best. setting yourself apart can also mean causes that you are involved in. what resonates with your business? Do you like to volunteer at a local rescue? Are you partnered with a vet that does discounts for military members or rescue pups?
Collin 09:23
Right? You can think nationally or locally here. So local campaigns for maybe a new park in your area. Do you have association with them or national movements, environmentally friendly products here and then as Megan mentioned, local animal shelters or vet offices, these causes, help communicate to people around you what you stand for, and what you're willing to put on the line for that people really do connect with others when they know what they're passionate about. And so, getting your business involved in local, state national level of causes And campaigns can be a great way to help others see what you stand for, and set yourself apart from others in your area.
Meghan 10:07
Before we move on to the fifth way to set yourself apart, we wanted to give a quick shout out to our sponsor pet sitters associates. As pet care professionals, your clients trust you to care for their furry family members, pet sitters associates is here to help over 20 years of pet sitters associates has provided thousands of members with quality pet care insurance. If you work in the pet care industry, or you want to make your passion for pets into a profession, you can take your career to the next level with flexible coverage options, client connections and complete freedom and running your business. Learn why pet sitters associates is the perfect fit for you and get a free quote today at pet sit llc.com. You can get a discount when joining by clicking membership pet sitter confessional and use the discount code confessional at checkout to get $10 off today. Check out the benefits of membership and insurance once again at pet At llc.com.
Collin 11:01
So the fifth way here that we can differentiate ourselves is products that you're selling. I know this is a big movement amongst pet sitters and dog walkers in the time of COVID is selling products as a source of income, but it can also be a way to provide additional services to your clients. So do you sell products do you have products that you love that you use regularly? More people are starting to do this but still, a lot of people don't know we don't make an I do not currently sell products. Not yet. Not yet. Leave everything on that. So that alone will most likely make you stand out and trying to tie some of this stuff together. Here are the products you sell tied to a cause so you could do something like for every x item sold you donate $2 to a charity of your choice that you are partnering with.
Meghan 11:56
You could also just have your top five most recommended treats Or toys or harnesses or whatever product that you're passionate about, right? And let your clients know about that, that you are selling those because you you believe in this product, and you think it's the best one out there.
Collin 12:11
Yeah, it's a great way to help continue to educate your clients and help continue to build that relationship and that rapport with them while building a little bit of your business, but it allows people to have a connection with you through these products, things that you love, and that you use, and that you can recommend. And you can have that on a rolling basis. These are my top five toys of the month. And this is what I'm really loving this month and change that periodically, but it's just a way that people will they look to you for information and is another way for people to do that.
Meghan 12:42
Another way to set yourself apart from other sitters in your area is your community involvement. Do you go to community events. Now, obviously, it looks this this looks a lot different now than it did seven months ago. But there are still events that you can go to In our area, our pools just closed over Labor Day. And so they had a very last swim of the year was for the dogs. So you could bring your dog and it was only, you know, a $5 charge. But that's a great way if you had something like that in your area or something similar. That's a great way to wear your T shirt, hand out some business cards, take your own dog
Collin 13:21
partner with the organizers of that event to provide volunteer support or help or help with advertising as well. On volunteering. Everyone's got a local animal shelter that desperately desperately needs help in fundraising or taking the dogs on walks or caring for cats. You can do that you can and let people know, hey, I spend my Saturdays volunteering at the local animal shelter. And
Meghan 13:48
then of course, we always say community over competition. So do you partner with other pet sitters in your area? Maybe they offer services that you don't and vice versa or maybe they offer this Same services and you are their referral when you get sick or go on vacation or something else happens. But partner to partner with pet care providers is an awesome way to let the community know that it is community over competition. We are we are not like there are enough dogs for everyone, all the dog walkers and all the pet sitters to have plenty of clients,
Collin 14:25
right? People really are starting to look at businesses to understand what they're involved in and what they value. And so being involved in our community, helping others having these national type or local causes that we're involved in all helps people understand who we are as as individuals and as business owners and allows them to see whether they can jive with that whether they agree with that and whether they want to be a part of that. It allows people to see themselves as being a part of something bigger when they patronize your business and they know you're involved in XYZ campaign. They get good feelings from that because they believe in those things, too.
Meghan 15:09
Yeah, they always say people buy from people. And that leads us into our next point of your marketing is what makes you stand out from others in your area. Take a look at exactly what you are messaging, what you are saying what you're communicating with your branding your colors, with what you put out on social media or photos. Yeah, exactly. What kind of photos are you using? Are they representative of the community and clients you have or what you want to have?
Collin 15:37
Right? Could people again, Can people see themselves being a part of your business? Are they able to see that easily from what you're communicating?
Meghan 15:46
And are you using images and videos in your promotion, there's a big push for video right now because people have been at home for four or five months and they are just consuming content like crazy and video is a great way to do that.
Collin 15:59
It's great. When people begin get to know you, and a lot of us, including Megan and I are just getting behind a video camera is Oh, hard and it makes us really uncomfortable. And we worry about what we're going to say and we worry how we're going to look and all of these kind of things. But putting the video out there again, allows people to see you. They want to get to know you
Meghan 16:25
people buy from people. And you can tell your story and let the clients get to know you and what your values are as a business as a person, the atmosphere that you want to create for your clients. You can include stories and photos of your employees as well if you have them
Collin 16:41
write again we're getting people to know and understand who you are, who your employees are, because that's gonna help them feel more comfortable the more open we are about ourselves, the more likely people are to to patroness
Meghan 16:53
a few more other aspects of marketing are the reviews and references. So not just getting them, but one having them easy to find and to having references when people ask for them. Now people may not ask for them very often, we've only had a couple instances over the many years that we've been pet sitters. But especially if you are doing housesitting, a potential client may ask for someone that they can call and talk to how setting is very particular and intimate setting. And the client might want a reference for that might want many references to make sure that you are reputable and not going to just steal their stuff. Part of marketing is also your pricing and that kind of ties into your services. So you may want to aim for the bottom of the market or not, I would not suggest that aim for the top of the market. So your pricing is your messaging and it is part of your marketing.
Collin 17:54
We all do this. Anytime we go shopping and we look at the price for a particular item. That price tells us something about that item, we infer certain things based on the price. When we see something that is really super cheap and inexpensive. We have some preconceived notions about that, when we see something that is insanely expensive. We have some preconceived notions about that. So as business owners, especially in the service industry, how we set our prices for our services, communicates something to our clients
Meghan 18:28
price for what you think you are worth, and then what kind of clients you want to attract. If you look at your business, and you want to attract clients that have an income between 50,000 and 100,000, and live in a certain neighborhood, and then great price so that you can meet your year end goals, and you can attract those kind of clients.
Collin 18:53
Now these last two points that we're going to talk about these last two areas that we could possibly use to differentiate ourselves get asked, I think above and beyond the most common ones compared to the other ones that we've covered. And these last two are, should I get a particular certification or training? And should I join a particular or specific organization, professional pet sitter, pet care organization.
Meghan 19:18
So we think at the very bare minimum, you should have pet CPR and first aid training,
Collin 19:24
and some basic Dog Training education background before going into this
Meghan 19:28
Yeah, you need to know the body language of a dog in order to care for him or her. So to a lesser extent, you can get certifications in specific areas and that can be really beneficial if you're trying to really niche down and specialize in an area like geriatric training, nutrition, something along those lines. You should always be learning more though, always continuing education and, and getting, you know, as much training as you possibly can to better serve your clients, but relying on a specific training or sort of To be the one thing that sets you apart from other sitters in your area, without having looked at the other seven or eight that we've mentioned, isn't going to be as beneficial for you.
Collin 20:11
And that's kind of similar with that with that other one of Should I join a specific organization organizations are amazing. They provide you with access to more education, a larger community of support, where you can go and ask questions. And yes, some clients will want to see that you are continuing to this, that you're plugged into a larger community and they feel better to see that you have a badge that say you belong to a community, but one community over another, they're not going to know the difference in they're not going to know the difference between psi ibpsa naps or NASA, for that matter. But they may want to see that you are a part of something but one over the other. The general audience, the general client is really not going to know the difference. So yeah, we have talked about these key areas that you can look at looking at your services, seeing If you can up the ante on some of those, the user experience this website, is your website beneficial to the client? Can they navigate it easily. Customer service is huge. We cannot scream from the rooftops, loud enough about how important having good customer services, then causes and community involvement, showing others what you're passionate about what you believe in selling particular products, again, that are beneficial to your clients that you can recommend to them. And then your marketing, how are you differentiating yourself with your images, your wording and your videos, getting your face out there so people can get to know you. And then these last two, we firmly believe that education and being connected to a larger community are going to benefit you every single day. It may be hard to let other clients know potential clients know about exactly how that plays into your services. So go out, get more education, get plugged into a professional organization, but relying on those two alone to differentiate yourself as you said Megan without addressing your marketing or your website, you're really not going to be doing as much good as you would like to thank you are doing. So work on the marketing, to communicate that to the education that you're getting to communicate how you're plugged in, and you'll be a lot better for it.
Meghan 22:16
What this all boils down to is you your business, the way you run it, your face and name getting out there. You know, we can have a prescription for what it looks like to set yourself apart, but it really depends on you and the other sitters in your area and what your mission and values and goals are for your specific business.
Collin 22:39
Right. So as we start thinking about these core areas of differentiation, being an introspective and thinking about what you want for your business, how do you want your business to be viewed, how do you want to be different from somebody else, just because somebody isn't doing a particular service in your area doesn't mean you need to be the one to do If you don't want to be doing that particular service gets back in. We've talked about this a lot recently as your why and being grounded in that and making sure that your how your business functions is aligned with your personal values. Now usually on Mondays we have Natasha, Albanian come on to answer a particular question in our pet biz corner. However today her segment is talking about her upcoming start scale sale game changers summit, October 7, eighth and ninth.
Natasha 23:29
So we are hosting the game changers healthcare summit this year 2020. It's going to be from October 7 tonight. And it is basically a three day jam packed little snippets. We're not here to bore you and like let you sit around for hours on your computer. It is good to be quick takeaways I would say of actionable steps meeting with the speakers. We sat down and said what can our audience learn and what can he take away instantly from ever single session. So definitely sign in, go to our site, and come and join us. It's gonna be a blast. Yeah. And
Collin 24:10
it's really being a lot of really being different from a lot of the other kind of online conferences that people may have heard. So what kind of things can people expect to experience whenever they sign up?
Natasha 24:21
Yeah, so they can expect we have so far 15 plus speakers. We wanted to do collaboration over competition, that's part of our game changers theme is 15 peers, influencers and mentors all together, no one is the guru in the room. We all specialize in our own field and our own platform, but we wanted to make sure we bring also the start scale sale template your way. So if you are a new pet care writer or an experienced pet care provider looking to advance your business, you can take something out of this summit. It's a little bit for everybody,
Collin 24:53
right? And that's what really makes it so powerful is that it's getting all these different people in the same room effectively and sharing experiences and as you mentioned at the beginning of these quick snippets, these things is really powerful moments to take away to stop start implementing that day in most cases,
Natasha 25:08
oh, yeah. I would say Think of it as a training, not necessarily a conference where you sit around and you kind of like wait, you hear the lesson and the intro, the outro. It is quick trainings. So what do I need to know about your topic? We have Instagram, we have bookkeeping, we have finance. We have automation. We have virtual assistants, we have podcast hosts, we have a little bit of everybody just giving you instead of like researching and going to college for four years, it's a in your face. Get it, catch it, and use it. So we want to make sure you can take away and implement things in your business instantly.
Collin 25:43
Yeah, these are people that are distilling down their expertise in very quick takeaway points that you don't have to spend a lot of time digesting because they've already done that for you. It's this here, this worked for me or this is what I've learned in these three things that you need to do and to take away from it too.
Natasha 26:00
Exactly And hey, we know our audience. We know you guys are busy. We know you have short temperament when it comes to taking this kind of information in. So we want to make sure it goes where it needs to go and stays there.
Collin 26:11
Right. And so remind us of the dates and the website that people can go and sign up.
Natasha 26:16
Yes, it is October 7 to October 9, three days, the website is S S S summit. So S is in Sam, Sam, Sam summit.com. And you can actually register now so if you register with us, you get your free. Then we mentioned that this is a free summit and you have the option of purchasing an all access pass after so check out our website and you get all the deets
Collin 26:44
if you'd like to go and get your free ticket once again, your free ticket to the summit, you can go to S S S summit.com and get registered there and there'll be a link for that in the shownotes and on our website as well.
Meghan 26:56
We thank you so much for taking your most valuable asset your time and listening to us today. We are so appreciative of this pet care community and are so happy to be a part of it. If you have any questions, you can give us a call at 636-364-8260. We are also on Facebook and we have a Facebook community page. It's sitter confessionals. We're also on Instagram at pet sitter confessional, and we'd be happy to connect with you.
27:25
Thank you so much for listening.
Meghan 27:26
We want to thank again our sponsor, pet sitters associates
