128: Back to Basics- Drop-in Checks
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Summary:
Up next in our Back to Basics series, we cover Drop-in checks. We discuss what we do during a typical visit and how to price it compared to your other services. We also share some small things you can do with a drop-in to really set yourself apart and provide an awesome service for your clients. Natasha O’Banion answers the question, “Do I lead or mentor my employees”
Topics on this episode:
What are drop-ins?
What do you do during the visit?
Safety
Communication with the client
Ask a Pet Biz Coach with Natasha O’Banion
Main take away? Drop-in checks are a great way to blend walks and house sitting, and will definitely fit the needs of many of your clients.
Links:
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
client, pet, check, minutes, home, natasha, dog, owner, cameras, drop, pet sitter, service, people, walk, called, sitters, business, house, door, visit
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin, Natasha
Collin 00:18
Hi, I'm Colin.
Meghan 00:19
And I'm Megan.
00:20
And this is petsitter. confessional
Meghan 00:21
an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Hello, welcome back to another episode. Thank you so much to our sponsor, pet sitters associates and our patrons who are supporting us with the price of a cup of coffee every month. Thank you guys so much for making this episode possible. We hope that you guys have a great Thanksgiving week last week in the US, we celebrated Thanksgiving.
Collin 00:51
It was a little crazy for us here
Meghan 00:52
it was. Yeah, I think I mean, it was kind of a roller coaster, we had a few cancellations and a few last minute bookings. And I think that's probably the way Christmas is gonna go as well.
01:03
I'm still tired. Yeah.
Meghan 01:07
Well rest up,
Collin 01:08
it doesn't help with the changing of the seasons are getting dark earlier, too. That makes it harder and harder,
Meghan 01:13
at least here in the US, right, our main topic today is about dropping checks. And these have a pretty fluid definition, because many sitters will take the pet for a short walk during a drop in visit. But it's typically not very long, or that really the main focus of the visit. So to define a drop in check is really when you go over to the client's house for a set period of time to check on the pet. And we've seen these called break times or potty breaks. Our droppings start at 30 minutes, and they can go up to an hour if that's what the client needs. And really an hour long visit would typically be if they also want to add a walk, or if the dog or cat has extensive medication needs. Or if they've got really bad separation anxiety. And we really have to kind of walk them through the whole process much slower than just a normal client.
Collin 02:08
Yeah, I'll also add that the visits will typically be longer if they just have more pets to take care of. Very recently, we did a series of drop ins for a client, we came over three times a day. And they had four dogs and one actually needed to have I medication administered. And they all needed to be fed separated from one another. So it just took a lot of time to get all of that done on top of letting them outside and playing and doing all that stuff. It really took a solid 45 minutes. And there was no way that that would have fit in a standard 30 minute visit.
Meghan 02:45
So we don't offer anything shorter than 30 minutes, even for cats. But we know plenty of people who do 15 minute visits, if the only if the dog only needs medications at a certain time or throughout the day. Or to just quickly go pee outside. And I've even seen some sitters do five minutes, but I wouldn't recommend that. Because that's not really how do you get that done in five minutes, I barely
Collin 03:06
get inside the door and my shoes taken off or whatever before the five minutes were up,
Meghan 03:11
right. So the 30 minutes can go by, or however long that you you need it can go by super fast with everything that gets packed into it. So you have the dog goes outside to pee or poop. You play with them. You top off their water and food if they graze or you feed them their breakfast or dinner. you administer any medication, you clean up any messes that they made, or you clean up litter box, you of course give endless hugs and cuddles, you bring in the mail, any packages that may have arrived, you rotate the blinds you water plants, refill any bird feeders, if they have a bird, and you make sure the house is just as clean as when you found it. You also turn off any lights or on lights, depending on the time of day. And especially if the owner won't be home until late at night, it's very kind thing to do to turn on some lights for them.
Collin 04:03
And then if the owner wants their dog walked, you'll really need to watch that clock and watch that time that you're committing to that and in that point, suggest a dedicated walking service for the dog if that's what they're really after. Because doing a quick walk like that really not going to get out to energy really is not going to engage the dog as much as possible. So doing that long, full 30 minute walk is really going to be best for the dog at that point. What's awesome about that list that you just gave Megan is that the items weren't all related to pet care, they weren't all pet related. A lot of them were actually focused more on the owner and taking care of the house.
Meghan 04:42
Well that's true. We like to view drop in checks as both checking on the pet Of course, and preparing the house for the owner to come home. So what that means is is your client getting home late at night, you turn on the porch light for them, you turn on the kitchen light you rotate the blinds, make sure that they're clean. If they're going to be getting home at nighttime notice any mail or packages that have come in bring them in, especially during the holiday season, when people tend to steal packages right off the front porch,
Collin 05:11
what those kind of little touches do is it serve, it centers the service as a holistic solution to the owners worries and concerns, you're able to with one fell swoop take several things off of their list of things to do on their list.
Meghan 05:28
Yeah, it shows that you're paying attention, it shows that you want to go above and beyond for the client, and not just, you know, play with Fido for a minute and take them out to go pee, you want to take care of their home as well when they are not there.
Collin 05:42
And what's really important is that these aren't extras that you're charging for, these are just included, these are just what a drop in service includes for you. It helps also justify whenever you raise prices, because of all of the things that you're doing and you're putting into this one service.
Meghan 06:00
Drop in checks can really be at any time of the day or night. So really, safety is always top of mind. But even more. So if you're coming and going from a house at nighttime, ask the client to leave a light or two on for you if you're going to be coming in at night or early in the morning. and have your keys out and ready before you leave your car. Or well in advance before you get to the door. I know
Collin 06:25
for me, a constant reminder that I have to give myself is to take off my earbuds or turn off the music or your favorite petsitting podcast, I was actually doing some droppings on this house and was coming over for my last visit at like 930 at night. And the house had these two big bushes around the front door. And each time I pulled in, I actually spend a few minutes sitting in the car just watching the bushes in the surrounding area. Before I turn my car off, took out my earbuds and unlock the doors and went to the front door. It's just about taking a few moments to be observant and aware of your surroundings to see if anything's off. And at any point in time, if your gut starts saying, Wait a minute, or be cautious or don't open that door yet. Listen to that really, really listen to that just take a few minutes. It's not that I'm paranoid or anything, it's just that I try and be as observant as possible. Before I get out of my car and walk up to that door.
Meghan 07:24
When you get inside the client's home, lock the door immediately behind you and then go check on the pad. You don't want to be in a situation where the door is unlocked. And either the pet tries to open it up because we have had that happen, where the dog knows how to open the door, or
Collin 07:39
the owner didn't tell us about that.
Meghan 07:41
Yeah, or somebody comes in behind you that you weren't aware of whether it's daytime or nighttime, you just lock that door right behind you. And you may consider carrying some sort of protection with you if you're going to be doing a lot of drop ins during the late night or early morning hours.
Collin 07:57
I'd also suggest having the owner inform their neighbors that you'll be over there and roughly the times that you're expected to be there. This will help avoid any sort of weird phone calls to the police that so that you don't get the cops called on you and you're not having to explain to the cops why you're in somebody else's house. So that just one simple step can go a long way to ensuring your safety.
Meghan 08:21
Well and speaking of safety COVID so everything is different because of COVID and drop in checks are no different. So cleaning, you want to make sure that you are wiping down surfaces that you have touched, that doorknobs you have touched anything that you know the leash, anything you've touched, you want to wipe it down, ask the client to keep leashes and poop bags, etc, right by the front door. So if you are doing just a drop in check that you need to take the dog outside for a walk, you have that accessible right at the front door and you don't have to search for it. You don't have to be in the house any longer than you need to. And then wear a mask when inside their house. I think many pets are used to seeing masks on people now. But make sure that you know at the meet and greet you're asking, I'm going to be wearing a mask is your pet comfortable with the mask or not and then assess what you need to be doing from there.
Collin 09:13
Well, you mentioned those cleaning products, request that those be made and put in a central location for you by the owner. And then definitely have your own as a backup in case they're not there. You don't want to have to go searching through the house to find their wipes and find the Clorox and find all that stuff. Ask them put that right by the door, put that on the kitchen counter. And then you are going to have your backups just in case.
Meghan 09:35
And if your business is primarily focused around, drop in checks or dog walks, anything where you are really coming and going from your car, always have a first aid kit in your car. Always have cleaning products in your car, extra leashes, extra collars, anything that you will need, anything that you could potentially need or if you're out and something happens you want To know that you're going to be taken care of, you're going to be safe. And you're going to keep the pet safe as well.
Collin 10:05
Actually, you mentioned car there that that's a huge topic for for a lot of us when it comes to things like tracking our mileage. For our business, there's an there's an app that gets recommended all the time. It's called mile IQ, we hear a lot of awesome things about it. And what it does is it allows you to track the mileage that you're traveling from place to place, so that you can plan your pricing accordingly. That's really, really helpful. Especially you know, you may be thinking that you're making money on these visits by traveling all over the place. But by the time you take into account the gas, the time to get there, the wear and tear on your car, they those visits may actually be costing you money, and you'd never know that until you start tracking. And then this time of year, we we just had that episode with with Mike Episode 127 talking about taxes and getting prepared for tax season. Having an app like mile IQ will help you write off these miles for your taxes. If you have a home office, and you're declaring that on your taxes, you can count the miles from your house to clients for mileage purposes as well. But but just remember that when it comes to picking these and taking deductions, you can really only take the miles or the gas. So work with the numbers work with an accountant and see which one's going to be the best bang for your buck.
Meghan 11:26
Before we continue, I would like 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 for over 20 years they've provided thousands of members with quality pet care insurance. If you would like 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 pets@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 that pets it llc.com.
Collin 12:12
When it comes to trying to figure out the pricing that you're going to have for a dropins you really need to figure out where does it fall on the list of your services that you offer. And how are you going to differentiate it from those other ones. Pricing is always a black box for a lot of us because it's going to depend on where you live, the kind of competition that you have the level of service that you're providing your years of service, all of these things are going to take into account, you know, we don't get a lot of requests for drop ins here. And I know a lot of sitters charged less for a drop in check than a walk because they view a walk as being a lot more work, there's a lot more liability that goes into that lot more wear and tear on them, the person and the all of their equipment. But some charge the exact same price for a 30 minute drop in versus a 30 minute walk because they still view it as that same amount of time that's being taken up during their day.
Meghan 13:11
But of course, depending on the length of the check will vary your price as well.
Collin 13:17
Right. So a one hour drop in should not be the same price as a 30 minute walk and vice versa. So again, see how you want to differentiate what kind of services you want to drive and how you want to be busy during your day and what's going to be most profitable for you.
Meghan 13:34
We are a customer service based industry, we care for the clients, we care for the pets, but mostly we care for the clients. So it's all about communication. We recommend taking and sending pictures of the pets while they are in your care. This helps your credibility, it helps the client trust you more, and you get really cute pictures out of it that you can post on social media. It's a win for everybody really take the time during the check to get three to four amazing photos. If you could only get one amazing photo, that's fine, you can you know the client will know that you've been there and don't get too many because that's not a good use of your time and it's just going to overwhelm the client. That really about three photos we recommend is a good number to have for a 30 minute drop in check. Get low on the pets level, Get down. Get as much light as possible for a clear, sharp photo. I know cell phones these days we have a little bit of an older iPhone, but I know some of the new iPhone I think they're 12 iPhone 12 they have an excellent camera on them. So if you have one of those awesome but if not get as much light as you can and use the surroundings to take interesting action shots or funny poses or if the dog likes to play tug of war get a shot of them playing tug of war if the cat likes to hide in a certain spot that's really funny. Take a picture of that. Take a picture of There's 1000 different scenarios, I can go all night.
Collin 15:06
But you have those different different categories, you have an action category, a resting category, a cuddle category and eating category. One maybe from each of those kind of categories in different settings and different surroundings as you're able to, as you have time for, you know, definitely allows you to tell the whole story of that visit and allows the client to really see what's going on.
Meghan 15:29
Also, don't be afraid to report bad behavior, clients are going to want to know if their pup has peed in their crate or chewed up anything. I mean, this is their house, they're going to want to know and if they have cameras in their house, they definitely will know whether you tell them or not. So let them know if something seems off about the pet or if there's anything physically wrong. And a big tip here, take notes about the pet each time you're there, you don't have to report these necessarily to the client. But if you notice something is a little bit different. Or if if the bowl was moved to a certain spot in the house where it wasn't before, take a note of that. So you know next time that instead of having to spend five minutes searching for the water bowl, you know it's now located here instead of where it was previously.
Collin 16:17
And and part of that too is if you have the time if you're able and if the pet is allows you to spend some time when you're cuddling with them on the floor on the couch, spend some time with your hands going over their body, their legs and paws, you're not picking or poking or prying anything, you're just rubbing your hand along their legs over their body over their tail, quickly checking for anything out of the ordinary or any sore spots. They know I know for for Coby A while back whenever he was having a problem with his back, he didn't display it at all, he walks just fine, he reacted normally. But when you would take your hand and rub it down his back, he would really spin around and let you know that something was bothering him. And that keyed us in to knowing Okay, something is off right now. And we took him to the vet and he got medication and he's doing just fine right now. But little things like that, just spend some time with your hand running over their body, the dog or the pet will let you know if something is going to start bothering them, then take some notes. And if it is really concerning you or if it's really out of the ordinary, let the client know, let the client know what you found. And in really, it's just looking for those things that are out of the ordinary or abnormal, especially with a dog that you've been with a while. I also
Meghan 17:30
wanted to touch on it cameras. So you may have this in your contract and your policies. If not maybe consider putting it there. But cameras are basically the norm these days you're
Collin 17:42
talking about in home?
Meghan 17:44
Yes. Yeah, in home cameras, they're basically the norm these days for people, a lot of people have the ring doorbell camera, a lot of people have inside cameras as well. So don't ever fudge the times that you are there. Because whether it's the doorbell system, or the cameras or a neighbor that just happens to be peeking out the window, people are going to know that you've been there or you haven't been there. Just make sure when you're in their home, that you are professional, that you are doing professional things that you are being kind to their home, that you are not taking advantage of being in their home in any way that you are always caring for their pet being kind for their pet and taking the best possible care of their house and their pet as you possibly can.
Collin 18:28
Right. I know a while back we had an interview with Aunt Mary's pet sitting and she had a great saying of the client's home is that's their business, I have no business snooping around, I have no business checking on doors that are locked or going through drawers. And it's a really like a code of conduct an ethic of when you're in somebody else's home. It doesn't matter if you really want to see what's in that drawer over there. You don't go do that you don't go snooping around in somebody else's home. unless they've said you know, go to the cupboards and get something to eat or go to the make sure you get a drink of water from the sink or something like that. That's fine. But it's it's taking this. It's having this mindset of respecting somebody's space and not going through it. Period into story.
Meghan 19:12
Well, it is a fine line though, because you want to keep their home safe. Like we typically will check all windows, all exterior windows and make sure that they are okay and not broken. So you want to protect their home, but also make sure that you're not snooping they're going going where you shouldn't be going.
Collin 19:32
Yeah, it is a fine light. Absolutely. And sometimes, if you just saw something on a camera, it'd be hard to see is this person snooping? Or is this person checking my window, but know that your intent is really what matters here and have those clear expectations, those clear communications line out with your client, let them know, Hey, I'm going to check the windows every time I'm there. So in case they see you on a camera, checking the windows, they don't have a question about what you're doing,
Meghan 19:57
or maybe not every time you're there, but at least the First time just making sure they're all locked and secured. And, okay, right when we first started off in pet care, we did a ton of drop in checks. Now, since we're mostly home based, we don't do as much anymore. But we would love to know, kind of what percentage of your business is made up of drop in checks, right? So let us know, you can give us a call at 636-364-8260. You can find us all over the internet at pet sitter confessional calm or at pet sitter confessional on any social media platform. And we have a question this week for Natasha about being a leader versus being a mentor to your employees?
Collin 20:37
Do we need to be mentoring our employees? Or can we just be a leader to them? Or is there a difference?
Natasha 20:44
Yeah, I think it's a little bit of two in the same. You show me what you want from me. So that's number one. Okay, this is your business. I'm your employee, I don't know what's going on. You know, I don't know what you've been doing. I don't know anything about this company. So you have to clearly tell me exactly how you want each service to be done. What each service means, what the clients supposed to receive at the end of the service, how they're supposed to receive it. So then you can start empowering your team to say, Okay, I did a good job. You never want someone to be on your team wondering if they did a good job. You also don't want them to rely on cranes to keep them motivated. So you're gonna have to continue to praise and praise they did a good job. You did a good job. Okay. Well, whose standard was that? Was that to Natasha standard? Was that's a column standard. Tell me exactly how you want me to do this? I don't have to guess. Okay. I know a lot of people get frustrated with hiring sad was like, well, they just did this. And they did that. And I don't know why they did that. Well, you'd wonder why they did that. Because you didn't tell them not to or to do. So you have to clearly write out each service. You know, a lot of what we do is we go through services. Each one Okay, dog walker, what is this mean? Is it going to be 15 minutes is going to be 30 minutes? Okay, where do I get the key? Or do I put the key back? How do I work my software? What you want me to say my software? How many pictures Do you want me to do company send to this job me to do? Should I mention the poo or not mentioned the poo? Should I mentioned that they pee 10 times? Or should I just put one time? You know, should I mention what we're working on it we're training on? Or should I just say it was a great walk, you have to be so clear on how you want your service to be done. And an employee can go home every single day like I nailed that job. You know, I did everything. They asked me to do your check, check, check, check nails good. When I actually have to call my employees for anything. They are so confident. They're like, Nope, I followed the process. Girl, it's in there. I saw I took a picture. Everything's been handled. I'm like, Great, good job. And we keep it going. But you have to be really clear. Like you just I don't believe that you're going to get like this turnkey employee that basically was like a second owner to you. I think that's what most people think that they should have, like, another owner, look like you're an owner, you're an owner, you're an owner? No, you're the owner. I'm the employee. Okay, let's make it clear.
Collin 23:09
Yeah, well, and that, you know, laid out there like part of that leadership is pointing the direction saying, this is where we're going. And then that mentorship coming alongside them and going, and this is how we're going to get there, I'm going to help train you to that point, I'm going to help, you know, give you feedback when you need it. So you know, as you start off saying it's kind of two in the same at that point, because they both need to have if you want them to get to that end destination, you're going to have to mentor them. But you're also going to have to point them in the right direction to get started.
Natasha 23:36
And the mentorship part is really like once I've showed you where to go, right. So once I've written out all these policies, so everything you're ever going to ask me as an employee, I've already put it in a safe space for you. I've directed you where to go to find the information. Now it's actually up to me to make sure I hold you accountable. So if you say hey, Natasha, I'm it. It's raining outside. Do you know if the clients have a towel? I'm gonna say, Hey, Collin, did you read your wedding protocol and not like, Oh, yeah, it's gonna be at the front door and just roll it back up and put it in the basket. Okay, you keep doing that all day long. They're gonna keep calling you. They're like, Oh, perfect. I can just bring her she's gonna answer it really quick. And then it's good to go. Yeah, but my staff are so sick of me. They're like, she's gonna just tell me like, where to go. She's just gonna say, go to the lockbox policy. She's gonna say, go to, you know, cover your ass policy because I have that, like extra tips to learn how to cover your butt. That's a thing. Like, do these things to cover your ass? I also have a policy called peace of mind how to ensure peace of mind. So they're like, oh, Natasha, do you think this report looks good? Um, read how to ensure peace of mind. Read that policy. You know, well, what should I put in the post op report? Read the policy on post op report. And people asked me this too recently is how I feel about owner's manuals. owner's manuals are great as like Your banking Bible I would say like, you know, you go to a bank and eat alone, they want to see that you have everything together. But these need to be individual sheets that they can click to if you're in time to bed, I just did this little life hack with one of my students right now, if you're in time to pet, create a client profile for each staff member. And just as he was sent all these contracts to the client, make individual sheets that you would send to your staff member. So now they can just click on their file and easily access each one of those policies. It's such a little life hack, but it's so easy because they know where to go and I never call you and then everyone drops through again, because they already know where to go and what to do.
Meghan 25:45
Natasha is a wonderful pet business coach, and if you would like her to be your personal pet business coach, you can go to her website, start skill sale.com and use the code p sc 20. For 15% off her coaching, we appreciate you taking time out of your very busy schedule to listen to us every week and to keep coming back for more episodes. We are having so much fun with this and thank you so much for listening. We also want to thank pet sitters associates for making this show possible. Thank you join us next time
