181: Facebook Changes and Separation Anxiety
Brought to you by Pet Sitters Associates
Summary
iOS 14.5 was released and is already having an impact on targeted ad campaigns in places like Facebook and Instagram. As small business owners, many of us have relied on these powerful targeted ads to get in front of potential clients.
We share some simple things to do in response to these new changes. We also discuss a new bug in Google My Business listings that impacted our business, and how it was corrected.
We finish off the episode by discussing how the pet care industry can respond to the rapid increase of separation anxiety in pets (and their owners)!
Topics on this episode:
iOS 14.5 and tracking
Make a backup admin
“Kansas Bug” in Google My Business
Separation anxiety and your business
Ask a Pet Biz Coach
Main takeaway: With the growing demand of 24/7 care for pets, we can either choose to embrace it by offering an expensive service option, or we start educating clients on what holistic pet care looks like.
Links:
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet, business, client, dog, sitter, owner, services, facebook, concerns, google, separation anxiety, pet sitter, care, confessional, continue, home, area, pandemic, user, trainers
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin Funkhouser, Natasha
Meghan 00:17
Hi, I'm Megan. I'm Collin. And this is pet sitter confessional, and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Hello, welcome to Episode 181. Hello, thank you to our sponsor, pet sitters associates and our awesome Patreon members like Savannah, Jennifer and Teresa, thank you so much.
00:42
Yeah, if you want to learn more about what it means to be a Patreon supporter of the podcast, head on over to petsitter confessional comm forward slash support
Meghan 00:51
today is a little bit of a mixed bag for an episode, we had a few smaller topics that we really wanted to make sure that we covered Facebook, and an increase in separation anxiety in pets
Collin Funkhouser 01:02
that we've talked about some of the Facebook changes a while back, but we wanted to take some time to talk about the recent changes that you may have noticed, this is all centered around specifically iOS 14.5 that came out on the iPhone. And with it came some new features that do two things they limit and in some cases totally prohibit the amount of tracking that third party apps can do while you're using your phone.
Meghan 01:29
And we already covered this in a previous episode, I think that Apple was going to release, how was it going to work it was they were going to release it but then Facebook freaked out and said, Oh no, wait a minute, and Apple placated just for a little bit. But now they've officially rolled it out.
Collin Funkhouser 01:44
Yeah, it's been officially rolled out of iOS 14.5, you may have already updated to this. And you may have already been seeing some of these pop ups. But from a user perspective, this is wonderful, because it means that our data is more private than ever. And we can determine who we want to track us and how we share that. And then again, who we would rather not. As I mentioned, you've probably already seen this pop up window when you've opened up an app that's been updated to 14.5. And it reads something like allow this app to track your activity across other companies, apps or websites. And you have two options, you can either respond with allow or ask not to track.
Meghan 02:23
Well, from what I've read and heard, the response has been pretty overwhelming, like only something like only 4%. I think I've seen up to 15%. But a very small number of iOS users have actually allowed the apps to track that which really isn't surprising. But most people are opting out. And so what does this mean for us businesses? What do we do if we are running or have run targeted ads on social media?
Collin Funkhouser 02:48
Yeah, so I think we have to take one step back here and understand the impact that this is having. Facebook collects data of users across the app. And even when you leave the app, or when you leave the Facebook website, if you're doing on a desktop, they have tracking cookies that can see where you go, they can also see how well you interact with ads that are placed throughout Facebook to see which ones are getting the more or less traction. So from a business perspective here, it means that if we are or have been running targeted ads, these are going to have a much more limited scope in the ads, and they won't be able to be as targeted as they were in times past. So if you've been relying on these kinds of ads, you should definitely expect to see the impact that they have to start decreasing over the coming weeks,
Meghan 03:35
I assume that this is not going to be a one time thing. And then iOS or Apple is going to take it away like this is going to as more updates come about in coming years, this is now going to be the standard.
Collin Funkhouser 03:47
Right? Exactly. This will be a continued increase from platform to platform and update update. I know Android has even started talking about implementing similar features of not tracking within apps, and even on the Chrome browser. So privacy is here to stay. And user data is going to be more and more controlled by the individual user. There's been a lot of regulations, especially over in Europe that revolve around how user data is controlled and passed through and what businesses can and can't do with it. And as small business owners, we have had access to one of the most powerful ad networks in the history of advertising. Facebook, because of the number of people who use Facebook who feed into it, ie data in behavior, in interests, and in how certain ads work, we have been able to leverage very small dollars to get pretty large impacts, especially whenever we localize them to our particular area. This is a good thing we do you have to remember that it means that there is more transparency throughout this process. That means that the data that is being collected is done in a more honest and ethical way. Something that I think that We as business owners should be very excited about Facebook and other companies have certainly been hard hit by this, they've put out ads saying that they may have to start charging for services and things like that. However, they have started promising that they are developing new technologies to track users in new and interesting ways that they haven't released yet. And it will continue to allow for more targeted ads in the coming months and years as they respond to this. So again, if you are expecting to release more Facebook ads, definitely you should start diversifying how you're advertising, not just on Facebook, not Senate. And that's just on Instagram. But getting back to some of those more tried and trued methods of networking of flyers of making connections in that Neri shops and in groomer salons, those kind of boots on the ground are really going to start paying off as these targeted ad campaigns and networks that we were relying on start to have more limited scope and access to us.
Meghan 06:01
And while we are on the topic of Facebook, I also want to do a public service announcement that if you run a page or have a group, you must have a backup sign in with admin access. So we've seen it a few times over the past few months where the admin of a Facebook page accidentally clicked the button, or Facebook thinks that they are a bot and block them from accessing their business page at all. And this actually happened to us about a year ago. So terrifying. Well, because I was posting I think at marketplace, and I was going really fast. And Facebook thought I was a bot. And obviously I'm not but they sent us to Facebook Jail for like a week.
06:44
Yeah. And it was my personal account that had admin access to our pages. And so I couldn't do anything. So we had to sit it out and then give Megan admin access on through her facebook account.
Meghan 06:54
Well, and that's the reason why I created we have a joint Facebook account. And the only reason I created one for myself was because of this incident. So either create a new profile or give admin access to somebody else so that they can continue to access the page and post an update while you work through the issues with Facebook. And again, this goes for Facebook groups as well as pages. This also reminds me of something that Amy Tillman said from petsitter, SEO, we had her on on episode 120. And it was an awesome episode about SEO. So go listen to that, if you haven't, and she has helped us with this is Google My Business. This is something that we've been learning a lot about over the last year. And a really well done and updated Google My Business listing is increasingly one of the single most important things you can do for your business to get seen, obviously, anytime you mentioned going to look something up. It's Google, everybody Google's and so being at the top of the rankings, your business being at the top of the rankings is huge. And if you have not done so create a Google My Business listing, it's free, so you should go do it. First, you have to claim your business as the owner. So you go to google.com slash business, and then claim your business, they will send you a card in the mail with more instructions on how to complete it. But this is not a true website is just a business listing with a location and a service address that Google can surface for search queries in your area. It's also very helpful to regularly update it by posting photos of you interacting with pets, saying what services you offer posting videos confirming your hours of operation. And it will periodically help Google to see that you are still active and wanting more clients. So they will continue to present you your business as the answer to questions like bording near me or dog walker near me. And there's a lot that goes into managing a Google My Business listing. And if you have any questions, you should definitely reach out to Amy. She is an expert in SEO. And something that came up for us recently was that we started showing up in Kansas, which is odd. We're based in Missouri.
Collin Funkhouser 09:07
Well, so why was that? Well, it was because we do not have a storefront and we use our home address as our business address. So we do not have it listed as the address for the business on Google My Business. We just have our service area
Meghan 09:21
well. And that's the way it should be if you do I believe it's if you do dog walking and drop ins and you don't have a physical location, you don't have a sign out front with somebody sitting at a desk to work with customers. You do not put your address on the Google My Business listing.
Collin Funkhouser 09:37
Yeah, that's a great way for them to flag you and take your Google My Business listing off completely. So unless you have a storefront and an actual business location, you shouldn't have an address associated with it. Unfortunately, there is this bug going around called the Kansas bug that it finds businesses that do not have an address. And you know, they're kind enough to give you one which just so happens to be at the center of the country, which is in Kansas, which is why our business started showing up in Kansas. So we stopped showing up for searches for pet care in our area. And we were only showing up for pet sitting searches in Kansas. And I think we ended up being ranked pretty highly, which was nice, but, you know, kind of problematic.
Meghan 10:19
Yeah, well, and I think it's a extremely small town where nobody really lives. So nobody's searching for pet care there anyway, so we didn't get a lot of inquiries, I realized that our activity was going down on the Google My Business listing, and I reached out to Amy. And I was wondering why that was. And she told me about the Kansas bug. So we worked with her and submitted a ticket to Google. And it corrected itself after about a week, we saw our numbers going back up again, in our service area had been converted back. And unfortunately, it's not something that you can do manually, you have to have Google do it on their end. And all that to say that if you have a Google My Business listing, and you have noticed your numbers going down, double check where Google has you listed, it may be in Kansas,
Collin Funkhouser 11:00
and then have Amy help you. Well, now's a good time to take a break and tell you about 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, pet sitters associates has provided 1000s of members with quality pet care insurance. If you work in the pet care industry, which you do, or you want to take 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 in running your business. Learn why pet sitters associates is the perfect fit for you and get a free quote today at pet sit LLC calm our listeners 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 pets it llc.com.
Meghan 11:47
And now for something completely different. We're going to we're going to shift topics and bring up something that we have been seeing a lot of not just in our business and the clients that we are talking to, but also in basically every single Facebook group every day. And that is separation anxiety. And we want to focus on really not how to deal with a dog that has separation anxiety. But more on the client expectations around how a pet sitter or dog walker will accommodate them.
12:16
For example, an owner got a dog last February or March and has spent every single moment with him this past year.
Meghan 12:22
That is a lot of people that have done that
Collin Funkhouser 12:24
well. And now the owner is going back to work or they want to take a weekend vacation. And we'd like you to spend all day with the dog because the dog has never been alone before. And either it's exhibiting signs of true separation anxiety, or the owner just cannot bear the thought of their pet not being with a human 24 seven and think it'll spontaneously combust or something.
Meghan 12:46
Yeah, we had an owner request our services this week. And she had been okay with either the dog coming over here to stay or at her house. And she had wanted to know what drop ins were. I had told her they are 30 minute visits, blah, blah, blah, then she had wanted to know the price. And was then turned off because of our price. And then said that drop ins weren't going to work for her and that the dog had not been away from her for basically its entire life. I think it was two years old. And so she wanted somebody to stay at her house, basically all the time. And she didn't think a drop in was good enough, we had told her exactly what it was that we could come over three to four times a day. And that wasn't what she wanted.
Collin Funkhouser 13:32
Yeah, I mean, you'll probably see this manifested, maybe the owner will either be requesting you to arrive just as they are leaving for work, or you'll leave right when they get back home. They may ask you to do it overnight in their home while they're traveling. In the extreme example, they may want you to stay at their home for 24 hours a day, a day, seven days a week while they're gone. These requests were pretty rare in years previously, and only came up every now and then. But now it seems as though it's becoming more of an expectation.
Meghan 14:03
Well, and it's true that not a lot of pet owners thought about what was going to happen when they got busy again. And unfortunately, that's why we are seeing so many pandemic puppies and dogs rescued over the past year, they're being returned to shelters or they're just being dumped on the side of the road. So what do you do as a business owner when these requests come your way,
Collin Funkhouser 14:24
I really think there are two paths forward with this. The first one is to embrace it as a new model for business and charge for it. Basically meaning charge appropriately. What I'm trying to say here is charge a lot for it because this is quite the specified and quite the niche service. If the owner wants that level of care, they need to be paying you either an hourly rate or pay for the lost wages of all the other pets that you have to say no to during that time away. Likely several $100 for however long they're going to be and it'll
Meghan 14:56
be really interesting to see if this new service model picks Stop at all, if it's something that you offer other sitters in your area offer, I know there's like 130 million pets in the us right now. And something like 60 to 70% of those are viewed as true family members. So it's only reasonable to expect owners to pay for them as such,
Collin Funkhouser 15:19
I think in certain areas, some sitters would be able to make a pretty good living, offering a 24 hours a day, seven days a week sitting service. But obviously, again, you would have to charge a lot for that. So it would not be for everybody. It's also quite the time commitment, and really limits your ability to grow if you're looking to do that.
Meghan 15:39
Okay, so then the other path is what?
Collin Funkhouser 15:41
Well, it's to do a lot of client education, a lot of client education. And we've talked about that before on the podcast, that we are not so much as advertising to our clients as we are educating them in all things.
Meghan 15:54
Okay, so that's true. So educating our clients on what separation anxiety is helping them identify it in their pets, what it means when Fido is climbing out the door, the second they go out to get the mail, or,
Collin Funkhouser 16:08
or even some of the more subtler signs of the whining of the pacing and the panting that can involve when a dog is maybe just on the early stages of separation anxiety, or maybe they just have a very mild case. So this is being done through blog posts, Facebook videos, guest articles in your local newspaper, it's even one on one conversations with particular clients that maybe you have concerns about in that as you work with them, you can start educating them on these kind of things. And what exactly true separations, it actually is,
Meghan 16:37
well, and if you already incorporate training into your services, then this is great. You have an in with that client, you can advise them on what they should do, and your specific training program or whatever you have lined out for them. And if you haven't already, either start getting training experience, or partner with trainers in your area to start referring clients to them to address behavioral concerns. trainers have gone online, a lot of them during the pandemic, and they have done very well. Because there are a lot of people they were a lot of people stuck at home, not understanding their pets and trainers were able to come alongside them and help them with that. And it's also a great way to build community, as well as networking for the pet industry in your area. And we've been talking to clients about this a lot. We wrote a blog article recently about it, and it did really well in our local area. But it's going to take a lot of work
Collin Funkhouser 17:32
well and and it's gonna take a lot of empathy for the pet parent. Because whether the dog is displaying separation anxiety, true separation anxiety or not, at the end of the day, the pet parent may feel like a terrible person for leaving their pet alone, they may feel horrible for putting them in a crate while they leave.
Meghan 17:51
Well, and that is understandable because they've been with their beloved fluffy or their beloved Fido for every waking moment and every sleeping moment for the past year. And so it probably hurts their heart a little bit to let them go into someone else's care or to leave them at home for a few hours by themselves.
Collin Funkhouser 18:08
Well, in this past year has also been extremely stressful for them. And they've relied on the comfort and the companionship of their pet to probably help them get through this. So they probably have a lot of questions and concerns about what the process is for leaving them and what exactly that's going to look like yeah,
Meghan 18:24
so let's just be very honest here. A lot of the separation anxiety is probably because of the pet parent. Not only has the pet never been without somebody, but the owner has not been without their pet for a very long time. They're nervous about doing it. And obviously they have concerns about it. So empathize with them and realize that there will probably be an increase in helicopter parents for a little while. And obviously, you know, screen your clients do a meet and greet to determine if you'll be able to handle them because not every client and not every pet is a good fit for your business.
Collin Funkhouser 18:58
So as business owners, we have to assess exactly where this concern is coming from. Why is the owner uneasy about having their pet left alone and doing drop ins and walks? Is it because it's actual separation anxiety that has been diagnosed or at least assessed by either a vet or a trainer? Is it maybe that the owners not wanting their pet to be alone just out of comfort? Or is it that there is actually anxiety on the owner for being without their pet while they're traveling?
Meghan 19:25
It's one of our roles to empower them that the practice of leaving the pet and doing drop ins instead of 24 hour care is a good thing for their pet. We need to help them raise mentally strong and independent pets. We've talked about before on the podcast of having the client put on their normal work clothes and grab the keys but before they leave, prepare a cup of coffee before they do that. It's these little things that you can remind the pet parent to do to help the pet. Get rid of that separation anxiety to become more independent.
Collin Funkhouser 19:59
Well And basically what we're having to do here is we are having to convince the client that a drop in or a walk is not just sufficient, but it is optimal, that the gold standard is not 24 hour care where the dog is never left alone,
Meghan 20:15
right, that's not sustainable for the sitter, obviously, because you don't want to run your business that way, probably, or the owner, like at some point, they're going to have to leave the pet.
Collin Funkhouser 20:26
Well, and this has to do a lot with the words and the language that we use. So if we say something like three visits a day is enough for your dog. Well, that doesn't quite sound like an optimal service. For them that sounds like they are having to settle, it sounds like that they aren't getting exactly what they need. So instead, we can use something like three visits a day allows for a lot of mental and physical stimulation for your patch while you're gone, we're focusing on the positives, we're focusing on the benefits. And we're not really again, not using language that is settling for them.
Meghan 20:58
Well, and also during the time when there is nobody around for the pet. If they're in their crate, then okay, but if they're out, obviously doing puzzles, or having a Kong there, there's other things that you can do and other things that the pet parent can do to occupy the pet, other than having somebody a physical person there all the time.
Collin Funkhouser 21:16
But what we have to realize is that the pet parents, many of them don't know that. So that's where we come in, that's where we get to advocate and be voices for the pets of, Hey, I understand that you are wanting somebody to be around them. 24 seven, I can provide you with some recommendations for puzzles, or you can buy them from me to give to your patch to mentally stimulate them. And then I can come over three to four times a day to do walks for physical stimulation and work on training, as well. And focus on the holistic approach to this that will allow the dog to be more sustainable and self sufficient mentally and physically and speak to those strengths that you can provide. And you're in that you're still solving their problem that they have a pet that needs care for. And that the way you do it is actually going to give them a much better healthy are all rounded pet in the end.
Meghan 22:09
Yeah, they may think that the only kind of care their pet can or should have is 24 hour care, because that's what they've been used to for the past year. They might not know of any other way or think of any other alternatives to that. So through our blogs, through our social media outreach, and through our one on one client conversations, we are talking to them about how a drop in or walk three to four times a day is not just okay for their pet, but totally and completely sufficient and meets all of the pets needs. And obviously, we're talking about the young to middle aged dogs that are healthy and have no medical issues, young puppies, the elderly, and those with health issues will obviously be outliers and may need more care.
Collin Funkhouser 22:52
Right, we have offered 24 hour care before when it was either a dog that required a lot of monitoring, or it was on hospice, or it had a lot of medication. So those outliers, as you said will still exist. But we've got to focus on the center of the bell curve of the dogs that most people are needing help with. And, and not curtailing all of our services to those outliers.
Meghan 23:13
And we can also help them by preparing them for an extended trip away by offering to do services in the build up time and the lead up time to when they have to leave. And this helps give them peace of mind that it is okay to leave their pets in the pet will survive and thrive during it.
Collin Funkhouser 23:32
Exactly. And so that may be a way to build these packages for clients who are nervous about leaving their pets for the first time, I do some line item work of exactly what your package will include for first time travelers or for pets that were with somebody throughout the entire pandemic, that you will do these initial drop ins that you will provide these puzzles that you will do this kind of training that you will do these kinds of walks that and as you build this up again, focusing on this holistic approach to them, that it will was what we're trying to do, we're trying to ease the anxiety not just of the pet, but also of the pet parent, we've got to remember to focus on them and that we are meeting their needs. Because I can't tell you how many times we've been doing a meet and greet even just in the past several months, or somebody has just said, Oh, I'm just anxious, or I'm just nervous about this. And so we have to go into really detailing in line item in our services and exactly point by point, how it addresses their their anxious nerves, and it can help them and their pet have a much healthier relationship moving forward to because we have to also help them address and understand that if we don't address these sort of behavioral concerns or the separation anxieties, both with him and their pet, if we don't address those right now through taking small steps. This will build and this will snowball for years and years down the road and it's just going to get harder and harder to overcome. But helping correct now getting them connected with either our trading services For trainers in our areas, and then start looping in, look, you know, let's do periodic drop ins, you know, two weeks before you leave, or let's start doing these little things. So that everybody's on the same page, and that we can start working together to solve this problem.
Meghan 25:15
Yeah, that's kind of my concern for the pandemic puppies is they were for the first year of their life for the first six months, or what, nine months or whatever, they were with somebody 100% of the time, and now they're getting older, but they're still having some of these problems with separation anxiety, and the pet parents too. And because they're puppies, this is, like you said, going to persist for the next 1015 years of the dog's life. So we need to nip this in the bud now, and obviously, there's only so much client education that you can do. And I feel like we say this every episode, but fill your business with the things that you want to do. If you want to offer overnights and 24 hour care, do it. If not educate your clients and your potential clients on why they need the services that you do provide. It probably won't be a home run every time. But that's okay. Because you don't want every pet owner, the owners that want care you can't provide will find another sitter, or better yet network with someone in your town that offers the services that you don't offer.
Collin Funkhouser 26:15
We'd love to hear how you are addressing the pandemic puppy wave of parents that are traveling and how you are dealing with separation anxiety, not just in the pets, but also in the owners as well.
Meghan 26:27
Yeah, I think this summer is really going to just kind of blow the lid off of the pet care industry, I we are going to be insanely busy. And I know a lot of you are as well. So hopefully we can buckle up and get ready because it's gonna be a fun ride, I think but obviously have those boundaries and do self care and all the things that we normally talk about. But I think this is gonna be fun. I'm excited.
26:52
So you can give us a call at 636-364-8260
Meghan 26:57
or connect with us on Facebook and Instagram at pet sitter confessional. Natasha opionion is a dog walker and has her own business and she is also a pet business coach. And this week, she's going to answer the question about COVID vaccine status and employees.
Collin Funkhouser 27:13
with businesses booming, and with vaccines becoming more and more readily available, many are feeling tempted to start promoting and advertising vaccine status of employees and and making it well known that that is what they're doing. Is this a practice that businesses should be involved in? And how do we navigate these waters between wanting to make sure our clients know that we are taking all the right precautions versus following federal law?
Natasha 27:43
Oh, I love that. We've definitely had a few of these chit chats and a lot of our members groups did have their confessional being one of the groups that we've had to talk in. And it really just comes down to what you're comfortable providing your client with information, right? So if you want to provide maybe like the flu shot or any other their medical history, you have to decide Are you violating privacy laws or your staffs? confidentiality by telling your clients? Or also are you opening a door for your clients to kind of dictate more information, right? So when you start to open the waters, you got to ask yourself, where does it stop? Or where do we? Where do we filter through the fine lines of privacy laws to protecting a client and making sure they're safe and comfortable? So what we basically do what we do in all of our situations, we tell a client what we are currently doing, and we understand their concerns. So I will read you guys a quick letter that I wrote out to one of my what people in my members community, they said my client just asked me is my staff going to be fully vaccinated? She's like, I was totally caught off guard. We've been wearing masks. I have no idea what to say, What did you say? And I said, Here you go. Greetings, we understand your COVID concerns our business takes COVID-19 very seriously and have proactively implemented the CDC guidelines while entering homes. Our team will one where mass two way door handles and equipment and three continue to wash frequently by employment laws as it is our staffs privacy when choosing to vaccinate, we hope we continue to see dog's name within state laws in our company protocols. However, we always respect your home and your wishes. Sincerely, the owners name. And so at that point is not saying that we don't respect what the client is saying or their concerns. But we all have been in business the past 14 plus months, going through the CDC guidelines and we haven't had any fatalities thus far with our practices. And so we do keep That line of like, Listen, our staff is going to remain holding on their privacy as we would have done any other topic. But we also want to let you know what we're proactively doing to ensure the safety of your home. And she said, she got great feedback from that response, her plan was just kind of curious. And she just let them know they're going to continue on, they're going to keep wearing masks are going to continue to do the equipment wipe down, and they're going to keep washing. And that's where we are nothing more, nothing less.
Collin Funkhouser 30:28
Yeah, it's sharing the protocols versus the personal medical information of somebody specifically, that you're drawing this line between, right there are protected laws, there are there is protected information that you are not legally allowed to discuss or disclose. And so focusing back on those protocols, and again, that you respect them, and that you're doing everything that's recommended. That is such a much better way to phrase that and shift that conversation from poder pro from personal information to protocols
Natasha 30:58
absolutely isn't at that point, we can start allowing the customer decide how we do business. And when you kind of open that door, it never closes. When it's like, well, I want this, well, I want this, if you don't do this, then I'm gonna leave. And so if you're, you're getting a client that blackmail trigger, they will use it without realizing they're using it. Because they know that hey, all I got to do is threaten to cancel and they'll and they'll they'll leave my way. And that's just so dangerous. When you're leading a team, I'm really this is really for teens. Of course, if you're a solo, pet sitter or Walker, we know that you're doing everything you can possibly do, because you are considering yourself and the family. But for your team now and you're speaking for other people and being the lead to other people, you also want your team to know that I have your back, you can trust me. And when you provide medical information to me, it will not be shared or a means to continue employment or not.
Collin Funkhouser 31:56
Right, again, protecting that relationship and protecting that information. Because we tend to forget about that when we are maybe you know, trying to get new clients. We're trying to get business we're trying to grow with all the new increase of people and we're trying to meet those meet needs and demands. And we think we're doing this positive thing, but we're really doing is we're we're hurting ourselves. And I love that and more importantly, hurting that relationship between us and that client that that that information was protected, it was private. And we just completely disregarded that for the sake of a droplet.
Natasha 32:26
Totally. And I definitely understand the concerns is definitely unchartered waters, we've never been here before, you know, in our current business lifetime, I'll say, and we don't know what to do. We don't know how to handle this. And that's why I felt the need to kind of make a post in some of our groups, because I know what that can feel like when somebody kind of hits you off guard with a question. And you're like, Whoa, I do want to say the right thing. I want to make the client feel comfortable. But I also don't want to do anything that's going to harm my business for the future and beyond. Because if you make a certain stance, it's like, this is my stance. Well, now I have to stand by it. Okay, it might sound good right now. But if future employees or staff or partners we work with if we put a certain stance out there, it's now my job to be consistent and stand by what I said. And so I just cautioned us as a pet care industry to maybe not pigeonhole really where you are right now until we get more data, I would say, I've seen a lot of value badges over the internet, we're fully vaccinated, or we're wearing masks and all that's great. But when we kind of just always stick to the facts, you guys know how we do you just lay out the bullet points of the facts and stay there. So it doesn't kind of catch you off guard. Yeah. It's hard. It's like the emotional decision versus the business decision. So luckily, we all have our emotions, and then we have our business and it'll always lead us through.
Meghan 34:00
If you would like Natasha to be your personal pet business coach, you can go to her website, start scale sale, calm and use the code PSC 20 for 15% off her coaching, we are so appreciative of you taking the time to listen to this episode today. We love producing these, it is a lot of fun, and we enjoy you listening to them.
Collin Funkhouser 34:21
Yeah, and really, really, really appreciate your feedback. It really means the world to know that these are beneficial to you. And if there's ever anything that you would like covered, or someone that you would like interviewed about a particular topic, please let us know we're more than happy to do that and continue having these conversations for others. Because when we're all talking and being a part of a conversation, we are all learning.
Meghan 34:44
Thank you and join us next time. Thank you
