219: Sending Great Updates
Brought to you by Pet Sitters Associates
Summary
Clients expect to be updated on the status of their fur-baby, but there isn’t a one size fits all for this in the pet care industry. How should you update your client while they’re away? What are the common types of updates? We discuss the situations which work best for each kind, and what type of client fits them. Updates can eat up a lot of time, so it’s important to use them effectively and appropriately. Then, Natasha O’Banion answers, “How do I foster good relationships with clients?”
Topics on this episode:
Why worry about the update
Kinds of updates
When to send them
Client’s expectations
Ask a Pet Biz Coach
Main takeaway: Regardless of which type of update you use, communicate your style to your client, so you set their expectations accordingly.
Links:
Pet Sitters Associates: use ‘Confessional’ at checkout
Check out Start. Scale. Sail. and use PSC20 for 15% off
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
updates, client, photos, pet, dog, pictures, talk, pet sitters, daycare, confessional, template, day, business, watered, communicating, associates, natasha, boarding, visit, sitters
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin Funkhouser, Natasha
00:17
Hi, I'm Meghan I'm Collin and this is pet sitter. confessional
Meghan 00:20
an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Hello, welcome to Episode 219. Hello. Today we're gonna talk about sending great updates, we want to thank our sponsors, pet sitters associates, and our wonderful Patreon members and supporters, support from you and from them helps us not only run the show, but also do things like help other pet sitters attend conferences. And that's just what we did last week with the naps conference.
Collin Funkhouser 00:54
We had a sitter who was unable to pay the attendance fee, the registration fee and reached out to us and we were able to help pay for her to go. And so we really are so thankful that we're able to do that with the show. And it's all because of support, whether that's sharing or feedback or ratings or giving financially as well. Because of all of that we're able to help out when we can.
Meghan 01:17
And so if you would like to financially support the show, you can do so at petsitter confessional comm slash support, we have covered a whole lot of topics on this podcast over the past 218 episodes. But there are a lot of little critical things that we haven't talked about yet. And one of those is sending updates.
Collin Funkhouser 01:37
The updates that we send are the backbone of our client communication. And we talk a lot about the importance of communicating well, and how to communicate client to our clients with the show. And actually last week's episode was all about the power of words in communicating and choosing words well, but communication at its core is actually part of client retention in that when we are communicating effectively, clients are more likely to stick around because they grow to know and trust us.
Meghan 02:06
And obviously this happens at every stage of the onboarding process from the initial moment that they contact you to the forms that you send them beforehand to the meet and greet to the actual visit. And after with the update, it happens all throughout the communication and making sure that you and the client are on the same page.
Collin Funkhouser 02:27
It's also part of our brand as a business, it speaks to our values and is the direct way that we continue to foster connections and relationships with the clients that we all want. So they really require a lot of thought into how we want to be sending our updates, and whether they match what the clients expectations are and how the client wants to be updated. There are a lot of opinions as with many things in the world, but there are a lot of opinions about updates, and what update should should entail. And so we're going to talk through a couple of different options, and really hear the particular scenarios where those would work and where they may fall down.
Meghan 03:09
The first kind of update that we're going to talk about is the full featured update. And this update usually contains a paragraph or more of text with four or more photos for each visit. And these updates usually take several minutes to craft or if your voice texting, maybe just a few seconds. And then you edit it and send it pretty labor intensive for these. Yeah, usually there'll be in a story form talking about all the activities that you did during the day, if you're boarding or doing daycare, or just the during the 30 minute visit, if that's what you're doing,
Collin Funkhouser 03:44
you can walk through all the activities telling them and sometimes they're actually told from the first person from the pets point of view, making it seem as though as they are the ones who are communicating the update to the owner, and talking about how much they enjoyed the pet sitter coming over.
Meghan 03:58
A lot of times the photos here are taken in multiple locations or poses or different angles. And the photos are meant to really highlight parts of the story or show details that you weren't quite able to capture in text form. And I don't really personally enjoy sending these kinds of updates, although I typically do, but I think you enjoy them more.
Collin Funkhouser 04:19
I enjoy writing out the story. That's it's kind of hard to do that sometimes. But whenever there's a good story to tell, or there's a good hook in it, sometimes I can't help but write long updates for a particular client. It may be that there were a lot of squirrels out or something that's very common is maybe a storm may blow through a lot of new spells to go out and explore. So we talk about exciting events that happen in that way and kind of put some context around the visit and outside features and stories along with what the pet was experiencing.
Meghan 04:52
Or if you're providing boarding and daycare, you can talk about the interactions that their dog had with other dogs, any favorite toy That they played with that day.
Collin Funkhouser 05:01
And these are good updates to send. If you're doing boarding and daycare, if you decide you just want to send one update a day, where you have a whole day to recapture and to recount and tell longer story forms at the end of the day to get everybody caught up and kind of do one big story and a bunch of photos sent.
Meghan 05:17
But on the flip side, these are really the hardest to keep fresh. If you were going to a client multiple times a day for a long period of time, or you had a boarding client who spent the night with you for three weeks, or have had a client for multiple years, I know we've had the same client for almost three years now. And they come over for daycare multiple times a week. And it's, it's pretty hard after a while to come up with a new fresh idea.
Collin Funkhouser 05:43
Well, we recently did a stretch of doing three drop ins a day, for an entire week for a client as they were traveling. In this case, the dogs were extremely easy. So at the end of when we're getting towards the end of this day, it was getting really difficult to send fresh updates and make them unique. One of my favorite go twos, as I mentioned is to bring things up, like the weather specifically, and really the weather forecast and how I'm planning or around that or how that's impacting the dogs at the house. And you'd really be surprised at how clients may appreciate knowing what's going on at their home. We've even had some clients thank us for sending updates about rainfall or wind or storms, so that they could send other people out to the home to do inspections on fencing electrical or other things.
Meghan 06:33
And with the clients that we've had for multiple years and see them multiple times a week, I'd like to think that the pictures say more than the words. So I really tried to cut back on writing long paragraphs at the end of the day for daycare, or, you know, with the drop ins, writing a lot, just really having the pictures tell the story instead of me having to come up with new words every single time multiple times a week.
Collin Funkhouser 07:01
Yeah, well, and you do a really good job at finding ways to get good photos that aren't just always in the same place. Playing with the same toys, doing the same things, I think that's really key is finding new angles to shoot from for the dog. And one of the things that we learned very early on, and actually we've had some pet photographers talk about is to get low is if you can get your phone basically almost all the way touching the ground before you snap your photo. This is an angle that pet owners have never seen their dog from or they only see whatever they're at home cuddling with their dogs. So it's a very intimate kind of photo is a unique one that not a lot of people get sent. So when we're thinking of these full featured these big to do updates, focusing on the photos is really going to help you stand out to your clients. And they're going to be a little little tiny windows into the world while they are away.
Meghan 07:59
While we're on photos. I do want to talk about pictures. So you had mentioned getting low obviously using a lot of light as much as you can I know that the new iPhones I think it's 12
08:10
and 1313 just came out.
Meghan 08:11
But yeah, okay.
08:14
Modern modern phones, yes,
Meghan 08:17
they have, they're getting a lot better at taking pictures at nighttime. And so that is obviously a huge bonus when you know we're coming into the winter months now here in the Northern Hemisphere. And it's going to be more and more difficult to get good quality, non blurry pictures of dogs playing at nighttime. Or
Collin Funkhouser 08:34
if you're just in somebody's home that's not very well lit and doesn't have good natural lighting. This is a really good thing to remember is to turn on all the lights possible and use these little light features if you haven't.
Meghan 08:46
And well photos are worth 1000 words videos really say so much more you can encompass the whole pets demeanor, whether it's playing with another pet or eating, they really say a lot. And it really cuts out you having to write the pet owner can see their dog having fun and interacting with others. Or if the
Collin Funkhouser 09:07
pet is acting oddly or strangely, it may be difficult to communicate exactly what kind of behavior you are seeing in text or photo form. So having a video of strange behaviors, whether that may be a weird cough that you hear or limping or just they're holding their ears interestingly, or they're not quite hunched the way they used to be. Those are so much easier to send over a video and get quick responses from the client because they're going to be able to see that that whole encompassing view of their pet that a photo or just text doesn't quite get. A lot of us are still new to shooting video and there's a lot of things that go into video but a lot of the basic principles of getting good photos still apply, getting low, getting lots of light, and then one thing that I will recommend is that when you have when you want to take a video, take about two steps back before you start Because there's going to be a lot of motion possibly, and you'll be able to keep up with it and it won't be quite so blurry or jerky to the person watching it. One of
Meghan 10:07
the topics that is frequently discussed in a lot of the petsitter Facebook groups is when to send photos and updates. Obviously, it depends on the way that you run your business and what you and the client have agreed upon. And it's also going to be different for every service. So if you are doing a 30 minute drop in or a 30 minute dog walk, you're obviously going to send the update, either during that time or shortly after, versus you doing daycare, or boarding or house sitting, when you may send for daycare a couple times a day, while they're at daycare, or boarding, you may just do a big photo dump at the end of the day, I know that some sitters take 50 to 60 pictures and send those at the end of the day, I have heard of sitters doing that, I don't do that. And I would not recommend that because that might just overwhelm your clients when they're on vacation and kind of burden them a little bit. But obviously that is a conversation for you and the client and what they are okay with and what you are okay with,
Collin Funkhouser 11:10
well, we have a progression to have, when a client can have a schedule of when a client gets dropped off for like daycare or even boarding we try and send an update within two hours in that two hour window, just to give them a little quick update a little hit of Hey, this is your dog, they're integrating Well, we are having no problems. And then the next update update gets stretched out a little bit to either the mid day or the evening update.
Meghan 11:34
Yeah, it really just depends on when they've dropped off their dog. If it's in the morning, it'll be shortly after they've arrived within two hours, and then another one around two to three in the afternoon and then a bedtime one, and then if it's a new client, the next day, I will still send three updates, just so they know everything is okay, you know, we're good, no issues here. And then the next day, I will taper it off to just once in the morning at once at night. And that's kind of my mo is twice a day to kind
Collin Funkhouser 12:03
of wean it down. And if there's anything that pops up in between there, obviously those are additional updates that gets sent off to them. But for drop ins and walks we send them as soon as the service is done. So a we don't forget about it and be it's a notification to the client of everything's wrapped up and it went well.
Meghan 12:20
If you are having trouble coming up with new and fresh content, it's also a good idea to think that you're not just updating about the dog. If you brought in the mail, send a picture of that if you scoop the litter box or topped off the food for a pet that grazes take a picture of that. And you don't necessarily need to send all the pictures that you take like for instance like the pet eating the water bowl filled the litter scoop the plants watered the mail and packages brought in the pet plane, the pad resting and the dog walking if you do that, etc that's a lot of pictures obviously for a 30 minute visit, or however long it takes you but you still should be quickly snapping those pictures just to cover your butt because I mean there are those crazy clients out there that will accuse you of stealing the mail or not scooping the litter but pictures show proof of what you did or didn't do. Yeah, well
Collin Funkhouser 13:13
actually the clients that we watched that we get three times a day with they actually had three dogs and I was very stressed to myself if the updates are going to make sure I include several photos of each of those dogs probably together to limit the number of photos that I said they also got copious amounts of mail every single day that I was over there we're talking like inches of mail, but I would still fan it all out and take that picture and send that with the update as well so they could see everything that they have and know that nothing was missing and then I'd stack that up and put it on the pile. They also asked me to make sure that I watered the plants outside so did I send photos to them of me watering the plants? Absolutely. It was a plant watering action shot. And it was it was a because I was running out of things to talk about but be to prove to them that I was doing what they asked me to do.
Meghan 14:03
And we have talked about this on the podcast before but make sure that your photos in my opinion they should be varied. So a dog playing with another dog, a dog walking a dog playing with a toy a dog resting, eating drinking. I think it's also important to make sure that your photos look fun and that the pet has had a good time you know you don't want i as an owner wouldn't want somebody just sending me photos of my dog sleeping on the couch now sleeps a lot. Well that is true he's almost 14 so he does sleep a lot but and you know that's okay for you know elderly dogs or dogs that are immobile or whatever but even still, that dog does other things. And I'm sure the owner would love to see that we just talked about the full featured update and something else that is full featured is pet sitters associates. As pet care professionals, your clients trust you to care for their furry family members and pet sitters associates is here to help For over 20 years they have provided 1000s of members with quality pet care insurance. If you work in the pet care industry or 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 in running your business. Learn why pet sitters associates is the perfect fit for you and get a free quote today at pets at LLC comm you can get a discount when joining by clicking membership petsitter confessional and using the discount code confessional at checkout to get $10 off today, check out the benefits of membership and insurance once again at pets@llc.com.
Collin Funkhouser 15:33
A second style of update is actually just a pared down version of the first. The first one was multiple sentences and really a paragraph or more this kind of update is three sentences with one or two photos. These are kept pretty brief, usually only noting things out of the ordinary or unusual that you noticed about the pet or something else about the visit. Usually something like an accident that happened in the house or the food was it eaten treats left alone plant is looking a little dead. We find ourselves doing these for clients who aren't particularly interested in a lot of updates, but just want to be reassured that their pet is being cared for while they're away. Or again,
Meghan 16:15
these can be used for someone a client who you've had for a really long time, who knows and trusts you and who doesn't really want all the other unnecessary words,
Collin Funkhouser 16:25
this may be something that you find yourself using more after you've done that first style of update with clients who are familiar with you or clients who just outright say, I don't really need to be told how things are going let me know when something goes wrong.
Meghan 16:39
Yeah, or I don't want to be bothered at work, I'm busy, I just let me know if something wrong happens.
Collin Funkhouser 16:45
But you still feel like you need to send updates to as you said earlier to cover your butt or it's just part of the service that you want to offer. And that's this, that's the struggle that we A lot of us get in is we want to send certain kinds of updates, we want to send a have a level of communication. And sometimes that doesn't meet the client's expectations. Sometimes they may want more, sometimes they may want less. And so this middle ground of update is a great one to try. If you feel like you're not quite getting somewhere with the client,
Meghan 17:15
and it's your business. So you run it the way you want to if there's a client who's been extra demanding, and you don't want to do that, then drop that client, they don't get to dictate how you run your business. And we have had a client in the past who said, I know what my dog looks like, I don't need any updates. I'm good. But me as a pet sitter, I still wanted to send her one update a day with a couple pictures. It eased my mind that I was doing what I was being paid to do. And she was then hopefully getting a smile on her face when she opened these every day.
Collin Funkhouser 17:51
Yeah, but we didn't bombard her with tons of updates and tons of photos It was very pared down about her dog.
Meghan 17:58
The third style of update is basically a checkbox update, as we'll call it. So these updates are a quick yes or no. Did the dog poop on the walk? Yes or no? Did the cat eat the food? Yes, no. And you may even be able to fill in an actual checkbox form and have it sent to your clients a check for Yeah, they went to the bathroom. Yes, they ate Yes, they got a treat. And and really no additional written text there and maybe one or two photos. And these are great for you know, a midday potty break when you have, you know, a tons of other clients during the midday and the client just wants did they pay? Did they poke? Yes, no.
Collin Funkhouser 18:38
Yeah, if you're insanely slammed with your visits, or your day is just really hectic, this may be something to really consider it's a standard template. And you may, you may find that you can create this in Canva. So you can create the template in your in Canva, save it to your photos in your phone, and then each client comes out, you can mark it up with your finger using the draw feature, and then send that photo to that particular client. And then you're done. You don't have to worry about writing and maybe send one or two photos and that's all it needs. Well, and
Meghan 19:12
obviously depending on what software you have, they may already have that in there.
Collin Funkhouser 19:15
And yeah, so those may be options and if you've never explored them or thought oh maybe I have to have the full featured in order for people to like me or to trust me. If you feel like you are really struggling to come up with really good updates and they're not quite up to your standards. really seek this out. And I'm I guarantee you you will find that it's going to relax a lot of the tension and anxiety that you have around updates if you have anxiety about that. Otherwise, go write the books and go write the updates as much as you want but for those of you who are thinking I don't the updates really stressing me out. I love caring for the pets. But it's this that the end where I've got to write that's that's not my strength. A template may really be what can help solve That
Meghan 20:00
well, and again, pictures speak more than actual words, pictures speak 1000 words. So obviously like, you're probably not going to take a picture of the poop and send it I don't think the client wants that, although maybe somebody does. It's weird. Yeah, unless the dog is sick. But again, just remember that pictures can do the talking for you.
Collin Funkhouser 20:18
Another pro for the templates is that they can also be fun, because you can add your own branding and actually change it up with different seasons, holidays, or special events for the colors and background image of that template,
Meghan 20:30
whatever kind of update you decide to send, you have to make sure it's going to work for you. And this can be a really interesting thing to consider when the kind of update you want to send doesn't match up with the clients once. And it's important to talk about that, before you service the client. Before you get to that meet and greet step, you can openly say either on your website, or just when you're talking to the client, hey, this is how I send my updates, you will be updated. And this is when and how and see if that's the expectation
Collin Funkhouser 21:00
of the client, which is very key language, just like we talked about last week, many of us may fall into the line of these are the kind of updates that I send, is that okay with you? Instead of saying, just you need to just put the period at these is how I said my updates, period,
Meghan 21:19
where you could ask what is your expectation and see if you guys agree on the same thing. Yep. And then at that point, you need to decide if you're going to change the kind of update. If the client wants four times a day, are you willing to do four times a day? Or have a conversation with that client that these are the updates that I do and if you want more, I'm not willing to do that. So you will need to go seek out a different service provider,
Collin Funkhouser 21:43
which may sound like a pretty severe line to draw in the sand. But it's really boundaries, though, right? Yeah, it's your time, it's your attention. It's your skill, that they are now trying to demand more or maybe sometimes less with or different kinds of updates that you may be unwilling to send. At the end. They are telling you how to run your business, which is as we say all the time is not how this goes, You are in charge it is your business, send the updates that you want, and find the clients that want those updates.
Meghan 22:16
What kind of experience Have you had with clients and their expectations for updates? If you've been in the business years, has the expectations change? Do they want more updates? Do some of them want less? We would love to know you can send that to feedback at petsitter confessional comm or look us up on Facebook and Instagram at petsitter. confessional pet business coach Natasha opionion is going to answer the question about fostering good client relationships.
Natasha 22:43
Yeah, the thing is, your clients again are using you for service. If you are providing an excellent top notch service, they're always going to come back to you. We've had clients move away and come back four years later, you have clients leaving COVID and come back they're like we're always happy that we know we always have you. We know the people that we work with, we know that you guys are reliable, responsible, we know exactly what we're getting. And we like to count on you. That's what the relationship is based on. Not that I know their blood type. Not that I know what college that their son is going to not that they gave me a painting off of their wall. No, those are all great perks. But they know that we provide a service and the moment that we stop providing a service, our clients are not going to be calling us anymore, they'll check in I still claim to move in check in they'll they know that they can contact me in the app whenever we never take them. So they'll send me updated photos and stuff like we love it a tag us on Instagram on the beach and our new adventures or asked me about visiting a new pet care provider and their new state. So you always have those relationship pieces in our app, we can talk to our clients live people misunder and that using automations you still lose that human connection. We're still talking I'm texting them, anybody on our back of the house can talk to them not Natasha. And Tasha can be on the beach with the kids. And my assistant can talk to them between nine to five right? So still chit chat. clients don't really want to talk to me all day long, but if they need something they know we're there.
Meghan 24:21
Natasha not only runs a very successful pet business, but she is a pet business coach as well. And if you would like to work one on one with her, you can do so at start scale sale calm and use the code p sc 20. For 15%
Collin Funkhouser 24:33
off. We really want to thank our sponsor, pet sitters associates as well as our Patreon supporters for making today's show possible and we really want to thank you for listening and for sharing and liking and rating the episodes and just being here and being part of the community. We really appreciate it we really love seeing all the interactions, comments and help and support that happen on our Facebook page that happen on the Instagram feed. It is really up Lifting and really encouraging us to see your voices being heard and you encouraging others. So thank you so much for that
Meghan 25:08
if you guys ever have topic suggestions or specific people you would like us to interview we are absolutely open to that this is a community for all pet care providers. Whether you've just started your business today, or have been in the business for 30 years, we would like to have topics and interviews that cover the entire gamut and everything that a pet care provider can go through and can be helped in. So we do appreciate you taking the time today. Thank you. We know that you guys are really busy. We are really busy. So we just thank you so much for listening. We'll see you next time. Bye.
