387: Good Will is Good PR with Remy Bibaud
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What does having good PR mean to you? Many times we use customer relations and public relations interchangeably, but this is limiting our ability to have a wider impact in our community. Remy Bibaud, co-owner of Pet Perennials, joins the show to share how to foster public relations and use it to your advantage. Remy walks through the major points of cultivating high quality experiences with your business, and the role you play in guiding that. She also shares how she stays ahead of understanding her client’s needs.
Main topics
What is customer relations?
How is it different than public relations?
Defining a high quality client experience
Knowing client expectations
Main takeaway: A high quality customer experience is when both you and the client are happy with the transaction.
About our guest:
Remy is a two time Entrepreneur who started her first business in 2003 and sold it in 2014 the same year she Co-founded Pet Perennials. with Lori Davidson. She is a dog mom to a 7 year old black Labrador named Harley, a rescue she adopted in 2015 at a shelter event that Pet Perennials sponsored. She was inspired by the love and loss of her dog Olive to co-found petperennials.com so businesses and consumers could easily send thoughtful personalized gift packages directly to people with broken hearts.
Links:
Email: remy@petperennials.com
Website: https://petperennials.com
Phone: 1-855-573-3887
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet, clients, public relations, pet sitter, customer, business, pr, company, public, experience, review, respond, business owners, pet owners, understand, day, started, services, perennials, feedback
SPEAKERS
Collin, Remy B.
Collin 00:00
Welcome to pet sitter confessional. Today, we're brought to you by time to pet and peaceful pet music, calm music for pets on YouTube. What does having good PR mean to you? And how do we as business owners take full advantage of it to help our businesses today? Remy Bibaud, owner of pet perennials joins the show to share how to foster public relations and make the most of them for your business. She also walks us through major points of cultivating a high quality experience for our clients. Full disclosure, Pet Perennials has sponsored episodes in the past, but today Remy is focusing on customer relations and why they are critical to us as business owners. Let's get started.
Remy B. 00:36
Hi, Collin. Yes, sure. Thank you for having me on the podcast. I'm a two time entrepreneur. And I'm the co founder of pet perennials.com. I started my first business in 2003. And then I sold it in 2014. That's about the time that I got together with my business partner, Laurie, and we began the journey of creating pet perennials. I'm a dog mom, to a seven year old Labrador Retriever mix her name's Harley. She's a rescue I adopted at a shelter event in Pittsburgh, the first step pet perennials did, which happens to be our hometown as well, and our headquarters. And but pet perennials helps people celebrate the journey with their pets, through thoughtful, personalized gifts. We do this for businesses, where we can send pet loss sympathy packages, directly to their clients for them, as well as gifts for other occasions, all of our additional collections bloomed from all that, because they said, Well, you do that. So well. What about birthdays? What about get well, what about when our clients lose a human loved one. So there's even a human sympathy collection in their customer relationships, that's kind of what we do. It's goodwill is good PR,
Collin 01:55
it's weird to think about, oh, I'm celebrating, or I'm giving this gift, but it's really just an acknowledgement of what that expert person is going through. And that experience that they're having that many times pet owners, they don't feel seen in that grief.
Remy B. 02:08
Yeah. And in, in our world. And in, you know, psychology world, it's considered disenfranchised grief, right? So people, you know, don't often express it. But we know that losing a pet is often even more difficult than a human because these pets just love us unconditionally. And they're part of every, you know, they're part of our lives, everything we do, they're there, right through even our, even the things we accomplished with our families, our human loved ones, they're part of those milestones part of those activities, so and then they're always that constant companion. And when you lose them, it's a deep pain. And, you know, when you can bring comfort to somebody, and in this way, you know, sending a package is acknowledging that right for them. And then above and beyond that it is honoring that pet that in their eyes, you know, was their heart. So it deepens your relationship with that customer. At the end of the journey, you know, and then it really has a return on investment, if you want to put it into business terms, where they tell their friends, they tell, you know, people on their social media channels, it's such a connected world these days, and then that becomes public relations, how people see and perceive you as the pet sitter or your business. So it's a win win all around. And I think it's why, you know, today's topic is perfect.
Collin 03:51
Yeah. Well, and you said a phrase earlier, Goodwill is good PR. And I would write for you to kind of dissect that out a little bit and why that's something that we as, as business owners, should really be be focused on.
Remy B. 04:06
Well, I mean, it's just, you're doing something nice for someone, and it doesn't have to be a gift doesn't have to be a package. It's just making an acknowledgement, picking up the phone, making a phone call or sending a text when you hear something, recognizing something that doesn't even have to do with the service or product you provide them. You know, they told you that their child was graduating from high school or college and the next time you talk to them, you say, Hey, how's your son doing? Congratulations. Or maybe leave them a note in their home that just says Good luck with graduation this weekend. When you're exiting from your pet visit that day, you know those things go a long way. That's good. Well, and then, again, that PR This is the kind of PR we can control. We don't need proof nationals to do it for us like, the way we think of real public relations in the world of celebrities and everything else. This is PR, we control. And it's really just doing something that our hearts motivate us to do anyway.
Collin 05:16
Well, and you know, so there's this, I know, there's this idea of, of customer relations. And we've talked a little bit about public relations. So what's the relationship between those two those two concepts? Well, I
Remy B. 05:28
think customer relationships is how a business nurtures the positive relationships with its customers, during all of the interactions or experiences. So whether that's in the beginning of cultivating a new client, how they find out about you, when they come to your website, or they learn about you through a friend, it's how you present yourself. And then when you do your meet up, you know, your initial meeting, to see if there's a good match between that client and pet and your services, to then getting that contract underway, and then starting to fulfill those services, every part of that experience, those interactions, all require keeping customer relations and positive experiences ongoing in that. And then, ideally, you know, the goal is that you're continuously improving on those. And because it's such a good experience, and all those different points in time that you connect with them, it then helps your public image because your review showcase it your you know, clients who share and refer showcase it. Whereas public relations, if we think of it in the classic sense, it's more of a professional, you know, maintenance of a business or a person per se, and I think I referenced celebrities earlier, but oftentimes we hear of public relations when it's cleaning up a celebrities image or something. But there's positive ways that professional PR is done, too. And that's through charitable giving, you know, these are companies that connect their sales of their products and services directly to say, a charity, or a foundation. So by one of, you know, by so many of our treats, we give so many away, or we buy food for this shelter. Those are that's also a professional kind of public relations approach to
Collin 07:49
kind of the difference between the people who use your service and what they think of you versus the broader community around you, what they know and what they understand about what your company is and what you stand for.
Remy B. 07:58
Right? So a customer relations is on those customers that you handle, right that that you do business with. And PR is the public perception, but customer relationships and good customer relationships will help your public relations, right and how the public sees you through what I just consider public or social PR, as opposed to having to hire a publicist or PR expert to go out and do it for you. Because I mean, most of us are, you know, pet sitters in businesses where small businesses were solopreneurs in some cases, you know, so
Collin 08:41
that's that word of mouth that many of us rely so heavily on is really, I think what that connection point is for the majority of our business, that's the that's that becoming now a PR, part of that chain of whenever you have an existing client or a client whose pet just passed and, and your inner still interacting with them, and they speak good things about you to people around them, that's now influencing the public relations of how they view your company. Absolutely. You said that there's that process of when we bring on a new client of cultivating a new client. And I really love the imagery that that that entails, of what that brings to mind of it is a process of you know, when I think of that I know some people may also think of, well, I've got to train a new client on my policies and my procedures and how to book and what the expectations are when my cancellation policy is. That's one part of cultivating. But then there's the other relational part of cultivating that new client of bringing them into our missions, our values, bringing them into our culture as a company too,
Remy B. 09:44
right? Absolutely. And that's kind of in cultivating the new ones. It's understanding what does that journey look like? Right? What's the customer journey from finding the customer, the customer finding you To then, as you said, letting them know about your policies, your procedures, the way you do business, how they can connect with you. And then making every step along that way, easy to understand make that onboarding for new customers enjoyable, right. So there's ways you can do that. And then I would assume, but not all have websites. And you can put a lot of this in your website, organize it really well. And have, you know, your policies and procedures in one place, showcase those values that you bring to the table for anybody that lands on your page right up front, you know, your, your exceptional reviews, your 24/7 availability or response time, your, you know, testimonials that show that it's more than just coming in walking the dog, it's, you know, feeling comfortable, and it's a friend, you know, coming into your home, they feel safe with, those are all the things that you can begin that journey with your website, and any of that forward facing material that you give to people when you meet them.
Collin 11:21
And there's a phrase I've heard before of what you win them with, you win them to, so what the imagery, the imagery, the words, the the the public relations that we have out, there are what people perceive our company to be. And so we have to know about ourselves, what we who are we trying to bring them into what is our company meant to be, and we can have messaging that connects from there. And this helps set up proper expectations, you know, just straight off the bat of going, if I'm, if I'm not being fully honest with what my company is, and what I offer, that's not a good Ican boarding client experience, because then there's confusion, there's misconceptions, there's misunderstandings about what they thought they were getting. And that's just at the very basic level, and then there's the cultural level to have, if I say, I'm highly communicative if I say that I do these kinds of donations, and then the client never sees that or doesn't experience that or doesn't understand that there's all of a sudden a broken trust in that in that process as
Remy B. 12:21
well. Right? Right. Well, it's kind of like saying, you know, they say, don't over promise and under deliver. Instead, you know, maybe your website or your forward facing materials should be on point with what you provide. And then, you know, those things that your customers say you do really well, that aligned to your the values that you guys, you know, showcase and have built into everything you do. Of course, those are front and center. But then those little perks that you do behind the scenes, they don't always have to be advertised, like, oh, we give gifts when your pet passes away, or, you know, we leave thank you notes. Don't you know, you don't have to advertise that. Those are the things that then you you know, those are, you end up over delivering, right, and those are those like, delightful moments when they come home. And you know, the progress report card that you have for their pet, you know, they get real excited about that they show that they put it on their refrigerator, or you left them a thank you note, a handwritten note, those things go a long way. Or in the event of, you know, sympathy, there's a package waiting in their mailbox for them. You don't tell them that out outright. But your actions show that and then they're telling that outright, right. So that's the PR arm of it, they're going on social media, and they're putting it on their Facebook and their Facebook is going people who are on that don't even know you're saying, oh my gosh, that was the most touching thing. Wow. I'm in need of a pet sitter, you know, or my sister has just asked me if I knew anyone. You know, and then it's it works on your behalf.
Collin 14:13
Have you heard of time to pet Susan the pet cow has this to say time to
Susan 14:17
pet has helped us grow exponentially. We believe the platform's features make us by far more professional than other companies who use conventional dashboards. They are the software gurus constantly developing and improving the platform based on user feedback. This decision was a good one
Collin 14:34
listeners of our show can save 50% off your first three months by visiting time to pet.com/confessionals. Well, in a lot of times when we think about who our company influences, there's the there's the if you have staff, right that's that's an audience that you are that you are speaking and working with. Then you have your clients and they are interacting with your company in one way and then kind of on the outer ring of that you have just general supporters, people who they might not have a pet, but man, they love what you're doing. And they really see your passion. And they see what you're connected to and what you're doing in the community. And sometimes that that's a base that we oftentimes forget even exists, we are, we think our influence only extends to the people directly paying me money. And that's why I need to be concerned with, but also there's this larger group out there for, for better or worse, looking at our company and making decisions on on who they think we are. And I like Remy, how you mentioned earlier, that the client relations, this social relations are things that we have direct control over. And we can we can influence that in a very positive way.
Remy B. 15:45
Right. And you can also, you know, learn a lot from what your customers are doing on social media. So even on your own pages, you know, what they're what they're responding to the comments that they're making, the things that they're liking, that tells a lot about their personalities, and gives you some good information on them to then plan on what are you doing with your social media, what what seems to get their attention, and seems to get great conversation or comments going and feed them more of that, you know, obviously, I think, you know, people love to see their pets in primetime, as long as you have approval to do that. So you, you have the right to, you know, publicize or not publicize the images and stories of their pets, those are things that can really make for awesome social sharing, and then social listening, which is paying attention to those comments and likes and even, you know, sometimes, you know, you know, the the lower reviews from time to time, you can better respond to those. And then again, that just shares out into the networks. So that six degrees of separation, everybody's connected, somehow, some way.
Collin 17:08
Well, you said, you said that word negative reviews, and I know I probably get heart palpitations, too many business owners with with that phrase, because we all we all have one, we all have something that just really didn't work through really didn't, you know, meet expectations. And sometimes that may be a bad review, maybe that's a negative community outreach experience, or some interaction that we've had, that's just not up to our standards. And it's, and it's sitting out there in the public. And we've got this now, this, this perception or this piece of information for the public to start taking in and digesting and making assumptions. How do we as as small business owners, as pet sitters, take those those negative experiences, those negative words that are out there about us? And how do we I don't know, like move past those or change how we view those?
Remy B. 18:01
Yeah, well, always pay attention to your reviews, whether that's on Google or it's on your website, however, you're collecting those reviews, that then the public has access to Yelp, you know, all the different directories. Just pay attention to those and address them right away. We make sure, as best as we can, that we reply to every review to say thank you for the review, whether it's on our website, whether it's on Google, whether it's on Etsy, or wherever it's at, we thank people for giving us your review. We also then, with the negative reviews, if there are them, we address them right away. I always say restate the grievance, you know, you don't have to go into the detail of maybe it's a paragraph they wrote, but restated. So you let that person know, you heard them, right, because we're doing this all digitally. So kind of restate. I, I understand you have this problem. And then provide, you know, a suggestion on how it can be remedied. Or a way for them to contact you. You know, in a private you know, whether that's PMS or use our email contact us or, you know, whatever way you can for them to, you know, for them to know they can reach out to you and you'll resolve it offline. But it lets the public know that you're not just sloughing this off. You're addressing it right up front, and you're going to remedy it. And then you you know, you do get cantankerous people that you can't just no matter what you do, you're not going to satisfy them. But at least when you put that publicly, that you're understand the grievance by stating it, and then give them an opportunity to either say we'd be happy to do this, or please reach out to us at our email specifically about this and we'll, you know, address it and find a resolution. The public knows you're working to remedy that.
Collin 19:59
Well That's the key there is understanding that in some instances, yes, we are responding directly to that review. But in a much bigger sense, we are responding to everyone who's reading that reply and everyone who didn't write it, because that starts speaking to the character of the company that starts speaking to how serious you take it, or how you would handle these things. And that by far and away is often more important than exactly resolving that issue for that one person.
Remy B. 20:29
Absolutely. And again, it's that what the public's perception, right? They always say, I think the word is in the news. No news is good news. Right? So no news is good news. And if it's out there than, you know, nine times out of 10, think of your local news channel, when you turn it on, they're starting with the most negative stories right up front, right? It's like this. And that's why people say, Oh, I got to turn this off. Because it captures people, you know. So address it as quickly as possible. Keep, you can keep it short, without going into detail, don't argue with them, and provide a way offline, that they can reach out to you and then you know, look to resolve it that way.
Collin 21:14
And then I can just fruit from my mindset. I know, I have to sit back. And after we've addressed an issue like that, trust that other people coming to read this will be able to see what's going on, and be honest and not jump to conclusions, right? They're not going to just go Oh, there's one bad review. I'm never using this company. That's not how people make decisions, right? There's they're going to look and they're going to be aware enough and cognizant enough to really see and understand what's going on there. If we respond appropriately, right, leaving a negative review unresponded. To that, that's where we can run into some issues. But if we're responding in an honest way, like you've just outlined Remy and giving this these, these steps, we then have to trust that Okay, the next person who sees this is going to know that I tried and that I'm true, I'm working, and I'm trying to improve and that we do take this seriously. Right?
Remy B. 22:07
Absolutely. Absolutely. I go back to my waitressing days, way back when and, you know, they would tell us the customer's always right, and it didn't mean that they were always right. It's just how do you how to handle the situation, you know, at that time. And, you know, you want them to know that you understand what their problem is, right. So whether that's in person, and online, it can go much further than it does even you know, in, in an in person engagement. So,
Collin 22:40
right. And that speaks to again, we get back to our company's values and our our mission of our companies and going if I, if I truly say that I'm I communicate a lot and I have open communication, that means that I need to be openly communicating with people who have good things to say, who have negative things to say, or just to have, you know, just they don't have a whole lot to say, but I still want to hear from them. I need to be open to receiving that feedback. Because I know, you know, when we said no news is good news. Sometimes as a business owner, you can go, Well, nobody's saying anything good about me. But they're not saying anything bad. So what's what's happening? Like, what, why are people using my company, and we kind of want that feedback. So prompting people go to your top five clients, or go to people you haven't heard from over a while, or send out a survey or send out something to stay in conversation, just so that you have an idea? Because some people may go well, I don't want to leave a review. Because I I don't know it wasn't that bad, or it wasn't that big of an issue. But but now that you're asking, yeah, you know, I do have this thing that I'd like to tell you about, like those are huge. And just as being being willing to have that conversation with people. Sometimes before you get to the review on Google or Facebook or Yelp or wherever you are, you're listed. Right?
Remy B. 23:56
Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, again, it also goes back to how you set up your website and any of your forward facing materials. It's, you know, clearly stating the values and your, you know, your responsibilities and your protocols. And, you know, maybe you give that in your packages, when you meet your clients and begin an engagement. They have that clear there. And then just making sure that you're monitoring their feedback against those things, right. So, you know, when you survey them, bring the values into that survey, you know, we always pride ourselves on being timely responsiveness, personalizing the things that we do, how do we match up? How do we rate on that? And if you're openly asking for that information and getting honest feedback, you can then see where you're meeting it, and you can promote that even more like now 99% of our customers say, or it also helps you then go we, we, we need to work on this. Right?
Collin 25:09
Yeah. So so that you can have that, continuously improving that I know, you mentioned that earlier for me of like, when it comes to customer relations, we need to always be improving. And the only way we can do that is if we know what on earth is going, it's going, it's going on with our, with our clients and our customers. And that gets to an, I think, a portion of this, of how we how we communicate, and in different channels that we can utilize when talking to our clients versus talking to the public. And I was wondering, you know, how you navigate that of, do I, if you have some information is is it? You know, is this something I tell my clients? Is this something I tell the public? Is this something I tell both? And how we can kind of walk through understanding what information goes where, because there's a there's a, there's a lot of possibilities,
Remy B. 25:56
right? Well, I think, you know, obviously, the surveying that's done with your customer base, whichever way you choose to do that. Using, you know, I always like, I'm old school, I like things that I can pick up and see with my hands. So it could be as simple as you know, feedback card that you're leaving there, you know, and then they can put their comments, and then check it against the things that you promised to deliver on. And then you take and correlate all that, you know, the feedback, and then are able to track it, that way you can use you know, survey tools, um, use your email, you know, program, if you have MailChimp, or Constant Contact or anything like that, you can build some of that stuff into those communication pieces. And, you know, put it in a schedule, it's like every three months reach out to a swath of our customer base and just see how they're feeling you know, about their service. So that is directly interacting with the base. And then what you glean from that information can also be used in your marketing, because now you actually have the data.
Collin 27:14
You're kind of viewing it as I've got some internal communications, and I've got my external communications and my internal communications, or maybe that is my, that's my email list that those are my clients, those of people who are using my services, and I can, that's where I can ask questions, I can send information I can get good data from, I can have a calm, I can have a direct conversation with them there. And then I love that idea of going okay, now what I've learned on this, or how this is going is what I can now put on social media is what I'm going to put on Instagram, it's going to be the next video I make for Tik Tok or reels or whatever that is. And there we go, again, we see that interplay of what my how I feel with my customers, how I'm doing on this side, is now what I can do, and showcase in the public forum to help elevate that experience. Because again, that's something that we have direct control over. I know, I've come back to it. But I think that's so important to remember of that it's not just a nebulous thing of it happens to us, we can exert some influence over them.
Remy B. 28:13
Right? Absolutely. You have control over the relationship with your customers, and then how you can use that relationship to benefit on the public side.
28:29
Well, and I know many of our listeners are solo, solo sitters and solo entrepreneurs. And this, this can sound like an awful lot to do and take care of. And for many of us, you're going well, I just I just barely finished, you know, 20 visits today. And now I have to be concerned about what other people are thinking, thinking about me? How, how do we manage this to make sure that it's still
Remy B. 28:53
workable for us? Well, I think it's, you know, it might not be something that you can do every single day, but every few days, you need to take a look at, you know, the feedback you're getting from your customers, look at your social media, just, you know, reply as quickly as you can to that. There is you know, in your business software, I think a lot of these software programs that are out there that help you manage your pet sitting business if if a solo pet sitter is doing and using that they've got some of these tools built in. And you can go into your customer dashboard and see some of this right. So that helps. Yeah, I you know, it is unfortunately it's something that we have to do. And we don't always have the time and the energy at the end of every day to do it. So, you might even consider having, you know, a specific period of time blocked out out every week or every couple of days, where you don't have your appointments, so you can kind of handle and nurture that customer relationship experience. It'll pay off in the end.
Collin 30:13
Yeah, just setting that time aside and recognizing this, this could be a daily task. But if I don't have time for a daily, do I have time for it weekly? Do I have time for this monthly and then going, okay, if I'm doing it weekly, what other things could I be doing monthly? Or what's my quarterly things and just taking these tasks and breaking them out? And going high to low importance here, okay, if I get a review, I need to respond within the next day or two and meet as possible. Maybe I don't need to be sending out daily surveys and analyzing responses daily, maybe that's a once a quarter thing. And you can start setting this out a little bit and just separating it all out. And that's going man, this is a big, this is a big deal. This customer relations, this public relations, what can I do a little bit throughout the year, and build up to something a little bit more than what I'm doing now.
31:01
Right? Yeah, I think that's a good approach.
31:05
And you said the word customer experience before for you Remy? How do you how do you define a high quality or earn exceptional customer experience?
Remy B. 31:17
I, you know, I kind of go back to my sales days, which I'm just I'm always a salesperson, you know, being the owner of the business, but I think it's when both parties leave the table, feeling that feeling satisfied with the interaction, the engagement, the product, the service. It's not about I won. This game, you know, that we're playing or ay ay. Ay came out the winner, it needs to be a win win. So I think in all interactions with our customers, you feel satisfied that you provide them the quality service that they expect, and they feel satisfied.
Collin 32:09
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32:43
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Collin 33:00
Be sure to subscribe at peaceful pet music, calm music for pets on YouTube and hit that bell so you never miss a moment of music. Recognizing that there are there's there's this relationship here of AI and that's really important to recognize because I know many times and other our listeners can probably relate to there have been times with with a customer where we have gone man i I didn't do my best on that. Or maybe I feel like that wasn't my best work. And whatever way you know it could be a meet and greet that just went south and you have you in you walked away going man i What on earth was that? Or it was a visit where you forgotten a couple things that the client had requested you to do? Or what or you miss typed a text or where we don't feel like we're living up
Remy B. 33:52
they left their own name in there.
Collin 33:54
Oh, I just I just did that this morning. You know, my my proofreading side of my brain only once it's been sent right then that's what I'd catch. All
Remy B. 34:03
right. Well, you and I had happened with us. I called you Kyle when I was replying to something and it was because I was talking to our graphic designer who was Kyle instead of Colin and I I sent an email after I think I said and said Colin I'm so sorry if I called you Kyle that's my graphic designer, you know, you catch it and if you can remedy it immediately do so like oh my gosh, I sent that email out and I did not I failed to you know change in the name. I'm so sorry. You can make a joke of it. You know, make it make it light.
Collin 34:35
Yeah, as long as you you know, if you feel like it needs to be addressed then go ahead and address it you know, I did that there was somebody's last name actually just this morning where I typed out an email and sent a form and I had put there like they were like look everything on this looks great. That's not my last name. And I was like oh my gosh, like I'm so I was reading three emails, right? I was doing too much right? And that happens. It happens and just being human about it apologizing. Correct. doing it quickly. And then recognizing, okay, that happens that happened that one time, Oh, that wasn't good. If that's something that continually happens a lot, then then we have to take a step back and go, what what do I have control over the situation that I can change? So it doesn't happen next time? Maybe, you know, maybe it's me not trying to respond to Facebook messages and send out an email and get something scheduled and, you know, talk to my talk to my wife, who's down the hall asking me some question, right.
Remy B. 35:27
I mean, I think that's the challenge we all have. In every in running our own businesses, we, we were multitasking all the time. But I guess in you know, when we're doing these responding the client, so you, we need to kind of shut the rest of the world off for that period of time. So when you carve out that hour, a week or that half an hour daily, where you're responding to social media, and comments, and likes or whatever, or to reviews, that you really try to shut everything out bits around you and not multitask in those instances. One of the things that I love, and I forget I have sometimes is one of these tasks clocks. Have you seen those, it's like a cube. And it's a digital clock, and it has, it's like, looks like a dice. And it's a 15 minute, 30 minute, 60 minute, five minute, and then you just set it for the time period that you're doing that task. And it buzzes when you're done with that 15 minutes, it helps me kind of stay organized, like okay, I only can focus on following up with customer referrals right now. And I'm going to turn my 30 minute clock on, you know, and I'm going to hit the buzzer, and then it dings. And that's what I'm laser focused on for that time period. And you can buy them anywhere they're on Amazon.
Collin 36:55
Yeah, I've heard of that. I think the the concept is called Pomodoro timing, or Pomodoro timer is where yes, you go, I'm going to block out certain parts of my day, and I'm going to have a little timer clock ticking down. And that helps us focus that gives us a visual deadline of when this task is done. And it really is one of those, once that buzzer goes off, penciled down book closed, we're going to step away from this and, you know, maybe set another timer later in the day, but it's just to help you go I'm dedicating this time, that way I am focused. So that and this is especially important for things like phone calls with customers, right like that. I I'm one of the worst persons when it comes to phone calls, because I immediately start trying to do something else while I'm on the phone call. And I know that that is that spells disaster because I'm not taking notes. I'm not paying attention to what the person saying I'm not picking up on cues or words that they're repeating. And that becomes a bad customer experience on their end where I may go, oh, wow, that was that was a great phone call. You know, I talked to them for seven minutes. And I think they're gonna book and the clients going, who that person didn't seem like they were present at all that what are they doing? Were they vacuuming? being reminded of going every touchpoint every opportunity I have to interact with a client, I need to be intentional about so that it is exceptional.
Remy B. 38:19
Right. And I I really, I love the idea and the fact that you make phone calls. So many businesses today, rely on technology, right. And I always I'm old school again, I think about the phone call hearing the voice, that means that means more to me than if I'm doing a chat online. So the value of that is important. So you'd certainly want to make sure you're not distracted. Because I think they value it too, although there are a lot of people that they don't like to talk right. Some of the younger generation, if you don't text them, they don't respond.
Collin 39:03
They don't and I know sometimes that's you know, I've I've certainly had a phone call and realize that they're they're giving me a lot of information. And I've had to go hey, you know, that would actually be great. If you could text that over to me, I'm gonna write that down. But please, when we're done here, text me that that new information or that new code or that new thing that you have, and I'll follow up with you to confirm that I've received it so you can definitely, but that takes being in the moment going, Whoo, that sounds really important. Let's do a follow up with that in some written format, so it doesn't get lost in the ether. Or my brain immediately dumps all that information as soon as I click in. So the but that's part of this, okay, I'm telling you that I'm paying attention. And part of me telling you that I'm paying attention means that I care about the information that you're telling me. And so we're going to, we're going to handle that carefully. We're going to do something with that we're not just saying things to say things. Right. Right. And all this boils down to or maybe not that but but really Trying to make sure that when we talk about having good customer experiences good public relations, and maybe we've already talked about this a little bit, Remy. But how do we know? Let's let's start with the public relations side? How do I get a better understanding of what the what the public needs or is expecting from me, so that I know how to communicate and interact with them, and then go down to my my clients because they have expectations. So we've talked a little bit about reviews and communicating there, but how else can we start to get a better understanding of what both existing clients and potential clients are looking for from
Remy B. 40:39
me? Well, I think it's one, it's a different experience, right, from existing to potential. So knowing that in general, and this is where those feedback loops that you've put in place your processes help to continue to nurture the relationships, and make improvements with the existing customers. And then again, it gleams information that would make a new customer make that experience better for them. On the public relations side, what the public is seeing, I think, in today, as you know, today's society, things are so detached, they're more technical, you can always find a phone number. People expect great customer service, right? They want that voice at the end of the line, they want quick response time, to their inquiry or to their negative feedback, they want to be heard. So whether it's your customer, or potential customer, or it's just the public, you have to promote that exceptional customer experience to the public, because they get it, you know, they're looking for that and everything they do, even if they're not looking for a pet sitter, they're expecting it when they, you know, shop on the heart, you know, Lowe's dot com or walk into a hardware store, do whatever they're doing. So when you have the data that shows you continue to provide the best levels of customer service, customer experience, it resonates with the public, that isn't necessarily even a potential customer. They go Oh, that's great, you know, and then they tell others because somebody else in their network just happens to have a dog and is looking for a pet sitter, and they go, you know, that I don't have a dog. But I hear really good things about this company. And they seem to be super attentive, you know, maybe maybe you should reach out to them.
Collin 43:07
And that's that base. Student. That's that that's that base, right that we need to be cognizant and aware of that exists, that is real, that is operating out there. And we have that connection to them. Remy, you started pepper nails back in in 2014. With with your co founder with Laurie, what? Why in 2014? What was it about that time that you decided that pet perennials needed to to be a thing?
Remy B. 43:33
Well, it's interesting the evolution of pet perennials. When we started cherished ones as our LLC, that's the legal entity behind pet perennials. In 2014, we had developed a product it was called the pet, pet perennials product, and it was our wildflower growing kit, which allows people to grow wild flowers in memory of a pet. It's everything you need inside of this kit. And that's what we were at the time. But that had come out of my own personal experience with having lost my pet. And I was I lost my dog when I ran a very different business. She came to the office with me every day and that grief was so deep. I thought, what do you do for someone right? And that experience is then what led to this first product, which is what we were before we became this this business's solution. And it evolved as we went to market with the product. We found that people weren't you know, out shopping for pet loss products, the Griever themselves. So then it became how do we get this lovely product that can help comfort the grieving pet lover into their hands. And then it became the service providers that People that interface with pet parents and families on a consistent basis. And initially, it was some Camp Bow locations in the Pittsburgh area that said, we love this gardening kid. It's what we think of when we think of our pets leaving is having this, you know, everlasting garden, this tribute to these animals, can you send that to our customers for us, and then that's figured out a way to do it for the campout was here in Pittsburgh. And then we thought, wait a minute, how many more of these businesses touch these families on a consistent recurring basis that they could use this. And so it began, and that started around 2016 2017. And we've been developing that and honing that sense. And then it naturally is part of this whole customer relation, customer experience that goes into how you market your business. This is marketing, when you don't even really know your marketing, right? You're just doing something thoughtful. And on the backside, it becomes a marketing tool for you. It becomes public relations, and puts you in good light to the public, that may not even be pet owners, but to the pet owners. It has an it resonates immediately to a non pet owner. It says oh my gosh, what a thoughtful pet sitting company.
Collin 46:44
Right? That right back to that goodwill is good PR. And at the end of the day, we are we have we have a passion we have we care and we can show that in in a multitude of ways and understanding that not doing okay, I'm going to send this so that I can get good PR I'm going to do this. So I can't. But just by being honest to ourselves and true to who we are understanding that good things flow from that and that there is this interconnectedness that we have with both our clients and our community.
Remy B. 47:12
Yeah, absolutely. You got it. Colin, I don't have to teach you anything.
Collin 47:20
Well, Remy, I want to thank you so much for joining us today and walking us through this connection that is exists between customer and public relations, and how we have control over that and things that we can do to positively influence that and address things when they don't go as well as we had hoped. I know that there's a lot here. And I know we've mentioned pet perennials a couple of times. So Remy. How can people get connected to you check out pet perennials, and start learning more about that?
Remy B. 47:47
Okay, well, pet perennials.com is the website they can learn and see what we offer, I would encourage them, you know, as business owners to go to the business programs page, that's where they find out the information on our gift perks accounts, we also do wholesale some of our items. So you can register for both a gift perks and a wholesale account in one registration and those accounts are free. There's never a charge, or when you need to. And that's all you pay. And then if anybody needs to reach me personally, they can email me at our E. M, as in Mary y at Pet perennials.com. And then we have a phone number. We always take phone calls. If we don't answer right away, we do respond back pretty quickly. 855-573-3887
Collin 48:36
I really appreciate all this. And I think it's just it's so important as business owners that we are aware of this, that we take control over it and we start using it to our advantage.
Remy B. 48:45
Absolutely. Yep. Control, we have control of this side. So that's a good thing.
Collin 48:51
Here's the thing, people will have an opinion about you and your company, whether you recognize it or not. Right now, there are people who think one way or the other about your business, they have perceptions of what you do and how you do it and your trustworthiness, why not play an active role in shaping that opinion of your company, from the content that you produce, to the services that you offer, and how you treat your clients and your staff. All of that goes into shaping your public relations and the perceptions that people carry through about you and your community. In an industry where the know like trust factor is so incredibly important to gaining the trust and serving our clients well in gaining new clients. Your public relations need to take into account that people are looking for people that they can trust that they can know that they can like and that's what this process is, is getting ahead of that so that when people hear your business name or where they hear the kind of services that you offer, they already have a positive association in their mind going on about who you are and what you do. And the really important part about this entire thing is that You cannot fake this, this kind of public perceptions are not something that you can just pay a bunch of money and have people immediately liking you because of the quote unquote good services or things like that that you do in your community. Today's consumer is incredibly discerning and able to pick up on when they're being lied to, or when the wool is being pulled over their eyes. Stay genuine to yourself, have those mission, vision and values upfront and foremost, and everything that you do, so that when you say you're going to do something, people believe you because you not only follow through, but there's a genuine act behind it because it's important to you. How are you using public relations? And how are you actively shaping that for your business we'd really love to know and get your experiences on this front. You can send that to feedback at Pet Sitter confessional.com. We want to thank today's sponsors, time to pet and the peaceful pet music calm music for pets YouTube channel. Thank you so much for listening. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.
