513: Navigating Client Expectations with Heather Scott
Time to Pet
Visit: https://timetopet.com/confessional for 50% off first 3 months
❤️ Our AMAZING Patreon Supporters
Are clients' expectations driving your pet care business to the brink? In this episode, Heather Scott, owner of Heather’s Pet Care, delves into the challenges of managing unrealistic client demands and the impact Covid lockdowns continues to have on their expectations. She shares her journey of phasing out overnight services due to financial and legal constraints, highlighting the importance of setting boundaries and clear communication. Heather also discusses her refined hiring process and the significance of realistic job previews for new staff. Finally, she emphasizes the value of community engagement and local networking in building a loyal client base and adapting to industry changes.
Main topics:
Client Expectations and Behavior
Challenges of Overnight Services
Pricing and Industry Competition
Hiring and Training Staff
Community Engagement and Networking
Main takeaway: Adapting to industry changes is essential for growth.
About our guest:
It started when my dad decided to get my family a puppy! In 2003, we adopted a mini Shih Tzu and she quickly became the highlight of our family. From there, I grew a huge love for animals!
Back in 2013, I got a phone call asking if I could help out a family friend with her multiple pets for two weeks. After meeting me, the owner's took a leap of faith to travel around the world and leave me with their pets. Once they got home, they couldn't have been happier! Shortly after, I decided to take my love for animals and turn it into a business.
Being around animals is the highlight of my day!
Links:
Previously on: https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/031-heather-scott
Email: info@heatherpetcare.com
Instagram: heatherpetcare
ProTrainings: For 10% off any of their courses, use CPR-petsitterconfessional
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
people, dog, clients, business, cat, pet, years, industry, work, pet sitter, clientele, sucks, today, hire, give, find, owners, heather, wanted
SPEAKERS
Collin, Heather S.
Collin 00:02
Welcome to petsitter confessional. Today, we're brought to you by tepat and our Patreon supporters, managing client expectations is never an easy job. Now more than ever, it takes setting strong and realistic boundaries in your business. But first, it means you have to know where those boundaries are. Today, we're really excited to have Heather Scott, owner of Heather's pet care back on the show. She was previously with us back on episode 31. Heather shares how she has changed her hiring processes as restructured her business to better manage the expectations that her clients place on her so that she can run a business that she actually thrives in. Let's get started.
Heather S. 00:39
Yeah, sure. So I started Heather's pet care 10 years ago, which I cannot believe at all, I didn't think I was gonna make it this long, let alone this far. And survived lockdown, which I give any small business, a lot of praise for that was not a fun year for anybody. So I started this business in the hopes to pay off my student loans. I did that within two years of owning this business. Weirdly enough, a couple years ago, my school got sued a handful of times. And I got paid back on those loans. I was like, Oh, interesting. So I wonder if I would have continued with this as long as I have, if that happened all those years ago. I don't know. Because my goal was to not really make it this far. Or this long, I kind of wanted to pay off my student loans. I had my Bachelor's, I was like, Oh, I'll figure it out after that, and kind of go from there. I always wanted to own my own business. So it is a little surreal saying that for the last decade, I've been self employed and have own my own business. But I just didn't anticipate it to get this far. So I'm definitely proud. I started with three clients in the Princeton area we service, we have at least 100 active clients, we've serviced hundreds of people over the last decade, I've had a lot of people work for me come and go all different ages. Guys, girls, it's been a really interesting industry, not only industry to be in, it's going to test you in a lot of different ways. My management skills have been tested in more ways than one. And everybody gets managed differently. So you definitely have to figure that out very fast. So here, I still am 10 years later in my early 30s. taking a different approach to this business this year, which I'm crossing fingers, it's going to pan out because I'm tired. And I can no longer do the 14 hour days. So I really want to scale grow, get a better team on board so I can step back, do what I need to do. And have everybody else do all the fun work that I've been doing for the last 10 years. So that is my teeny little business and this small little town in New Jersey the bigger overview of it. Yeah,
Collin 03:04
well yeah 10 years like that is that's a huge milestone. It really is and to know that like what what was it about it that you said you were tired? Right and it was it the overrides? Was it though the long days like what specifically about that made you go I can't do another decade like I've just done
Heather S. 03:23
I would say it's kind of a mix of all of it. Because now that I'm not doing overnights, I mentally feel better, because I'm not super stressed out being in somebody else's home. You know, you're always on when you're doing overnights like that you don't really settle and feel better until you're home. And I think that's a big concept. People don't really realize and I don't even think you consciously realize you're doing it until you do get home and you feel so much better. I feel like it was just a mix of everything. I had a lot of staffing problems in the last year that have just driven me up a wall and I know this industry is not taken as seriously as most people take it. So between the clientele, either disrespecting you or the staffing, just not really getting with it. It's just been a lot all at once. And a lot of problems I've dealt with for a long time. I've had the same mindset for a while. So me carrying on and doing what I need to do is kind of something I just always do. But now I'm getting to the point as I'm getting older. Do I really want all this time to be sucked away from me? I don't do a lot of stuff with my family, but it's more so for me and myself care and being able to have a better work life balance. I actually ended up going back to school. In 2022 I got my master's I gave myself one year because there was no way I was doing the two year route or I would be graduating. I probably should have done the two year route your brain just does not work the same anymore. It's been 10 years since I was in school. And I was like, Oh, this is gonna be interesting. It was really hard because I still ran this business, I had a second one, I paid for school out of pocket two. It's one of those if all else fails in the world, I at least have my masters kind of behind me, owning a small business for as long as I have is not very common, especially for my age group. So I do feel like I bring a lot of different skills, if I needed to really step away and kind of close up this business and do something else. So yeah, it's just a lot as we all know, a lot of people really give it their all the first year because they really want to make it work. And then I feel like you start questioning yourself, year two, and year three. And either you really give it your all and really try or you just end up not anymore. And I think we're in, like you said the economy being the way that it is right now. I think a lot of people are just kind of giving up and saying, you know, I can't do this anymore. Which I totally get. Because it is a lot and it is really hard. And I wouldn't start this business in today's day at all. Like if I were to move, if I were to go somewhere else, I wouldn't start this somewhere else, because I know how long it takes to start this business. And that's not, I'm just not interested in any of that my brother tried. He lives like an hour away up north for me. And he tried. He printed business cards, I got business cards from somewhere, left them in a bunch of different places, and then told me he wasn't getting calls. I'm like, Well, of course not. It takes a lot more than just leaving business cards everywhere, bro. So I think he tried that for like two weeks and then decided to work at a boarding facility again. It's really not for everybody being a small business owner, it's really not for everybody, even though everybody wants to do it. The second you do it same with like management anywhere. Like I worked retail management in my early 20s. Like I was 19. And I was a retail supervisor, the amount of disrespect I got, because I was so young. And people thought that they should have been in that position versus me yet the second they got in it, they were like, Oh no, this is a lot harder than I thought. And it's just like going into business. Like I wish more of these younger kids in this generation that's coming up, I wish they would work for us, as opposed to trying to do it on their own, because they're just going to get so overwhelmed so fast that they just end up leaving the industry entirely. And that really sucks because some of these younger kids really should be replacing us because we're not going to be able to do this for forever. So these younger kids really need to get with it. But they're just trying to do it on the road because they think oh $20 dog walk, they gotta keep that $20 It's not a $20 dog walk, it's probably half that after taxes you driving, they're spending the time insurance, it's probably half that. So why not get paid hourly, not have to worry about self employment tax, get money back from the government at the end of the year. And not have to worry about maintaining this crazy business or getting all these clients and you know, I just the younger the age group, I don't really understand.
Collin 08:21
I think I think a lot of a lot of this. And it comes from both people in the industry and from clients as well as the lack of understanding of what it means to run a business and what it takes Yeah, of why things are the way they are. And just like we talked about with like the pricing of overnights of like, well, I could go into this long diatribe and explain to you 20 With 20 minutes with an Excel spreadsheet and a graph and charts about why my prices are the way they are. But at the end of the day, they don't care, they just want to hear me if I'm going to say yes or no. And same same thing with running a business of of the the easy gets of having a business of sending out business cards and being able to pick up 10, you know, 10 clients in a month. That's not happening anymore. It's just not. And that's because of there's a lot of saturation. And a lot of places, there's a lot it's a lot more common to have petsitting businesses, people are also finding them other places online and they're or they're looking for other credentials or they're looking for other things. So that bar is slowly being raised. And it does mean that to start a business today, you have to kind of come at a level that is way higher than you needed to start a business five or 10 years ago. And that is that's hard to do that now actually does take more money, it takes more time. It takes more intentionality and training and background to do that. And so helping people to get that experience by having them shadow or hire them for a little bit or work with you or you know other things so that they can then go and do that is part of that as the industry grows and matures. How do we continue to have the bar raised while not being exclusionary to other people who want to start businesses Today, because we can't just all have, well, if you didn't start your business before 2010 Good luck, right? Like, that's not okay.
Heather S. 10:06
Right. And now that we have the noncompetes, not really being in any sort of effect in the States, it does allow then other people to do that. But I do feel like, if somebody were to work for me, let's just say they were just a normal dog walker, they have their shifts, they have their dogs, they felt like they could do it on their own. They don't realize all the behind the scenes things that we're doing. So I usually, you know, I've had a couple girls start businesses after working for me, both of them are out of business, they lasted less than two years each. I think a lot of them think we're either not doing the work, or it must just be so easy. So that's why we give it to other people. It's not, it's a lot of maintaining relationships, it's a lot of marketing, figuring out where people are going. networking with other business owners, whether it's in the same industry or just other local business owners, I deal with a lot of people around here and around, you know, my mechanic, I know a lot of food people around here. Getting a lot of small towns, and maybe this isn't, city ask, but I feel like cities to a lot of small towns really want to support local business, I feel like cities are the same, they really want to support these local businesses, because these big ones are just coming in taking over and nobody's really giving a shit. linking up with them, I feel gets you at least the best clientele from them. Because they're going to want to show off like, Hey, I have good clients, too. Here's my people, they're not going to give you the absolute people they can't stand or they can hate. Why would they do that. Just like we don't want to work with really terrible people. So I feel like having those connections and having those relationships with businesses outside of our industry really helps bring in a different type of clientele. But I almost feel like it's a better client, tell them what we can find because they're going to talk us up, they really like us as business owners, especially if you're personally going in and talking to them. I've dealt with other staff, you know, saying, Hey, I know this person on so and so we can leave our cards here. What do you think I'm like, alright, that's cool. And then I've eventually met them and kind of built a connection and relationship with them, too. So the power of networking, outside of our immediate network really is important to what we're doing.
Collin 12:30
it legitimizes a lot of what we do as a business. I actually had a recent client contact us. And he wanted to know, his exact question was, can you give me a reference for another business?
Heather S. 12:43
You've worked with? Interesting, like in our industry?
Collin 12:45
No, just is there another business in general that I have a connection with? That he that he could go talk to business to business? It was the
Heather S. 12:57
thing? Did you give him a referral?
Collin 12:58
I did. I said, Oh, well, because we have, we have a client who also runs another business that does, you know, cars, so I was like, Oh, well, he's also also a client, so you can go talk to him from that perspective, but it's another business owner. And I think what he was really looking for was, I need a business to tell me that this business is good at doing business or is competent in what they do. And
Heather S. 13:21
I can see that okay, it was on a business was he was he a small business owner
Collin 13:26
too? He had previously owned his own business Yes. So he was looking at people can be like that yeah, so it was but again in over a decade I've never had that specific question asked of me and it was really hit really hit home what you said about the importance of networking of yes networking broadly because you never know what's going to happen or what people are going to get asked or who they're going to run across and it's it's it's building out this social proof have we talked about that doing online of well have your social media be connected, you know, be postings people can go social proof you in the real world. Not many people do that too. They want to see how connected you are, what you're involved in and see that you are a visible company, because that helps give them peace of mind that okay, this person isn't some fly by night person who's going to come in ransack my house and then leave right or steal my dog that because they're so connected that that would damage their reputation. So it kind of helps them give them a little bit more peace of mind through that.
Heather S. 14:30
Completely because I'm sure you've seen steal the massive rover stories or we have one. We have one recently in Jersey down in net like an hour away from me down south. This woman hired and I'm not quite too sure what business she's in, but she hired one of her clients to watch her dog. Apparently her dog is missing solds ran away. There's been really weird stories. This woman's picture has gone viral, you know The dog is this teeny little like doodle thing? You know, I, it's it's really sad. It's real, you know, like a lot of non legitimate people are still in this industry. And they get away with so much that some people get so hesitant hiring us when we weren't the problem, but I've also heard horror stories about other business owners to in this industry. Yeah.
Collin 15:22
And that's, yeah, because now all of a sudden, it's not our reputation as a business that is being tarnished. But it's the industry as a whole of oh, well, I'll say this. It kind of gets into the whole, like, used car salesman stuff like of like, Oh, if you say that word people, all listeners just just bristled a little bit with like, oh, yeah, there's easy to use cart. But not everyone is and but you have to then convince them that you're not and then you feel like, Oh, well, if I because I have to convince you. I have something to hide. Like, I just it feels so wrong to be put in that position.
Heather S. 15:58
People ruin it for the rest of us. Yes. Which really sucks, you know, like somebody got burned somewhere once or twice. Yep. And then they're just not going to trust anybody in general anymore. And that that sucks to hear.
Collin 16:12
And so we find ourselves coming around and putting out these fires that we didn't create, but finding ways to go okay, we know I'm above that. Right. This is this is how we operate. And being really transparent is one of the best ways that we've found for for combating a lot of that that cloudy, murky waters that people feel like they're getting into. Yeah, great. Have you heard of time to pet Dan from NYC pooch has this to say on Tibet has been a
16:35
total game changer for us. It's helped us streamline many aspects of our operation from scheduling and communication to billing and customer management. We actually tested other petsitting software's in the past, but these other solutions were clunky and riddled with problems. Everything in tiny pet has been so well thought out. It's intuitive feature rich, and it's always improving.
Collin 16:54
If you're looking for new pet scan software, give time to pet a try. Listeners of our show, we'll say 50% off your first three months by visiting times pet.com/confessional. Well, you mentioned that you've been dealing with a lot of of hiring, and there's a lot of staff stuff. And I did want to have you been a walk us through that journey that you've that you've been on and kind of some of the struggles that you've been facing?
Heather S. 17:17
Sure. So I am the first one to say and to call out that I've been doing it wrong for a long time. You know, if you ask anybody how to hire, who to hired, how do you go about it, anybody and everybody is going to tell you to hire contractors, but not one person knows what that means. So it sucks trying to ask other people like, hey, how do you go about this? What do you do, and they're giving you the wrong advice when you really want to take their advice, and it's like, oh, God, so I learned a lot on my own. And like I said, I'm the first person to say I did it wrong. So I hired with a contractor model for forever. I felt it was the easiest way to bring on people, they can make a decent amount of money, I was still making what I thought was a decent amount of money. And then I have some breathing room and Okay, thank God I can breathe. Like most of us, we treated our contractors, like actual staff. So they helped us every day, we went through a little bit of training. You know, we showed our standards and what we were looking to do. As we know, now that's not really the right way right way to approach it at all. And ever since the Department of Labor kind of really is really trying to narrow down the uses of of contractors in general. I really think it should be specific, like an industry specific. The use of contractors, you know, like, obviously, a general contractor has to that general contractor can't be a plumber, a painter, electrician, you know he H back that he can't do all of that. So to have a general contractor hire out all those businesses for one house makes a lot of sense. But when we're hiring contractors for all of these houses, it's just not quite making sense in the staff classification world. So before the Department of Labor came out with their more strict rules and regulations on contractors, I really wanted to get ahead of that. So that's where I decided I've worked with a few different coaches. I needed a lot of help. I was very overwhelmed at first and it is very overwhelming. I do warn people of that this can be a lot at first, but once everything is in place, and it's good to go. It kind of fixes itself and you can sit back and breathe a little bit. So I had to then think, okay, how am I going to bring people on? What is my onboarding process going to look like? What type of payroll company I'm going to use. I thought about everything under the sun for figuring out how much to pay these people, and I think that's a downfall in our industry, when people want to bring on employees, they think immediately, okay, what do I pay them, that should really be one of the last things you should think of and figure out, because first of all, you need to make sure you can afford bringing these people on board. Because if your rates are $10, a walk, and you know, 20 an hour, it's gonna be really tough for you to bring somebody on board and stay in business still. So, the first few things I then thought of after thinking about my onboarding process, which that took a minute that probably took like, three, four months to really solidify. And I did I solidified it in two different ways. At first, I was just like, Okay, well, let me find somebody on indeed do a phone interview, in person interview, sign some paperwork, and they're good to go. I needed something a little more in depth, because a lot of these people over the phone are wasting my time. And I needed to not have that happen anywhere. Yeah. So this is where I worked with a different coach. And I decided to really perfect my onboarding process. Now I send out qualifying surveys, from the results of those surveys, I either decide we're going to do a phone interview, or we're not the phone interview those Well, we then do an in person one. And if that goes, well, I then hire and bring them on board. The great thing about most payroll companies, and especially ADP, because they're one of the biggest ones out there, they do a lot of the onboarding for you, which is really nice. So you can just send your staff a link, they can download an app, they can do it themselves on their phones, even it's really, really easy to set up. The next part of it that I always send is their agreement. And the handbook, the handbook is a little lengthy and a little long, like 40 pages, I don't really feel like printing it out. That's a lot. Seeing it over the computer and kind of having a more on your phone to I think is going to be handy for some people, and then sending them the employment agreement, which the biggest thing I have in there now that we can't use non competes is a non solicit. So after they are done working with me, if they decide to carry on and move on with this type of business, they cannot reach out to my clients. Because, you know, they can start their own if they want, but they then can't turn around and like steal all of our people. That's like absurd. I actually did have a contractor do that. And one client was really honest with me, she told me every time she hit her up, and she hit her up, like, probably three or four times, yeah, after this girl was done working for me, I was like, wow, okay, and this was, you know, back then I didn't have I was still using contractors, you know, technically she could have done whatever. But I'm not in the business of hiring people for them to then start their own business and do and then become my direct competitor. Like, come on. Now, we should really be all working together in this field. And I'm getting to the My diff my second transition into this business is really developing and creating new management roles and positions, kind of the beauty of one owning your own business and to being in the industry that we're in because it's such a high demand, high volume business, we can have what I call like an area manager, somebody being in you know, managing a couple of different towns with people underneath them, where the only person they're reporting to is me, where then I'm not having everybody report to me. Yes, I would have to instead of like 10. So that is my main goal now that I kind of perfected at least my onboarding process, a few things training wise, I probably need to fix and figure out, but that I feel like training is always something you can look at. And always perfect differently. You can do different methods of it, whether it's in person, online with, you know, Google Forms and videos. So I'm trying to do a mix of everything. So people are confident going out there on their own and seeing these animals because the shadow visits they feel really great about because they're with us. But then we have to go and they're like, oh my god, you can't hold my hand anymore. And I'm like, No, I cannot. And I had one employee told me she was like, I was so nervous. My first day, I was like, what you did great, and you caught on just fine. So everybody gets a little nervous at first I know they do. I find myself to be a little bit of the problem being there with them. Because I know all those little nuances how to shut the door quietly how to not barge in and just yell, you know how to unlock and lock these doors, how to leash up the dog, you know, I do a lot of those small things in front of them for at least a week. And then I scan back and I say okay, now you're gonna do all this stuff. And I will in the middle of doing things be like, Hey, listen, let's actually do it a different way. Or maybe let's not do this. Let's do that. So that way they're catching on quickly. Okay, when I'm by myself, I probably should do this this way. And to be honest, they end up learning and embarrassing themselves in person if they do it wrong. Because then they're like, Oh, well, that's right. You told me to do it this way. And I'm like, yes, there is a reason. Reason method to my madness is what I always say. Yeah. You know, people don't think there is but oh, yeah, there definitely is a good reason to, you know, we want to make this job as fun and comfortable as possible. You know, we're outside every single day, we're working in all treacherous weather. This is like the worst time of the year to be a dog walker, but everybody wants to be a dog walker. I think wintertime sucks more than summertime. I think they equally kind of blow in their own, the extreme weather really sucks. I would say like the springs in the fall is cool, you can get away with that. But the extreme heat, and the extreme cold, it really sucks. And lately, we've been having multiple days in a row of it. It's not been like, one or two days of this 100 degree weather. It's been like a week of 100 degree weather. It's like my God, why? So that I get you know that that part of the job really sucks, which is why I even do two weeks worth of training, because you do kind of see kind of the crappy weather, and I'm out there with you. Yeah, you know, I'm not sitting on my butt, collecting the money and just doing what I need to do. I'm out there seeing these dogs, too, I still have some clientele that I see. I'm slowly trying to get rid of them. Or I'm trying to work like two or three days a week. Like that's it, when it comes to seeing clients and actual dogs. Otherwise, I really want to try to give that to other people. So as they feel more comfortable and stay in this business more, these management roles will pop up. And I think definitely one of my girls is definitely wants to take it. And that's just going to motivate them to stay in longer. Because it's it's hard to keep people to just being a dog while and some people just want to do that. They just want to walk their dogs and then go home. Yeah, but it's not the majority. That's a really rare hire, to find. Yeah.
Collin 27:01
How are you? How are you finding, educating the new hires on all the complexities of the job? Because I know that where a lot of people say or they think they wanted to do this, and then they get into it, and they go, Oh, nevermind, I'd rather not. Exactly.
Heather S. 27:17
So I determined a lot of that in the in person interview more than on the phone. Because on the phone, you can just kind of make up whatever. And you know, there's no repercussions. I'm not sitting in front of you. But in person, I talk a little more about the details of the job that yes, this does involve some driving sometimes. This can involve some early mornings and some later evenings if you're not really a night person, we stop everything at like nine I don't stay out past that. Because sometimes we're getting houses between six and seven. So I really like to cut that at nine. So I I am upfront and a little honest about the job for sure. The handbook describes a little more in detail what you're actually doing, I actually have step by step of doing a pet sitting visit versus doing a dog walking visit. So a lot of the handbook gives a lot of really good details. The training, I went I honestly that two weeks of training, I had a girl quit after the first day. Because she was like, wow, this is actually a lot harder than I thought. And this is a lot of walking. We walked. What after the first dog, she was like, Oh, I'm a little exhausted. I'm like, well, let's just get through the second one. And let's just keep going. Once we got to like the third dog, she was like, Yeah, I don't think this is for me. Like, listen, thank you, like thank you. And I pretty sure I did thank her because I didn't want to continue to waste my time getting her all this clientele and getting her busy. When she really doesn't even want to be in this job. So she did help me out with one jog three days a week. Within the first like week, she was like, Oh, I'm good. I can add on more jobs. And I was like, we'll see why don't we just let's let's just keep keep doing what you're doing. Yeah. Then she started calling out. And I was like, okay, and it was like a once a week thing. Yeah. And mind you, she was just seeing one dog three days a week. So okay, I just had to rearrange my schedule for that dog and it usually worked out. But if I got her more clientele and more people that she's seeing and all of a sudden she's doing all this calling out. I can't then turn around and take all of her dogs, like that's just not gonna work. So it turned into Let's just hang on to this dog, if you can go one month without calling out. All add on a second dog. Yeah, she called out within them. So I was like, Sam Come on, and then the client that she was helping ended up moving. And because I have employees and I paid mileage calm. They were moving much further from where she was. So I would actually have to pay into that visit as opposed to just having me do it. So we ended up parting ways in that regard because I couldn't get her anymore clientele she lived a little farther outside of Princeton. It helps with my Princeton people. But she really could only help out with like one of my Princeton people that I had, because she just wasn't quite wasn't quite a confident dog walker and really didn't want to be she wanted to be more of a pet sitter with the cats and the small animals and stuff and whatnot, which, okay, great. That's definitely a demand. But it's not a huge demand that I can get somebody busy every single day for so it was definitely eye opening for both of us, really, for me, because I've never had anybody quit like on the first day. And I think it was really eye opening for her too, because she really thought this job was different than it was. And she told me during the in person interview, oh, I don't mind driving. I don't mind walking. I love doing both. It's great. To me, those are actually red flags. Because you don't realize how much walking and driving you're doing in this business. Sure, on your own, you may enjoy because you're running a couple errands, going to target going to the mall coming home and doing nothing. You got to do this every single day for four or five hours. It's a little different. A little different. I feel like we take it a little bit to the extreme. But that's just because that's what the job is. Yeah, it
Collin 31:13
is. And you mentioned like, sometimes you hire somebody again, this is getting back to these expectations of, of they have in their mind or the picture of what this was going to look like. And sometimes that comes from what they've seen online what they did in high school, right? I get that a lot of oh, I used to salt. Yeah, high school. And I would ask like, okay, but like, tell me what you actually Oh, you just walked across the street to do this. That's nice. Very nice. I'm glad you got Yeah,
Heather S. 31:37
you helped your neighbor. Yeah, exactly. Our friends or family, you know, we're like, they built relationships with those animals for years. You know, so of course, it was easy for them to come in, take care of those animals and be done. Yeah.
Collin 31:50
Now going, Okay, now you're going to go in and potentially meet a dog that you have, you have no prior connection with, right? Are you you're gonna take care of this cat that you just have notes and a walkthrough video on or maybe you were shadowed one time on this cat, right? How are we going to do that and finding those kinds of people have, there are definitely people with the skills and mindset and abilities to do the dog walking versus the cat sitting in the pet sitting like we are realizing that more and more as we hire and bring people on that people will self select into those if you listen to what they're actually saying, and and actually paying attention. Because when we first started hiring people, we didn't listen, we just said oh, yeah, pet, same dog walking. That's fine, right?
Heather S. 32:30
But I actually asked it on my qualifying survey, whether they're looking to be just a dog walker, a pet sitter, or both, because some people are just looking to be just a straight up dog walker, and they don't want to do anything else. Yes, some people are looking to do both. You know, it's definitely a good question to ask, because people, like we both have said, have definitely taken this job, and have thought otherwise and have been like, oh, wow, this is interesting. Same with boarding. People think you're just standing in the corner, just watching these dogs. It's so much more than that in boarding, like, you gotta get involved. You know, like, these animals have a lot of emotions. You know, you have to deal with that and certain ways the way that they train you to deal with that, you know, we don't see we see more sadness. When people travel or the fear of it. We just took care of a cat for the last week who loves Mom, mom works from home. Did you know basically her third child she kept saying, Oh, I have three daughters. Well, the cat was the one daughter. So you know, this cat is all over them? Of course. Okay, cool. We were coming in for this job. This cat. His status, she wanted nothing to do with us. She kept maybe like a 510 foot, you know, radius if we were to try to get up to like, approach her to be like, Oh, Hazel, it's okay. Or to have her like sniff she would just run. Yeah. And you know, I know the owners expectation was, Oh, she's going to come up to you. You know, she loves me. Of course, she's going to come up to you. And I had to tell her a couple times, even via text message. Listen, we don't take any offense to this. Some cats are just genuinely afraid. She was getting closer, every like a little closer every day. But she was just waiting for them to come home. She really didn't want us there. You know, I think she knew we were there to feed her but she really didn't want us there like at all. And the owner you know was like, oh, show love you guys.
Collin 34:26
And this looks right back around to what we started off by talking about of the client expectations of what's going to happen during the visit and they think oh, this is gonna be perfect. These are miracle workers. Everything's gonna be fine. And then oh, wait my cat scared that's weird. What are they doing wrong are never scared for me. They're never scared for me. Meet meanwhile, we have employees who think every cat loves them because they've interacted with exactly two cats in their entire life because their cat in their mother's cat. And they're like, what, why does this cat not like me and then it really takes a lot of just going Okay, here's what's about to happen. And here's what we are going to look forward to be good progress with this cat, right? Going. If the cat gets an inch closer to us today, this is a huge win. And let me tell you why. And to the staff going, when the cat doesn't come an inch closer to you today, it's okay. And let me tell you why. Because everybody brings these absolutely best possible expectations and outcomes into every scenario. And that's where they get tripped up, the clients get tripped up, because we didn't meet their 110% expectations, the staff get tripped up, because we didn't meet their idealistic version of what we're about to do. And, and it's our job to manage that for everybody to steer them through what's about to happen, because it's different every time. And we can, we can set them up for success by just being honest with what's about to take place.
Heather S. 35:51
Totally, they actually have a really cool picture of the fast system, which is fear, aggression, stress for cats and dogs, because it looks different in both. And I think I'm even going to add that to my Getting Started page for these clients. Because these clients are almost, like flabbergasted that their animals are like, stressed and scared. And they're just like, oh my god, they never do this around me. It's like, well, but you're there and your mom and dad, you know, like, we don't take any offense to that. But they're not going to just love us right away. And this is some of the stuff that we're seeing. So and it looks different in cats and dogs. You know, cats are really good. hiders the amount of cats this year that have been hiding behind walls. is confusing me. Yeah. I'm not kidding you. I mean, weirdly enough, the owners are like, oh, yeah, you know, sometimes they go behind the wall. And I'm like, what? And they'll leave like cracks open and stuff and whatnot. I had these two cats. This one cat was dying. They were like, he's we don't know what's wrong with him. He's barely moving. He just sits in one spot. He's you know, we hope he doesn't die under your care. I'm like, Oh, great. I hope not either. In the basement, all the way up to the second floor behind the wall. And stayed there. I mean, they came down and ate their food. But anytime I came over, they were behind that wall. Why literally the only time I could see them was when I took a picture on with flash and I could see their eyes in the picture. Because otherwise they were so deep in there, that it was hard to even see them. Yeah, I was like, oh, and I didn't think to of course look behind the walls. Because why in the world would I look behind the walls? Yeah. Yeah, it was really odd. And then this other cat kinda lives down the road. For me, I followed the one. Because the one cat was like going upstairs to the third floor. I'm like, Okay, where are you going? And literally, I like watched him just like go behind the wall was like, Oh, awesome. Old like, you know, 13 year old black hat was also hiding behind a wall. She decided to come out one day. I don't know why. It was the only time I saw. And then I was like, oh, Reagan, thank God you're live. And then she turned around, just went right back in. Oh, wonderful. So dogs are not necessarily going to do that. No, no cats will, for whatever reason.
Collin 38:13
But when we see that, you know what part of AI in our, in our reports that we send to client we have this thing that's just like observed to general behavior. And we can say that the pet was like, excited and playful or like nervous and anxious or like, like, I when we use those words, like, we have to describe what it actually means and why it's not unexpected. Because otherwise, because if we just throw out these words of well, your pet was a little anxious today, they threw some food down and we left like the clients gonna be like, what do we what do you mean? What Why do they interest? I
Heather S. 38:43
know, what do ya tents are on vacation? Yeah, like they can't do anything. And they really want to make sure their pets are going to feel comfortable. Taking that
Collin 38:52
time to go was a little anxious today. But I understand it's difficult meeting new people and there were fireworks going off down the road. Here's blah, blah, blah, people go, Oh, that makes sense. Okay, okay, Google, that there's a reason for this. It's when we say things and there's no explanation given that people get really concerned. And it gets taken out of context, especially with the FAS levels of going here. Here's this. And here's why. And when that happens, and every step along that way, is as an educational moment for our clients and our staff as they are seeing what they're seeing because they it's amazing the number of staff who have never seen a stressed anxious eye now
Heather S. 39:27
like Yeah, yeah, really is
Collin 39:29
and it's like, you're gonna see a lot of that and here's why so
Heather S. 39:33
locked down. Yeah, yeah.
Collin 39:37
This week's episode is also brought to you by our amazing Patreon supporters. Our mission with the podcast is to provide a supportive and enriching community for pet care providers by sharing others knowledge, experiences and resources, ensuring that the highest standards of care for both pets and owners is met by everybody in the industry. You can be a part of that by becoming a monthly A Patreon supporter. With this, you'll get behind the scenes access, you'll get some extended interviews, you'll also get some video interviews that we put out as well. And for the Great Dane tear, you'll be able to be part of our monthly patreon meetup where we all get together to discuss what's going on, share ideas, and build a community. Go to pet sitter confessional.com/support. To see not only all the ways you can support the show, but also click on the link to become a patreon supporter. Today. You've been handling been dealing with your staff, you've been changing all that stuff for these things that you've been working towards, how are you at this moment, continuing to grow and expand your business and marketing? As you've already mentioned, that it's a crowded market and everything and kind of what the level of other businesses popping up? How do you continue to set yourself apart?
Heather S. 40:48
That's a good one. Because this town is very interesting where I live. Like I said, a lot of people really want to support small business. I went to the high school here, my aunt Mary to teach her that a lot of people no deal my clients or ex teachers. Few my clients are also parents of kids that I went to school with. So the trust already is there, especially with the parents of the kids I went to school with because they're like, oh, wow, well, if my kid knew you from like, high school, and you were a good kid, this is gonna be easy. And then they meet me and they're like, oh, wow, yeah, you're a good person. It's super easy. At least for me, I found being in my hometown and starting this business. Being in business for 10 years is definitely a big ordeal. A lot of people can really appreciate that. Or they're like, oh, wow, that's a really long time. I'm like, I know. I know. I had somebody who I second of it. Exactly, right, somebody who hired me that was like, really outside of my service window. But he wanted a business. And he even Okay, so I'm feeding three fish tanks. I'm literally at this dude's house for five minutes at most, because fish don't need your attention, which is great. I don't really have to bring in mail, there's nothing more I don't have to water plants. There's nothing more I got to do there. He's paying 30 a visit, because it's a little outside of my service area. And I'm the one that's coming up and doing the visits. He specifically wanted a business because he knew that we have some skin in the game, and we're gonna come by and do it every day. Yeah, he was like, I used to hire my neighbors, but they're not really reliable. Like, yeah, your neighbors really aren't, they are for a bit, and then they kind of stopped being reliable. I've taken over a lot of neighbors before. So that has been interesting. I feel like if people are really willing and wanting to work with a business, they're going to kind of pay whatever, because they would rather work with the business, then try to get their friends family or neighbor to help out. Otherwise, I just been kind of on top of it. When it comes to Facebook groups, making sure people are aware that I'm still around and in business Sure, depends on my schedule, what I'm doing, whether or not I'm really busy, or I'm really slow. That kind of depends on whether or not I'm posting my website or reaching out to people and saying, hey, you know, do you have any jobs coming up, I kind of go because I've been so busy. As a business owner, I kind of take a break of doing that. And then all of a sudden, I'll ramp things up again. And then I get a bunch of clients, I don't really need, you know, anymore. And then all of a sudden, I'm like, Oh, crap, I need more people. So I've done a mix of just a little bit of everything, because I don't have a Facebook group Instagram. Sometimes I post on but I don't get a lot of, you know, hits on social media stuff. So I like the more in person, networking stuff, sponsoring any community events, a lot of that is going to start coming up once the summertime dies down. Thank God, I did one in May. And that went really, really well. But like now this time, oh my god, I would never want to do an outdoor event that that would be terrible. So really connecting with your community on a different level really helps. And this event that I was at this year, it's an event that's been going on since I was a kid so at least 30 years, I was the only dog walking and pet sitting business there. Only one. And I a lot of people were really curious because they looked over saw my science at Heather's pet care. And we're like, oh, what's that? And I'm like, Oh, do you have an animal? And they're like, Yeah, I'm like, great. Come on over, I need to talk to you everybody dies. So it was really easy to get people in front of us. Because a ton of people on animals and animals were allowed at this event to so anybody with a dog that was walking by we, you know tried to grab them as much as we could. And of course, people said that they've used dog walkers and pet sitters or have somebody which is totally fine, but they're going to remember that they've met you there and if they need to switch or if they need different help or service that you offer that they Don't, they're gonna remember that you were around. And you know that I gave out little goodie bags that had a business card in it that had a cat, a pet can cover in it. So there were things that people could keep that they're going to see, I created pens, that was a really great idea. I give them out to new clients now to like, after filling out the paperwork, I use one of the pens, and then I keep it there, I'm like, this is yours, you can keep this. So because there's certain touch points that you need to have with getting clients in front of you. And sometimes it takes more than one. Unfortunately, think about it. When we get bombarded with like emails from companies, whether it's, you know, hot topic or a like Target, you get bombarded almost every single day from those companies. We know they're around. And when we're ready to shop, there we will, but oh, hey, they may be having a special deal today. And if we didn't get that email, we wouldn't have known. So you almost have to in multiple different ways, whether it's social media, emailing, texting through your program, however you're doing it. It's almost creating that awareness that you're still around and still here and saying like, hey, you know, we're still here, when you need us. Give us a call. Maybe today, they'll give us a call. And then they'll be like, oh, yeah, okay, right, I have a vacation coming up, I need to call them for or I'm starting a new job soon. Let's get them on the walking schedule, you know, stuff like that. So yeah, that's kind of how I've been dealing with it all.
Collin 46:35
Well, and I liked how you were leaning into the longevity in the industry, because I think that often goes overlooked as a big value add to clients of when clients clients make purchasing decisions based off of the perceived value that they're going to get back in return for the money they've exchanged. And different that it doesn't matter the price, if the value is there, they're going to spend it. And sometimes people find value at $10, they don't find the same value at $20. Because of what they're seeing and experiencing. So leaning into every aspect of what we do the longevity, sure of the training, giving back to the community just being present. Because the other aspect of this is people purchase based off of value. It's also they don't need you until they need you. And sometimes they don't know when they need you. And so we have to be kind of omnipresent through through correct channels so that we're not it's because it's not as simple as well, I sent seven emails. So that's those are my seven touch points. Right? No, that's not how this works.
Heather S. 47:33
Especially in today's day, you have to do it in multiple different ways. It can't just be one. Yeah. And that's hard. Because we're out there doing the visits, doing what we need to do. You know, we come home, we're exhausted, you know, walking dogs in this 100 degree weather is absolutely not fun. And it's tiring, by the end. Yeah. Great example here. Okay. So great example. We have somebody that reached out to me a month or two ago, as a 16 1516 year old medium sized dog. So she's a decent sized dog. And needs help. Because they're going away at the end of August. I'm like, okay, great. Well, how does she do with new people? They're like, well, you know, we usually just have family come by, so she's generally fine. I'm like, great. You guys have known her her entire life, though we haven't. So we need to get some sort of relationship and, like, build something with her because otherwise she's just not going to go with us. And she's going to be super confused. Yeah. So my dog walker is actually there. Now. This is the first visit that we're doing with her with nobody being able to house moms on vacation dads at work. And she texted me and she was like, so she doesn't even want to go outside with me. I'm like, oh, and I honestly am not surprised by that at all. This is a senior dog. First of all, why is she going to want to go out in the hot weather? She definitely doesn't want to and too, she has no idea who we are. Why? So she said she leased her up and everything but the dog won't go. And then she said she got her out in the yard with a train. Yeah, so good. Okay, that may be the way that we deal with it until she goes away. And that's why we are doing these walks. So she understands that we're going to be coming in for her when they go away for like eight days.
Collin 49:11
Yep. Yep, we did that a lot of hey, this is our process is what we recommend. Because the last thing we want you to be is halfway across the globe or across the country. And the end things not be going going well. So we need to go through this so that we have enough time. So yeah, you're brand new client. Great. I understand you want to leave in two weeks. If we don't have the time to build this relationship. It's a no go. And that's just for everybody's sake. But that that comes with us going knowing where those boundaries are for us. Yeah, you know, probably five, six years ago, we would have been like, oh, yeah, whatever. We'll take it. We'll just deal with it. We'll
Heather S. 49:45
just work with them.
Collin 49:46
We'll work it out. Exactly.
Heather S. 49:47
And now that's why we do the meet and greets. Yes. You know, because sometimes they don't go well in person we had and you know, meet and greets are really eye opening for a lot of different reasons because the owners also can see how we're Are there animals are around new people, because I've had plenty chalk up their dog talk up their cat more. So dogs like, oh my god, they love people. You know, there'll be there'll be totally fine having you come in no big deal. And then we get there for the meet and greet. And they're like big weirdos. Like, okay, this isn't and we had one not too long ago, like, literally three weeks ago, where the owner was talking her dog up, she was like, Oh, she'll be totally fine. She's great. She loves people, we get to the meet and greet. And she was like, hiding behind the daughter she really didn't want she was looking at us really funny. She was more curious than she was aggressive or wanting to do anything and was fine by the time it was over. But you know, the owner and I were like, well, and the owner was even like, what do we do? And of course, her trip is in like, a couple of weeks. So I was like, Well, this is why we need as soon as we do. And we met like a month prior. I said, this is what we're going to do. I said, we're going to try to come in on our own with nobody being here. So well, I'll give you a time because she worked from home too. So I said, I'll give you a time leave an hour before so that way, she doesn't think you're just coming home right away. And we'll come in. Let's see how she does. Let's at least get through one. If we can get through one. We'll just keep at it. I even tried a second time to sometimes with these dogs. But I said let's get this in like immediately to see how she does. Because if you guys need to figure something else out, you need to figure that out like ASAP. Yeah, she was like, okay, thank God, this dog was totally fine with nobody homes. Great. So sometimes the owners are the problem too. What that helped out with us because I was like, Oh, thank God, we're good. Yeah, we can take this now let's put this on the calendar, let's get you know, the job on the books kind of thing. She just needed you guys to not be there. Because sometimes they get funny around their owners being there. But if she was cowering, you know, crying some of these dogs do that tail between their legs. The body language was really bad. I would have said, Listen, I don't think this is going to work. But her body language was I've even had dogs bark at us with their tails wagging. I'm like, Okay, you clearly want to come over and say hi, but you're just so scared, you don't know what to do. So you think barking is gonna like stop us from coming over or coming up through but you know, sometimes we still do. So meet and greets are definitely extremely essential. But they it depends on how it goes whether or not I'm telling somebody, I don't want to work with them. I have told people I don't want to work with them. That's the beauty of our business. We don't have to work with everybody. But a lot of us are very passionate about this and want to work with everybody. And I get that we become a really big peace of mind for people going away on vacation. You know with if you have animals yourself, and you're trying to go away finding a pet sitter for even us as business owners is not easy. And having it you know, either we get our staff to come in or we have to hire a whole other business and it can become a lot even for us to I do actually have animals now I have guinea pigs. Oh, yes. I didn't want cats or dogs because I was like this is gonna be too much work, then I have to find somebody to come by and that's too much. Yeah, the guinea pigs that's just dropping food and leaving they don't care. They're not like super friendly boys they would rather and they'll come around for food of course but otherwise they don't come around for like pets or anything like that. They respect their space. I don't cage them. They're not like free roaming my apartment. But they stay in their you know, little space. I'll even move the beds or I'll pick them up and bring them out and they just go right back in. So perfect animal I feel in this space is definitely a smaller, you know, a gerbil or hamster guinea pig. Once you start getting into the aquatics, forget it. They are so expensive. They are so finicky. Like I even saved the turtle that was like this big on the sidewalk. And I wanted to keep him so bad. But I was like turtles are so difficult and they smell like you have to clean their tank regularly. And I'm like, Oh my God, I don't want to deal with the nether mammal on top of these guinea pigs I got upstairs. So that becomes an interest interesting struggle for us to you know, being in this business. And I had a networking friend who had four dogs, and she struggled really, really hard finding somebody for her dogs, because she had four and it was a lot and even you know, I was even honest with her. I'm like, yeah, like half of them are annoying. So I don't blame people not wanting to work with your dogs, you know, to them can kind of be buttholes. So I get it.
Collin 54:26
Having those guidelines is really important. You mentioned of like, what is my cut off? What are my not just red flags, but what am i No goes that I'm going to go into this and communicate again, communicating that to the client of hey, when I come over to do the meet and greet, I'm also going to be looking at how your dog is doing and if I see X, Y and Z, I have to be out for my safety and for your dog's well being. That way they know that when we do decline Well look, it's just it's our policies that we don't take on this kind of dog because we it's not right fit for
Heather S. 54:55
us and how we operate completely, completely. I mean even human's body language to win how they're respecting and treating us during the visits makes a huge difference. You know, some people are all about it. They're like, Oh my god, this is the best service ever. I can't believe you guys offer this. This is great. And other people are just there to hire, you come in and out. And like, that's the end of it.
Collin 55:18
You open the door, and they're already like, Is this done yet? Can we be done? Yeah,
Heather S. 55:21
like, I mean, greets that were like five minutes, 10 minutes long, even with filling out paperwork and everything. They're just in and out. I'm like, oh, okay, that's easy. And then I've had people keep us, you know, now that I actually I charge for meet and greets. Now, that's made of a world of a difference having employees, you got to pay them for that, too. So I was like, Well, I'm not eating that cost out of my own pocket. Nobody has gawked or complained, I had one woman, because we weren't not a good fit. complain about it. And I think it was because she was basically paying for nothing. And I get that, that definitely does suck. But we've done that before, you know, mechanics charge that now a lot of mechanics don't credit that towards your bill, they have to keep that money. So that's basically, you know, paying somebody you're paying an expert, to hear their knowledge and to get their expertise is kind of how I look at it. And when we say no, it really sucks for them to still have to pay. And really that that woman just forgot that she clicked that checkmark on the contact me page, because I have that as a required checkmark now, because people it is on my page, this close in a different area of a couple different areas on my website. But people don't really scour websites anymore, they just immediately go to the contact me page, and we'll just start rambling on. Like, they'll even like people will be like, Oh, what's your rates for dog walks? And I'm like, Well, you need to go back to my website and figure that out yourself. Like why people aren't scouring people's websites anymore? I don't really get it. I don't get that.
Collin 56:49
I think it gets back to what we had mentioned earlier about just people's quick movement, or it's their mobile, more mobile with their business as they go from place to place to find their contacts. They're just looking for one the one person that's going to solve their problem. I've even had people who have called me. And I have answered all their questions. And then they've paused and gone. Who are you with? They didn't even know which business they had called. Oh, God even? Yeah, they just they just they were just tapping numbers to it. Because what they want, they want that solution. And we can get price. Yep. And we can get caught up in that because we're like, Oh, someone wants to bid and someone wants to use us. And let's go Go, go, go go. We have control over that. And so it's like, no, no, no, hold on. Before you move any more any further. I have questions for you. Right? I'd love that. Like, okay, great. Thank you for that. What's your name? Let's start with
Heather S. 57:43
let's start there. Yeah, the amount of voicemails I've gotten to where I'm like, I don't even know who this is. Like, really,
Collin 57:51
I really want to thank you for coming on today and talking to us about how you're thriving at 10 years and how you're still doing to, to adapt to the changing market with client expectations and rolling and employing your, your employees in a new and different way to hit those goals that you have. I know that there's just again, a whole lot more here that we didn't get get to. But if so people want to reach out, follow along with you and everything. How best can I do that? Yeah,
Heather S. 58:21
definitely. So if anybody has any questions, or any comments or anything you want to send my way. I'm pretty knowledgeable when it comes to staff classification. Now, thank God, you can shoot me an email at info at Heather pet care.com. I'm also on Instagram at Heather pet hair.com. Right at Heather Petcare. I don't have a Facebook page, so you won't really be finding me on there. And my website as well is Heather pet hair.com. No s unfortunately, the girl in California stole it from me. So Darren just completely rebrand all that stuff. I was annoyed. But we have opposite coasts. Now there's somebody in New Jersey and somebody in California, and I bet she's gotten a few of my clients because I've gotten a handful of her responding enough. So you can reach out via email on Instagram or on my website.
Collin 59:09
Okay, perfect. Well, I will have the the no s website on there. People click correct to that.
Heather S. 59:18
That team in California, so it's obviously not me. But yeah, we've got I know she's gotten some of mine because I've gotten some of hers before. So
Collin 59:26
that's, yeah, we'll have those. I'll have those links in the show notes. Heather. Again, I really appreciate getting the chance to get caught up with you and hear all the cool stuff that you're doing on it's so cool. So thank you for coming on the show today, Heather. Thanks, Colin. Appreciate it. Before we can begin managing unrealistic client expectations, we first have to know what is realistic for ourselves. What do you actually want to do? What are your hours of operation? What services are you willing and not willing to offer your clients and what are prices that would make it worth your time? All of those things are important to setting out and understand You're the kind of business that you want to run so that when clients ask things of you, you know whether they are in scope or out of scope for what you prefer. It's all about setting those boundaries so that you can continue to run a business year after year, and live a life that you want to live. We want to thank today's sponsors time to pat and our Patreon supporters for making today's show possible. And we really want to thank you so much for listening. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.
