567: Fostering Premium Experiences with Candace D’Agnolo
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How do you create raving fans and deliver premium client experiences? In this episode of Pet Sitter Confessional, Candace D’Agnolo of Pet Boss Nation dives into the art of fostering genuine connections that go beyond surface-level interactions. She explores how personalized touches—like understanding client preferences and small acts of care—create lasting loyalty. Candace also discusses the benefits of using AI to enhance efficiency, the value of local collaborations, and actionable ways to surprise and delight clients without breaking the bank. If you're looking to elevate your business and stand out in a competitive market, this episode is packed with insights and inspiration!
Main topics:
Creating premium client experiences.
Leveraging local networking for business growth.
The role of AI in personalization.
Building trust through authentic connections.
Time-saving techniques for small businesses.
Main takeaway: "The human side of business is irreplaceable. Real connection builds loyalty and defines a premium experience.”
“What makes a premium experience? It’s not just fancy tools or gifts—it’s genuine human connection. From quieting a home during nap time to ensuring a late-night light is on, small touches of care make all the difference. Candace D’Agnolo. shares why understanding client needs and creating authentic relationships are the keys to success. 🌟 How do you personalize your business relationships? Tell us in the comments!”
About our guest:
Candace D’Agnolo is a seasoned entrepreneur and business coach with over 20 years of experience in the pet industry. As the founder of Pet Boss Nation, she has dedicated herself to empowering pet business owners through innovative strategies in sales, marketing, and leadership. Candace’s career began with her own successful ventures, including a thriving brick-and-mortar pet boutique, a doggie daycare, and a dog walking service in Chicago.
Her passion for helping others led her to create Pet Boss Nation, a professional development community that has supported hundreds of pet businesses across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Through her group coaching programs, podcast, and speaking engagements, Candace provides actionable advice and fosters a supportive network for entrepreneurs. Known for her authenticity and deep understanding of the challenges small business owners face, Candace inspires others to transform their passion into profitable and fulfilling careers.
Links:
Previously on: https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/401
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Pet Boss Podcast: https://petboss.com/podcast/
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Pet Boss Nation, client relationships, premium experience, AI in business, professional development, small business coaching, pet industry, client feedback, local networking, business collaboration, personalized service, time management, sales and marketing, leadership, customer satisfaction.
SPEAKERS
Collin, Candace D.
Collin 00:00
Music. Welcome to pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Today, we're brought to you by our friends at tying to pet and pet perennials. How do you go about creating raving fans, and how can we as a business deliver premium client experiences that blow them away. Today, we're really excited to have Candace diagnolo, owner of pet boss nation, to dive into the art of fostering genuine connections with our clients. She shares how it's not all just about big and amazing things, it's about the personalized, small touches, our attention to detail that really blows away our clients. Candace also shares how to use AI in our business in constructive ways to again, further and deepen those relationships and focus on the people and make all of this possible. Let's get started.
Candace D. 00:52
Well, thanks so much Collin for having me back. You know, I love getting a chance to talk about pet businesses and small businesses. It's a passion of mine, as I know is yours, and so thank you so much for having me here. You know, for if you don't know who I am, I'm a former brick and mortar business owner in the Chicago market, and I had a dog walking business also for a little bit, including my doggie daycare. And I realized at some point in my career that I loved coaching small business or not even coaching, because I wasn't coaching at the time, I realized I loved talking about small business more than talking about why your dog has gas or, like, why your dog might be jumping on you. And so I when I knew that I was going to still have a long career in the pet industry, I just wanted to kind of shape what that looked like. And I decided to get into the, you know, coaching world, because I knew that there were so many pet business owners who are passionate about what they do, but they maybe didn't have the business experience or weren't you needed some help. And so I had invested heavily in professional development and learning all the science side of the things, because the art side came really easy to me. And so I needed to learn more about, you know, pricing and finance and cash flow and all that stuff, and even managing people, right? Like, that's just that you those are learned skills. Like, people are not naturally great employers. You have to learn how to be one. So anyway, I took all that knowledge and we launched pet boss nation eight years ago. It's been eight years. I can't believe it. So eight years ago this month, and now, you know, we, I like to say we're like, you know, a professor, it is a professional development company, and we have, we help over 350 small businesses across the United States and Canada, a couple in Europe with through our group coaching programs. And it's really focused on sales and marketing and leadership, and, you know, I just try to bring everybody together to support them so that they don't feel so isolated and alone, and understand that, sure, we all face the same challenges, but, or sorry, we I all have challenges. A lot of them are the same, actually, but you they don't have to stay a challenge. You know, there are things that you can do to change your story, change your situation and and improve. So, yeah,
Collin 03:05
always something to do. And I think that's one of the it's both, like, really comforting and also pretty daunting to realize, like, oh man, there's always something else. Like you could take it from the perspective of this, oh, I'm inundated, kind of avalanche of stuff. But I think what you work on a lot of is getting that mindset into you can always try one more thing. Oh, you
Candace D. 03:24
always, you can always. I cannot take credit for this because I just heard it last night. I love it. That's where my dear friend says it, and it was, version one is better than version none, yeah, but it doesn't have to be perfect. And you can continue to reiterate it and try and test things out. But yeah, to your point, like, it can always feel like there's so many things to do. I think one of our big skill sets here is helping people, like, just pull back all of the things that are an option and really do the things that are going to make, like, the biggest improvement or traction for you, for whatever challenge it is that you're facing. Like, prioritization is key,
Collin 04:00
yeah, well, and sometimes that comes in direct competition or opposition, I guess, to some of our own personal preferences, where I may really like a thing in the business, or I may be really passionate about something, but it might not be attracting the clients that I that I want or that I need. How, how do we start working through that kind of friction that we encounter?
Candace D. 04:26
Well, I think you know, for it's about getting back into alignment with like, what is your what's your goal? Like, why are you doing this? What's the plan here? You know, why have you started a business for yourself? Is it to? Usually, it's to either be your own boss and or to, you know, to make, hopefully make a better income. Although a lot of times, I know we start by doing this and then realize we're making way less doing this than we did at our other jobs. But that doesn't always stay that way, right? We can make good money as a small business owner, but I think it's just, you know, helping you. Have to really be aware of if this is like a shiny object, right? Is this the squirrel that's going to take a lot of time away from me, right, the time away from me, or resources away from my team, or is it going to take more money than I think it's actually going to take, and if I were to just pick up the phone or send a couple emails to clients that I haven't booked in, like, three months. If that would actually result in some more immediate impact in cash, like, would that be a better use of my time? It's really easy to start to think, you know, because we see, we see things that other pet businesses do, and we compare ourselves to them constantly. I mean, I do it cons and I, you know, I do it. I mean, like you guys, and I'm like, they produce two podcasts a week. What like for the pet boss podcast? It's like, no, that's not a priority for mine. That's what they they must really enjoy this more than I do. I don't know. But the point is, we compare ourselves a lot to people, and then, you know, as you I'm sure you've heard this, right, Comparison is the thief of joy. So we, I think it's just as being, I think, very self aware of where we get pulled distracted, where we maybe have made decisions in the past that have derailed us. And so I think it's just really remembering, just to get back to your original question here is remembering what what it is, what is your goal, what's your priority, what are you really trying to do here? And what's the fastest, most like, most like, friction free way to get there. Because I'm a creator, I can complicate a system and a pro, I can complicate it all. But if I just, like, slow myself down and kind of go, what do I really need to have happen here? It might be more boring, but at least it gets done. You know,
Collin 06:45
yeah, I will gladly spend hours in Canva designing flyers or in, you know, postcards, or, you know, whatever, as opposed to, like you said, calling my existing clients and saying, Hey, have it booked, or crafting a message to them and saying, Hey, I haven't noticed you. You know, kind of dropped off on the daily dog walks. Just wanted to see if there's anything that we can help you with, or if you're coming, if there's anything that you have questions about, like really asking, what's going to develop this more? And if we truly do believe that this is a relationship business, right, we probably should be investing more in those relationships, as opposed to the color palette on a postcard that I might never have been sending, right? Because it's just gonna sit there.
Candace D. 07:27
I know exactly. I mean, you hit it on the nail there with the relationships. And I definitely want to get with that, get to that too, because, but before that, you just brought up an exact situation that in my personal life, I had come up, I'm hosting a bridal shower for my cousin, and I know we need to, you know, at bridal showers, you play games, right? And I'm like, Okay, I'll need printouts or something to hand out to the ladies. And I'm looking on Pinterest and all the places, and I find some games through like Etsy, and it's $4 to buy the digital designed file. I still have to print it. This thing shows me everything. It says, I could design this in Canva. I have a graphic design background. I mean, like, I could do it, but I know the minute I get into that Canva account and start playing, it'll be hours, because it'll be fun, you know? And so instead, I spent $34 on it, however many I needed signs and some games. And I just bought it for to get the digital cops, and I'm gonna have to print it at the time. I kind of felt like I was like, what's the word, like, almost like, gipping myself of something I enjoy or a skill set I have, right? I was like, why would I do this to myself when I can? Why am I paying for this, right? But now, knowing how little time I have and other priorities I have, I'm like, I'm so glad I can just print that stuff out and it's done. You know, it was definitely a couple seconds. So, yeah, we can definitely, you know, find ways that we can save time. Anyway, I derailed us. No, no, no, you're perfect on your at the end of the day. I have been on Zoom since 830 this morning in meetings and teaching. So I'm a little slap happy. Okay, your listeners, your listeners should know that
Collin 08:57
I say this is, this is Primo. Candace is what this is. This is
Candace D. 09:02
getting her What is not unhinged. But no, I'm kind No, I don't know what
Collin 09:06
it is. No, well, I know one thing that many businesses have started to do is use a word to describe their business, and it's it's premium. And I see this all of the time, and I was curious, kind of, in your mind, what makes a premium business, and what are some things that when we talk about those relationships, what makes a premium experience for a client without us having to spend a bunch of money to make that
09:37
happen?
Candace D. 09:38
So I like to also just like in my personal life, and like when I feel like I have been treated well, or I've had that premium experience, no matter where it was, and the most recent few I can think of, it is always in how I'm either spoken to by the employee of that company, meaning it's much more. Um, it is much more relationship driven. Their guard is down. They're there to serve. They're there to help. They're there to make this the best experience possible for me, right? If I'm thinking about like a hotel we went to recently, we did splurge on this hotel, and it was amazing. But a lot of times you can think, Oh, I'm going to spend all this money in this hotel and not actually notice why you're paying for that premium. But every single employee I interacted with, whether it was from the front desk person, which makes sense, you know, to the but to even the housekeeping who brought the they brought ice. You couldn't even get your own ice on this, on this at home hotel, you had to call and have ice brought to you. It was, that's how nice this place was. So I'm like, okay, but even then, I needed a late checkout talk to the woman on the phone. She's making jokes with me. She's having the best time. It's not like she's not rushing me. She's not in a hurry, right? None of them were in a hurry. Then they took their time. They let me it was like new little nuances of just being a good human being and connected, feeling very connected to them. That was, to me, very premium. Certainly. You know, there were things in that business that, like the lighting and the chocolates and all the different things that was like, really high end, but that costs money, the but the most impactful thing that I word of mouth, right, say, and this was the Park Hyatt in Chicago, so that we'll give them a name drop, so the word of mouth marketing Park Hyatt in Chicago, but like they it was the people. It was the people. Okay, so we bring that back to premium services of like, recently, I hired, you know, we have a master. I have a mastermind at Pet boss nation, and I had them in my hometown of Galesburg, Illinois, and I wanted to transform my they came to my home for both nights. The first night was like a GET TO KNOW you party, because they were meeting all in person for the first time. And the second night, because it was close to Halloween, I wanted to throw a surprise Halloween party. Okay, so we I had to buy all the costume like we got little fun costumes they could put on, but I wanted the whole house transformed into a Halloween Halloween decor, and I was going to be with them all day at the event, so or teaching them all day at the in the conference room. So I had to hire people to come help. Now, I'll tell you, I didn't, you know, like, I was kind of nervous about this to begin with, because we didn't, they handled everything. But I was kind of like, I don't know, we do. You want to come over? And they did. They came over and they saw stuff, but they saw stuff, but they were like, we got it we got it covered. We're done. We got no problem, right? They show up at my house. I'm not even there. When they show up, I have a team member go back to the house to make sure it's done and it's okay. And she's like, you're going to be blown away when you show up. I got back after that conference, and I walk up like I was on a home makeover show. You should have a camera on me. I was like, that's unbelievable, right? I was like, blown away, because when I had hired the right people who are into like, they didn't have to have big budgets, they did a lot of cool stuff with lighting and certain things, right? It was great, but it was that impact, and they made it feel very special and and so to me, that had high value, right? It was this high value. They handled everything. It was very low stress to me. They had bought everything that they needed. They weren't asking me where my tape was. They weren't asking me where the hamburger was. They weren't asking me where my ladders were. They had everything covered, right? I the client didn't have to think about anything that's premium, right? Again, it's their high touch, right? It was like and then the clients show up. They're blown away, because I don't know how this all happened, and I'm sitting there going, I don't know what my bill is going to look
Speaker 1 13:25
like. And it was a little high. It was a little high, but
Candace D. 13:29
I felt like it was worth paying for because of the experience that they had created for me. And then they stayed around, they checked up, they came back and helped take decorations down. So I'm giving those two examples. I mean, they're not pet specific, but they are. We can do those things in pet care businesses, right the human side of it, the Collin, I know that we are. It's easy to automate, and we love automation, and it's easy to leverage tech, and we absolutely want to leverage tech, but we cannot get away from the human side of things. We just can't.
Collin 13:57
No, I love that. You the first thing that popped out was when you said, when you were on the phone with somebody and they weren't in a hurry, right? That feels so luxurious, because it's like, oh, they're, they're talking to, I'm, it's me that they're talking to, like they're not going, yeah, cool anyway, yeah, just a minute. No, yeah, Mr. Funkhouser, tell me about what your what your problem is. Um, let me, let me maybe figure this out for you. Hold on, yeah. Oh, I see that like that really lets it know, most importantly, that it's important to you that it gets solved. And so when you get that phone call, you do have to put everything else aside as best you can, right? It's hard and go. I am talking to Candace right now, and she's got a problem, and I need to figure out and put this to bed, you know, in some, in some way, to make this right, or to understand at least why I'm getting this phone call, and not just rush her off the phone until later and then when, because that doesn't cost money to do. And I, you know, that point of, like, yeah, we're not, I'm not increasing this. And as we think about this, and what does it mean to make a premium dog walk? Like, I buy a fancy leash, I guess, like, I don't know. Like, I. Yeah,
Candace D. 15:00
well, you know, I've been thinking about that because I know you wanted to talk about this of like, how you, you know, can surprise and delight or build raving fans. And it's really like, I think it's, it's a few different things, but, but one of them, and especially in pet care too, is like, yeah, how do you make that premium? How do you bring that in? You might think, okay, am I going to give a treat every time I'm there or but that's not, it's not, I feel like it's not about even creating that premium walk, like it's not about selling non premium walks and then selling premium walks. It's not that. I would rather you say, my whole brand, my whole company, the entire experience, no matter how much you spend with me, is a premium experience, you know, and then you're gonna just that way. You're, you're keeping that client with you, versus them wanting to find or move over to a competitor or even to stop using the services, right? I mean, in the pet care industry, if someone works from home and needs to cut something from their budget, they're going to go, Well, I guess I could go walk the dog. It probably be good for me to get out in the middle of the day, but we have to convince them, or they got to love us so much and see us as high value to them, the right? The perceived high value of the experience that, you know, maybe it's that we get to I mean, I think about this, even with my, you know, we're very fortunate. I do have a nanny that is at our home that helps take care of my toddler. We're very, very lucky in that way. But I know that she knows like if that, if I'm on meetings all day and I have to go upstairs to have lunch, if I can't be efficient in that time, I'm just, like, the time I wanted to see my son, of course, but there are days where I just don't have the time, and she can, like, pick up on that, and she can, like, move Carmen because he wants to be with me, but she can pick up on it that, like, mom's focused, mom's in the zone. Mom should have had lunch, probably downstairs in her office, I don't know, but like, she knows that, like, she needs to move him away, because I just can't I cannot but get pulled in because I just don't have the time, right? It's like, I'm at work, but I'm at home. So we have to find ways to say, well, there's value there, and what we do and offer to people as pet care providers, if it is, like coming in and and maybe keeping the dog out for a little bit longer so they get more time, or being extra quiet when you're coming in, or figuring out what it is that they don't even notice that you're there, but the dog's taken care of, and can rest now for the afternoon and sleep in the corner and not jump up during zoom meetings or whatever. We know we don't know, but there's lots of ways that you can elevate your customers experience that are just little nuances of life, and not so much about buying something tangible. Yeah, I
Collin 17:18
love that you said the example of like coming in and they don't even notice, like we had a Collin had a client who she had to stay home because her kids were sick, and she was taking care of her kids and and you know, when you're home and your kids are sick, like you don't really and they're and they finally get down for their nap, you will do a lot to keep them asleep, right? And the last thing you want is the dog walker come in and be like, Good morning. Hi everybody. Just clomping around. So just a simple thing is like always entering just with a little bit of and see what's going on, and then as soon as you recognize let that have that space, take care of the dog, get out and be real quiet and let them have that like that. That was probably more valuable than the dog getting out and getting exercise
Candace D. 17:58
anyway, not disrupting the nap Exactly.
Collin 18:00
Yeah. And so it is finding those ways of just, how can I make this person's life better, yeah, and expanding it beyond just this impact on the dog. Because at the end of the day, I've said this a lot, but like, I've never been paid by a dog for a dog walk. They've never reached into their pocket and pulled out their wallet to pay me. It's always a person that has the problem, and their problem extends way more beyond than just the walking out to get some exercise, like you can impact their life. It could be little things like, if you're there later in the day and, you know, they're getting back later, flip on an outside light form, if that's, you know, if they're, if they're comfortable with that, so that they have, oh, I'm not walking into a dark house. That's really nice,
Candace D. 18:39
right? Love that you gave that example. That is my biggest pet peeve. When my husband turns all the lights off outside and it's night time, I'd like to have the lights on. It's more welcoming. So now he knows that if he knows I'm coming home from an air and he goes and turns the lights back on, even though I know they've been off the whole time, but he does it just for me, so I don't have to come home to a dark Yes,
Collin 18:55
it's, it's little things like we're talking about, surprise and delight. Yes, it's not. It's not going out and buying all the gifts or getting little cards or leaving treats or stuff like that. It's it's little life improvements all along the way that are really going to let the client know this, this person get understands me and and actually is way more valuable to me than I ever
19:15
expected. Yes, yes. 100%
Collin 19:19
have you heard of time to pet Doug from bad to the bone. Pet Care has this to say, time
Speaker 2 19:24
to pet has made managing my team and clients so much easier. Our clients love the easy to use app and scheduling features, and our sitters love being able to have all of their information organized and easily accessible. My favorite feature is the instant messaging. By keeping conversations on time to pet, we are able to monitor our team and ensure nothing ever falls through the cracks. If you're
Collin 19:44
looking for new pet sitting software, give time to pet a try. Listeners of our show will save 50% off your first three months by visiting time to pet.com/confessional I mean, a part of that is actually as you're looking to this because we do. Have to figure out for ourselves, of like, what does that mean for us? And I know a great way to do that is getting, like, you know, client feedback about how we're helping them and stuff. Do you have any tips for how to collect that kind of feedback from clients so that we can make improvements to our existing services?
Candace D. 20:13
Yeah, I think, I think surveying clients is a great, a great thing to do. You can do it really simply through just a Google form, right? Go into it, create a Google form and send that out, and just think about, to your point of, like, why people like to hire you, what's the most value I like to find out? Like, what's the most valuable reason or service that they use? Not, I guess, not the most valuable service, but what's the most valuable thing you offer to them? Or what do they like the most? And it might support, leave it open ended, right? Because they might say something like, you know that because you've never had these conversations. These conversations, you might even some, take some clients and actually do a phone interview, see if you can buy them a buy them just, you know, Starbucks or local company gift card to a coffee shop, and just say, can we just jump on the phone for 15 minutes? I just want to talk about your experience with our business and be open to hearing feedback that you have. And, you know, I think just, and even if you can make a part of either an annual routine or quarterly or twice a year just to check in, would be good. We are, we are launching a quiz for the first time. Okay, a quiz, but it's really more of a, I guess, an opt in right to co build a list, versus like being used as a customer review or like survey feedback, but I could see a quiz potentially being a fun way to survey clients, like, maybe even if it's like, what kind of a pet business are we take our quiz or something I don't know or play around with, or maybe it's like, what kind of a Pet parent are you? But through the types of questions, you're asking, you're finding out more about the client, right? Like, when a kind of a pet parent are you? You're finding out like, Okay, wow, they really they want that concierge, like, service, or they would. They care about the communication. Oh, these guys really need they care about either deals, or these people care about time, like, time is very like. There are some people that are like, if you said my dog walk was at this time and you're not there, I'm sure that irritates them, right? And we have to train our clients that like, we need Windows, right? We need flexibility, but there probably will still be people who that would prefer to know exactly what's happening. And so you, I think those personality types of a quiz, you could do something like that, and even learn, just to learn more about your customers, to try to identify even are more of my customers in one personality type or multiple personality and then, speaking of, you know, I think earlier you brought up finding your ideal client, like, if you enjoy working with those kinds of people, then let's go find more of those kinds of customers, you know or or work with them. But I think a quiz could be a lot of fun too, but Google Forms is a great way, or the phone calls, or even, you know what, just a good old paper survey. Honestly, you know, if you really need to, I'm going to go back old school. I bring this up because not even Q don't even do QR codes. I mean, you certainly could leave a flyer with a QR code that goes to whatever you want to whatever you want to do if you want to try to compile online. And maybe that makes sense for a lot of people, but I'm going to tell you right now. I just had a call earlier today with global, or, sorry, with super zoos Education Coordinator for Director for all our education at the Super zoo trade show, because we're going to be, I'm a speaker at that, and we're going to be involved in some things. And I was asking her just about, like, how many people go through the education area? And she's like, about 2000 people on average, like, buy tickets to go through the education. I was like, okay, and she and then she started talking about how they like to survey all of the attendees at this and she said we tried to go all digital last year, and it was the worst response rate we had ever gotten, compared to just handing people pieces of paper to evaluate the speaker in that session. Like, we're going back to paper this year. I was like, awesome. So I bring that because I think, like, you know, again, you're a pet sitter in their homes. You know, I think that you can hit it with lots of you. Obviously can email them as well as leave a paper. But we got to meet the customer wherever they are to get the information that we need. You know?
Collin 24:04
Yeah, well, because if we are looking to surprise and delight create premium experience, we have to know who we're serving, right? We have to know you think about like, is this a is this a quality time person, right? Are they worried about the time? Do they like little gifts? Do they just like the consistency? Because, yeah, the level, basically, you're trying to find the love languages of your clients. You can have them take that quiz, I guess, if you really wanted to, but at least you're going okay, because now I know what to do more of, because now I can feed into that, because that's what they like. I can give them more of that, as long as, again, it's not like, oh yeah, all, weirdly, all of my clients love it whenever I buy them $500 gifts, hmm, I don't think that's scalable, okay,
Candace D. 24:48
but, you know, you might have somebody who, wow, they're my first client does like it when I bring like, if they're home, right? Let's say coffee. You said the gift gifts, right? Like, so I get them a coffee, their favorite coffee when I'm I get my coffee in the morning. I show up to my first walk, I bring them a. Coffee like that to them. I mean, that could be insignificant in price, but maybe don't do it every time, but it's like once a week, or you do something surprise and delight, occasionally, randomly, whatever. But then somebody else might be like, Why are you doing that? I already have that's a waste of money. I make my own coffee, you know, like, but so you do? You really need to know your clients really well.
Collin 25:17
Do you do? You recommend, you know, giving things away for free to incentivize those kind of feedback surveys, or do you just kind of leave it up to the goodwill of the clients to fill them out? Yeah,
Candace D. 25:29
I think that, you know, it's fun in an enticing way. If you offer something for as part of a prize, not to every person, I think you can certainly do something where, like, everybody gets X, like, if you have something, let's say this would be a great way that you could even partner with a local, another local business, right? Like, if it was another local retailer or a grooming shop, or another type of a business that is looking to get in front of new customers or a potential audience, right? I think if you can get from them even a $5 coupon or $10 coupon or something, maybe it's positioned, it shouldn't be positioned as coupon. It should be positioned as a gift certificate or a gift card to that business, but that that gift card could go to every single person who fills out your survey, right? So I think that then they're motivated to do it, that other brand gets some exposure. It's a gift you've given to everybody to say, thank you for taking the time to do this, and potentially to bring some business to this other business, right? And hopefully you can get those gift cards for free, ideally, because you're putting that brand in front of your whole list, even if it's even if they don't take it right, they're getting that name dropped right, and even if your list is only 20 clients, I think it's still worth exploring, and I also think it's worth these businesses doing it. Now, if you go to a PetSmart or Petco that's probably or pet supplies, plus you're probably not going to be able to do that. I'm talking about supporting your local independence and finding a way. And obviously I would start there with like, people who you already either have a relationship with, or if this is an idea that you like, then you should start a relationship with some local business owners that are not competitors of yours to be able to network like this in the future, right? Because it it's can be a little, you know, aggressive or off putting in when someone comes up to somebody else's like, Hey, can you donate this for my thing? And I don't know you at all. But anyway, that's a whole nother discussion, which we can have. But the point is, though, is that I think you can give people, obviously it's nice to give people something. I don't think you have to. And maybe it happens in the second round of like, okay, everybody we sent it out, everybody submitted it, but all these people haven't. So what can we do to entice them to take it? Then give you give something to those people. Or you just say, everybody who takes a survey all get entered in to win one or up to three. You know, prize baskets or gift certificates, or a free day of free walk or free week of walks. You know, most any of your clients, they're going to be really into comping them something right, that they're me for That's motivation, but you don't want to lose any income either, if you can, you know if you can avoid it. So, yeah, I think it's nice. It doesn't I don't know that it's required, but
Collin 28:08
it helps well. And I like the idea of reaching out to other businesses as well, because that may turn into an ongoing relationship that you have, of maybe it's just a becomes a standing thing. Of any of your clients get a little bit of a discount when they go to that person or that person, and all of a sudden, again, the value add to your clients exponentially goes through the roof because of the relationships that you've built. And it's a perk of being one of your clients because of what they get and what they have access to, beyond just your services and that's something I know that I've struggled with, of going, No, we have to be the be all, end all, highest value thing, and it's just, what do we have to do within our little four walls here, instead of thinking, No, I can expand. I can be the hub and spoke here to get people connected to more resources and so that the value actually is there in, again, those relationships, yeah,
Candace D. 29:01
you know, you certainly any business can create their own kind of like, you know, their perk list, right? So if a pet care provider was like, I'm going to find like, two local retailers, two local groomers, a couple local veterinarians, and maybe even coffee shops, like it doesn't it could be even any other friends that you have, that have businesses and put together a website page that's like, my clients get deals at these places, and they're deals that you've worked out. So there is a value add there. We at my doggie daycare, when I had one in Chicago, there was a tea company, and they gave us little free cups of tea, like it was a it was a shaped like a cup of tea. But they were coupons that anybody who came for a grooming appointment, we could hand them a coupon to go down a couple storefronts down and get a free cup of tea while they waited for their dog to get recruit. And so they had a little cafe area where people could sit. Now, many businesses would just say, well, they're waiting anyway. Maybe they'll come down and watch. Why would I give them a free cup of tea? I mean, it's how think about how inexpensive a cup of tea probably really is, right? But they also sell a ton of other loose leaf teas, tea makers, tea swag that they're hoping someone's going to sit there and buy, or that they're going to come back when it's not their dog's grooming appointment, right? Because a dog grooming appointment only happens like every six to eight weeks, if not farther out for some people. So anyway, the point is, you know, there are local businesses you can work with that. That was an example where we would give it to our grooming clients. We have another thing that we would do with, like our welcome packets, which I'm sure you guys give to, and doggy daycare, sorry, dog pet sitting. We did that too. But when people would come out as a new client, they would get like a welcome gift from us, and sometimes inside the welcome gift would be other businesses that we wanted to refer them to, and deals kind of like on that deal page, because it was a reciprocation of, like, what that business was also doing for us. Like, maybe they were putting our flyers in their new client packets as well, or maybe they were sent an email for us or something, or had us on their website, like there was some sort of, you know, mutually beneficial marketing relationship there. How
Collin 31:08
do you recommend starting those relationships? Because, I know, again, this, this idea of cold calling, or just, you know, opening a door to go talk to somebody, it's, it's really intimidating. So how do we go about, you know, starting off on the right foot with those things, yeah,
Candace D. 31:22
I think, you know, it can start by just some local networking, if you can attend Well, I mean, I guess, like, if you don't want to walk into a business, let's start first with find out what kind of an event that might be happening in your area. Maybe the chamber is hosting something. Maybe, maybe you could even host your own pet business meetup at a coffee shop right where you're just going to invite people there. I mean, that would be and it might say, okay, yeah, you got to go in and invite them. But you could easily, we've done that in Chicago many, many times where we would be like, hey, we'd send Facebook messages and just think we're going to, there's, there's, some of us are going to meet up for coffee. If you want to come and meet, come. Go ahead and come. And it's shocking, like, who shows up? Because it's like, they they want it. Most people want to network and meet other people too, but they're all afraid to start it right and then, but they go, and, you know, you go, and then you might be say, okay, hey, get to know each other. And then it'll naturally come up at the towards the end, like, well, maybe we should collaborate. You know, you're not, you're not specifically saying what you know, but you're like, hey, let's have a conversation. Maybe we can refer business. Okay, let's do that, and then you schedule another call, right? Or, you know, I remember with my brick and mortar store, pet sitters would come in all the time and be like, Hey, I'm new to the area. I just started doing dog walking. Can you hand my business cards out? And as a business, you're like, Well, I don't know one who you are. We don't have, do we have any clients? That's, like, very risky for me to just basically say, Here, use a stranger to come into your home. I haven't vetted them at all, you know, like, it's weird, so not weird, but it's odd for a retailer to do that. And so we would always to the person, we would say, Sure, and we'd put them in the back, and they'd never get handed out. You know, we didn't want to make a person feel bad. But and looking back, I probably, now I wasn't a business coach, then I probably would do things a little differently now, but it's like, I just didn't, you know we had, we saw so many of them, of people coming in and saying that, you know, I was in Chicago. But what worked was when dog walkers would that did walk in our neighborhood, would on the walk, come and bring the dog to the store and just have an activity session, or, like, sniffing session, or maybe even by their client something, because then it comes up in conversation that, oh, this is a client. This is my dog I'm walking. I mean, heck, honestly, it could have even been your own dog. I probably wouldn't even have known, you know, the dog Walker's own dog. But, like, you know, just getting building that relationship, getting to know each other, and again, at that moment, it is not asking them to put you're just meeting them. You know, you're not asking them to refer business to you. And then, you know you might come buy more. You're building that relationship. You might buy stuff for your own dog there from that business, or take your dog to that groomer, or take your dog to that veterinarian. And I think that that's the best place to start. Is Where are you already using services, and where are those relationships that you already have developed? Or could you develop further right, like, if you do shop somewhere for your pet supplies and it's not a local business, maybe shift part of your budget to that place. You know, a lot of them really aren't that much more expensive, or even that expensive. Actually, they some of them aren't even actually any more expensive depending on what they sell and where they're located, but shift some of the of your dollars to buy stuff or pets to an independent business, and that will go really, really far for them. And they would be much more happy to start to refer ones as they get to know you and as they do feel like, I mean, a lot of people want to feel like they're being supported. And sometimes, when it's product based business, that means you need to buy your products from them and then, and then they will refer you.
Collin 34:47
Yeah, it's funny, you mentioned about the taking the cards and then never distributing them. We years, years ago, we had were just really starting out, and I had come in and I we were one of those walkers. Were like, Hey, we're new to the area. We want to blah blah, here's some cards. Thank you so much. And then I remember we came back, like we did not foster this relationship at all. Like, this is a bad example. So if you're listening to bad example, like, get back, like a year later, and was like, Hey, want to drop off some more cards for you. The like, the guy literally pulled the cards out, blew dust off of them. And was like, Sure, I'll take some more. And then put, just put,
Speaker 3 35:23
like, oh, I, I messed that up, right? I really
Collin 35:28
botched that. Yeah, because you're right. They don't, they don't know, they don't know you from anyone else. And it's a gas and huge risk to
Candace D. 35:36
put that on them. It is, and it could, but it can also, when it works well, it can be a huge opportunity for a pet sitter, I feel like, because that is, you know, when you have a veterinarian or, well, maybe groomers for sure, but then, like stores for sure, it's like they, we, those pet parents are asking for referrals inside our businesses. And so once I remember the very beginning, I had a friend. She would come through, and she would buy stuff for her own dogs at my pet boutique. And then she would just come by enough, maybe, you know, just she was friendly, really friendly. She, I knew what she did. And then I needed a dog walker. So then for my store dog. So then I hired her, and then I started looking at, I wish I trusted her, because I would see her. And then eventually, it was her walkers. It wasn't her, and then, but we would. What was nice is that when people asked me for a referral, I was now so comfortable and confident to say, you absolutely need to call Dana, right? You're gonna call Dana. This is a number. She's gonna take great care of you, you know. So then it's like they know exactly, Oh, wow. Candace knows this person, right? So then when they say, Oh, I was referred by dogaholics. That was the name of my pet business, it was like, Dana knew, Oh, this is dog aholic client, which means she's like, I have to really treat them really well. Well, you know, I'm personally going to handle your Meet and Greet or whatever. Like, however you want to phrase it, right? It feels premium. Feels like, you know, and then, and then, Dana would be really good about when she needed a client gifts, whether the client was moving, or was their birthday, she would come back to my boutique and buy the stuff. So we helped her really build her business. And mutually, right? It was really good for both of us.
Collin 37:08
Yeah, I'll say my our trick now, like, what things that we do, we go through a lot of dog treats. So buying dog treats from local pet stores, great place for a lot of conversations, and you can really get a lot of feedback from the store owners about, hey, you know, I tried these treats last time. Do you have any recommendations for this dog who's a little picky, or I've got this kind of dietary restriction? Man, the amount of conversation and and trust building that comes from just that simple thing, because we don't always need, you know, harnesses or big leashes or these big things. But you go through a lot of treats, and you go through enough that you really need to, you see them a lot, and you can see a lot of businesses because of that. And it really is a great starting pace for that conversation. Yeah, 100%
Candace D. 37:49
100% you never know. You might be able to even get those deal. If you're buying enough treats, get them either. Maybe even a major discount. Again, if you're going to do something back for that retailer and marketing, they can help you save some dollars on the product, but that should come after, you know you've developed that relationship
Collin 38:05
well, and that word there develop. I think that's what's so
Candace D. 38:09
important. Foster, yeah.
Collin 38:11
Foster, yeah, you look good. Yeah. It's not just a fly by great throwing cards, and I'll see you, and I'll have success from this. It's no we're talking long term here, and really investing in that person and the success of their business, right? One of the hardest parts of being a dog walker or pet sitter is when a client's pet passes away, we often are struggling with what to do. That's why our friends at Pet perennials make it easy to send a heartfelt condolence gift directly to someone with a broken heart. They have this amazing direct to consumer gift model that takes the effort off of us and ensures a thoughtful, personalized sympathy gift reaches our client or even an employee on our behalf. All of their gift packages include a handwritten card, colorful gift wrap and shipping fees across both the US and Canada. They also offer an array of milestone gifts and greeting cards that can be sent to celebrate birthdays, extend get well wishes and welcome new and rescued pets. Additionally, there are gift choices. In case you need to send a sympathy gift in memory of a special human client or celebrate a pregnancy engagement or wedding of a pet lover, if you are interested, register for a free business gift perks account to unlock the all inclusive discounted package prices. The service is used on an as need basis, so there are no monthly or annual obligations or minimum purchases. Learn more at Pet perennials.com check out their business programs or register for that free gift perks count by using the link in the show notes. Well, and I know a lot of this, you know, we talked about personalization and focus on our clients. Here, there is, you know, a lot of people are now trying to use AI and technology in their businesses, and I was curious, kind of your take on trying to mesh these two together, and kind of how you're where you're seeing success in this
Candace D. 39:56
Oh, yeah. Oh my gosh. There's so many ways that you can use at AI. I mean, specifically, even just chat GPT or Claude, we like Claude as well, but, and I think that, again, it's not gonna, it's not going anywhere necessarily, and it's not going to replace us either. I mean, it certainly can't in the dog walking dogs, but it can enhance the way, it can enhance, maybe how we are presenting ourselves in certain scenarios, and it also can help save us time. And one of the ways that I think the best way to one of the best ways to do it, is to build like a prompt inside a chat GPT that really starts to learn about your business. You can talk to it about your business. Okay? So you could even ask a chat GPT to tell them I'm this, you know, you can say I'm a I'm a pet sitter in the city of Chicago, and I have five employees, and I am I want you to really get to know my business. Ask me 20 questions about my business that you would need to know to help me market my business. And so it'll spit back at you 20 questions. It'll be numbered one through 20, and you can just start responding, okay. My answer to number one is this, my answer number two is this, and then it learns about you, okay, and then it's, what's great is then you can expand upon it in that little like prompt, that whole like thread. It can stay there, and you can start to add to it like, Okay, well, here's my mission statement. Here's some copy from my website, just so that the AI gets trained about your business. So now what you can do is you can pull that up every time you need to write something okay, and it can reflect on it, or when you need to write, like an email to a customer, or if you're like, I want to work on my that my email response or a phone script. I need to work on my phone script to call somebody after they've had a meet and greet but didn't buy. Or some, you know, something, whatever it is, I met somebody and they didn't buy. Can you help me with a phone script? But they already know so much about your business, and so they're going to give you a phone script. You can even say, I have a client who has three little dogs at their meet and greet. They are really worried about XYZ health issues, and I want to, I want to answer any objections they might have. Like, can you help me with? Like, what would be objections they might come up with, right? Like, so you can use AI to help you in sales. You really can to learn more in sales. Another way for our, like, bigger companies that I, that I think is interesting if you have or not even it hasn't have to be bigger companies, but I've seen where a stores sales associates or the workers that are at that store, and this can work in pet care too, but are the ones scheduled and have to respond to reviews, like online reviews, right? And they are not comfortable crafting a response. So that was something that kept falling back on the owner to whether it was a good response or a bad response. So they use their AI bot again, knows the business, knows the customer, and can cut you copy and paste that person's review into the AI, and you can tell it what kind of response, and it will give you. Can even say, Give me three responses, and you can read which one of you, like the best you know and and the you know, the as the owner of the business, you can say, I want them to always be polite and professional back, or, you know. Or you can go, you know, what? I want them to be funny. Or like, well, I don't know. You can be like, give them some sass back. No, I don't that can be funny to see what AI would write, but, but yeah, you know, I could anyway. I've even seen people use AI where they're like, roast, roast, my pet business, you know, and see how it comes back at you, like, you know, after so if it's just there to help you. And so I would encourage any listeners just to not be afraid of it and to just start playing with it. And you'll be shocked. Once you start playing with it. You'll be like, Oh, my God, this is so cool. I mean, my husband now has it on his phone, and he's always like, let's chat. GPT it. I'm like, oh gosh, it's like a game now.
43:48
Oh no, here's
Candace D. 43:50
another funny little I'm gonna bust them right now. And I think so my cards, my greeting cards, have been so good. Like, he's been writing the nicest messages this last year, and whether it was a Mother's Day card or a Christmas card. And I'm like, I've been with you for seven, eight years. Like, this is a quick, sudden change, but I'm like, but I'm not gonna, I'm not even gonna ask him if he's using chat GPT to write it.
Collin 44:12
I would, I wouldn't. I wouldn't. Candace just let that lie, the thing that he really wrote it all.
Candace D. 44:20
But that's another way you could use AI. How can you write my client a handwritten letter and card at their house? Help me come up with a right? Yeah,
Collin 44:27
and just little things like you mentioned, of, don't just give me one response, give me three, because then I can take it and adapt it a little bit a little less. Just, you know, I can put it more on my tone. But when you train it on your business, you hear that you train it on your data it's going. Feed it information. Give it copy, give it your brand colors, give it your mission statement. Give it a logo. Give it the feel that you want, the vibe, so that when you have the emails that you need to send, it's all consistent. Because that is really powerful. When we talk about the power of branding and making people recognize who you are, is that level of consistency that sometimes, when. It's 10pm and I'm trying to craft something that ain't happening. There's no consistency there. Like, brand goes out the window
Candace D. 45:06
exactly, exactly. Yeah, it's so fun too, because you can, you know, ask it things like, even if you don't like it, like, I think I remember in the beginning, when I was using it was so formal, and I'm not a speaker, and, you know, and so I needed it to become more conversational, so you can even respond back, like, please be more conversational. Or, you know, please add more humor in this response. Or, I like, I like what the I like this one. But I'd like to see three more options, you know, again, it you can just keep it, having it go deeper, and so you get something that you like well. And
Collin 45:38
in those, those examples that you gave, they really are in in kind of a back and forth with it. It's not just write me a blog about XYZ thing, because I'm trying to boost the SEO on my my website. It really is help me solve this, help me market to these people, or help me overcome this problem or understand what's going on. It really does become that great. Sounds like it can become that great assistant that a lot of us just don't have access to otherwise, right, right? Yeah, 100% well. And it sounds like it helps, it helps lean into that personalization, because now I am able that example you gave of I I'm just inundated with these reviews, or I'm inundated with these stuff, and I just can't respond back to them. Well, all of a sudden, now your response rate can go through the roof, because you can have help generating and coming up with good responses to these so you you're not having to generate all of that,
Candace D. 46:28
you know, and don't I think that, and I'm, I'm of an age maybe, where I feel like that can feel like you're cheating, right? Like you're cheating because you're using this for that purpose. And there isn't, let's say, a human that's writing that, but, like, honestly, it's about, when I say cheating, it's just because we grew up in there, we're without tech, right? I'm a Gen some Gen X, so it's like, I've had, you know, growing up, growing up without tech, and then my adult life has been tech, but, you know, so I feel like it's cheating because I want to be able to deliver that stuff, or I want a human in my business doing those things, but that really isn't now with technology and there, it's just what more efficient you can optimize things so much faster. You know, you're not spending your time doing those things, or you're not stressing out about how someone's going to respond, right? It is actually something that could be delegated and posted, or you could do it quickly and then move on to the next thing that can actually go generate you even more money, or that you enjoy doing more than that, you know. So it is about time saving, techniques and optimization. There's so much technology out there now that can help us right, still do a really great job. I don't think that it's cheating in the sense of using it sometimes like that for your business, but I know it can
Collin 47:40
kind of feel like that. It can't I think there was, there was a time recently where we had something on Facebook and a lot of people were just giving like, I could tell it's kind of like, oh, that's just the Facebook auto generated response. And then we were responding with like, an AI response to the response. And I was like, Oh no, the computer's just talking to themselves. I need to take a step back for just a moment. Oh
48:02
no, yeah. But, but you
Collin 48:03
Yeah. It is just that tool that you can lean into to to help increase and enhance that interaction that you have with your clients, so that they feel seen, and that you're able to meet those needs where maybe you weren't able to before, yeah. Because I think, I think a lot of people think AI, and they think, Oh, it'll just solve all my problems, and it will route plan for me, it'll handle it. Just everything will be automatic, but it really is just more about going, No, I just I do have an assistant to help me through that stuff. Well, Candace, I really want to thank you for coming on the show today and walking us through these things, encouraging us to lean into those business opportunities and collaborations that we have, while also enhancing the value that we can provide through our clients, through our clients, through the partnerships that we build, and our interactions with them, whether they are AI enhanced or not, right? It's just about making it sure that it's better. I know that you have a lot going on and there's lessons you're involved in. So how can people get in touch with you and follow along with everything? Sure?
Candace D. 48:55
So if you are looking for some business support and help, whether it's for sales, marketing or leadership, operations, or if you're looking for our community to that kind of has the coaches around you to support you, please. You know, join one of our programs. Our pet boss nation University, right now is open for enrollment until the end of the month. And of course, if you came and told me that, like, you know, pets that are confessional, sent you to us, of course we would let you in behind the scenes. But so that's our program. We also on our podcast. I would love, love, love for you listening right now to go find our podcast, and it's called the pet boss podcast, and you can find it on all streaming platforms. Please come follow us. We have something fun and exciting happening soon for the podcast. It is kicking off, I think on February 1. That's the plan. I know we are January 9, recording this right now. So my future self is very hopeful that it happens, as I'm saying it. But the plan is that February 1, I think, through the fifth, is a kind of a daily dose of, kind of an interesting workshop where we're encouraging you to fall back in love with your business again, right? Like it's on the theme of Valentine's Day. It's a fallback. Love with your business, or what it means to truly be in love with your business, and and we're focusing on that theme. So there'll be a daily podcast, and then there's going to be a live podcasting room. People will get invited to come to a live recording on a Zoom Room of the podcast and participate and ask questions about their business. So we're excited about that, so you'll hear all about it at, you know on our podcast, so visit us at the pet boss podcast. Okay,
Collin 50:22
well, I will have that link, those links to pet boss University and the pet boss podcast on the show, on the show notes and on the website, so people can get connected and start following along with those with all those resources. Candace, this has been a lot of fun, and I really appreciate your time today, coming on and sharing. Thank you, Collin, for having me. How do we create raving fans when we focus on the people. Candace said that the human side of business is irreplaceable. Real connections build loyalty and define a premium experience when we remember that there's somebody on the other end of that phone call that needs our help, there's somebody who has concerns or biases or needs or preconceived notions and worries that we can help with that really helps build that trust and allows people to relax and see that they can be taken care of and we can meet their needs with excellence, and that is something no amount of money can buy. We want to thank today's sponsors. Time to pet and pet fernens 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.
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