Amanda Crook​ Dog Daycare Consulting
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Tips of the Trade

To charge or not to charge?  that is the question.

11/18/2019

1 Comment

 
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Acquiring new clients is a priority of every business. To do this, businesses will offer special deals, BOGO items, free item with minimum purchase, etc. These things definitely catch my attention, that is, when we are talking about ketchup or oil changes. When it comes to more important things, I find myself running from these advertised "deals". You see, when I really care about the quality of something, no amount of discount is going to persuade me to use a service or product. I begin to see these offers as a business "begging" me to become their client, because the quality of their work isn't enough to bring me in. 

In our industry, a frequent way to gain new clients is by offering a free evaluation or test​ (whatever you may call it). Initially it sounds like a great idea, I mean who wouldn't want a free service for their dog? You think, once they see how amazing your place is after that first time, surely they'll come back, right? Well....maybe. Below I'll list why I feel it is important to charge for that first visit. ​

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  • ​An Exclusive Club: Have you ever realized that the harder it is to get into a club or organization the more committed you feel about your membership? We view our business more of a club than a regular store or service provider. Having a ritual of acceptance, so-to-speak, makes the client feel like a special member of the club. If getting into a fraternity, for example, was easy, it would no longer be so glamorous to be a part of it. The more commitment you feel to an organization the more loyal you are, the more you'll utilize it, and the more you'll praise the organization to others. 
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  • Actual Need/Desire vs. Quick Whim: When someone calls us wanting to set up an evaluation for their dog, one of the questions we ask is "Why are you wanting to evaluate your dog?" If their answer is, "I want her to play when we board next week." We follow up that answer with, "Do you think you'll need our services much after that?" If their answer is no, then we discourage the evaluation and recommend private accommodations instead. In a friendly way, we explain that our daycare is composed of dogs that attend on a regular basis. We look for dogs that are going to be able to integrate into the pack, enabling both the pack and the individual dog, to be as well-balanced as possible. Introducing a dog just for a one-time stay isn't valuable for either the dog or the group. We steer this client to a private room with one-on-one perks. We actually stop allowing evaluations for holidays boards a few weeks, even a month, before the holiday. You don't want your playgroups full of new dogs during the busiest times of years. Stability in groups is ideal (as much as you can). 

    If a service is free, well, why not bring your dog; maybe they are just curious how their dog will do, maybe they just like all things free (do you know that person that will take a free t-shirt even if it's not their size) or maybe they just want a free place for their dog to be for the day. You want people who really have an interest in forming a long term relationship with your business and not just having their dog evaluated on a whim. 

  • Credibility: Even though sometimes it may be on a subconscious level, people equate a higher price with more credibility/experience/quality. They may initially be drawn to the free evaluation down the street, but once you explain the care and knowledge that goes into your evaluations as the reason there is a charge, 9 times out of 10, the type of client you want, will choose the paid service over the free. 

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And the most important reason to charge.....YOUR TIME and KNOWLEDGE! 

A lot goes into truly evaluating a dog's potential success in daycare. Here's just some of what goes into our evaluations.
  • An experience front of house staff to review policies and requirements to the client in a clear, yet customer friendly, way.
  • An experience animal caretaker that will be performing the evaluation, considering their training and the time invested that day.
  • Goody bag filled with miscellaneous items; dog poop-bag holder, treat, maybe a small toy, etc. 
  • Professional folder with reminders for future visits, several coupons, and a VERY detailed breakdown of the behaviors that were seen during the evaluation, including recommendations for future daycare and overnight visits. 
  • Thorough explanation of the evaluation from an experience animal caretaker that is knowledgeable about how the day went. 
  • The risk of introducing a dog you don't know in with other client dogs.
By the time we add up all that is involved with our evaluations, the amount we charge doesn't cover all that goes into it. Once our clients see the level of professionalism of our evaluations, they never question the cost. If we never see that client again (which is rare), at least we've been compensated a portion of what we put into the dog's evaluation. 

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How much to charge?

Deciding how much to charge will depend on what your evaluation consists of. Are your evaluations really just meet-and-greets with a staff member and one dog or is your evaluation several hours? Does it include any goodies for the client to take home or not? Is it more labor intensive than a regular day of daycare (it should be), then it should cost more than your basic daycare price. 

The only negative I find with charging for evaluations is losing the client that is simply looking for the easiest cheapest option. To me, that's not a negative at all. That person doesn't fit my description of the ideal client and it shouldn't for you either. 


(Additional Note: We do sometimes offer the occasional free evaluation if it is suitable for the situation. It's rare, but when excellent customer service calls for it, we'll do it. For example, if we have a young dog whose owners had to board him unexpectedly at last minute and, as we get to know the dog in our private room, we see that he has the perfect temperament to enjoy social play, at pick-up we may offer a free evaluation as a thank you for boarding with us and "hey, come see how much fun your dog can have." It's done in a case that we have a strong feeling if the owner saw the benefits of daycare for that particular dog, we feel confident they would continue to use our services. Again, this is very rare, but I didn't want you to think offering a free evaluation for a certain reason isn't a good idea. I'm always up for those little above-and-beyond random acts of great customer service when appropriate.)

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Buy your staff a phone...no, really

3/12/2018

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We have a strict no cell phone policy for our employees. If they are caught with their phone on them it is an immediate write-up...BUT....if they ask nicely we'll let them have their phone to take pictures of dogs in their playgroups. We actually ask them to take these pictures, then they email them to us in order to use on our Facebook page. We also want their help keeping our Instagram hopping. Our strict "NO cell phones" policy was becoming a bit too relaxed since we were benefiting from their use. 

Our solution? We bought them an IPhone. (Actually my husband and I used that as an excuse to upgrade ours and we gave them our old ones), add on a bright pink Otter Box and you've got one of the best decisions we ever made. We have a handful of staff that we've granted permission to use the phone and for selected reasons only. They can upload pictures directly to our social media pages, they use the phones to facetime owners who pay for the added perk, and they randomly text clients cute pictures of their dogs. We've made it clear to clients that this number isn't answered or responded to and that's worked out just fine. 

Who would have thought that the best way to keep staff off their phones was to actually buy them one? 
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Is it really a "temperament test"?

6/29/2017

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For 15 years we called our first day evaluation a "Temperament Test". It was catchy. Both words started with a "T"; it rolled off your tongue easily. All was fine with this terminology until one day my sister questioned it. We were opening a second location and were saying that dogs that attended daycare at our current location would have to do another temperament test at the new facility. 

It made perfect sense to me, the dogs had never been to that facility before, never met the staff, never met that particular set of dogs. Yep, total sense. My sister however didn't agree. "If I were a client I'd get mad having to do another temperament test. I mean you already know my dogs temperament from the other location. He's not going to change just because he's in a different building." I responded, "Yes, but, he needs to get used to the new place. I don't want to just throw him into a completely different environment and expect him to be fine right off the bat. I want to do the introduction slowly and make sure that he is comfortable with all the dogs there and gets used to the new layout."

"Well," she said, "I get that, but you don't need to test his temperament again." 

Hmm....did my sister have a point? What we were actually doing had nothing to do with his temperament at all. We wanted to see how he responded to our particular environment. Doesn't matter how his temperament is at home, at the park, on a walk, at another doggie daycare. It only matters how he reacts in our playgroups. When I explained it to her, and to many clients previously, I'd say that we were really seeing "if he is compatible with daycare". When we would dismiss a dog we would never say, "His temperament is just horrible. He's aggressive and shouldn't be around other dogs." No. We would say, "He's just not compatible with our daycare environment." What a big difference. If that's really what we were doing then why not call it the correct name? So after 15 years of calling our first day evaluations "Temperament Tests", we changed the name to "Playgroup Compatibility Evaluations". Doesn't roll off the tongue quite as nice but it definitely reflects what we are really doing. 

You can actually purchase the forms we use for our passed evaluations, failed evaluations and dismissals on our products page. They are wonderful tools for staff to assess dogs and to communicate behaviors to clients.

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The mystery injury

5/30/2017

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I hate when we have to notify an owner that they dog was injured while in our care. What makes it worse? Not knowing how the injury happened. 

Yes, I know that there are going to be the occasional bumps, bruises, and scratches. I don't like it when it happens but I understand. We are an amazing facility, with extensive training, non-stop supervision, so when an injury happens we can quickly assess what happened, make changes to our groups, dismiss dogs, or even change procedures to prevent it from happening again. BUT when you don't know what happened...you can't do that. 

Example Situation: Staff member was doing health checks before letting the dogs out to play for the day. They had been out only once that morning for a quick potty break as a group, then put back into their rooms. She found an injury. Not a small one, a good size tear (about 1/2" long) on the side of a large short haired dog. What?! He's a laid back dog, hadn't been involved in any altercations, hadn't shown signs of being injured, what in the world happened? 

Our only answer was that he somehow got injured on a piece of equipment. The staff searched every inch of the playroom. A few bolts in the chain link stuck out a bit far. Did he hit the fence in such a way that a bolt tore his skin? We took him to the vet, no stitches, just antibiotics, and covered the bill due to the mysteriousness of the injury. When his dad arrived a few hours later we still didn't have an answer. I assured dad that we wouldn't stop investigating until we found an answer. He could tell by our concern for his dog and our concern about not knowing, that we really cared about what had happened. No excuses, no comments like, "well, you know there are risks associated with letting dogs play together." No. Just simple truth and genuine concern for both the dog and a strong desire to figure out what happened.

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I dove into the footage. I watched the night before until I was convinced that it didn't happen then. I could see where the injury was and could tell that nothing was there yet. Moved on to footage from the morning. As I watched, I saw that sweet dog. A laid back hound that loved sitting around watching everyone and following the staff around for a little affection. He wasn't rowdy in the least. I was watching during the first morning group let-out. They were outside for only about 15-minutes for a quick potty break. Their group supervisor standing with them the whole time. A golden and a lab start playing a little too rough for the supervisor's liking so he stepped in to moderate. They were noisy and rowdy causing the other dogs in the group to take notice and run to the scene. Our sweet hound was just standing near the action not thinking much about it. Next thing I see is a black dog charge at him and bite his side. It appears as though the black dog had heard the commotion and ran to see what was happening with guns blazing. His first point of contact in this heightened state was our poor hound's side. It happened in a quick second.

​Had I witnessed only that I wouldn't have thought any injury was possible. It was the sweet hound walking to the side, sitting down and licking his side that gave me the clue and had me zero in on the few seconds before. The group supervisor was literally 2-feet away, actively supervising, but was none the wiser. It drew no attention compared to the rowdy play of the golden and lab. No one but the spitfire black dog was at fault. 


The solving of the mystery was bittersweet. We knew the answer to what happened while having to dismiss another daycare member. I was happy to call dad and tell him what happened. I explained all that I did to investigate, exactly what I saw, invited him to come watch it with me so that he could see how quick it had happened (he didn't take me up on it), told him the action we were going to take with the other dog. Though no fault of our own, I made it clear how bad I felt about the situation. Dad would say, "We know these kind of things can happen." To which I'd reply, "Yes, but I never want you to have to come back from vacation and deal with this. He is such a sweet laid back guy I feel horrible for him." I told him to keep in touch with me if the injury worsened and that I'd be in touch with him regardless to check up. He was kind and understanding. I will make sure to follow up and will continue to cover any vet bills associated with the incident. This is simply goodwill. 

What if I didn't see what happened? What about those times when you never find an answer? Things to keep in mind with mystery injuries:
  • Take immediate action to care for the pet. You don't want to assume it's nothing and then later find out it actually needed antibiotics or more medical care. Take care of the vet bill. 
  • Contact the parents immediately letting them know about the injury.​​
  • Express to the parents how upset you are that you don't know the cause of the injury.
  • Tell them EXACTLY what you are doing to figure out what happened (reviewing footage, calling staff members, checking the bedroom/run/play area/gates for places that could have possibly caused the injury).
  • Follow up, follow up, follow up. Let them know if you found a possible answer, "We did notice a bolt outside where the rubber had come off. It would've been hard for it to happen, but it's possible that he hit the fence in just the right way that the bolt got him. We've already replaced the rubber cap." If you have no answers or guesses, tell them that. Be upset. "I feel horrible that we can't figure this out." Continue to follow up until the dog is fully healed. 
  • Follow up at the time of the dog's next visit. When they come in again, don't pretend it didn't happen. Bring it up. "I know he got injured last time and we never could figure out what happened. I'm going to have his group supervisor watch him even more closely this time." 

It's hard to say, but I feel mystery injuries are always the fault of the facility. No, I don't mean that the facility did anything wrong. Like in this case, we weren't negligent in any way. BUT to owners, it is your fault and they are correct to assume that. If you can't give them an answer as to what happened you have to question your policies, procedures, supervising rules, etc. Cover any vet bills and make sure you nor your staff ever have the attitude of "oh well, can't figure it out." Any injury you can't figure out will happen again. 

Like I say with all "bad things", the second this injury happens begin your work to "WOW" the client. This is my challenge to you.

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    amanda Crook

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