Three Pillars of Success for a Pet Care Facility

Monday, June 21, 2004 at 2:17:10 PM by Daniel Rubenstein

As the former owner of All For Doggies, Chicago's largest pet care facility, I was able to experience all the all of the benefits of being in business for myself while spending my days with my dogs. For a person who grew up loving animals, there was no better business to be in. However, just because you open you doors and post a sign saying “Your Pets Welcome” does not mean that people will just drop off their pets at your door step. These days, pet services' customers do not just give you their pets without a thorough understanding of how they are going to be cared for, how well your facility is maintained, and how much attention is going to be allotted to themselves and their pet. Therefore, a continued pattern of success and customer loyalty in this business is for the most part dependent on three pillars; Pet Care Management, Customer Service Management, and Facilities Management.

Of course, there are other business practices that can help contribute to a successful pet care business such as a good technology plan, a well designed and built facility, a properly targeted sales and marketing initiative, solid management and motivated personnel, tight spending controls, and efficient operational procedures are among the many. However, if you take a closer and more in depth look at these things you will see that even they all point back to our three pillars.

If you are already in the pet care business and have experienced success immediately after your start-up then you understand that keeping the momentum proves to be just as difficult as opening your doors. In fact, recent government statistics have shown that 90% of startups fail within the first year of operations. Why do they fail? It is primarily because of a lack of cash for operations which in the pet care business means that you are not getting the repeat business.

The pet care business is primarily a service based business and if the customers, both two-legged and four-legged, are not happy with their experience at your facility they will find another facility to service them. The pets, especially dogs, speak to their owners in many ways when they arrive and depart your facility. Your ultimate goal from when you first receive that pet is to do everything you can to help insure that the pet is going to be returned to the owner in the same health and condition that they were brought to you. These days, pet owners treat their pets more as part of the family then ever before. Therefore, it must be ingrained in your staff that the pet comes first. In this respect, no cost cutting measures can be put in place that may compromise your goal. Here are a few of the simple things that you need to do:

• Make sure you have enough staff to watch over the pets
• Make sure there is a proper feeding and watering plan in place
• Pay special attention to pets with medical conditions and make sure it is clearly defined who has responsibility for administering medications
• Assign a Kennel Manager because someone needs to bear the burden of the responsibility
• Make sure you have a system of reporting everything concerning the pets activity during their stay
• Make sure your people in your front office are aware of what is going on with the pets

Let's focus on the last point which so clearly ties in to the next pillar of our successful operations, Customer Service Management. So many times, I have seen pet care facilities provide exceptional care for a customer's dog but the customer would never know it. Communication is the key here. Sure, we all know that most of the time when a dogs head is up and ears are pointed, their eyes are opened wide, and their tail is wagging that they are saying that they are enjoying themselves, but what about when the customer does not see what you may be seeing with their dogs. It is imperative that there is an easy flow of communication from the Kennel Manager and Kennel Staff to the General Manager and Office Staff to the Customer so that all important information pertaining to their pet's stay at your facility is communicated. Let's just say that the same dog who had his head up and ears pointed, their eyes opened wide, and their tail wagging during their stay is now being returned to the customer with his head down, his eyes barely open, and his tail between his legs. There is obviously a reason for this and don't doubt for a moment that the customer won't interpret what they are seeing with their dog as nothing less than pure misery. Make sure that you are communicating exactly what is going on with that pet at all possible times because if there has been any break in any line of the communication, at any point from arrival, stay, and departure of that pet than it will cause a terrible rift between the customer and your facility and you probably won't ever see that customer or their pet again. Here are some other tips in implementing a successful customer service management program:

• Always answer the phone during business hours
• Always be polite to the customers
• Make sure customer service issues are addressed immediately
• Put a customer suggestion box in your lobby

If you do not immediately know the answer to a customer inquiry, then inform the customer that you that you will find out and get back to them. NEVER tell a customer that you "can't, won't, or shouldn't" do something for them. Remember, that your success depends on you being able to take care of their needs and the needs of their dogs. You will have to say no from time to time, everyone does, but choose those times wisely.

The last pillar which by in large part ties the three together is proper Facilities Management. If your facility is not meeting certain standards of cleanliness, then chances are you won't have many pets staying with you or many customers to service. It is obviously important to make a good impression with your customers when they enter the lobby. A well maintained lobby and reception area is nice but it is not the key to success in Facilities Management. The entire facility must adhere to some basic guidelines:

• Proper ventilation will make sure the pets are breathing clean air and your customers won't smell a terrible pet odor
• There should not be any standing water. Keep the floors as dry as possible at all times
• There should staff assigned to remove pet waste at all times. A pet should never be overly exposed to their waste or another pets waste

If you are in the business already then you know that this list can go on forever. One thing that I will say that was invaluable at setting a standard at my facility was that I always walked my facility at random times during the day to inspect. If you're the boss then your standard for your facilities upkeep should be the example for your staff. Make sure they are adhering to those standards. If you are not able to do that you had better put someone in charge of it because poorly maintained facilities will lead to poor overall performance of all of the other key areas of your pet care business.

There is a lot that goes into operating a successful pet care facility. However, the goal of each pet care business in and of itself is quite simple: In order to get people to pay you to take care of their pet, you need to prove to them with your facility, your customer service, and your ability to take care of their pet that the level of attention given to all these areas warrant a return visit.

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