Pet sitting is a trust based business, there’s no way around it. Your clients are letting you freely and alone into the most valuable thing they own, their home, to watch the things that are most dear to them, their pets. Either one of these in themselves would be a huge leap of faith and until they’ve really gotten to know you, a leap of blind faith.
This trust factor is further complicated by the fact that in many cases you, as the business owner, are doing the initial meet and greets with new clients and then you’re sending sitters, that the client may not have met personally, into homes. This means you need to be able to give that potential new client a feeling of confidence that they are in good hands with you and your people. This trust building starts before you even meet your clients for the first time in the ways you deliver your marketing messages and then kicks into high gear as soon as you have that first conversation with a potential client. That initial conversation, typically by phone, is critical to setting the groundwork for a great relationship. It’s important to form a connection as soon as possible and luckily, pets are the perfect topic to get people talking. A great pet sitter asks questions about the pets. Not just the standard how many pets and what kind are they questions but more personal questions about how they came to have the pets, what their names are and what their personalities are like. This will set a warm tone for the meet and greet to come.
At the meet and greet you’re there to accomplish a goal; get the pet’s care information, meet the pets and determine the pet sitting need. As importantly, though, you’re there to continue to build that level of trust. You of course want to provide information regarding the safety precautions you take as a business such as insurance and employee vetting and training but the conversation needs to go beyond this. Clients need to feel comfortable that their pets will be in the best possible hands and that they’ll be loved and cared for by the sitter like they would themselves. Clients often have some level of guilt that they have to leave their pets in the care of a sitter and they want to feel, not just that the basic care tasks are being done, but that their pets are happy and that you as a sitter enjoy spending time with their pets.
Once you’ve completed the meet and greet and successfully signed the client up you will continue to form that trusting relationships through your regular visit updates. With well written and thoughtful updates and pictures you have the ability to form a long term trust filled relationship with your client that will be a benefit to all!
What are the rules anyway!?!?
I’m a rule follower. I have been my whole life. I pay my bills on time, I look both ways before crossing the street, I don’t talk during the movie. I follow rules, all rules…well mostly all rules. That’s not to say I’m not a risk taker. This is not at all the same...
give, Give, GIVE to Grow Your Business!
Why did you start your business? Was it a desire to be independent, to manage your own time, to make piles of money? Maybe, but I’m guessing there was more to it than that. Most entrepreneurs go down this road because they want more in life. Not necessarily more money...
Writing the Perfect Client Update (or your dog pooped, again)
Let’s face it, there are only so many ways to tell a client that their dog pooped. Even those of us that are super creative will, at some point, run out of ways to make an update to a client on a pet sitting or dog walking visit interesting. As a professional pet...
How to Handle Rejection (or it’s not me, it’s you)
I received the following note from a new client the other day. We were one week away from doing the first visits for them. “Eliza, I wanted to let you know of a change as soon as possible. One of my son’s friends will be staying with the dogs while we are gone so I...
My Client’s Pet Hates Me! What do I do?
It was my very first meet and greet. I had launched the business nearly three months earlier. I had excitedly hung out my social media shingle, switched the website on and prepared to greet clients. I had waiting and waited and waited for a client. Now finally, one...
My client wants a specific sitter, and only that sitter, what do I do?
I recently came across a familiar situation. An existing client was going out of town, needed a sitter and called shortly before her trip to inquire about availability. I explained that we were happy to help and that the sitter she wanted was not available but that...
5 Things that you should ALWAYS ask a Pet Sitter before you hire them
We’re accustomed to asking a ton of questions when shopping around for a baby sitter but we’re less inquisitive when shopping for a pet sitter. Why is this? They are, after all, our furry children! Here are five things that you should always ask a potential pet sitter...
