Do You Know What Your Customers Are Saying About You Online?

Filed Under Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Quick Tip ThursdayThese days it is so easy for customers to rate and review your pet sitting business online.  They can leave reviews on Google Maps, at online yellow pages sites, on notice and chat boards, and on directories such as Craigs List, Angies List, Citysearch, and Yelp.

As part of your weekly business marketing you should be checking in to see what your customers are saying about you online.   To check up you can do a Google search on your business name and it’s also a good idea to also do a Google search on your own name if you are the business owner.  What you find may surprise you!

It’s a great welcome surprise when you find that your customers leave glowing reviews and tell other users how your sitting business provided great care for their pets.  Make sure that you thank these customers with a personal note.

It’s not so great when you find comments from disgruntled customers that leave negative comments at these sites.  Sometimes these negative reviews may even distort the facts or give a skewed view of the actual events.

You need to be very careful leaving responses to these negative reviews. The first course of action you take should be to contact the customer if you know who left the comment. Try to rectify the situation with them and ask if they will remove the negative review or update with another review that outlines how you have fixed their greivance.

If you can’t contact the customer make sure you leave a very reasonable, level-headed response that leaves an apology, outlines what occured and then describes the policies you have put in place in your business that will make sure that a similar situation will not happen again in the future.  

If you are not checking the internet regularly and searching for online reviews and comments on forums - then you may miss the opportunity to thank a customer, or respond to a customer attack. You don’t want to leave a negative review online for potential customers to read as you may be losing customers without even realizing why. 

It’s not a bad idea to suggest to your customers to leave reviews online if you know that they are happy with your service.  Positive reviews can give you a competative advantage over other pet sitting services in your area.

Blogging Stimulus Package from StarVA

Filed Under Pet Sitting Business Tips | 1 Comment

If you are a regular reader here at Working with Pets then you know how strongly that I recommend starting a blog for your pet sitting business. A blog is as a great way to become a resource for pet owners in your community and get ranked well in the search engines. All you need to do is to make regular posts about local pet events, pet care and wellness, and current pet news. It is a super marketing tool that is very low cost and will enable you to build a relationship with pet owners. Once you establish a relationship this will mean that they more readily trust you to be their pet sitter when they need care for their pets.

If you haven’t got your blog up and running yet - now is a super time to get some help and get it on the web fast. Angela Wills from StarVA who has helped me set up my new website and blog at http://www.protectingmax.com - today announced her Blog Stimulus Plan. She has knocked $300 off her blog setup package and will now set up a fully customized blog up for just $195 (I wish I’d got that deal!).

For only $195 you’ll get the full blog setup package, including:
- Blog installation
- Blog customization of header and background color
- Setup of plugins to help you rank better in the search
engines
- Feed setup so your readers can subscribe to instant updates!

Once Angela has your blog setup it is very easy to update with new posts. If you need any help Angela or myself will be available to help you.  Angela uses the same blogging software that I use right here at Working with Pets.

Here’s How to Get The Discount:
1. Go here - Blogging Package
2. Click ‘Order Now’
3. Enter ’stimulus’ (without quotes) into the coupon code

I love Angela’s work and I know you will too! If you’ve been thinking about a new blog don’t miss this opportunity.

Graduation Day for New Pet Tech Instructors

Filed Under My Pet Business | 6 Comments

Pet Tech Graduation DayToday I graduated as a Pet Tech Petsaver instructor. Here is the graduation class of the February 2009! See me there on the left next to Thom “The Pet Safety Guy” Somes.

It has been a great 3 days here in Orlando and met some terrific folks - 4 other pet sitters, a manager of a doggie day care centre (in DFW!), and a dog training business owner.  We all walk away from this class with some much more knowledge of pet first aid and wellness - that we are now empowered to pass on to other pet lovers and pet care professionals.

The Pet Tech Petsaver program is very comprehensive program and covers:

Restraining and Muzzling, Primary Pet Assessment, Pet CPR and rescue breathing, Choking Management, Bleeding Protocols, Poisoning, Heat and Cold Injuries, Bites and Stings, Snout to Tail Wellness Assessment, Dental Care for Pets, and Caring for Your Senior Pet-izen.

I believe that every pet owner should know this information.  Pets are members of our family and we all want them to be a part of our family for as long as possible.  Taking this course will allow pet owners to not only be able to act quickly and confidently in an emergency situation, but also help them to understand how they can improve their pets health, improve their quality of life, and extend the length of their life by applying pet wellness principles.

As soon as I return to DFW next week I will be scheduling my first class.  If you live in the area please leave a comment if you are interested in attending so that I can email you with the time and date of the class.  Wherever you live - you can find a local Pet Tech instructor by using the locator at www.pettech.net.

Next I’m off to the Pet Sitters International Quest Annual conference. I’ll have more updates and photos for you later this week!

Warning - Cocoa Mulch Poisonous For Dogs and Cats

Filed Under Pet Health, Pet Safety | 2 Comments

Please tell every dog or cat owner you know. Even if  you don’t have a pet, please pass this to those  who do.

Over the weekend the doting owner of two young lab  mixes purchased Cocoa Mulch from  Target to use in their garden. They loved  the way it smelled and it was advertised to keep  cats away from their garden. Their dog Calypso decided that the mulch smelled good enough to  eat and devoured a large helping. She vomited a  few times which was typical when she eats  something new but wasn’t acting lethargic in any way. The next day, Mom woke up and took Calypso out for her morning walk . Half way through the  walk, she had a seizure and died instantly

Although the mulch had NO warnings printed on the  label, upon further investigation on the  company’s website, this product is HIGHLY toxic to dogs and cats.

Cocoa  Mulch  is manufactured by Hershey’s, and they claim  that ‘It is true that studies have shown that  50% of the dogs that eat Cocoa Mulch can suffer  physical harm to a variety of degrees (depending  on each individual dog). However, 98% of all dogs won’t eat it.’

This  Snopes site gives the following information: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.snopes.com%2Fcritters%2Fcrusader%2Fcocoamulch.asp

Cocoa  Mulch,  which is sold by Home Depot, Foreman’s Garden  Supply and other Garden supply stores, contains a lethal ingredient  called ‘ Theobromine’ . It is lethal to dogs and cats. It smells like chocolate and it really attracts dogs. They will ingest this stuff and die. Several deaths  already occurred in the last 2-3 weeks.  Theobromine is in all chocolate, especially dark  or baker’s chocolate which is toxic to dogs.  Cocoa bean shells contain potentially toxic quantities of theobromine, a xanthine compound  similar in effects to caffeine and  theophylline. A dog that ingested a lethal  quantity of garden mulch made from cacao  bean shells developed severe convulsions  and died 17 hours later. Analysis of the stomach contents and the ingested cacao bean shells  revealed the presence of lethal amounts of  theobromine.

Power of Testimonials - Let Your Customers Sell For You

Filed Under Pet Sitting Business Tips | 2 Comments

Quick Tip ThursdayToday’s tips are courtesy of guest writer Jordan Kaplan, the owner of Petaholics Dog Walking and Pet Sitting New York. 

A testimonial is the online version of word of mouth. It tells
people that you can provide what you claim to do and that other people are satisfied with your service/product. Testimonials can come from media, other companies, celebrities, experts, and your customers

Testimonials are a way of creating credibility. Nothing sells a product or service better than hearing from other satisfied customers of their experiences. People are generally skeptical of anything new and want reassurances and confirmation that they will have a good experience and results.

People don’t generally believe what one says about themself but do believe what others say.
The internet is an inpersonal medium the more you can do to “humanize” your website the more likely potential customers will call you.

Most satisfied customers will be happy to oblige and give you testimonials as they want to help you since you have helped them.

Having great testimonials is one great way to stand out from your competitors as on a compare/contrast basis, people will choose a product/service that makes them feel the most
comfortable. As humans we buy based on emotion not logic and it is this emotion that you want your testimonials to emit.

Make sure any testimonials you receive  have details of the customers experience including results/benefits received, just to say something is “great” does not help propective customers.

Seeing that someone else had the same problem and are now satisfied will get potential clients over a main buying obstacle. It is not unusual to increase sales by 30% or more from having testimonials.

Listed below are a few websites to help promote yourself, they list reviews submitted by clients.

yelp- www.yelp.com
citysearch- www.citysearch.com
angieslist- www.angieslist.com
judysbook- www.judysbook.com

Place customer testimonials on your website- and weave through your site not all on one page! You should also include testimonials in all of your brochures and advertising.

How to get them from clients and vendors- Ask!

Visit this former blog post to get your free customer feedback form that makes it easy to ask your customers for testimonials.

Join us on the next Pet Business Success Circle call on February 10th (next week!) to hear me interview Jordan and find out his best tips for dealing with difficult clients.  Click here to find out how to join us on the call for just $7 and get a bunch of free goodies now!

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