The key to becoming a successful pet sitter often lies in the way that you treat the pet owners as well as the pets. A pet sitter who gives excellent customer service will gain a good reputation and is more likely to attract more clients.

Customer satisfaction should be the major driving force behind any pet sitter, dog walking or pet care business. The customer may not always be right but they should always come first.

Read on for ways you can give excellent customer service as a pet sitter.

Ways to give excellent customer service as a pet sitter

The most important part of building a customer-based business is consistently looking for ways to improve. The pet care market changes rapidly and you should always be on the lookout for ways to do things better. Showing that you’re in tune with customer demand helps show your target audience that their needs are important to you.

To give excellent customer service:

• Set clear, actionable, customer satisfaction goals.
• Live up to the guarantees you make to your customers.
• Respond quickly.  Respond to queries as soon as possible to give customers peace of mind that you value their business and are available to help.
• Be consistent. Make sure that you deliver excellent service every day even if you’re having an off day personally.

Always strive to improve as a pet sitter

We’re big fans of ‘continuous improvement’ here at Pet Sitter Dashboard.  It’s easier to make small improvements every week or month rather than wholesale changes which can seem like a chore.

However, even if you are an excellent pet sitter, things can sometimes go wrong. Be sure to apologise and give confident assurances that the mistake won’t happen again.

In order to improve and give excellent customer service to your pet sitting clients, ask for their feedback.

Here are some ways you can receive feedback for your pet business:

• Anonymous surveys are a good way to get feedback.  Ask people what they think of your service. Is there anything they would change? Is there anything you aren’t doing? Is there anything they would like you to provide? This can be a source of valuable new services.  Tools such as CognitoForms make it really easy to set up surveys using templates, and they have a free plan which is ideal for small businesses.
• Regularly check in with clients personally to make sure they are receiving excellent service.
• Ask your pet sitter clients to leave reviews on your Facebook or Google Business profiles and take on board any comments where you think you can do better. Turn good pet sitting reviews into excellent ones.
• Learn from others. Develop partnerships with like-minded businesses and combine forces to raise the bar across the pet sitter industry. You can meet more petsitters in our Pet Sitter Club and share your tips and knowledge on how everyone can become excellent pet sitters.

Train your staff to give excellent customer service

As your pet sitter business grows, you might start to hire staff to cope with increased demand. Make sure that you:

• Hire employees with the right mindset
• Provide customer-focused training and development to employees.
• Have regular meetings to discuss any queries they might have about being a pet sitter. Deal with problems quickly and effectively to ensure that giving good customer service is a priority to them.
• Write down your processes so that your team can do everything consistently.  This can be as simple as listing steps for each task in a spreadsheet or Word document.

At Pet Sitter Dashboard we don’t just provide an app to help you with your business, we also give lots of helpful advice that will make your job easier and more fulfilling. Pet sitter businesses that provide excellent customer service will be the ones that people hire and recommend.

Get Set Grow​

Free news and advice for dog walkers, cat sitters and other pet business owners.
Small original articles which only take a minute to read.

Subscribe for free and start growing your business today.