Customer Confidence: What a Pet Care Facility Can Do To Gain The Ultimate Confidence From Their Clientele with Amy Hillis

Joe Zuccarello:
Hey everyone, this is Joe Zuccarello, your host of the Hey Joe podcast. And this episode is featuring one of the smartest business operators that I know, just really wise in what she does and how she operates her business. But not only is she a business owner operator, but she’s also the subject matter expert on the topic of the Hey Joe Pet Pro podcast episode, which is customer confidence.

A lot of times I’ll be in front of an audience at a trade show doing a presentation and I’ll ask the loaded question, what business are we in? And I’ll get people that raise their hands and they’ll say, we’re in the service business or we’re in the customer service business or we’re in the boarding business or grooming business when really what we’re in is the peace of mind business. And we don’t get there without two main ingredients and that is trust and confidence. And that’s why I’m joined today by Amy Hillis, the owner of Social Pet. Amy, thank you for being part of our podcast.

Amy Hillis:
Hey, Joe, thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Joe:
You know, Amy, I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Social Pet and seeing your multiple facilities there and meeting your team and just getting a, just a couple of days worth of culture dosing from Social Pet. Tell us about Social Pet, but then I would also like to, you know, you’re also heavily involved. In fact, you’re the queen of PACCC right now. PACCC, I’ll let Amy tell you about what that stands for and a little bit about, tell us about you, your backstory a little bit, Social Pet, and then PACCC. And then we’re gonna get into the meat of the podcast.

Amy:
Yeah, where to begin? Let’s start with Social Pet. So it was so great that you could come see us. You know, we’ve had so many conversations and we see each other all the time. So it was great to have you come and kind of see what we do every day.

But social pets is a business that my husband and I own and we do dog daycare, lodging, grooming, and training. And we have three locations in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. We’ve been open since 2014. So we’ll be celebrating our 10 year anniversary of our first location this year, which is really exciting.

Joe:
Congratulations!

Amy:
Thank you. Looking back on those early days, I mean, it’s so amazing to be here. I mean, I remember those early days at the front desk where the phone wasn’t ringing, nobody was coming in. And I remember actually calling our front desk from my cell phone to make sure that the phone worked. And it did, it just wasn’t ringing. It worked.

So, yeah. Why isn’t it ringing? Is it broken? No, it’s not broken. No one’s calling. So we have three locations in the Charlotte area and we were a very high touch experience for our clients. And so just like you were talking about being in the peace of mind business, that’s exactly what we do at Social Pet. So we deliver peace of mind and trust through dog daycare, lodging, grooming and training. So it’s very important for us as a business to be able to support our clients’ lives, the busy lifestyles they lead, whether it’s through their career or having family obligations, we make it possible for them to have the type of dog or dogs that they have because of the services that we provide.

So we’re a larger organization. We have around 75 employees among the three locations and we’re continuing to grow. So, and Joe, that’s what you came for, help us refine some of our grooming techniques and processes that we had going on. So we’re excited to keep that going too. So aside from social pet, like you said, I’m also the chair of PACCC. We, you know, PACCC is a nonprofit third-party organization for the pet care industry. And our mission is to spread the word about the need for certification in the pet care industry. So we have an amazing board of directors that I’m so honored and humbled to be able to lead as we do this. And contribute to this mission.

And then some other things too, I’m also the chair of the education committee for IBPSA. So I get to help choose the speakers and go through that whole application process and make sure we’re delivering quality education to all the members that attend conference. And then I’m also a certified Pet Tech instructor. So I teach pet CPR and first aid to our team at Social Pet and to the community.

And then I’m also fear-free certified. And then of course, a certified professional animal care operator through PACCC as well. So I stay pretty busy with those things.

Joe:
No kidding, right? Yeah. What a busy day.

Amy:
Yeah. Just a little busy, but it’s all good stuff. I love it. I have a passion for it. So it truly doesn’t feel like work. And you’re a mom to pets and a little person as well.

Joe:
Yes.

Amy:
Yeah. So we have two dogs of our own and then we also have our human son, Cooper. He’s eight years old. He’s just a combination of Bill and me, and that comes with its exciting times and also its challenges. So he’s definitely a blend of both of us. And there’s times when he’s acting out or just being himself and Bill’s like, I know you as a child, you’re kind of like getting back what you deserved from when you acted out as a child, but he’s like, I don’t deserve that. Like I was not a part of that. I don’t deserve this. So this is all on you. So, but he’s awesome too. We love him. He’s so much energy and he’s a lot of fun.

Joe:
Eight years old. My goodness. What a great age. Yeah. We went yesterday. Some of the podcast audience knows we’ll be grandparents for the first time in May. So we went for a 4D ultrasound yesterday afternoon and wow, the technology is just… I mean, I was just gobsmacked. I mean, I didn’t, I mean, listen, for this guy, me, to sit in a room and not say anything, it had to be pretty impressive. I mean, I was just like, what can you say, right?

So, but you know, and the reason why I, you know, kind of, we talk about our human families, because, you know, there was a day when, you know, for us that have been in the pet care industry for a while, I started in 1986.

So I mean, I went from the dog is the creature that lives in the backyard to.. I remember the first pet resorts that had suites and TVs. Back then it was a TV and VCR combo and you thought you were like the king’s banana, right? I mean, you were like, you know, you were advanced with a TV VCR combo. We had to put tapes in there, right? Or we, we had it hooked up to cable, right? …to birthday parties, to social events, to… we had, you know, people would call and wanna talk to their pets, right? We put the pets on the phone, to mint turndown service, I mean, you know, minty dog treats, of course. But all of these things, so we went from the dog is a creature in the backyard, and this is important to kind of set up what we’re talking about today. Because we went from the dog is a creature in the backyard to humanization.

It almost felt like it happened overnight where dogs were seen as people. So we had resorts and we had spas and we had spa services and these things that really humanized pets. Pet insurance was born during that period of time in the late 90s, early 2000s. Well, now, now, I think went another step in the evolution of our relationship coexistence, if you would, with pets, and they are part of our lifestyle. They are a companion. And the proof, I mean, you don’t have to go very far. You look at the statistics out there and how young people are sometimes, I think the average is like five years now. Five years they have a pet family before they have a people family, right?

So in a pet care services business, especially in like a pet resort, like what you have, right? You know, when we think of the pet hotels and the pet resorts, you know, we have to go beyond just what you would expect. Feed the dogs when they need to be fed, and medicate the dogs if they require medication, provide a clean environment, right? Those are now are the givens. What we have to do to be above and beyond that to suit the lifestyle needs of the pet parent and their pet companions is better than home experience. And we have to really, that’s why I love that. This is why when I thought about this title, this topic, I thought, I got to get Amy on because Amy, you guys just live and breathe this at Social Pet. And then with your position at PACCC, having now a mechanism to prove that your staff has the education and training. So I want to unpack both of those.

So this podcast is “what a pet care facility can do to gain the ultimate confidence from their clientele.”

Amy:
Yeah, I mean, there’s so much to unpack there, like you said, because we’re seeing that too. We’ve been in business for 10 years now, so not the same amount of time as you have, but we’ve seen that evolution to where pets are part of the family’s lifestyle. And we owe it to that family as the pet care provider to provide an experience that fits right in and even enhances the lifestyle that they have. And for us, that really starts with communication.

We at Social Pet do things very differently from pretty much any other pet care business in our area. And we’ve got over 100 competitors in our area doing daycare and boarding that are operating legally as a brick and mortar. You know, I’m not counting some of these other places, but over 100 competitors. And so, like you said, there is really the fundamental, feed them, water them, keep it clean, you know, deliver them home safely. But for us, it’s the communication that really sets us apart.

So we do small group play and one-on-one play, we do not do large group play. And we stopped doing large group play several years ago because we saw that it was not conducive to what the dog really needed to thrive in our care. And so that was really the turning point for us where we realized it’s our responsibility as a pet care provider, and especially as a pet care provider who has certified professionals to be honest with what’s happening.

And so we do a lot of communication around the small group environment, how we select friends for the dog, what the dog’s day is like. And it’s, you know, I think a lot of times we talk about this word transparency. It’s important to be transparent in our communication. And I think just to kind of tweak that concept a little bit, I don’t think it’s as much about being transparent as it is about being honest. Because the goal is to have a healthy relationship with the pet care provider and then with the pet’s family. And to do that, we need to build trust, we need to collaborate. And then also of course, the goal of enhancing the reputation and the effectiveness of the business. And this really just leads to better decision-making, higher employee engagement, and stronger relationships with customers.

So we wanna make sure that information is flowing freely, and that we have a comfort at our facility in expressing ideas. And so our people who are on the front lines who are talking to our clients, they need to be empowered with the proper education to be able to have those conversations from a knowledgeable place. And they also need to really be able to tell the truth even when it’s inconvenient and feel comfortable doing that because they’re certified, because they have the knowledge to do that. So that can be providing feedback on their dog’s experience, even admitting mistakes because we’re not perfect. We all make mistakes, but admitting those mistakes and providing accurate information in a timely manner. So it’s not… you don’t wanna impede your own privacy and just be transparent with everything that’s going on, but you wanna go back to that goal of enhancing the relationship.

So every service that we have, every type of reservation, any part of the dog’s experience or the client’s experience goes back to enhancing that pet’s and that family’s lifestyle. We do valet and curbside service. That way parents can be in and out quickly in the morning. They don’t even have to get out of their car. They just pull up like a carpool line and we grab the dog and we take them inside. We have several different mechanisms for communication. We wanna make sure that we can communicate in a way that’s convenient for the client. So… phone, email, text, our software. We’re very well trained on how to communicate positively and professionally through those ways. And so that’s what we’ve had to do as a business to really set ourselves apart is to, you know, make sure that everything we’re doing goes back to our mission at Social Pet, which is enriching the lives of dogs and the relationships they share with those who love them. So that’s a little bit how we do that.

Joe:
You know, when you talk about, and what I love about this, and I think really, and that’s why, when I asked you to put together some thoughts, and your number one item was transparent communication. To your point, I mean, you’re not gonna open up the entire world to your customers, but stopping probably just short of the finances. I’ve been there and I’ve seen that, but I’ve also seen facilities to your point of these companies that measure and we still have to measure numbers are important. And keeping a health check on our business from a statistical standpoint is super important.

But I think sometimes we fall into a trap of pets become numbers and people become numbers and our staff become numbers. Or in the worst case scenario is when the staff knows something that the customer should have been made aware of but they’re asked to keep it quiet. I mean, what a culture buster, right? Because what else are, you know, nobody really wants to do that.

And the reason why I said, I think this is so important to have talked about our human families is because there’s a lot of times pet parents, they just don’t know what questions to ask. In human families, we might, you know, we might be looking, let’s say we wanna take our child to a summer camp, right? I would bet before I would have left my kids or you would leave your son at a summer camp. You’re probably “who runs it? Uh, what, what is the reputation? What is the certifications? What happens if the worst happens? You know, what’s the communication?” I mean, you would vet this, but it just amazes me still in the time of this recording in February of 2024, that customers, our customers, pet parents, ask maybe a couple more questions than back in 1986, but not near the questions that they should.

So the responsibility to proactively and openly provide information in a transparent manner to the pet parents about things they would never even know to ask. I think that’s an awesome responsibility of the pet care provider and Social Pet does that because you know, they’re not the expert. They’re the expert in being people parent, whoever is an expert in being a parent, right? But they’re as close as they can get, right? But they’re not an expert in pet care like what we are.

So how can pet parents verify the safety measures, the training, you know, how can they verify? Well, I’m just gonna put it out there. How can they verify that?

Amy:s
Yeah, it’s so true. They really don’t know what to ask. You know, like you said, if you’re shopping for a summer camp or a child daycare, you’re gonna ask these very specific questions about what do you do? What are the credentials? What happens if there’s an emergency? But for whatever reason, there’s still a disconnect between that childcare and then also what’s happening with pet care. And it is absolutely our responsibility as the pet care business provide that knowledge to pet parents without making them feel stupid about it.

It’s not their fault that they don’t know what to ask. And we shouldn’t expect them to know what to ask. So we have to proactively provide that information for them. So for a pet owner to verify the safety measures in place, there’s a lot of, there’s some simple ones you can do. You can go on Google and take a look at reviews. You can, you know, check out word of mouth from your friends about who uses what, and you get some information that way, but you’re also still asking other pet parents. And so you might get an idea of the experience that they had, which is also valuable, but you’re still not necessarily verifying the safety measures in place. And that safety is so critical.

So we always encourage our clients to take a tour. And I know that is something that a lot of pet care businesses don’t love to do because it takes time. It might be interrupting the daily flow of activities. It might happen during a peak drop-off or pick-up time when there’s already a million things going on. But there’s really no better way, I think, to see what’s happening than to go on a tour. And going back to transparency, it does not mean that you show them every inch of your play yard. And of course, there are certain places that you can’t go. But that tour is an opportunity to ask all of those questions and for the pet care provider to share all of that information.

So we personally give a checklist that PACCC has made about what to look for in a pet care provider. And that’s a really great resource because it talks about all of these different categories that a pet parent should be asking about. So asking about credentials and certifications, what type of training does the staff have? Other than new staff training, what do they do for continuing education? What are the certifications that they have? What are the optional certifications that they have? They’re all optional because there is no required certification, but what has the staff chosen to do because they know it’s the right thing to do to get educated? What’s the dog to staff ratio? What type of cleaning supplies are you using? Are they pet friendly? What happens if there’s a fire or an active shooter or a weather emergency?

These are all things that we need to know about. What are the different ways you communicate with me as the pet parent if there’s a problem or even if there’s not a problem, what can I expect from my dog’s day, from that first day to a lodging stay to anything else? So we have to give those information, that information to our clients. And so on the tour, yeah, we’re talking a little bit about here’s the type of accommodations we have and here’s what the daily schedule is.

But the bulk of our tour is talking about the safety, the health and wellness piece and the training piece. And those are very intentional stops on our tour route. So all of our PET CPR and first aid certificates, we stop and we talk about that on a tour. Fear-free impact certification, we stop and talk about that on a tour. We talk about our security measures and our emergency measures and our cleaning and our fire safety and all of these other things. So you have to educate clients so they understand what all goes into this business because we’re not always competing with each other as daycare owners. Sometimes we’re competing with the 12 year old kid next door who can charge 20 bucks a day and supposedly have the same outcome as going to a facility and spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

So, maybe the neighbor next door is great if everything’s fine, but what if something goes wrong? What if your dog starts choking or has a reaction to something? Or what if they have severe separation anxiety? What are you doing then? So we need to really let pet parents know that this is a serious business and that it does require these different safety measures in place. And this is what we’re doing to provide that level of care and that experience for their pets.

Joe:
And you know what’s really great about what you’re saying, and I made a couple of notes as you were, cause you’re just inspiring some thoughts that I’ve shared before. And I just wanna bring up again to the audience, cause I don’t know that it can be said enough, but I’ll bring it up again. And one of the things that I appreciate what you said was, it’s not that you’re necessarily trying to one up or make or belittle anybody else you share your market with, right? That’s not what your goal is, because I’ve seen your approach and I know who you are as a person and as a business owner, you want to just elevate. You want to be able to say this is what we do, this is what we believe is necessary to earn the confidence, earn the trust, earn the money, right, that people are going to spend with you, right. So this is what you do that and in sort of that way you don’t have to be a little another organization, another company, because if they go and take a tour somewhere else, and they take a tour at Social Pet or other businesses that approach, you know, this industry like you do, they’re going to they’re going to get there on their own. They’re going to see the difference anyway on their own. Right. So you don’t need to say what you don’t need to say. Right.

The other part is, is, is when you talk about tours and it might be inconvenient for us, it might be. But you know what? Here’s the thing we got to remember. I always had this rule and I love facilities that live by the rule of 100% tour ready 100% of the time.

Amy:
Yes, absolutely.

Joe:
I always had this thing when I would walk through the facilities that I led for a while, I would walk through, if I ever saw a mop bucket with a mop sticking out of it, I nearly lost my mind. And if any of my previous coworkers are listening to this podcast, they’re probably rolling off their chair right now laughing because it was always my thing. Right? I understand we’ve got to clean. I get that. But unless there’s a person connected to that mop, it shouldn’t just be sitting there.

Amy:
Right.

Joe:
Right? Because now, part of that’s through experience. We had a daycare, a very lively, very popular daycare business. And I had a Rottweiler that on a leash with a pet care provider, walked past the mop bucket, decided he was going to make it his water bowl, took a couple laps of water out of this and ended up with a chemical burn and its esophagus. You know, and so, you know, we learn, right? We learn these things, but being 100% tour ready, 100% of the time really doesn’t leave our staff any wiggle room. It either is tour ready or it is not tour ready. It either is 100% of the time or it’s not 100% of the time. 95% of the time doesn’t count.

Amy:
Right.

Joe:
Right? So it’s easy standards to make standard, right? It’s easy to do. And the other part I wrote down is, okay, so if we’re elevating what we do to elevate ourselves in the market, and we’re tour ready 100% of the time, and we have to get past the, it’s inconvenient for us, right? And the only way that I can, and there’s lots of ways I can frame it in, but the way that I would frame it in is this. Amy, you’ve got three locations. Any given day, you’re probably seeing a hundred plus dogs per day. Maybe 200. Right?

Amy:
Yep.

Joe:
How many dogs you think that pet parent sees that day? One. If they’re, if they’re not, if they own two dogs, of course too, but it’s, let’s just say they only have one dog. That is their one dog.

Amy:
Yes. And that’s what we tell our team. Yep. We tell our team, you see a hundred plus dogs a day to this pet parent. They have this one dog or these two dogs. And so everything needs to be immaculate for that experience. The photos that you take of what the dog is doing that day, we don’t wanna see to your point, mop buckets and a bunch of fencing in the background. We want the dog playing, take pictures that represent their actual experience. And if they’re not having fun and you can’t get a good photo, then they’re in the wrong experience and we need to move them into a different daycare program or a different lodging package, something so that we’re finding what they’re looking for. We say that exact same thing. It’s their one dog.

Joe:
It’s their one dog, right? And so it can’t be, it can’t, we can’t have things, I guess we can’t set the rules for what works for our convenience. Right. Because again, sometimes we’re so close to the business, we don’t see these things. And it wasn’t really until I stepped out of full time in the pet care services business, and I became that client, right? I’ve said that before on my podcast. I became that client. I will tell you the day we stopped bringing our little dog Vinny, our 12 pound Shih Tzu to a full service pet care facility was the day that, and this is not their fault at all, but my wife was bringing him, he was walking across the parking lot and for whatever reason, he went flat. Like, I’m not gonna move anymore toward that business.

Was it anything they did wrong? No. Was it anything he did wrong? No, was it anything my wife did wrong? No. And now she could have scooped him up and forced the issue, which she probably could have, but in her brain, that’s her baby, something didn’t go well and now he’s freaked out, right?

So we had to get past that, right? We had to talk to them and just say, okay, how do we help him pass this, right? Before we can bring him back in. And what we found out was that, you know what? He doesn’t even know he’s a dog, right? He thinks he’s a build-a-bear that must be have come to life, sort of like a PG version of Ted, right?

Amy:
Right.

Joe:
So, but we had to discover that, but because we had trust with that pet care provider, we were able to talk them through that. And there was really no hurt feelings when we said, listen, we’re just gonna get him groomed by mobile. Because he’s just that kind of dog, right? To your point, if they’re not, if their experience isn’t positive, they’re in the wrong experience.

Amy:
Absolutely, and we say that to clients as well. If there is some type of situation or something that we’re not aligned with between us as the business and the client, then we always want what’s best for the dog and what’s best for the family. And usually we think that is with us, but if it’s not with us, we absolutely have that conversation. It does not do anybody any good to have a dog in our care that does not want to be there or is not getting what it needs. And so we train our team on how to have those conversations and our managers on how to have those conversations of this is what we look for. You know, it’s a relationship between us and the pet parent and we need to be aligned.

And if we become misaligned for whatever reason, then that’s a conversation that we have to make sure that the dog is getting what it needs. And if it’s not with us, then that’s okay. We wanna be able to refer to another provider that we also know has safety measures in place that maybe the dog gets what it needs over there versus getting it with us.

Joe:
Yep, yep. So to your point, so let’s explore just a couple of instances, right? So one might be to your point, if this isn’t the experience, right? For the pet or pet parent, I like how you said if we become misaligned, right? Sometimes businesses have this happen and they don’t handle negative feedback well. You mentioned earlier, right? Reviews and star ratings and referrals and recommendations. I mean, I would bet, I know Amy Hillis, Amy Hillis takes reviews out on the internet like super seriously, right? Because I mean, that’s how I buy things from dot coms and I might even do business with, you know, an auto detailer or whatever that is. I’m looking for, I almost feel bad startup businesses because they just don’t, they might have five stars, but it’s only like five reviews. So I mean, somebody’s gotta be brave enough to populate their reviews, right?

But how should pet care businesses handle negative feedback in order to maintain trust?

Amy:
Yeah, it’s so critical that we respond to every single review. And if it’s positive, of course that’s easy, but if there’s negative feedback left, then it’s critical that we follow up because every single time we’ve received a negative review, or maybe it’s all positive, but one little thing, there’s always been some truth to it. Always. There’s always been some way, even the most ridiculous, outlandish reviews we’ve seen, there’s usually some little, tiny little detail in there where it’s like, yup, we probably could’ve done that better.

And so you’ve gotta pick up the phone and call the client. And I see a lot of times where, I don’t wanna blanket it, but I see a lot of businesses who, they don’t wanna call the person and have a conversation. They wanna handle it through email or they wanna handle it through text, or they just wanna respond and say what, quote unquote, actually happened. And there’s of course a place for responding to the review. You need to do that. But you need to have a conversation to understand what’s going on and what happened.

Even if you think you know what happened, I’ve always started every conversation with any pet parent who’s left a negative review or called with a concern with, I heard about what happened, but I wanna hear it from you. Tell me what happened. 99% of the time, they just wanna vent and let it out because they wanna feel heard and understood. And sometimes it’s been as simple as me saying, Yeah, that shouldn’t have happened. I’d be pissed too if I were you.

I mean, there was one time where it was just something simple where like we lost the dog’s leash. And of course the leash came from Disney World, so it was irreplaceable. And I’m like, yeah, there’s no reason why we should have lost that leash. And I get it. I’d be mad too if I were you. And they were like, oh. Thank you. What? Did I?

Joe:
Am I talking to a business owner right now? It’s so lost on society right now.

Amy:
And I would be mad. Like, it’s ridiculous. We shouldn’t lose a leash. I mean, the leash is not leaving the building, so we shouldn’t lose it. And so, you know, we talked about different ways to make that right. You know, we can try to replace it, but you’re not replacing the memory. It’s a very emotional thing, so I understand that. But you know, with our reviews after we’ve had that conversation with the pet parent, and we usually can, but even if we can’t, you’ve got to respond to that negative review on Google or wherever it is and use it as a chance to educate. And it’s a really great opportunity to educate specifically to your target client.

So people aren’t stupid. If the review sounds a little unhinged, then you’re probably, almost a good thing because then anybody who’s gonna see that and take that as a reason not to go to your business is good. You’re dodging a bullet. But if there’s a complaint or something negative about the way you operate and it’s, you know, there’s a very intentional reason why you’re operating that way for the health and the benefit of the dog or, you know, some procedural thing that needs to happen for the best interest of the client and the staff, then that’s a really great opportunity to explain and to educate what’s going on.

You also, I think, need to apologize. And I know different people have different philosophies on this, if you’re apologizing, you’re admitting wrongdoing. And you don’t necessarily need to apologize for what happened. Maybe nothing bad happened. Maybe you’re not sorry, but you’re still sorry that the client is unhappy, I would think. We never want clients to feel like we don’t care. Even if they’re not right for our business, the absolute worst thing is for the client to leave thinking that we don’t care about them. And so at the very least, we are sorry for the experience that they have had, that this experience has had some type of negative impact on their life. We’re sorry for that.

I don’t want anyone to interact with us and then feel worse after doing so. I mean, that’s the opposite of what we’re trying to achieve. So you gotta let people be heard. You’ve gotta talk to them and use those reviews as a chance to educate and to explain how you’re operating, why it makes sense, why it’s best and just really own what you’re doing and be proud of what you’re doing.

Joe:
I get a kick out of, you know, when you say the apology, right? Because some people do, right? They don’t wanna apologize. They see apologizing, like you said, as an admission of guilt. But it’s interesting to me how many people say, okay, I’ll apologize. All right, I’m sorry that you feel that way.

Amy:
Yeah.

Joe:
It’s like, I mean, think about it, really?

Amy:
It’s not helping.

Joe:
You’re sorry that the way I feel, right? What I like is that you tied it to the experience. You didn’t tie it to, you didn’t tie it to you, you didn’t tie it to them. You connected the apology to the experience. And what I like about that is sometimes we get just so, we’re just too close to our business to just give our brains some time to think. And a couple of things that you pointed out, and I’ll just kind of piggyback on that is, I think it’s so refreshing, releasing, to hear you say, most of the, most if not all, of the negative feedback you get is rooted in some amount of truth.

I mean, really, when do we get the most defensive? We get the most defensive when we’re on our heels and we’re on our heels because maybe it’s something that our staff did and we just, we wanna shepherd and protect our staff as much as possible, but if they did something that was boneheaded, I mean, people are people, right? But for you to be able to come out and say, not, I’m sorry for the way that made you feel, but I’m sorry for the negative experience. I’m sorry that we couldn’t, you know, that together we couldn’t have a positive experience together, right?

And then it’s how you recover, right? I always say a good rebound is a good recovery, right? So how do you rebound from that, right? How do you focus on recovery through a rebound? However you wanna, but one thing, and I want the audience to really hear this loud and clear. One of the things we do at Paragon is what we call the PUP directive. And it’s an acronym for pick up the phone.

Amy:
Yes, say it louder!

Joe:
It’s the PUP directive, pick up the phone. Call somebody. We’re so sterilized, I think right now in our society that we’re trying to master, I mean, look at AI, right? We try to master the way we type a response or that we, that we, you know, now we’re relying on machines and machine learning to craft a typewritten text-based response when if you had, if you could just adopt the, adopt the PUP directive or the PUP initiative as we call it, just pick up the phone, right?

Amy:
Pick up the phone, be a human being and have a conversation and just, talk about what happened, apologize for the experience, because again, you don’t want someone to have a bad experience at your business, and talk through it and educate. There’s usually some type of misunderstanding in there and it will work out. And worst case scenario, if you can’t communicate with the client, you can still use that as a chance to educate through the online platform where the review is based. Of what is happening or why it happens or what should happen or whatever the case may be.

So always pick up the phone and then reply in a way where you can educate and build understanding with your client base.

Joe:
Or both! Don’t abandon. If you’ve got a negative Google review out there and you pick up the phone, the Pup Directive or Pup Initiative, and you pick up the phone and you reach some sort of amicable, you know… you write the wrongs, you do whatever, everybody’s happy, right?

Or even if they’re not, even if the decision is still to part ways and, you know, the experience expectation they have is not something that we can meet, whatever, still go back and on the review say, Mrs. Smith, thank you very much for your time today. You’re not going to divulge what was talked about maybe in detail, but you’re just going to say to the world that you didn’t ignore this.

Amy:
Yep. Absolutely. Yep, safe. I’m so glad we got a chance to talk today. Yeah, exactly. I 100% agree with that.

Joe:
Yep, absolutely. So, we could go on for hours, right? I’m gonna pick up one more piece and then I wanna talk about this proof, right? I wanna talk about certification and I wanna talk about how do we, again, it’s just really when you package all of this up, it is all about how we communicate to our customers. And I’m a big fan of looking at external customers. When we think about customers, we think about, you know, the bipeds that are bringing in the four-legged animals, right? But I mean, when I also talk about customers, I also talk about internal customers. So if you want to, you know, you could translate all of this to working toward our internal customers.

And really, you know, I do these JZ10s, these little 10 minute coaching sessions for our Learn2GroomDogs.com members and after a little bit, those become then available to the public on Paragon. But one of the JZ10s that I’m doing right now is about culture, right? Culture and this transparent communication works toward building our culture. So how can businesses leverage this positive culture if we’ve got a good vibe going on in our business, right? Because we’ve got to have that, right? So we’re always trying to get to a positive culture. How can we leverage that to build trust them with our clients? So how does that light bulb shine outward, I guess is what I’m talking about.

Amy:
Yeah, I think our number one client at Social Pet is our people. And it took us a while and by our people, I mean our team, our employees. And it took us a while to get there and to really understand that that’s the right thing to do and to really feel that. And I think it’s really hard when a business is in startup mode because you’ve got to get dogs in the door, you’ve got to make a profit, you got to get that revenue so you can keep the doors open for sure. But I think your employees are your number one client and if you treat them well, then they will treat the clients well and the pet parents well and be an extension of you.

So, you know, we all know that hiring and people’s view of work has changed since COVID. We know this. People want to believe that what they do matters. And we’re in a really great industry for that. You can make money doing something that you love while making a difference for dogs and for people. And I think really, it’s not for the first time, but I think it’s becoming more embedded in what we do, that there is a career path in pet care now.

There’s a viable career path in pet care where it’s not just this, you know, after school job or summer job before you graduate and do what you really wanna do. And as business owners, we owe it to our team to include that in our culture so people can really see why what they’re doing matters.

And so culture starts at the top of course. We as business owners have to model a type of communication and the type of relationship building that we wanna see in our business. We wanna model our mission, we wanna model our core values, and you can really feel that I think when you walk in the door. If your team believes in what you’re doing, then so will your clients. So give your team the education that they need to understand why what they’re doing is the right thing to do. And then also give them the education about why it costs what it costs, so they can feel really confident.

You want people to feel confident at work and you want them to have that strong sense of teamwork so they can see how each person in the building is impacting that pet’s experience. It’s not back of house versus front of house and which one has the harder job. Well, front desk gets to sit down sometimes, so they’re easier. That’s not, there’s no place for that at Social Pet or really anywhere, so you’ve got to educate your team, just like you would educate the pet parents on what they should expect from a really solid pet care business.

So you leverage that positive culture, you can build trust with clients, and you can showcase to your clients how well your team works together and what they’re doing to have a positive impact on the pets. You can do that through social media so easily. I mean, when we look at our engagement and things on Facebook and Instagram, our highest level of engagement for photos and for reels and videos is of our team and our team interacting with dogs. That’s where we get the highest engagement is celebrating our team, showing them at a pet CPR, first aid class or at an event, or doing a bedtime belly rub and tuck in or something like that with our dogs. So showcasing that on social media, sending newsletters out, that’s something else that we do to help pet parents understand what it is that we’re doing sort of behind the scenes.

We want to send a welcome gift to new clients. That’s something that we’re gonna start doing in March, but we are excited that clients are coming to us. It’s going back to what we were saying before, they’re not an inconvenience. They’re the reason that we exist. And we really need to show that we appreciate them, not just when they’re new coming for the first time, but reminding them of why we appreciate them. And so when you give that education to your team and create a really great place to work, then that’s easily gonna rub off on your clients.

Cause as the business owner, you can’t do that. Even if you work in the business, you can’t touch every single piece of your business and every client every single day. You’ve got to distribute that from the top down and distribute it throughout your people. So showing that appreciation to your people and empowering them with knowledge so they can then do the same for their clients. That’s how we do it at Social Pet.

Joe:
Yeah, that’s fantastic. And, you know, and again, who listens to this podcast? We’ve got all types of different audience profiles and different types of listener. But by and large, most of the people that are listening to this, or a good faction of the people that are listening to this are business owners or managers or operators of business. They have people that are working for them and such. And to hear that from somebody who’s got that culture right now, right, might be hard.

It’s hard for somebody that might be struggling out there with maybe some toxic employees or they just haven’t found their way or they just, you know, the combination hasn’t worked out. And to your point, we’ve all experienced that. We’ve all been there, but it’s sort of like having like the most fit personal trainer tell you to exercise. Right? I mean, it’s like, yeah, well, it’s easy for me. Easy for you to tell me to do that. You could like… you know, run around the globe and be back here, you know, by lunchtime, right?

But, you know, I think it requires work. It requires work. It requires attention. Sometimes it requires some big, bold, brave moves, even though it might hurt at first. Does it feel better after you heal, you know, by relieving the pressure? Sometimes we’ve got that person and we just, sometimes we just have to invite somebody to go and find something that geeks them. Right. And sometimes they feel stuck too.

One thing I do know that is usually pretty true that if we’re frustrated with somebody in a relationship, usually the feeling is mutual.

Amy:
Yes.

Joe:
And it hurts. Sometimes we lose people that we’ve had for quite some time, but we have to quickly get past that. We have to say, okay, this is an opportunity for us to be better. Right. Let’s go find somebody that does at minimum, maybe what that person did plus some. Let’s go find that person out there and they’re out there. So, you know, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater and get all boohooish. I mean, we do it first when it happens to us or we have to let somebody go.

So let’s talk about as we close this out, this episode, and I can see what you and I are just going to have, we’re going to have more episodes. I’ve been writing notes about like specific areas of focus for us to talk again on the podcast, but to the Hey Joe Pet Pro Podcast listener audience out there, talk about certification and whether it’s PACCC. I know PACCC is, and can be very influential in a business conveying this trust and confidence with our customers, but also PetTech, right? Or some form of Pet First Aid and CPR certification. I mean, there’s different providers for different things. So, you know, and we’ve got, you know, uh, each has, I’m sure pros and cons, but just certification in general PACCC is, I think the only one that I think is doing what PACCC does though, right? So talk about PACCC specifically.

Amy:
Yeah. So like you said, there’s so many great certifications and cert certificate programs out there pack is a little bit different. It’s an independent third party certification. And so what that means is that it’s not take my course. Pass my test. And then you get a certificate to hang on the wall. It’s almost like the BAR exam for lawyers. That’s what PACCC is for the pet care industry. So you need to get your education from trustworthy sources. And we will recommend those to you.

But ultimately it’s up to the professional to get their education based on what’s in the handbook and the content outline. Get the education from your reputable sources that align with the content and the outline and that align with our code of ethics. We’re not gonna tell you where to get your education. Just like the BAR exam doesn’t tell you where to go to law school, we’re not gonna tell you where to get your education. You get your education wherever you get it, and then you take the exam, and there’s three different levels based on where you’re at in your business. And once you pass that exam, then you are certified for three years.

And so this is a key difference with PACCC from some of the other ones is that you then have to get continuing education in order to recertify every three years. You need a certain number of hours, again, based on the level of certification that you have, whether you’re hands-on with the pets or a manager or an operator, you need those hours to then be able to recertify.

The other thing too that makes PACCC unique is that it’s revocable. So if you are a pet care professional and you are acting in a way that does not align with our code of ethics, and that’s blatantly disregarding that, then we can revoke your certification. And we have had to do that before. We just did it this last year. There was a situation with a provider. We examined it, we did a full investigation, and we had to revoke this person certification because of the way that he was treating the dogs.

And so, PACCC is really unique in that way because you can trust that the person knows what they’re doing. They’re good at it and they’ve proven it through certification. And not only did they get that certification, but they’ll be recertifying by staying current on best practices.

So that’s not to say that if you’re not certified, you’re bad at what you do. You still might be fantastic at what you do without a certification, but without that certification, it’s just harder to build trust with pet parents. Because again, going back to what we said at the beginning of the conversation, they don’t know, they don’t know what to ask. They don’t know what to look for. They think if you’re nice and it smells good, then you’re good to go. And there’s something to be said for that, but that’s not where it ends.

So a lot of times when we have these conversations about why should I get certified, I’m already full, I’ve got all the business I need, my clients already trust me. Well, that’s great, but you don’t know what might happen in the future that’s out of your control. And we all learn this with COVID. At any point, all of this can go away and you better have something in place that differentiates yourself from everybody else who’s doing this in your town.

Even if there’s not many, even if you’re not a Charlotte, North Carolina with hundreds of providers, you better have something that shows that you know what you’re doing and you’re good at it. Now there’s lots of certifications out there and we have a lot of those too. We’ve got a Pet Tech where we train our people in first aid and CPR, that’s a great one. Fear-free certification is another fantastic one. There’s grooming certifications, of course, and training certifications. And so I think as a business owner or as an operator, you need to find the certifications that make sense for you and for your business and pursue those and then talk about them.

If you get those certifications and then do nothing with them, then yeah, it’s probably not gonna do anything for you. But if you get those certifications and you implement that knowledge and those best practices, and then you showcase to your pet parents what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, because you have these certifications, that builds peace of mind, it builds trust, and it really helps tie everything together, I think, for how you’re operating and why you’re doing what you’re doing. So getting these different certifications has really been the best thing that we’ve ever done for our business.

Joe:
Well, what I would like to, okay, so I’m gonna make a commitment to you that we’re gonna unpack certifications, unpack, we’re not gonna unpack it, but my point is, is, you know, individuals can get certified, facilities, businesses can get certified. And I think a future topic that would deserve a whole episode is, employees are hard to find, good employees are hard to find. They’re hard to keep, right? To your point, expectations and, you know, wants and needs are defined differently in a post-COVID world, right? But we know that 80% of the, 80% of people that leave a job leave it because they become disengaged. Somebody else paid attention to them. Somebody else, you know, maybe engaged with them.

Learning and certification is certainly a form of engagement, and people like to accomplish things. People like to get that, not maybe from an egotistical standpoint, but just a sense of achievement standpoint. And what I’d like to do is I’d like to promise a Hey Joe listener audience that we come back and we talk about retention of employees and even a stronger culture because of our retained employees through certification.

Amy, thank you so much for the Hey Joe listener audience out there. All things that we talked about today are going to be, there’s gonna be links, Amy’s providing links and resources and a variety of information and all of that can be found. Again, do not go to the website if you’re driving, right? Just go to, just remember ParagonPetSchool.com and go to the podcast resource center and all of the things Amy talked about, links are packed and heck, go visit Social Pet if you’re in the area. She’d love to have you 100% tour ready, 100% of the time, right?

But Amy, thank you so very much. I’m sure the audience got a ton of helpful information from this episode.

Amy:
Thank you so much for having me. I hope so. And again, there’s so much to talk about with all of these things we touched on. So I’d love to come back and have more of those conversations with you.

Joe:
We will certainly do that. Thank you.