Dogs Love Running! - the blog for pet owners and pet professionals
How To Prevent Your Pet Sitting Staff From Stealing Your Clients
New (and experienced) pet sitting business owners often ask us:
- How do we make sure our pet sitting staff doesn't steal our clients from us?
- Is it risky to let our dog walking staff pick up the money our clients leave us?
The answer to both of these questions is:
Hire the right people, treat them nicely, and you won't have any problems.
I know that's probably not the type of answer you might have been looking for, but it really is the most bullet-proof plan. (how you hire the right people and treat them nicely will be future blog article topics)
So let's say that you've done this part already but still want some extra reassurance. In that case, we'd suggest keeping the relationship between you and the customer instead of the customer and your staff. That means that you are the one doing any/all customer service. You're the one that does the scheduling with the clients. You're the one that is the real heart and soul of the business. And you're the one that collects payment.
f you're the one that the real relationship is with, your customers shouldn't leave you even if they're being wooed by one of your staff members. In fact, they'd probably be so loyal that they'd be calling you and telling you that Jane Doe is trying to lure them away behind your back.
In regards to money, the easiest way to bypass having your clients pay your staff is to do some type of automated credit card billing. This isn't necessarily the cheapest route, but it's typically going to be the most efficient and trustworthy. Paypal can help you with this or you can go to any one of the gazillion-and-one credit card processing merchants you'll find on the internet. Set it up so your clients pay you directly on a regular schedule and you'll make their lives and yours a whole lot easier.