5 Ways Pet Sitters Can Boost Their Business in 2021

There’s no denying that pet sitting businesses had a rough year in 2020. Pet care businesses overall experienced a boom, thanks to the rise in pet adoptions to provide companionship to those working from home, but the “pandemic puppy” trend did not benefit all businesses in the sector equally. While the American Pet Products Association said spending on pet services rose by nearly 4% during the year, dog groomers and trainers were the ones who were quickest to see their business rebound, while the pace has been far slower for pet sitters and dog walkers.

Across the industry as a whole, those who have been able to streamline, innovate and pivot have been those best poised to take advantage of recovery. With health officials starting to roll out Covid-19 vaccines, mobile business app PocketSuite shares the following tips on getting your pet sitting business ready for success in 2021 and beyond.

1. Expand Your Range of Services

While some people are still wary of going out, it’s a good time to add more services that can help them. For example, during the first wave of the pandemic, one pet sitting business added grocery delivery to her offerings. She later expanded that to include prescription and pet supply collection and delivery, and has even dropped off sick pets for some of her clients. If you’ve got at-risk clients, they could probably use the extra help, and may even continue using these services, and lockdowns start to relax.

2. Streamline Your Business Administration

Managing a small business is often time-consuming and complex. Many business owners have separate apps for scheduling client appointments, selling services or products, communicating with clients, and taking payments. And there’s no guarantee all those apps will work well together. One way to reduce time, effort, and overheads is to use a single platform like PocketSuite to manage all those tasks. PocketSuite has a “business in a box” approach, which means everything works seamlessly together. In addition, you don’t need to hire anyone for admin tasks; you can handle those yourself quickly and easily.

3. Create a Customer Community

In uncertain times, your customers want someone they can rely on, and if you start now, they’ll still want to hear from you as operations return to pre-pandemic norms. Some pet sitters have started groups on Facebook or other sites where they can connect with customers and share trustworthy information on the industry, health and safety, and their pets. Start by inviting your current or past customers, and take the time to rebuild that relationship. When they’re ready for petsitting services again, you’ll be top of mind.

4. Use Personal Marketing Techniques

While interacting in a group is a great way to build your community, you can make your marketing even more personal by sending messages straight to potential customers’ inboxes or phones. There are a couple of ways you can do this with PocketSuite. First, you can use the Smart Campaigns feature to send messages based on the information you already have about your customers. For example, you can send different messages to new customers or repeat customers. You can even send greetings for special celebrations like anniversaries. When you send personalized, targeted messages, your customers are more likely to take action.

The second way to message your customers in PocketSuite is via SMS marketing. You can send text messages within the app to remind customers about appointments or payments, or let them know about an upcoming deal. The great thing about SMS is that it’s almost certain your customers will see your messages  - text messages have a 98% open rate!

5. Keep Your Services Fully Booked

As the petsitting market continues its recovery, it’s likely that you’ll have a long list of potential clients. If you’re fully booked, you can create a waitlist within the PocketSuite app. Then it’s easy to either message people on the list if a spot opens up, or have the next person on your list booked in automatically.

While there’s no telling how long a full business recovery will take, what’s certain is that pet sitting businesses who streamline business administration, use smart marketing to reach their customers, and innovate with products and services will be best placed to take advantage of an upturn.