ould some of your well-intended decisions be choking your business? No business owner or manager wants to suffocate their success, but so many accidentally do. More and more pet care facilities have put up “revenue roadblocks” without even realizing it, especially since the post-COVID surge. These decisions were probably reasonable during staffing emergencies and when customers were beating down your door to get in, but, in this new era of inflation and uncertainty, those same choices are likely getting in your way.

Smart and caring pet care facility owners strive to deliver excellent pet care and human customer service, all while maintaining a healthy, growing business. Along the way, most businesses encounter difficult customer or pet situations and add or change policies in response, which is natural, and part of adapting and evolving into a healthier business. However, in the heat of problem solving, it’s easy to create restrictions that can end up doing more harm than good. It’s a delicate balance between practical policies and staying flexible enough to appeal to customers—especially new prospective pet parents.

Here are seven of the most common revenue roadblocks to reconsider in your own pet care business:

Tour Limitations

Do you like giving tours to new customers? If you’re like most busy owners and managers, the answer is “No!” Let’s be honest; tours often feel like a massive interruption to your business—especially if you perform them well. COVID had prevented many of us from giving in-person tours, so some facilities developed virtual tours as an interim replacement. But, that’s no longer enough for many pensive pet parents.

Discouraging or limiting tours to certain hours or days feels deceptive to some prospective customers. Pet care is trust-based and mostly invisible, and many customers insist on transparency. It’s tempting to offer tours only when it’s convenient for you; however, these limitations can be an obstruction to some of your most valuable new customers.

High-quality, in-person tours are critical to help reassure the most anxious (and often most lucrative) pet parents. Since pet parents have so many choices for pet care, tours are a great way to help your business differentiate itself from your competitors. Train key staff members to provide concise, compelling, and consistent tours during all business hours and then verify they’re being conducted appropriately. Improving your tours is a great way to boost your revenue.

Required Tours

On the flip side, some businesses have taken tours too far by over-encouraging or even requiring all new prospects to come in for a tour. While some customers want to come in for a tour, most are willing to book without touring first. Requiring customers to come in before their stay is a big ask and should only be done when truly necessary, or at their request. No matter how beautiful your facility is, most customers don’t need to see it to make the decision to have their pet stay with you.

Meet & Greets

Similarly, some facilities require all dogs to visit the facility before their stay for an assessment of some kind. This is a serious bottleneck for your revenue. Meet & greets are appropriate in limited cases, but requiring all dogs to come in first severely limits the number of new customers you’re able to accommodate—especially during busy times. It also drastically limits the number of customers who are willing to jump through those hoops. And, that’s not even calculating the heavy labor costs that this extra step requires.

There are many benefits to having dogs visit before their first lodging stay. For example, the dog is often more comfortable after getting more experience with your facility; you can sometimes also assess the dog for your social play services; and the pet parent can sometimes be more committed and engaged after the experience. But requiring an assessment for all dogs prior to their first lodging visit shouldn’t be necessary and will ultimately stunt your growth and profitability.

You can accomplish most of these benefits without making it a requirement. For example, you can do the social play assessment during one of the first few days of lodging and offer other play options in the meantime. Requiring meet & greets can be reserved for statistically higher-risk dogs. But requiring an evaluation for all dogs prior to lodging is especially risky during periods of economic uncertainty.

Client Restrictions

As professionals we’re expected to take every step necessary to protect the pets in our care—and that may include breed, behavior, age and health restrictions. While many facility owners wish they could accept all dogs, it’s not always possible or reasonable. Certain breeds and behaviors pose an added risk and are even excluded from many homeowner’s insurance policies. If you do restrict breeds, good communication is key to help pet parents understand why, and to reduce negative feedback and reviews.

Age and health restrictions are similar issues. When dogs reach a certain age or are facing failing health, there’s statistically an extra risk of the dog not doing well in your care. When you decide that you’re not the best fit for a dog due to the pet’s age, health, breed or behavior, providing the pet parent with alternative options goes a long way in reducing their frustration and maintaining your business’s reputation.

Full or Partial Deposits

No one likes a no-show, but it happens in all pet care facilities. They’re terribly frustrating and costly, and a knee-jerk reaction might be to implement fully paid reservations or large deposits. Airlines and a lot of hotels do it, why shouldn’t we? The answer is, the larger the deposit (or full payment), the bigger the reason for customers to hesitate to book with you.

Depending on your market and needs, you may also consider taking modest deposits only during peak periods. This can help reservations stick during the most valuable times of year. At the same time, it removes a potential roadblock when your facility is less busy.

Vaccination Requirements

Pet care facilities require numerous vaccinations to keep their guests as safe as possible. Most facilities require vaccines for rabies, distemper and Bordetella. But with the increasing prevalence of canine influenza, many facilities are opting to require this vaccine as well. Most dogs won’t have canine influenza as part of their routine vaccinations, and the pet parent may not be expecting you to require it; in fact, some pet parents may not have even heard of canine influenza or its associated vaccine. This makes good, proactive communication with all prospects and clients essential to minimize issues during booking and check-in. Another option is to “strongly recommend” but not require the canine influenza vaccinations year-round.

Of course, there’s no universal answer for vaccination requirements, so each facility needs to make their own decisions based on location and situation. However, due to veterinarians limiting the number of vaccinations given in one visit and the time period from when the vaccine is given to when it is considered active, requiring more vaccines can be an additional roadblock for customers.

Answer Your Phones

One of the largest revenue roadblocks for this business is how poorly most facilities answer their phones. Some facilities miss over half of their calls! Unfortunately, some facility owners still treat the phone like an annoyance instead of a golden revenue spout. Taking care of your phones properly means having enough trained and equipped personnel answering the phones. Just as important is verifying their performance by listening to recorded calls, tracking their conversion, and re-coaching and re-tooling as needed.

Because business owners were short staffed during post-pandemic travel surge, answering the phone became even more inconvenient. Some owners felt that redirecting new clients to an online form or reservation system would reduce the number of phone calls, which is true; however, I assure you this decision is a sure way to restrict revenue. The “nothing is too good for my baby” customers expect more than “go to our website and fill out a form.” This is a highly emotional and personal business, so how you treat your new pet parents is as important to your business health as how well you treat pets.

At the end of the day, well-applied policies can help shape your business into its healthiest self. They can foster good communication and clear expectations with both prospective and existing customers. Be strategic about each restriction and don’t overreact by placing unnecessary barriers. It will really help propel your business forward!

Laura Laaman is president of Outstanding Pet Care. If you’re interested in any of the strategies in this article, or any of our other proven and guaranteed services, schedule a consultation by calling 1-888-735-5667 or vising www.OutstandingPetCare.com/contact.