I love getting my nails done. I have had acrylic nails (fake nails for you men out there that don’t know what acrylics are) for six years. I’m not big in to dressing up, getting my hair done or buying shoes but there is something about having nice, long, beautifully done nails that I just can’t resist.
I recently went to my favorite nail salon and there was a new guy working there. I sat down in his chair and after a very long and boring hour and fifteen minutes my nails were done. I was happy with the quality of the work but I had not planned on spending that long at the salon!
The next time I went back, I got a different stylist. I sat down in her chair and in twenty-five minutes I was out the door. I closely inspected the work she had done and my nails looked beautiful! There were no flaws and they looked just as good as when the “new guy” had done them, yet it took her half the time.
What is my point to this and how does it relate to pet sitting?
Menlys Pet Care does not charge for pet sitting based on time. We want our services to be based on QUALITY rather than quantity. We want our clients to know that we are providing them with high quality service rather than a high quantity of time that essentially means nothing to their pets.
Dogs have no concept of time (http://animals.howstuffworks.com/pets/dogs-perceive-time1.htm). So being with your pet a certain amount of time doesn’t make much of a difference to them one way or another. What DOES matter to them, however, is that they are treated the way they are used to being treated. They want the same exercise, playtime, snuggling, food and cleanliness that they are used to when Mommy and Daddy are home.
Pets are as diverse as people. They have different routines and different needs so why would we standardize our pet sitting visits to one flat rate of time?
There are some cats that are extremely shy around strangers and even their presence causes them stress out. So why would we stay an entire 30 minutes just because that’s our “Standard Service” and do more damage than good during our visit?
On the contrary, you may have a 3lb Yorkie that is used to being hand fed each individual piece of kibble out of her bowl, taken for a walk around the block and then snuggled with on the couch before bed. We would rather take our time and provide her with the quality care she is used to, rather than watch the clock and rush her so we can leave at exactly 30 minutes.
By offering our pet sitting services based on quality and not by time, everyone is happy. Your pets get the same routine they are used to with no worries about time constraints, you don’t have to worry about coming home to an extra bill because we stayed longer than 30 minutes at visits and we get to provide the quality care that our business was built on.
