Free booking system for pet sitters

When to use a booking system as a pet sitter?

Regardless if you are starting, or if you already have an established business as an animal sitter: you just simply need a booking system. Sure you can text back and forth with customers, they can leave voicemails, or call you whenever. But in this day and age you might wanna offer customers a booking system that they can access 24/7. It’s not only a great way to professionalize your business but if you are competing with big platforms that make booking a breeze, it’s also considered a must.

Speaking of animals, it also frees you from being a sitting duck when it comes to you going about your day. A free system like Vev empowers you with smart tools that for example let you define your service area in driving minutes. This way you don’t have to disappoint customers if they live too far from where you are based. Vev also allows you to deal with payments yourself if customers prefer to pay in cash. In that case, you just use it as a way to keep track of your schedule.

Vev also has some smarts about getting you from point A to B. Travel time is accounted for, and you can set the duration of the various services that you offer.

The system also works the other way around. In that case, the animals come to you and people can select at what time they like to drop their beloved Canine or Feline off. The services can be offered one-to-one, or if you have space for multiple animals at the same time, you can also adjust that quite easily.

How to get more customers for my animal-sitting business?

According to the newspaper The Guardian, almost 9 million dogs have been acquired by households since the start of the pandemic in the US. And a whopping 5 million cats were welcomed into the lives of people from all over the country. Even if you don’t live in the US, it’s an unprecedented increase in the number of furry friends that took place around the globe.

Now that lockdowns are a thing of the past, offices are opening up slowly and people are adjusting to their new rhythm. Some have to be at the office 5 days a week, while others are granted a bit more flexibility.

Finding this group of pet owners is crucial for growing your business. Research shows that it was not just in cities or the suburbs that people welcomed their fluffsters into their homes.

Three sound ways of finding more customers are:

• Put up ads at dog parks and local pet stores. If not the most obvious one from this list, but it’s a proven way. Find places where pet owners come often, and create a little ad for your business. Make sure to include a QR code where people can book your services right away. If you make use of the free software from Vev, a QR code can be downloaded right away from your dashboard.
• Find local (Facebook) online groups. People prefer pet sitters that live in their own community. Spreading the word about your business through a local Facebook group, and apps like Nextdoor are great ways to get the word out. Introduce yourself and let your community know that you are available to help them out whenever. Since this dangles between an “ad” and a “community post”, try to make it less sales-y and focus more on your passion for, and expertise in, pet sitting.
• Ask current customers to refer somebody else. You can make this a running campaign or only do it 3-4 times a year to make it special. It’s key that you give a little reward to both parties. It could be a nice little treat for the animal you are already watching, and perhaps a (small) discount for the new animal you are welcoming to your business.

Can I work as a pet sitter without using platforms or marketplaces?

Yes! These big platforms and marketplaces are a great way to start if you don’t have any clients yet. Or if you’ve watched many animals from friends and family, but would like to gain more professional experience with customers you don’t have a personal relationship with.

When the time is right, it is advised to break free from these services though. And honestly, there are a couple of reasons why:

• Don’t be dependent on one platform. If the platform you are working with has an outage, goes out of business, or is the news because they did something bad. Just three hypothetical scenarios that affect you immediately. The point is, don’t be dependent on one platform, if nothing else make sure people can find you on two services.
• Platforms take a big cut. Granted, they provide a service and make the payment from both parties hassle-free. But once your business is established, you might wanna reconsider how “fair” these fees and charges are. If their cut is 30% of your earnings, just run the math on what’s costing you that per year. And now do it times five, to gain a bigger perspective on how much money they are taking from you over the course of five years.
• Establish relationships. If you are watching a cat or dog here and there as a one-off, it’s all fine. But when you come to people's homes every week you might wanna redefine the working relationship. Especially if you’ve been working with them for over 6 months. Break free from just being a platform worker, and establish a direct relationship with your customer. The biggest reason for them: it’ll also save them service fees that the big platforms charge them.

The free booking software from Vev allows you to run an animal sitting business yourself. It’s up and running in under a minute and you can share the booking link with current customers, and with new ones. You define your service area, and people will see instantly if they can book your services or not. The scheduling can be done 24/7 and adapts to your flexibility. So it’s up to you if you allow last-minute bookings, or if your schedule “closes” let’s say 24 hours in advance.