Free booking system for pet sitters
No matter if you are cat sitting, dog sitting, or watching other pets - you need a booking system to stay on top of your game.
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.
“Make it as easy as possible for people to book you ”
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.
“6 out of 10 people prefer to book online ”
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 appointment scheduling system 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.
Run their house on auto-pilot With your new toolset
Sell
Marketing
Payments
Business
Learn
Auto pilot
Overview
No-shows
Customers
Add your service appointments and more
Decide what you offer at your house. Add descriptions for your service appointments, add an image, and best of all set your own prices.
Your day at a glance
See exactly how much your house makes, what your pet owners schedule most and even learn how they made their appointment.
Schedule again
In just a tap your pet owners become regulars. Get the best date and time for the next appointment. No upcoming appointment? You and your pet owners are reminded to schedule a service appointment again.
Sell smart
Add options, durations, variations, preparation time, cleanup time and your duration to help your pet owners schedule.
Define your own duration
Some appointments don’t require your attention the whole time, so you can help another pet owner.
Schedule deadline
Choose till what time pet owners can schedule a service appointment.
Sell
Add your service appointments and more
Decide what you offer at your house. Add descriptions for your service appointments, add an image, and best of all set your own prices.
Your day at a glance
See exactly how much your house makes, what your pet owners schedule most and even learn how they made their appointment.
Schedule again
In just a tap your pet owners become regulars. Get the best date and time for the next appointment. No upcoming appointment? You and your pet owners are reminded to schedule a service appointment again.
Sell smart
Add options, durations, variations, preparation time, cleanup time and your duration to help your pet owners schedule.
Define your own duration
Some appointments don’t require your attention the whole time, so you can help another pet owner.
Schedule deadline
Choose till what time pet owners can schedule a service appointment.
Marketing
Cover your house
Add a cover to your header that matches your house. Impress your pet owners of your house even more.
Your own link
Add your link to your website and socials. A link in bio could boost the appointments of your house up to 40%.
Brand your Vev
Add your logo, show a cover image, customize font styles, and display your address (or not). And everything will get styled in line with your house. That means your appointment page, dashboard, Wallet passes and even every single e-mail that your pet owners get looks like you.
Schedule with a QR-code
Include your QR code on flyers, business cards, stickers and other placements in their house to let your pet owners schedule service appointments by scanning it on their phone.
Policy
Define your own policy, so your pet owners know what to expect. Works perfectly with payments, deposits and refunds.
Page description
Add a slogan for your page to stand out from other houses. Tell your pet owners why you're the best house.
Get reviews from your pet owners
Word of mouth is the best marketing, and reviews are the digital equivalent of this.
Payments
Scan to Pay
Let your pet owners scan your QR for you to get paid. Vev will keep track of who has paid for their service appointment so your house administration is always up to date.
Get paid ahead
Enable your pet owners to pay ahead for their appointment. Only if you want to, you as the pet sitter is in control.
Deposits
Let your pet owners put down a deposit to get their appointment.
No extra payment devices
No need to fill in the amount again. Or sync, connect and charge that extra device in your house. Simply use your phone to have pet owners pay for their service appointments on the spot.
Discounts
It's easy to give your pet owner a discount on their service appointment. Choose a percentage or fixed amount. Whatever works best for your house.
Upsell
Add a percentage or fixed amount to the price of the appointment, in the simplest way possible for you as a pet sitter.
Refunds
Pet owners who've paid ahead will automatically be refunded when their appointment is cancelled. Yet another thing less to worry about for pet sitters.
Payments work out of the box
Payments are set up automatically for you. So you can get paid out of the gate. No need for any set up.
Policy
Define your own policy, so your pet owners know what to expect. Works perfectly with payments, deposits and refunds.
Business
Your overview of service appointments
See exactly who will get what service appointment, and at what time the appointment is due.
Your opening hours
You decide when their house is open (or closed) for appointments.
Choose a time and date
Let your pet owners choose what time works for them. You can decide how strict or flexible you want to be with your time.
Add your breaks
Plan when you want a fixed break. Looking for more flexibility? Turn on smart breaks.
Add 'Me time'
Got a personal appointment? With just a tap you can block time off. This way pet owners can't make an appointment.
Exceptions
Want to open up during public holidays? Or close for a vacation? Your decide when their house is open.
Schedule deadline
Choose till what time pet owners can schedule a service appointment.
Make your accountant smile
Export data of their house on a monthly basis. Including all the information of your appointments. Giving you the information you need.
Sync to your calendar
Automatically sync your appointments to your personal calendar app.
Ahead of time
Set up your booking horizon, meaning how far in the future pet owners are able to schedule service appointments.
Define your own duration
Some appointments don’t require your attention the whole time, so you can help another pet owner.
Notifications for you
When your pet owner make an appointment, cancelation or change you will receive a notification.
Plus, a lot more
There's a lot more coming in Vev+ that will make doing house even easier. But we keep those under wraps for the moment.
Learn
Your month wrapped up
Every month starts with an overview of last months' appointments cancelations and revenue for your house. This way you know exactly how your house is doing.
Your day at a glance
See exactly how much your house makes, what your pet owners schedule most and even learn how they made their appointment.
Auto pilot
Communication made easy
Every appointment, cancelation, change and reminder is automatically sent to your pet owners. Emails are sent in your style so they feel familiar to the pet owners of your house.
Appointment reminders
On the day of the appointment, your pet owner receives a reminder from you. It's send automatically and includes all the information of their service appointment.
Your month wrapped up
Every month starts with an overview of last months' appointments cancelations and revenue for your house. This way you know exactly how your house is doing.
Your own link
Add your link to your website and socials. A link in bio could boost the appointments of your house up to 40%.
Sync to your calendar
Automatically sync your appointments to your personal calendar app.
Add 'Me time'
Got a personal appointment? With just a tap you can block time off. This way pet owners can't make an appointment.
Overview
Your day at a glance
See exactly how much your house makes, what your pet owners schedule most and even learn how they made their appointment.
Notifications for you
When your pet owner make an appointment, cancelation or change you will receive a notification.
Your overview of service appointments
See exactly who will get what service appointment, and at what time the appointment is due.
Focus on your pet owners
Your daily overview of pet owners. Showing you exactly who's you will see today, and an easy way to let you schedule again.
Delivery overview
See exactly where and at what time you need to deliver service appointments. Everything shown on an interactive map to make it crystal clear for you!
Sync to your calendar
Automatically sync your appointments to your personal calendar app.
Your month wrapped up
Every month starts with an overview of last months' appointments cancelations and revenue for your house. This way you know exactly how your house is doing.
No-shows
Appointment reminders
On the day of the appointment, your pet owner receives a reminder from you. It's send automatically and includes all the information of their service appointment.
Policy
Define your own policy, so your pet owners know what to expect. Works perfectly with payments, deposits and refunds.
Change the time
Pet owners can change the time of their upcoming appointment as long as the cancelation deadline hasn't passed.
Add to Calendar
Pet owners can add the appointment to their calendar. This way they receive a notification before their service appointment. The address, travel time and link to their confirmation page can be found in the event details.
Add to wallet
After pet owners schedule service appointments, they get a pass for their digital wallet. When added they get a notification on their phone at the right time. The pass contains all the details like; date, time, location, total cost, payment details and link.
Communication made easy
Every appointment, cancelation, change and reminder is automatically sent to your pet owners. Emails are sent in your style so they feel familiar to the pet owners of your house.
Pet owner details
For pet sitters it's super handy to have all the details of pet owners at their finger tips. Allowing you to send a text, call or email whenever you need.
Cancelation deadline
Decide until what time pet owners can cancel for free. Whenever a cancelation is made, pet owners receive a message including a link to schedule their next service appointment with your house
Pet owner history
See exactly what kind of service appointments your pet owners had at your house last time.
Customers
Notes
Add notes about your pet owners. These notes show up around the appointment, so you can pick up the conversation with your pet owner where you left off last time.
Pet owner details
For pet sitters it's super handy to have all the details of pet owners at their finger tips. Allowing you to send a text, call or email whenever you need.
Customer management (CRM)
See your pet owners in the best way. This lets you build relationships and get more appointments. You can search and find your most valuable pet owners.
Focus on your pet owners
Your daily overview of pet owners. Showing you exactly who's you will see today, and an easy way to let you schedule again.
Schedule again
In just a tap your pet owners become regulars. Get the best date and time for the next appointment. No upcoming appointment? You and your pet owners are reminded to schedule a service appointment again.
Pet owner history
See exactly what kind of service appointments your pet owners had at your house last time.
It's your data
It's your data. The pet owner information is yours. Vev doesn't sell, resell, target or advertise with the data from your house. Of course not!
Get reviews from your pet owners
Word of mouth is the best marketing, and reviews are the digital equivalent of this.