By maintaining open lines of communication, you not only showcase the quality of work accomplished but also reduce the risk of theft or client poaching by former staff members. In this article, we explore selected features that address the challenges commonly faced in the pet care industry, including dog walking and front desk staff at doggy daycare facilities. Join us as we delve into these features, providing insights into how they can improve trust, reliability, and risk management within your pet care business.

Please note: While addressing potential negative scenarios may not be the most uplifting topic, it is essential to foster strong and positive relationships with your clients. By implementing effective features and strategies, we can minimize the likelihood of encountering these challenges and promote a harmonious connection with pet owners.

Pictures And Notes

Leveraging Visuals and Notes for Verified Work

Over the years, various software providers have introduced methods like QR codes to validate completed work and verify workers attendance. Numerous instances were shared to us over the years where individuals took advantage of those software processes to shirk their responsibilities, leading to deception of both clients and the system.

At Easy Busy Pets, we prioritize a robust implementation of fundamental measures: Pictures, Videos, and Notes. Capturing real-time photos through your mobile phone within our dashboard offers an abundance of authentic details that is very hard to falsify. For instance, taking a photo of a cat sitting near a chair that was not present the previous day serves as concrete evidence that the pet sitter fulfilled their duties. Adding contextual notes further clarifies the work that was done. Our system also timestamps the entry and identifies the staff member responsible for the submission, ensuring accountability. This feature is particularly useful as other staff members, with appropriate permissions, may access the appointment to generate reports.

By relying on visual evidence, detailed notes, and reliable timestamps, we prioritize authenticity, accountability, and transparency, providing you with a trustworthy platform to manage your pet care services effectively.

Utilize your dashboard to effortlessly report on the pets under your care, or access the appointment directly to include pictures and notes.

Check-In And Check-Out

Ensuring Reliable Pet Care: The Importance of Check-in and Check-out

The check-in and check-out feature plays a vital role in maintaining the integrity of pet care services. By implementing these steps, we mitigate the risk of pet sitters neglecting their responsibilities or cutting short the time allocated for their visits.

With the calendar and dashboard options, you have the convenience of checking in and checking out of appointments. These actions trigger notifications for pet owners, keeping them informed of the progress. Additionally, the management interface displays different stages in distinct colors, allowing you to easily identify whether a job has commenced or been completed.

 

For time-based services, the check-in and check-out process serves as the mechanism to calculate the client's payment to the pet business. Each of your services can be configured accordingly, and there is even a rounding option available. This allows you to account for scenarios such as client delays or additional training time for a pup. By utilizing these features, you can ensure accurate billing and seamless service management for your pet business.

Without the check-in and check-out process, there is a potential for some pet sitters to be tempted to skip visits altogether or reduce the duration of their scheduled time. However, by adhering to these essential steps, our system promotes accountability and transparency, ensuring that pets receive the care they deserve.

Rest assured, with Easy Busy Pets, you can trust in our robust check-in and check-out feature, providing peace of mind and guaranteeing that your beloved pets receive the dedicated care they require.

GPS Location (vs. GPS "Breadcrumb" tracking)

Ensuring that staff members are checking in at the correct address is essential. With Easy Busy Pets, you have the option to enable GPS location tracking, which uses the staff member's mobile GPS and cellular network locationing to provide accurate positioning.

To activate this feature for you and your staff, please follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the "Schedule" tab in your left navigation menu.

  2. Access the "Booking Settings" option within the Schedule section.

  3. Locate the "Appointments" heading and check the box next to "Get GPS location at Check-in and Check-out" to enable this feature.

However, it is important to note that Easy Busy Pets does not provide a feature known as "bread crumbing," which tracks the real-time position and path of the staff member throughout the session. We have made a deliberate decision not to offer this capability due to the following challenges that outweigh its benefits:

  1. It is not effective indoors or in areas with no GPS signal coverage.

  2. The employee has the ability to turn off the tracking feature without your control.

  3. Continuous tracking significantly drains the device battery, which may result in workers losing access to the system once their phone battery is depleted.

  4. The accuracy of the tracking can vary from 10 meters to 1000 meters, leading to potential incorrect reporting to pet owners. Even if the true path was followed during the service, pet owners may become upset if the reported location is inaccurate.

  5. Workers may feel uncomfortable with the level of oversight on their location that this feature entails.

At Easy Busy Pets, we prioritize the balance between functionality, privacy, and usability to provide the best experience for both businesses and staff members.

Over the years, there was a lot of hype around GPS bread crumb tracking, to be able to see the path a dog walker is taking with your pet, to have better real-time data about their current status. 

Worker Permissions

Discover our extensive range of 90+ permissions that can be assigned to each of your staff members. Initially created with just 20 permissions to cater to businesses employing over 100 third-party contractors in the field for various neighborhood services, over time, we have expanded the number of permissions to encompass other areas of the pet care industry, including dog grooming, daycare, front desk, overnight boarding, kennel services, dog training, and more.

Each sector has unique requirements for effectively managing their workforce.

Here are a few examples of the permissions available to you:

  1. Grant employees the ability to control their own availability or restrict access to selected staff members.

  2. Enable specific staff members to process refunds or add new credit cards to client files.

  3. Reserve the privilege of editing pet owner profiles exclusively for front desk staff and management.

  4. Empower managers to manually modify credit balances for pet owners.

With our comprehensive range of permissions, you can tailor access and control to match the needs and responsibilities of each staff member, ensuring a secure and efficient operation for your pet care business.

Forms

Discover the power of advanced form features offered by Easy Busy Pets, designed to mitigate potential issues in the process. Here are a few examples of how these features can help maintain control and ensure appropriate access:

  1. Service Agreement Signatures: Our electronic forms can allow or diss-allow staff members to fill out and sign service agreements on behalf of pet owners.

  2. Staff Member: When a pet owner submits a review about a specific staff member, or their experience, our system allows for selective visibility, ensuring that only the relevant staff member can access and view that part of the form.

  3. Incident Reports: Staff members can securely complete incident reports, with the assurance that these reports remain confidential and are not visible to pet owners.

  4. Vaccines: Forms that stop the pet owner from booking because they weren't filled out or otherwise expired.

These are just a few instances where our advanced form features can enhance security and streamline processes. To explore more about managing forms and leveraging our comprehensive solution, dive deeper into our resources.