Having an app seems to be all the rage right now. There seems to be an app for everything from rides, dating and now for dog walking and pet sitting.
On demand dog walking and pet sitting is at your fingertips with the Rovers and Wags aka the Uber’s of pet care. In some cases you don’t even need to meet your walker if you have a lockbox and key out. Personally I can imagine not knowing the person who’s coming into my home to care for my pets, they are my kids. Would you let strangers care for your children? I didn’t think so. Out pets are no different. These apps don’t have anything we don’t have or can’t provide but we have many things they don’t. The biggest is we care about our business and have worked years to build that trusting relationship with our clients. We stand behind our services.
Here are some of our differences and then you can decide if a professional dog walking and pet sitting service might better suit your needs in the long run.
1. The first thing to consider is most walkers and sitters for these companies are only in it to make some extra income. I get it; they just want a quick and easy way to earn an extra buck or two. Signing up with one of these companies gives them that opportunity. We actually put in the work and created a thriving company, this is our livelihood, not a way to earn extra money. We’ve been providing professional pet sitting services since 2008, we are not in this for the short term but the long haul.
2. You can choose a sitter/walker from the many profiles on Rover, but take into consideration that they work alone. What is their emergency backup plan should they become sick, injured or have a family emergency. And no your husband is not a good choice for back up. In a true emergency he may need to be with you or you him. I guess they get in touch with the app and ask for a replacement? We have a team of employees, we don’t work alone. If there was ever an emergency with one of our employees we already have you covered, another team member is ready to take over pet care or dog walks.
3. Maybe you are requesting a dog walker from Wag and the person who shows up is not a good fit for your dog. Not all of our walkers can walk every dog on our schedule of but we have a walker for every dog. We take the time to meet you and your dogs and make that perfect match.
4. Apps are a referral service and use independent contractors (IC), issue 1099’s and let them pay their own taxes. I wish we could use IC’s; it would save us a lot of money. But we can’t or should I say we won’t. We both carry liability insurance so if anything were to happen to your pets they are covered, but what if something happens to the walker or sitter while caring for your pets? Dog and cat bites are not uncommon or what is they tripped and broke a leg while on the job. We feel good knowing our employees are covered under state workman’s comp insurance.
5. Who are you going to call if you have a problem with you sitter, the app? Surprise, if you call us we actually answer our phone! If for some reason we’ve missed your call we will get right back to you. We take seriously the actions of our team members.
6. We know our employees. Each one has passed our interviewing process, been background checked, insured, bonded and gone through 2 weeks of training with either an owner or senior employee. We are also in the process of having all our employees certified in pet first aid & cpr. How well does an app know the people they are contracting with? From personal experience I know just because something looks good on paper doesn’t mean the person is right for the job. Yet an app doesn’t personally know any of the people they are offering to care for your pets.
7. You may think scheduling through an app is more convenient. So do we! That’s why we have an online scheduling system, it’s extremely easy and you can do it from your phone. You can also call or email us with any requests too. We don’t restrict you to online only.
8. The dog walking app will send you a report when the walk is done. Guess what, we do that too! It’s not exactly the same as theirs since we have our own system but you get an update with a check list so you know they went potty, were given fresh water, treats etc. We send photos with a short note of how the walk went. Our clients love our journals and look forward to them daily. We send these to both dog walking and pet sitting clients. And behind the scenes we’re (Kim & Jessica) able to read all about what’s going on at all the visits to make sure all is going well. Do you think the app keeps tabs or even cares about what’s going on with its people? I don’t think so.
9. I can see why you might like having a Wag lock box and not having to give out your key. We require a minimum of two copies. One for your sitter/walker and one for the office. All keys have a unique code and cannot be identified. Why two copies? The employee has one and the office keeps the other in case we need to step in due to unexpected emergencies. This way we are not tracking down your key. Our system has served us well.
10. Just like the app, we also accept online credit card payments. Every client has their own personal online account where they can request visits, update client and pet info and make payments.
Although the above was comparing our services to a dog walking app, I hope you all agree that using a local professional pet sitting service is usually the better choice. Everyone one of us business owners has poured our hearts and souls into running a professional company. For those of you in West Seattle, Burien, Normandy Park, Seatac and Des Moines we’d love to hear from you if you are in need of dog walking or pet sitting services. You can learn more about us at https://heart2heart-petcare.com