This is a guest post from Gingr's partner, Broadly.
The busy season is upon us, and that means local pet-care businesses are scrambling to get everything done. If you're feeling overwhelmed by the thought of managing your business during this hectic time, don't worry — we've got you covered.
Here we share our tried and tested tips to help simplify business operations for your pet-care business and get through the busy season with minimal stress.
Tips and Tricks for Simplifying your Business Operations
Whether it’s staffing challenges or that you’re struggling to maintain a competitive edge against your local competitors, the more you simplify, the better off you’ll be. Here are some tips to help you streamline your business operations and easily make it through the busy season.
Learn what to outsource
If you find yourself with more pet care or administrative tasks than you can handle, it may be time to outsource some of your business functions.
Outsourcing can be a great way to simplify your business operations and free up time to focus on core functions and business strategy.
Outsourcing can also save you money in the long run. For example, hiring a freelancer with expertise in a particular domain may be more cost-effective than figuring it out for yourself, especially for one-off projects.
However, you can also opt to outsource certain functions in your pet-care business to a software service like Gingr’s user-friendly dog daycare, kennel, and grooming software, which can help you modernize and streamline your pet-care business.
Another example is a reputation management software like Broadly that can help you automate review requests from your happy customers and post your reviews to your favorite business review sites.
Practice time management
Trying to do everything at once can be tempting when you feel overwhelmed. But this leads to more stress and less productivity. The key to simplifying your business operations is to focus on one task at a time and manage your time wisely.
Start by creating a to-do list of everything you need to accomplish, then prioritize the tasks by importance. Once you plan for what needs to be done, you can focus on one item at a time and get through your to-do list quickly.
Remember that you don't need to reinvent the wheel for every task. To streamline your business processes, you can use templates or standard operating procedures (SOPs) for routine workflows.
For instance, if you run a pet grooming business, you can create checklists for certain types of animals or breeds to standardize how your team members perform their grooming tasks.
Use the right tools
The right tools can help you save time and energy on repetitive administrative tasks.
In the pet-care industry, there are many technology solutions available to streamline the customer experience. Pet business software like Gingr can automate scheduling, confirming appointments, and sending reminders.
You can also use a customer reputation management app such as Broadly. Broadly helps you automate follow-ups and review requests, offer mobile payment options, and streamline communications with customers and prospects, all from a single app.
By automating repetitive tasks, you can focus on high-value activities to improve your bottom line.
Speaking of tools — use mobile solutions
The Gingr for Pet Parents Mobile App helps pet parents book appointments and manage their profiles from anywhere.
Investing in cloud-based platforms that allow you to work or respond to potential customers from anywhere can be a complete game-changer.
You can save time and boost productivity when you are not tied to a desk. In addition, it will reduce your customer response time, improve customer loyalty and get better online reviews.
You can go a step further and use automated tools such as Broadly, which can help set up saved replies, send feedback requests, and appointment reminders. In a service-led industry such as pet care, where customers expect constant communication, this can quickly become a necessity. This way, you can ensure timely responses without having to type out hundreds of emails a week.
Features like Gingr’s integrated mobile payment processing allow you to accept credit card payments online and on-site, eliminating payment errors in your accounting system and saving precious staff time.
Invest in reporting
Determine your current baseline and set up reporting standards to measure the areas of your business where you can improve. Review metrics regularly to ensure continuous improvement.
For instance, if you want to track customer reviews on social media sites, Broadly’s Dashboard can show you how each of your locations is performing across review sites.
Tracking metrics can help simplify your business operations by focusing on areas where you can save time or money. You will get a good idea of the ROI from your investments, and you can adjust your strategy accordingly.
For example, Gingr’s reporting features make it easy to draw insights from financial reports (revenues, taxes, commissions/tips), daily operational reports (feeding, medications), user success reports (user logs, birthdays, vaccination status), and more to help you find efficiencies and improve profit margins.
The Key to a Happy Summer? Keep it Simple!
Simplifying business operations is the most significant way to reduce stress, save time, and boost productivity. To a pet-care business owner with countless priorities, it might be challenging to know where to start.
We hope this guide will help you have a stress-free summer!
