D.W.R. - Day 3

N

nais

New member
All right ladies and gentlemen! I'm back for day three, so let's get to it.

Following LCS day 3 recommendations I searched Yelp for similar businesses (regardless of location) looking for poor reviews. A few things I noticed:
  • Everyone seems to do a great job at picking up dog shite.
  • People who use this service do NOT use Yelp.
These results make me question my methods. I am finding that when I go to Yelp directly and input the search terms "Dog Waste Removal", "Dog Poop Removal", "Pet Waste Removal", and "Pooper Scooper" I get plenty of results - for pet shops, dog boarding, pet grooming, etc., but only one or two for pet waste removal. So I turn to Google, use the same search terms plus the keyword Yelp and it aggregates the reviews for me. Sort of handy, but possibly flawed. What do you guys think?

Pain Points

Fortunately for us, there are a few negative reviews for this service around the country. Here are the major complaints:
  • Either the cleaners didn't show up or there was no evidence that they did.
  • There was still dog poo in the yard after the service had come.
  • Lies, lies and more lies.
  • Rudeness / poor customer service.
  • Impossible to contact.
  • One customer mentioned that they signed and paid for a ONE YEAR contract (which was not honored). Whaaaaaat?
  • (In my opinion) poor business practices - such as responding to a negative Yelp review with rudeness, condescension, and snarky remarks.
So. Looking over that list we see that these companies violated all of ScoopPuppy's rules for happy living. In order to crush the competition we must build our selling points and company around the following points:
  • We will be there when we say we'll be there. If we miss your appointment without notice, we will send someone out to do the job right now at no cost, plus the next service is free.
  • We will leave a door hanger / note to indicate that we were there, including the time of our visit. If the customer is not satisfied with the result, we will return to fix it free of charge.
  • No contracts. No-hassle cancellations. No recurring charges for services not rendered. We will only charge your credit card AFTER the service is complete and the cleaner is satisfied with his or her work.Client still not satisfied? We'll make it right or it's free.
  • Calls, emails, texts, skywriting, and / or telepathic messages returned within 30 minutes. I would hate to lose / piss off a potential customer (and their potential dollars) because someone was too lazy to call them back.
  • We will always act with integrity, honesty and respect. If we fuck up, we will admit our mistakes and do everything in our power to correct them to the client's satisfaction. Up to and including full refund, free services, and / or coupons for future service.
I think that's it. As always I appreciate your comments and suggestions. Keep 'em coming!
 
@nais Did your search for similar companies alter your thought process at all? Im looking to start the cleaning business and my search came up the same. In an area of 200k people, not much of anything came up in the search. Not sure if that means the work isnt a high demand here.. or im mining straight gold over here and business is gonna sky rocket cuz theres nothing else remotely close. There are some big time cleaning companies but they seem to be more directed to commercial, even tho they advertise residential too.
 
@dri In my case I have 7 potential competitors on the first page of Google, and Yellow Pages lists 14. As far as I can tell only 5 or 6 are active, and one is a national franchise. This validates my idea, and the question (for me) wasn't "will the market bear another competitor", but "how can I outperform them?"
  • Will I have better customer service? Yes.
  • Will I offer value the others don't? Yes.
  • Will I make it easy for them to do business with me? Yes.
  • Will I be cheaper? No.
 
@nais A good majority of my clients (more specifically who contacts me) are women. Craig's list and seo do the best for me personally. Business cards do jack shit as do giving discounts. I lost a bunch of money from discounts I gave which they didn't even know I offered lol. Plus, i believe they attract cheap people. We don't want cheap people.

But you look like you're heading in the right direction. This is a tough tough start up, that's for sure. But it's a gold mine if you're smart and persistent. I'll definitely be following along!
 
@annrebecca Glad to know where to focus the advertising. I am considering door hangers or flyers for when I have one or two accounts in a neighborhood. Have you tried that, and if so, what were the results?
 
@nais I didn't do door hangers for a couple reasons. One, other companies who have done it say they have a disgraceful turn around rate. Two, I feel I have better things to do with my time. It's personal preference. As I said, what works best for me is SEO by FAR. Next would be Craigslist followed very very closely by Facebook. Facebook is incredible for advertising. Think about it...you boost a post and it goes out to thousands of people. Just one person liking that post goes out to a ton of their friends. Then one of their friends like and it spreads...and spreads....Remember: women 28-55. I get calls from men too (actually have a one time clean up on Saturday for a man) but it's 90% women.

I also recommend charging by the bucket rather than an hourly rate for one time clean ups. What sounds better to you: $60 an hour or $30 for the first 4 gallon bucket and $15 for each additional 4 gallon bucket? I ask customers this and they agree that charging for the amount of work provided rather than how fast we scoop is superior for both parties. In reality they may spend a bit more with this method of pricing. Food for thought.
 
@nais I just wanted to jump in on this, even though it's late in ERA time... My suggestion is go to vets offices, training or daycare centers, and small local pet stores. Introduce yourself, feel the place out, make friends.

This is better than a door to door campaign for a few reasons.:
  1. You're already qualifying your customers, They have pets, a high percentage of which statistically are dogs, and aren't afraid to spend money on them.
  2. Your printing costs are much lower
  3. It's a set it and forget it advertising method, you do it once and it keeps referring customers with little to no interaction on your part
  4. The recommendation comes from someone a prospective customer trusts, as opposed to random person on the street at best, or an annoyance cluttering up their door handle at worst.
As for discounts, I'm currently starting a similar business in my area, and we've decided to instead do a rewards program. Offer $1 off service for each person the client refers to us, starting the month after new client's service. That means if someone wants the service for free, they can totally get it, but they have to refer X amount of people. We're looking into the tracking system for if new customer drops out, adding the $1 back to the the original customer to avoid people having their friends sign up, just to drop out. That being said, if the original customer gets you 75 new customers, they have nothing to worry about. Again, something we're toying with and looking into the logistics of.
 
@annrebecca Sorry to reply to this comment twice, but I just thought of a question - what method do you use to clean up? I only ask because one company here in town does it by hand - literally with their hands. This can't be the norm, right?
 
@nais Lol! That's old school for sure and sounds like back breaking work. I use a corona extendable cultivator. That works well in winter because you need to act like an archeologist to chisel the shit out of the ice. I might get an extendable rake for summer. I also use a large lobby dust pan from home depot which I line with a 13 gallon plastic bag.
 
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