The adoption experience - saving more lives through great customer service!

Common sense says that animals will benefit if adopters have good experiences when they contact a rescue group. But many in animal welfare shy away from describing their public as 'customers', thinking it somehow reduces their compassionate mission to a mere ‘sale’. “We’re not working for the people, we’re working for the pets”, they’ll say. But caring for animals is only half the job; working well with the public is the often tricky other half.

While potential adopters are enthusiastic about rescuing a pet, unfortunately their decision isn’t always met with the welcome it deserves. Geting a slow, unfriendly, patronising or even no response at all to their enquiries, has the potential to quickly change the public’s perception from ‘adoption is a great option’, to feeling shelters are unprofessional and the adoption process unpleasant.

Things like indiferent staff, inflexible rules, a lack of convenience or dirty facilities all create a negative impression in people's minds and subtly reinforce the message that shelter animals are undesirable or damaged.

Every type of community service, from animal welfare groups to hospitals and schools have the community as their customers; and with all the free publicity generated by the PEDIGREE Adoption Drive, many more of them are going to be interested in the service you provide. You're now marketing, not only the pets you have for adoption, but the idea that rescues and shelters are a great place to find a companion animal.

So how do you care for a customer?

Unlike other businesses who work with the public, we don’t often get a second chance to make up for a poor encounter with us. Our customers may only come to our shelter once, so a bad experience stays with them and colours their perception, and the perception they share with friends and family, for years to come. We need to be aware of how much negative impact an angry, frustrated or dissatisfied customer can generate for your group and rescue as a whole.

Since we only get one shot, it’s important that we get it right. This doesn’t mean the customer is always right, or gets his way, but that we are considerate, compassionate and service orientated no matter what the circumstances.

3 keys to improving customer service

1. Set the tone to positive

How do you like to be greeted when you enter a business, or are received on the phone?

A friendly smile at the front desk and a warm note in your voice when you answer the phone will go a long way to giving the message that potential adopters are in the right place to find a new pet. We might not be able to give this person what they want, but we can set the tone for a positive interaction, by the way we begin our interaction with them.

2. Realise your adopters are nothing like you

Stereotypes and prejudices keep us from seeing a person as an individual. When we use prejudices in our assessment process (ie. all people from the north of the city are bogans who will want a dog for fighting) we are often using criteria that have little to do with their level of pet care knowledge or commitment .

We must challenge any discriminatory views we might hold and base our decisions on the content of each interaction, rather than judging a person for the way they're dressed or the kind of car they drive.

3. Know that great pet owners are made, not born

As a lack of owner education, desexing and ongoing support are the largest factors for pet relinquishment, it seems logical that we’d be trying to replace every “sold for profit” pet with one of ours. We do offer these services and can help owners be better pet-people.

When we fail to provide an adopter with a pet, either directly (a refused adoption application) or indirectly (through bad customer service, unnecessarily complicated adoption procedures or arbitrary rules) we can be quite sure that we have no hope whatsoever in helping that person to become a responsible pet guardian.

Rather than working to find a reason to reject an adoption, we should be looking to make an adoption possible. Use language that's encouraging, not judgemental (ie. "we require a fence to keep our pets safe, could you put one before you adopt", rather than "you can't adopt from us you don't have a fence") and work with your potential adopters to overcome any obstacles.

Our customer service should be based on faith and trust in the community. Our job is to educate adopters and give them the tools they need to help them build successful bonds with their animal companions.

 

An article for Australian groups based on:
Maddies Fund 'When adopters show up'
Shelter Skills 'Animal Friendly - Customer Smart: People Skills for Animal Shelters'

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