Stuff is stuff. A house is a house. Where you live is just a place.

But this guy has realised that by putting it all in context and giving it a story brings with it a lot of potential. He’s not just selling his things, he’s selling his ‘life’ by starting a website (alife4sale.com) and putting the lot on ebay.

A pet is just a pet. It’s only when we give it a story that it you captures peoples’ imagination.

I’ve just finished watching these two animal adoption DVD’s Training Your Adopted Dog and Cat and I have to say they’re exactly what I hoped they’d be; simple, positive training tools for new pet owners. Really, really good stuff.

While they’re a little ‘American’, I think they’re a great interim solution if you’re looking for something to add to your adopter kit. They sent them to me for free, so I guess negotiating a international price is something they’re open to. Anyways, definitely worth having a look.

Often when people protest the cost of buying a rescue pet they get a diatribe “you’re getting a bargain!” We proceed to tell them how much desexing and vaccinations cost and all about our extensive bill at the local vet and how our organisation rarely covers costs and how time is running out for them and THEY NEED SAVING!

But does any of this help someone who thinks rescue pets are expensive realise they’re actually mistaken?

Sorry – nope.

You’re much too late to change persons’ opinion of you by justifying your adoption fees – clearly, they already know what they think you’re worth. And you have a problem – they don’t think you’re worth what you’re charging.

So what would happen if you doubled your prices tomorrow? Do you think you’d lose clients? How many do you think? And why?

Meanwhile, in retail customers don’t flinch at spending $1,500 on a pet shop bought puppy and here’s the reason; that’s what they think they are worth.

Warm, fuzzy pet images are everywhere – people buy these pets because they are romantic and emotive. Puppies are full of potential and new oodle mixes are promoted as ‘the perfect blend’. That’s what people will pay for – the promise of satisfaction.

By always keeping our prices low and purporting what a bargain rescue pets are, we’ve trained our clients to want their pets cheap. And cheap means faulty. Or damaged. Or common. No wonder we attract people looking for ‘discounts’ and have trouble convincing people that our pets are worth the money!

So how do we turn this around?

By recognising in 2008, people are adopting for reasons
much more valuable than price.

Conscientious purchasing is all the rage – people like to feel like they’re doing the socially responsible thing and they get to tell all their friends how they ’saved’ their pet… so people buy rescue pets to feel heroic.

They want a pet that says something about them. Reflects who they are. Fits their image and whether they’re actually realistic or not, has the potential to live up to their expectations. Something to nuture. Something to love them. Something that fills a need… So people buy pets because owning a pet validates them.

And this is why designer dogs sell like hot-cakes; their image is that of the ‘perfect, snuggly-wubbly friend’ saved from a glass cage. Who wouldn’t get sucked in?

Rebranding rescue

Now, we in rescue would never claim to sell ‘perfect’ pets, but there is one way we can rebrand ourselves that will put us head and shoulders above all our competitors AND allow us to continue to run the ethical organisations we all strive to have.

First. Repeat after me; I will not refer to my pets as a bargain. Or free (shudders). By selling cheap pets, we train our public to expect cheap pets. Not good for many, many reasons.

Second. Acknowledge that if an adoption doesn’t work out, we WANT the pet to come back to us. So guilt-free returns MUST be part of our program. No ifs or buts.

Third. Money. If you’re truly putting pets before cash, then where’s the benefit in holding peoples money if they’d just rather have it back and return the pet? Just because it’s reasonable, doesn’t make it worth jeopardising your relationship with the public to doggedly press the issue. Have an incredibly generous returns policy (say, full money back guarantee for one year after adoption). What are you really risking?

If you’re offering all these things, suddenly you’re not selling pets; you’re offering a pet matching program that helps people find the pet that’s just right for them… satisfaction guaranteed. Save a great pet in need!

If you were looking for a pet, how much would you pay for that?

When was the last time you gave a ‘revolutionary’ new idea in your group genuine consideration? When was the last time you took a new idea and implemented it?

It’s easy to identify your last pet collection, your last food delivery, your last donation drive; your last adoption.

But when was the last time your group said “Yes! Maybe we could be doing this better – lets try… X”

It’s really easy to get bogged down in the every day.

It’s really easy to forget to look outside your group for inspiration.

It’s really easy to be so in love with your ideals, that you’re blind to the need to challenge them.

And it’s really, really easy to just keep doing what you’re doing.

But you must evolve – not because you want to, or because it is in any way a comfortable experience to do so – but because if you don’t you’re sunk. Someone else will come along and start doing what you do and they’ll have fresh legs and brand new shiny enthusiasm.

Wouldn’t it be better to keep your headstart?

I’ve just watched a delivery man push a photocopier up two flights of stairs.

This guy has walked in, seen stairs and instead of speaking to someone, he’s said to himself “I can’t believe these people – don’t they know how hard my job is?”…huff… puff… grumble….

The bad news for him is that – if he’d asked – I’d have shown him our lift.

I know your last customer was a moron. I know that you see people make the same mistakes over and over, that you’ve got a job that’s hard and you feel unappreciated. But why are you blaming me? I’ve never met you before!

When serving your clients, you need to treat each as an individual. Give each of them a chance to impress you. You have to do this, or you’re going to hate everyone.

And you might feel foolish when no one tells you about the lift.

When I was working at PetRescue our whole aim was to bring in as many potential adopters as we could, then match them with as many available pets as possible. ‘Throwing the net wide’ is a hugely beneficial strategy on the inter-web, with most successful sites being based on this premise (think Ebay or Seek).

Today, thanks to a united effort amongst rescue groups, PetRescue receives over 2 million Australian visitors and has thousands of pets listed each year. Therein lies its value; no individual group could ever hope to receive so much web exposure.

Saving Pets is almost exactly the opposite – it’s as specialised as any website could get; general interest marketing for rescue groups. Suddenly every single visitor takes on brand new significance.

When my visitor counter ticked over to 200 tonite, I did a small loungeroom boogey. When one person wrote to me with criticism, it left me rattled. But (and probably most importantly, when you’re dealing with a small supporter base) if I want to keep my new visitors coming back, I’d better be the best damn general interest marketing for rescue groups blog there is!

Now you do have to make a decision about whether you’re going to broadcast wide or hone in on a particular fan base, but I’d say for most rescue groups, large scale promotion is out of the question – specialisation is where you’ll find most rewards.

Know who your supporters are. Work out where your most suitable adopter are. And think about the 1000 True Fan rule when you deal with your supporters. Realise though, that specialising comes with mammoth responsibility; actually doing what you say you’ll do, treating people extraordinarily and recognising every single one of your supporters as individuals.

Saving Pets is only a month or so old and is still on wobbly, baby legs, but I’d like to take this opportunity to thanks each of you for visiting and being part of it. I really hope that we can do something special.

Cheers,
:)shel

Right now animal welfare organisations are working hard on getting pets banned in pet stores and the public is rapidly becoming aware of the issues surrounding puppy farms and BYB. This is a tough time to be in the pet shop industry from an image perspective but, understandably, pets stores continue to reject any changes that are seen to restrict their trade.

But if experiences overseas are anything to go by, with the two largest pet stores in the US (Petco and PetSmart) and Pets at Home UK now offering adoption and limiting pet sales… make no mistake, the smart players are recognising that there is money to be made by aligning themselves with rescue.

Every bit of evidence we have says the people who buy pets from stores aren’t evil – they do however make bad decisions. They get a puppy because they like the way it looks, they aren’t given adequate follow up support and make errors leading to basic (or not so basic) behaviour problems. The bond between pet and owner deteriorates and the dog finds himself homeless the next time the family wants to go on holiday.

Why are we surprised by this still? Why are we still blaming ‘irresponsible’ owners, when it’s the system that has set them up to fail? 

 

Pet stores, owners and rescue – believe it or not, there is a solution that helps everybody.

Rather than openly criticizing pet shops as a whole, why not start approaching individual stores to embrace and become the leaders of this new ‘animal welfare educated’ world?

There’s huge potential for rescue groups and pet stores to cross promote, hold adoption days and work together. By using the resources available to stores to promote rescue pets and the resources of rescue to support new owners, pets will be the real winner.

The benefits to rescue are obvious – for every one of your pets in store, there’s not a puppy-mill bred oodle. For every pet you rehome desexed, there’s not one that leaves entire.

Meanwhile the pet shop is also reaping the benefit; creating goodwill in the community by having ethical practices and not supporting puppy-farming. In addition by supporting legislation banning pets in store, they’ll suddenly have an edge on their old-fashioned and not so savvy competitors, because if passed they’ll be the only ones with real, live (rescue) pets!

“We at Pet Supplies Mart have taken the lead by ceasing pet sales and are now working instead with local rescue groups to hold adoption days for homeless animals. We publicly support initiatives that reduce the number of dogs and cats killed in shelters, so feel eliminating the sale of pets in store is the most proactive stance we can take to ensure a better future for pets in Australia.” 

 

Yeah, I’d buy that!

If we can turn the industry on its head; get pet stores on board and show them this legislation and working with us has benefits for them also – that’s when we’ll have the chance to make the biggest impact in helping pets and their owners.

I’ve met a lot of people in rescue who think their job is to run a pet zoo. They must do, because they spend all of their day working inside their organisation or sitting by the phone waiting for it to ring.

Sure, some rescues are so well known that their phone does ring off the hook – but most smaller rescue groups don’t have this luxury.

Unless you’re inundated with inbound calls from potential adopters (and this means adopters that actually suit your requirements, not just people looking for ‘cheap pets’) the only way you’re going to make something happen is to get out of the office, get in front of people with potential and show them what you’re about.

Anyone can start taking dogs from the pound and start looking after them. A rescue however, see the need to then push these dogs out of care and into homes.

What are you doing to find new adopters?

When people go looking for a pet, they’re making an emotional decision.
 
They’re looking for companionship, empathy, friendship, and love. They want to feel good about saving a life.
 
Rescue says “we can’t have people making emotional decisions – emotional decisions are bad decisions”. But if emotions didn’t drive pet acquisition, then we’d be happy with a stuffed cocker spaniel or wouldn’t need a pet at all – why would we?

 

Humans don’t make rational decisions; they make emotional ones.

But it doesn’t mean we’re doomed – in reality we need people to have emotion behind their decision. It’s imperative that they bond with their new pet as when they don’t behaviours that could be overcome, become a reason for relinquishment.

 

There is reasonable evidence that strong owner attachment to pet dogs increases canine retention, but also increases an owner satisfaction with their dog’s behaviour.

 

and 

Many adopted shelter dogs are returned during the first month after adoption and the primary reason given for this is that the dogs are displaying  behavioural problems. A recent study has demonstrated that increased positive physical contact can foster the rapid development of the dog’s preference for their new owner and other studies have established that post-adoptive participation in obedience classes increases the probability of an adopted shelter dog being retained.

Post-Adoptive Training: The effect on the first month after adopting a shelter dog.

 

It’s futile to try and remove emotion from your adopters’ decision – you have to accept it and then work to use it to get the best result.

Build programs that benefit pet and owner by taking their initial enthusiasm and build bonds with training. Take the great experience your adopter had dealing with you and use it to develop your relationship and turn them into a supporter.

Emotion is part of being human. We’d be foolish not to harness it for good.

A thread from a ’rescuers’ forum today: Stupid phone calls – I know we all get them, but…

Now if I was a person looking for a pet, would a bunch of rescuers contributing to a thread like this make me more or less inclined to contact rescue? If I knew nothing about the issues and just wanted to add a pet to my family, does reading discussions like this make rescue seem more or less approachable?

 

Think about your fans

There’s not a successful business in history that, in a high-traffic public place, discuss at length how unreasonable their customers are… most likely because customers don’t flock to do business at places where there’s a chance they’ll be treated badly (or made to look foolish in a public forum).

Participating in forums like this does nothing to develop your Fan Club. Why spend time discussing how bad some of your clients are, when you could be running a positive dialogue with your real supporters?

 

On the subject of fans

Check out this post about developing relationships with your fans which states, rather than an artist (or a musician or whatever) trying to generate thousands and thousands of fans, that they should focus on generating just 1,000 True Fans.

 

One thousand is a feasible number. You could count to 1,000. If you added one fan a day, it would take only three years. True Fanship is doable. Pleasing a True Fan is pleasurable, and invigorating. It rewards the artist to remain true, to focus on the unique aspects of their work, the qualities that True Fans appreciate.

The key challenge is that you have to maintain direct contact with your 1,000 True Fans. They are giving you their support directly. Maybe they come to your house concerts, or they are buying your DVDs from your website, or they order your prints from Pictopia. As much as possible you retain the full amount of their support. You also benefit from the direct feedback and love.

 

Rather than spending time discussing the dubious requests of a few people you deal with, in front of an unknown number of spectators why not use that time to make positive contact with the people who really matter: your Fan Club.

 

A final thought on forums:

Forums used in moderation and with consideration are an amazing tool for reaching new and existing audiences. But remember: keep your perspective.

Those who can’t bitch. Those who can don’t hang around to listen.