Best Practices For Onboarding Clients To Time To Pet
If you're a Time To Pet customer, you have already gone through the onboarding process and know how great it is to get a little help along the way when starting with new software! The next step after you've gone through the Onboarding Process is to put that impressive new pet-sitting and dog-walking software to work!
Once you and your staff have had some time to familiarize yourself with all the features and tools Time To Pet offers, you'll want to get all your pet parents onboarded. Once onboarded, your customer will be able to book services, make payments, receive custom visit report cards, access all their pet info, schedule visits, and more. We've created an easy to use Client App as well, so your pet parents can access all the convenient features right from their mobile devices. Getting your clients to use Time To Pet will enhance the experience for everyone involved. That means less time taking care of logistics and more time taking care of pets!
We've created this guide to help you get started with onboarding your clients into the Time To Pet Portal and App. This post will also address some of the common issues that might come up during the onboarding process and how to get past them.
If you are thinking about switching pet-sitting software or getting started for the first time, click here to begin your Free Trial with Time To Pet. We also have a great blog post on What to Expect from the Time To Pet Onboarding Process if you are curious!
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Check out this video from our Onboarding Team for onboarding clients to Time To Pet!
Announcing Your New Pet Sitting And Dog Walking Software
If you are starting as a brand new customer in Time To Pet with an established client base, you will want to send an email to all your clients announcing the change to TTP. This announcement email is an excellent opportunity to share links for signing up in the Client Portal and downloading the Client App. The Time To Pet App can be downloaded directly from the Apple App Store or from the Google Play Store.
Our Onboarding Manager, Jenna, has written an in-depth blog post on How to Announce Your Pet Sitting Software. Jenna's blog post is a great resource for creating a welcome email and starting to familiarize your customers with your new software. It also provides some tips for getting pet parents to create their own accounts. We have written a sample mass Welcome Email, that can be sent using the email campaign feature in Time To Pet.
Mass Welcome Email Sample:
"We are very excited to announce that COMPANY NAME is implementing new Pet Sitting Software to improve your experience as you use our services! The new software is called Time To Pet, and all of our customers now have their very own Client Portal account on the system. Using your Client Portal, you can now provide real-time updates to all of your pet information, your information as well as request future services, view all scheduled events, view your invoices, and more.
To activate your account, please visit https://www.timetopet.com/portal/activate and enter your email address and click “Send Activation Email”. You will receive an email with a link to activate your account.
After logging in for the first time, please take a moment to review all of the information in the “Pets” section as well as the “My Info” section. If any information needs to be updated, please take a moment to update the info as well. If you have any questions about using the Portal, you can visit the Help Section (http://help.timetopet.com/collection/7-client-portal), or you can contact us directly.
You can also download the Time To Pet app and log in using your existing client portal login credentials.
In the app - you can update your information, view and send messages, request services, and much more. The app also supports push notifications if you’d like to receive notifications when we’ve sent you a new message.
The app can be downloaded right from the Apple App Store (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/time-to-pet/id957456517?mt=8) or from the Google Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sweetss.timetopet&hl=en). You can also just search for “Time To Pet”.
And you can also access the Client Application help documentation right here: http://help.timetopet.com/collection/149-client-application as well as a video walkthrough Using the Time To Pet Client App - Video"
Courtney is another expert on the Onboarding Team and suggests having a default Welcome Email that directs pet parents to what they can do in their accounts and encouraging them to download the Time To Pet Mobile App. This Welcome Email is sent individually to clients whenever they create an account with you or are added to your Time To Pet account.
We have written a sample default Welcome Email that you can use as a jumping-off point for creating your own welcome email. You can edit your default Welcome Email to add this text in Settings > Company Settings > Messaging in your account and adjust this text according to your company settings.
Default Welcome Email Sample:
"Let’s get started on creating your account in [COMPANY NAME]'s Client Portal!
With your new account, you can manage your information, pet information, request services, and much more! To use your account and get started, please click the "Activate" button in this message, and create a permanent password. If you have any questions about using the Portal, you can visit the Help Section (http://help.timetopet.com/collection/7-client-portal), or you can contact us directly.
You can also download the Time To Pet app and log in using your existing client portal login credentials.
In the app - you can update your information, view and send messages, request services and pay invoices. The app also supports push notifications if you’d like to receive notifications when we’ve sent you a new message. Click the links below to download the app or search for ‘Time To Pet’, in your smartphone’s App Store.
Apple App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/time-to-pet/id957456517?mt=8
Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sweetss.timetopet&hl=en)
If you have any questions, please send a message in the Conversation tab of your Client Portal or the Chats of the Mobile App. This message goes directly to us at [COMPANY NAME], and we’ll be in touch as soon as we can.
You can also access the Mobile Client App help documentation right here: http://help.timetopet.com/collection/149-client-application as well as a video walkthrough Using the Time To Pet Client App - Video.
Thank you for joining [COMPANY NAME], we’re excited to have you here!"
If you have additional questions about getting started or allowing new clients to create an account, make sure to check out the Time To Pet Knowledge Base. You'll find lots of great resources there!
Creating A New Client Onboarding Flow
To help your clients get their accounts set up, you can create a client onboarding flow in the Portal Settings of your account!
The Pet Parent Onboarding experience you create for your business can be fully customized. For example - do you want to require your new clients to update their info? Want to require new clients to add a payment method to their account? Want to customize a welcome message for new clients? You can require all of these steps with the Pet Parent Onboarding tool.
The steps for your onboarding flow will be shown at the top of the Client Portal, and your custom welcome message will be shown on the last screen of their setup:
We recommend adding a message here about downloading the Time To Pet Mobile App so that clients are aware they can use the App to request services, update their info, and send messages to your team through the App as well.
Common Challenges During Onboarding
Just like when you buy any new electronics or start using any new software, there will be people who experience some difficulty in the beginning. Even for the most tech-savvy pet parents, there still might be questions. Here are some of the most common challenges that you might encounter when trying to onboard clients with your new software.
The company will be transitioning from another software.
Your clients will already be somewhat familiar with the idea of using pet-sitting software. Still, they may be resistant to starting over in a new system. This is understandable, as people get comfortable with a particular system and don't like changes. They'll quickly be glad they did change, though, once they start seeing all the great new features that you will be able to offer them. Clients especially love the App!
When communicating with existing clients that you are switching to the new software, it's important to personalize the welcome email. Give detailed instructions on using Time To Pet for the first time/using client help center resources to guide them. This is also a chance to mention why you decided to switch software and some of the new features that they will have available.
The clients are not tech-savvy.
In addition to pet parents that might be resistant to changing pet care software, you may have customers that are resistant to technology in general. It might be that they have had confusing experiences in the past or prefer to handle things the "old-fashioned way." They could also just be resistant to using the Mobile App.
For less tech-savvy pet parents, one of the most useful methods for helping them might be an in-person demo. You could easily schedule a little extra time for a visit when they will be home, where you or a staff member could walk them through the process. It is also helpful to send them Screenshots from the Client Help Center.
Here are some Help Links for your pet parents that you can send in your Welcome Email:
- How to use the Portal: https://help.timetopet.com/collection/7-client-portal
- How to use the App: https://help.timetopet.com/collection/149-client-application
It might also be a good idea to do a "soft launch" of your new software with some of your customers before starting any pet sitting or dog walking services. You could do this by sending an email to pet parents to introduce them to the Portal and have them set up their account before their next service. Doing a soft launch allows them to ask questions and get used to the new way of doing things.
Companies with pet parents who do not use email to communicate.
On very rare occasions, you might have pet parents that don't use email to communicate. Time To Pet uses your clients' email addresses to allow them to activate their accounts and receive important notifications from the company. For pet parents who do not provide an email address, the Texting Feature may come in handy.
Whenever possible, you should encourage pet parents to activate their Client Portal and App. The more communication that takes place in the Portal or via the Client App, the better the experience will be for everyone involved. One of the biggest goals that our customers want to accomplish is streamlining communication. This can be a challenge when pet parents are used to texting or calling you to book services. Try to encourage communication via the App whenever possible.
Suggestions From Time To Pet's Onboarding Team
Our Onboarding Team has been helping Time To Pet clients get started and get the most out of our software for several years now! So they are perfect to give some advice for onboarding your pet parents with new software. Here are a few of the suggestions they have for helping your onboarding efforts!
- Companies should definitely try to market the benefits of Time To Pet to pet parents when introducing them to the software. This can be done in the welcome email and on their website. You can highlight the convenience of the Mobile App and emphasize how everything is all in one place.
- Multiple members of the family can get updates too! If two family members want to get updates from the App, one person can be set as the "cc email" or share the login credentials that the primary has set up.
- If your company wants clients to be able to log into the Client Portal from their website. Here is a helpful article from our knowledge base about creating and adding the client portal tag to your website.
- If pet parents continue to call and text instead of using the App and Portal to message the company and book services, you can send reminders to use the Portal/Conversation Feed using the bulk email campaign tool.
Customizing The Client Experience For Your Business
Time To Pet has made it easy to customize a lot of what your pet parents will see when using our software with your pet care business. As our Onboarding Experts suggested above, a great place to start with creating a positive customer experience is by adding the client portal tag to your website. This will make it easier for your pet parents to access their portal right from your website. We've always found that simple is always best!
In addition to adding the client portal tag to your website, you also can customize the look and feel of your Time To Pet account. By adding your logos and choosing colors that match your brand, you can provide your customers with a better experience. It will also feel like they are using software and an app made just for them and their pets!
Time To Pet also has some additional marketing resources with logos and screenshots from the App. You are more than welcome to add these to your website to help create the best experience possible for pet parents using your services!
Getting The Most Out Of Time To Pet
Hopefully, all the information above will be helpful for onboarding your pet parents with Time To Pet. There might be some confusion and resistance to begin with. However, soon enough, pet parents will quickly see all the added value that the new pet-sitting and dog-walking software provides.
Our goal at Time To Pet is to provide the absolute best experience for your pet care company by giving you the tools to help save time and grow your businesses. Likewise, you are trying to provide those same benefits to your pet parents. By offering a smooth onboarded process to your pet parents, everyone will most assuredly be getting off on the right foot! As your pet parents become more familiar with the Client Portal and App, it will just keep getting easier and better!
Happy Sitting!