When you think about dog walking and pet sitting businesses, the first words that pop into your mind are probably not business operations excellence. After all, it is a love of animals that sets most people on this career path. However, that is exactly the expertise that Britton Nicolson brings to his role at Highland Hounds in Roxbury, MA, and the surrounding areas.
Founded in 2015 by Miguel Chavez, Highland Hounds focuses on pack hikes for dogs in some of Boston’s most beautiful parks and locations. After leaving Boston politics, Miguel started the business by reaching out to friends and neighbors, eventually growing big enough to expand the team and utilize a different business model than most pet care businesses, subscriptions.
Instead of paying per hike, Highland Hounds offers a variety of subscription levels depending on the frequency of walks and location, giving significant discounts to their most active members.
The goal of the subscription model? Easier planning for the business and better value for the customer.
So when Britton joined the team in 2020, his goal was to take things to an even higher level. Having just helped scale a nearby doggy daycare, Britton brought an operational sensibility that most pet care businesses simply don’t have.
“The business was going well, but I saw a bunch of opportunities to make it even better by streamlining our processes, improving our marketing through reviews and a new website, and centralizing our client information.
And it is working, Highland Hounds currently has a significant waiting list to join up. So, what are Britton’s keys to success? They fall into three main areas.
1. Hiring and Staffing
“For us, staffing is everything. A lot of folks who want to work in the pet industry come in with the mindset of the gig economy - meaning they want to do this as a short-term thing. That is totally fine, but it makes it really hard to run a business, so we focus on hiring people who understand that this can be a career.
“We don’t want to be Uber with dogs, we want to create real jobs for people with an entrepreneurial mindset. That’s why our training pay starts at $15/hour and then after they are done training, our pack leaders get paid per dog and can make a lot more than that.”
2. Predictable pricing and scheduling
Because all of Highland Hounds’ customers are on a subscription, they have removed a lot of the back and forth that takes up time, leads to frustrations on both sides, and makes revenue hard to predict. Instead, they know which dogs are scheduled for which days and which walkers well ahead of time. And if someone cancels, HH doesn’t need to scramble to fill the spot because it has already been paid for.
With a different model than the competition, communication is key. From the meet and greet on, HH is very clear about how the subscriptions work and that the deep discounts that come with membership make up for a few missed hikes over the course of the month or year.
“As we built our pricing structure we found an amount of money that makes sense. We know that when you walk a dog five days a week, you have to pay someone five days a week, and we also know that we want to reward our customers with a discount for spending that much money with us and having their dog with us every single day. So when we are building our pricing programs we calculate in missing a day here and there. Much like any other subscription service like Spotify or Netflix, you don’t get a refund if you don’t use it every day but it is always there when you need it.”
3. Centralizing and organizing your information
The final key aspect of operational excellence for Britton is choosing the right software for your business. For Highland Hounds, PetPocketbook was a match.
When Britton started, scheduling information lived with one person, billing and payments with another, and client information with a third. That means any time a client had a question, it took multiple emails and text messages to chase down an answer.
Now, everything is at Britton’s fingertips when he needs it.
“I now have a direct connection to clients, client services, schedules, pricing for each client, and all of our invoices and payments, which has completely streamlined our process. Everything just runs through me now. I’m not reaching out to get answers, because everything I need is in PetPocketbook. It’s been huge.”
It’s even allowed Britton to pitch in as a pack leader from time to time. “I can only handle a few dogs at a time but I am learning and I love being out in the woods with them because I know the office operations are working on their own while I am away.”
We’re glad we can keep everything running smoothly so you can get out from behind your desk!