I had someone contact me three days ago and I responded within an hour that I was interested and requested that we do a meet and greet. That person has not responded for three days and I have sent one follow-up to them with no response back.
Should I just archive this message?
How long do you generally wait before archiving?
I archive all messages immediately after I've responded. As others have said, if the client replies, I will get the message so why put a temporary hold on my search ranking (which is bad enough) when I never know if/when the client is going to respond.
If it's been a day (24 hrs +) since they haven't responded, I'll say something like "hi, checking in to see if you still need a sitter?" (but more eloquent, ha), and if I don't get a response by the end of the day, I'll archive it. They probably found another sitter - many owners message several pet sitters up front instead of one at a time.
I archive as soon as it's been a day since messages have been exchanged. If someone messages back once it's been archived, I'll still get a notification of a new message and can unarchive the booking. This way, I don't look booked.
I would archive it at that point.
On average, I give it a couple days to a week, depending on how busy I am for them to respond. Just as you have, I send a follow up and after no response, I'll archive it. The customer can always respond to you even if you archive it.
If you don't archive the non-response messages, Rover may hide/lower your profile for other active owners.
Per Rover:
Archive any requests you can't book. When unbooked requests sit in your inbox for 72 hours or longer, that indicates to Rover that you’re too busy or unavailable. As a result, you may not appear in search, meaning potential clients won’t be able to find you.
Adding onto this, I asked Rover Support if the client is aware that the request was archived, and they informed me that No, the client is not aware. So, it really is of benefit to archive. You can always move it back to the inbox later if you later want to book a service for the client.
This helped a lot!! Thank you guys!
Once I message back with a date and time for a M&G, I archive the request. I give them 48 hours to respond. If no response, I send another reminder message. If no response, forget it and move on. They've probably found someone else or plans changed. I've found that people shop sitters, which is good, and then they go with a friend/family who won't charge them anything. Aggravating, but what can you do?
I only archive requests if their plans have changed and they wont be needing a sitter or if they haven't replied and the date of the request has passed (Followed by a polite message to make sure they keep you in mind for any future pet sitting needs)
If the date is approaching I might send them a message: the subject of the message depends on how far we gotten in the conversation.
Not archiving a message right away shows loyalty and reliability -the kind they expect of their dog sitter.
If you are worried about not showing up on the search result you can modify your calendar/profile by changing the number of dogs you can care for per day then manually modify it when you are full.
Fyi the owners don't know if you "archive". I've had full conversations with ones that I've archived because I know more than likely their dog doesn't match my requirements. I had one I archived because it would take her about a week to respond. All it does is open up your calendar.
I wait until after the date has passed that they have not responded to my book stay request. If they wanted to book they wound have :) No worries! plus they can always reach back to you if you spoke too soon