any sitters out there that only accept regular customers. just wanted to know if it is a good idea after you build up a customer base.since I only watch 2 dogs at a time I find myself turning away a lot of regulars because of my 2 dog limit. I accept new dogs then a regular customer wants me to sit there dog and I end up declining there request. I figure it is bad for my search ranking and bad for business also. any suggestions
I have ran into the same situation. What I have found useful is that I have raised my prices and still honor the old price for my regulars. I also hold my calendar during holidays and alert my regulars to be sure to confirm with me if they see my calendar as unavailable. There is also an option you can select on your profile to only accept past clients and not accept new. Or you can even change your dog load to 1 which leaves you room for a regular last minute request. Nonetheless, be open with your regulars and ask for as much lead time so you can manage your availability better. Rosie
I'm going to be switching to return customers only for the summer. Mostly, it's for the worst of allergy season, since both my partner and I have allergy troubles and it's always a risk taking in a new dog - occasionally one will just make us both miserable - but we know what to expect with our regulars. But also, we've been busier than we'd like for a good part of this year, and we're getting to the point where just our regulars are taking up plenty of our availability.
Between now and the 26th, we'll be hosting 6 dogs from 5 families with no breaks in between. All of them are return customers. We generally only take 2 at a time, though we'll make an exceptions for short overlapping stays with dogs we know well. So most days in the next couple weeks we'll have 2, but a couple days only 1 and a couple days 3.
If you're finding yourself frequently turning down regulars for new clients, I agree with the other suggestions here - raise your rates (and honor the old rates for prev clients if you wish, though when I've raised my rates, my existing clients have been happy to pay the new cost), send messages to your returning clients reminding them to book busy times in advance, and/or lower your available slots to keep one free for last minute return guests. All of those can help reduce the number of requests you get but won't be as drastic as changing your status to return customers only.
I only want to take 4 dogs at a time. BUT when my regular customers call I let them know I have a full house and would love to care for their pups if they are ok so many dogs. With that being said I end up with 10 dogs most weekends. I'm very busy!