How do you schedule your daily drop-in/ walk times with clients?

Everyone wants noon! Its understandable, of course, but its still frustrating. We can't be at 5 places at the same time. Like you, I give a time-frame-, but a wider one even than 11:30 - 12:30. I tell pet owners wanting a noon visit that I have regulars who all want M-F noon walks for their dogs, but I can only guarantee that I will begin the walk some time between 11 am & 2 pm. I tell them this before the meet and greet, to save us all time if its an issue. If it is an issue, I'm fine with them finding a different walker. If once I've started walking for them, they complain about the time, I would just remind them I'm very good at my job & dependable & popular (haha) so I have many other pet clients who all want noon. But if they need to find someone who can come at exactly noon each time after all, there are plenty of great sitters on Rover & maybe they can find someone not as in demand. :-) No hard feelings!

I am a mid-day walker and at the meet and greet I discuss a visit time window with them, over the past 2 years all have been okay with that. I schedule my day/week around client location to minimize driving between them, even so I drive 40 miles per day with my 5-6 dailies. My first walk starts at 10A and my last around 2P

I too give a window between 1 and 2 hours wide depending on where they live on my regular route. I will always ask what their ideal time is and will do my best to get there then or an agreed upon time. At this point I have a regular set of clients and clump clients by area of town so I am able to be more precise with my timing and will hustle to keep my regulars happy.

Like most service industries, I give better service to customers who are easy to work with and respect my time. For me this means that I am less likely to squeeze in a last minute request for a client who is insistent on a narrow window of time or consistently asks me to do additional work which could make me late to my next appointment. Conversely, clients who are flexible and pleasurable to work with get extra time for walks when I can afford it and if their dog loves a toy I have at my house it can go home with it.

It's impossible to be somewhere on time, all the time, every day. I think it is reasonable to give at least an hour window for pick up and drop off. Therefor if the client wants the dog walked at noon then the window, including pick up, hour walk, drop off would be anytime from 11 am pick up to 2 pm drop off.

Have they explained why it's important that the walk begin right at noon? Puppy in training? Incontinence issue? An hour window is more than fair and it sounds like sitters deal with this on a regular basis. Most families understand when you have other walks or visits and most of us do our best to work with them.