May 12, 2008Comments are closed.attitude, marketing
I’m working with two rescue groups; both are staffed by lovely volunteers, both want to boost their adoptions and both have high standards for their adopters, so are working to weed out the bad ones as best they can.
Group A does this by working out in the community, spreading the word about responsible pets ownership, putting an emphasis on customer service and working to attract great adopters.
The other (Group B) does it by being leery of the people that phone them, making it hard for people to get in touch with them by anything but an in person visit and matter-of-factly telling people that aren’t suitable, that they can’t adopt.
Both have the same result – only suitable adopters being given pets – but no prizes for guessing who’s more highly regarded by their community.
Group B complain that all the people that come to them have no idea about being a good owner. The irony is, that by driving these bad adopters away, the group loses any chance they have of helping them change their behaviour.
Group B complain that people only come to visit them looking for “cheap†pets. However they make no effort to seek out a better quality of adopter, or treating people well, or having opening hours that would suit a working family.
Group A don’t really complain – they’re simply too busy being helpful.
While both groups are looking to promote their adoption service with advertising, only Group A would actually benefit from being given more exposure. Group B would quickly poison any efforts to bring in more clients by the fact their “product†(themselves) is faulty. Instead of advertising, they need to take a good hard look at the experience they are giving their existing clients.
Remember; you can’t bully the public into being great owners, you can only charm them into taking on the knowledge you have to share.
