As a professional pet sitter, I am always trying to keep up-to-date on the latest industry trends, recommendations, etc. One of the latest topics of discussion concerns documentation of visits or daily activity logs and journals. Joshua Carey, a co-founder of the APSE, stresses the importance of a neatly hand-written note for each visit, which I totally agree with. Not only it is professional, it shows pride in your work and makes a good impression. Always providing accurate information and detailed notes/comments is a good habit for all pet sitters to get into. If you are rushed and leave a sloppy note (or no note at all), your client is going to question if you were the same with their pet(s)! Joshua seems to prefer the idea of keeping a journal for each client whereby both the client and the sitter can make notes to eachother as well as for the sitter to provide details of the visits. Personally, I think this is GREAT for daily dog walkers, but not-so-great for pet sitters who visit the pets when the client is away on vacation, etc. A plain note pad has no formatting and if a sitter's penmanship isn't legible, then it will be more frustrating for the client to try and decipher. Chances are each note will be randomly written with no particular organization, etc. (OK, so I'm a neat freak! I like things neat and organized!) There is no "right" or "wrong" way for sitters to document their visits as long as they are doing so consistently. I know of sitters who leave a short note letting the client know they were there, how it went, etc. Some do include the time of arrival and the time of departure for each visit. Some don't leave any notes at all, which is probably not the best idea if they have a business and want to appear professional, but... At Berkshire Pet Pals, LLC, we are always looking for ways to improve our services and practices. We want to do the best we can do for our clients. At the present time, we have created and use a daily activity log and progress note form for each type of visit that we do. The forms are customized and contain a combination of tables, check boxes and notes. For us, we have found that using our own forms makes it easier for our sitters and our clients to see what was done at each visit, the time of arrival and departure, document any areas of concern or observations, and clearly shows who the sitter was, etc. We continuously update and edit our forms to suit the situation at hand. We've gotten a lot of positive reviews and comments regarding our documentation, so we must be doing something RIGHT! :) We are trying to determine whether or not to change our documentation practices and how we might introduce and incorporate an individual client journal. SInce the majority of our business comes from boarding and pet sitting (NOT dog walking), we aren't sure that this is the best solution for us. We are considering providing small spiral-bound notepads for each client where they can leave us notes prior to departure, etc. The notepad would be more of a communication tool for the client and sitter than a visit diary. Since most of our clients communicate with us via e-mail, text or phone, I don't know that a notepad is necessary except for last minute thoughts or changes, etc. Any thoughts or ideas? As a pet sitter, what do YOU do? As a pet owner, what would you prefer? All feedback, ideas, suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thank-you!
