Gaining trust among pet families

Patricia Cameron
InfoStream Guest Author

“Elvis said it best: "We can't go on together with suspicious minds." – The Cluetrain Manifesto  

In my last SWOT blog, I talked about a variety of strengths enjoyed by pet industry businesses.  The focus in this post is on weakness. Each unique pet business is going to have its unique weaknesses – for some a key weakness may be the ability to attract and retain skilled employees;  for others, it may a poorly conceived business plan; for still others a founding CEO who can’t let go of trying to control everything themselves. In the big picture, though, the entire pet sector suffers from a core weakness: potential or actual loss of trust among pet families. 

A major driver for the growth of the pet industry has been that people see their pets as family members and are buying products and services that reflect this perspective. As such, pet families have zero tolerance for products or services they view as dangerous or substandard. Yet, at the same time, the pet industry has been rocked by dozens of examples of shoddy, dangerous, and wasteful wares; unskilled and incompetent services. The examples I give below may raise some hackles, but they are all drawn from actual experiences and, if you are in the pet industry, the distrust occasioned by these stories could be impacting your business.

Trust is damaged or destroyed any time a customer:

• Buys vet prescribed medications at the clinic only to find the medication over the counter at a human pharmacy for much less.  
• Reads headlines on toxic pet food or pet treats or worse has their own pet sickened or killed by such faulty products.  
• Is told this diet and only this diet is good for their pet, who then does poorly on the kibble, or patties, or canned dinners.
• Learns that pet toys are made of toxic materials or that pet beds are sprayed with chemicals that damage the pet’s thyroid.  
• Trusts their pet to a grooming service only to have the animal harmed while in care and the groomer charged with animal cruelty.
• Boards their pet with a facility that allows the pet to escape.
• Works with an unskilled pet “trainer” who is so harsh pet that a once merely shy animal now has major fear-based aggression towards strangers.
• Goes to a pet store and sees suffering, dying, or dead animals in cages or aquariums, or water bowls overgrown with algae or moldy food in food bowls.
• Acquires a pet from a “breeder” and finding the pet has congenital health and temperament issues.
• Is sold a pet only to find that they cannot really care for the pet appropriately.
• Find that “bio-degradable” plastic poo bags or other pet products are an environmental disaster.

All of these examples are pulled from headlines and each has seriously eroded trust in the pet industry. Still more horror stories may have been made up – but in the absence of trustworthy voices to weigh in on truth, the doubt occasioned by corporate irresponsibility and greed have created fertile soil for these fictions to be believed and to spread.

The future of the industry depends on pet businesses truly engaging in deserving trust, building trust, and retaining trust.

For you, the business owner, that means being absolutely clear on where your products come from and the quality of these products. That means establishing,  publicizing, and adhering to your product sourcing and quality standards. To gain and keep customer trust and loyalty, you need to ensure your focus is on delivering only those services or selling only those products that provide pet families with real value and real benefit.