The problem
Holiday bookings arrive by text, email and Facebook, and each needs dates, visit times, pets and keys confirmed. If a cat sitter takes 25 holiday bookings a month and each takes 20 minutes of messages and diary entries, that's 500 minutes, about 8.3 hours a month, more before Christmas and the summer.
What the AI does
Time To Pet's client service requests let customers ask for visits through the Pet Parent App or portal. For a holiday they pick the date range, the service, their pets and the schedule blocks they need (time windows you define, such as morning and evening), and add notes. You can make fields such as emergency contact and pet details required before they can request, and you approve, reject or confirm each request. Cancellations and changes come in the same way, for you to review before anything is altered.
A worked example
A cat sitter in Brighton does twice-daily visits and takes about 25 holiday bookings a month, more in July, August and December.
Before
25 bookings x 20 minutes of messages and diary entries: 500 minutes, about 8.3 hours a month
After
Requests arrive complete; about 5 minutes each to check and approve: 125 minutes, about 2.1 hours a month
What it's worth
About $165£124€148A$238C$233 a month saved, at an assumed $27£20€24A$38C$38 an hour for 6.2 hours (8.3 minus 2.1). Lite is $25 (about $25£19€23A$36C$36) a month for one person; Solo, at $50 (about $51£38€45A$73C$71), adds text messaging.
How to set it up
- Set up your services, such as cat visit, dog visit and overnight stay, and schedule blocks such as 7 to 10am and 5 to 8pm.
- Make emergency contact, vet and pet details required before a client can request visits.
- Invite existing clients to the Pet Parent App or portal, and send new clients the link after their first meeting.
- Approve each request only after checking your diary, keys and travel time between visits.
- Reply to booking messages with the app link rather than taking details by text.
What goes wrong
- Some clients won't use an app; keep a phone route for them and enter their requests yourself.
- Approving without checking travel time between visits overbooks the day.
- Prices are in US dollars, so the cost in pounds moves with the exchange rate.
- Lite has no text messaging, so confirmations go by email or app notification.