To Drive or Not To Drive
A Note from the General Manager, Thomas Mikkelsen
We love working with dogs and owners to improve the overall mental, physical and social health of your dog. We offer many different services that help us achieve the goal of having a happy, healthy, socialized and well-mannered dog.
A Little History
About 4 years ago we began offering pick-up and delivery service in our dog van. At first we offered this service for FREE just to see how many, if any, would use the service. We received feedback from some customers commenting that their work schedules did not allow for them to pick up or drop off their dog during our normal operating hours. We did adjust our operating hours to accommodate most customer requests and immediately began operation Monday – Friday 7am-7pm and Sat-Sun 8am- 6pm to help accommodate customers that needed to drop off early and pick up later.
As you can imagine, the pick-up and drop off service became very popular and, very quickly, it was used by many people and used by some on a daily basis. Clients enjoyed the convenience and availability of the service and some of our clients relied on this service as they have long work schedules that are outside our normal hours of operation
We began charging a nominal fee for this service to help cover the costs of maintenance, gas, insurance and payroll for the drivers. Even with the nominal fee of $5 we did not recoup the cost of operating the pick-up and delivery service but felt that clients valued the service and we kept offering it.
Recently we have evaluated the cost of the service again and as a company decided to raise the prices from $5 to $10. We met with some resistance and criticism over our decision to raise the prices of this service. This is understandable. Some clients rely on this service as part of their dogs’ health and wellness.
Pardon the pun, but we are at a crossroads when it comes to offering our dog van service. The costs associated with operating our van is more than what we bring in and we have experienced issues when it comes to driving. Seasonal driving issues, costs of fuel, maintenance, insurance, staffing, customer requests, logistical issues, customer feedback, etc. have prompted us as a company to evaluate the future of this service.
One of the most challenging things about running a business is making hard decisions that affect customers directly. Namely, when we adjust our pricing, offer a different service, or discontinue a service. As the old saying goes, “you can please all the people some of the time or some of the people all of the time, not both”. This is the position we are in while deciding on whether to discontinue our pick-up and delivery service.
It comes with some regret that we have decided to discontinue our pick-up and delivery service. We feel that this allows us to focus our efforts, energy, staff and time on the dogs that are in our facility to help create a clean, safe and fun environment for the health and wellness of your dog.
We welcome your feedback and comments on this or any issue:
Please feel free to contact us with any questions, comments, or concerns
Info@dogjax.com
307-733-DOGS (3647)