What businesses get wrong in communication

Communication is the key to run any business systematically and effectively. Yet a lot of businesses end up using a mix of tools and confusing users. Effective communication can help users succeed at their job while lack of proper tools and policy can impede and reduce their effectiveness.

A Point of concern for every business today
Each organization needs the flexibility to cope up with challenges whether they are the most basic ones or the not-so-simple ones with total ease. Managing and keeping the team that doesn’t sit in front of a desktop engaged is a key challenge for the businesses. While scheduling software focuses on customer communication, the team's communication is left neglected. Team’s communication is handled via manual tools such as text, emails or phone call which is difficult to maintain and read for admin. Orderly management of the tasks can get burdensome both for the team and the admin. Relying on team members personal tools is also unreliable.

We have talked with many Pet businesses and these are the pain points that we keep hearing again and again.

  • Last Minute Schedule Changes - When last minute schedule changes happen due to clients requesting a last-minute service or team member asking for shift coverage the admin has to re-adjust all the appointments. Finding a team member available within short notice is a real pain. Checking each team member’s schedule to see who is available and then calling them to confirm if they can perform the service takes lot of time and effort. This takes attention away from other significant tasks.

  • Managing Tasks - Managing day to day tasks in excel docs, tracking training or vacation request in multiple tools makes it too difficult to keep up and concentrate on what’s important.

  • Priority Lost – Using text, email or Facebook groups to communicate about the upcoming team activity can become a challenge. Our work messages get mixed in their personal messages and the priority is lost.

  • Track of Status - When tracking the status of job request or team event via email or group message becomes cumbersome as it gets mixed in other communication. No easy way for the admin to know who said yes or no without reading the whole chain of messages. This can take a lot of time away from providing great customer support.

  • Providing support to New Hire – It becomes very difficult to stay in touch with the new hires and to ensure they get help whenever required. Ensure they are following the key steps required to complete the appointment without a paper instruction is a challenge.

  • Share information between team serving the same customer – Team members send text messages to communicate any important information that the next person needs to know about the pet that may require medication etc. Here they have to share their phone numbers even if they don’t want to.

How are you managing your communication? Are you suffering the same challenges?



Make team management hassle free with DoTimely Hub

Hub aims in making management of teams easier. With the help of Hub admin and teams can spend less time on paperwork and task – more time on the growth of their business, serving the customer and keeping up to date with where everything stands. Do Timely Hub focuses on helping admin and their deskless teams in an accurate and effective manner, through Android and iOS apps. The Hub allows a business to simplify team communication and one on one conversations. The teams can participate in the chats and connect without sharing their phone numbers. They can share information and stay informed. This helps with smoother operations and allows companies to better utilize their teams time.

Right message to right people via DoTimely Hub

  • Announcements – The admin can make announcements and also keep track of them knowing who read what and when. The team members will be immediately updated about the announcements made. Something important like a holiday payout benefit for pet sitters who agree to work on days like Easter or Memorial Day can be announced in the app.

  • EventsTrack and manage the important upcoming events to see who all are attending and plan accordingly. The team can be informed about upcoming important events like training or team picnic being organized. The members can respond to it and admin can easily view the responses in one glance.

  • Job Request - The admin can create job request mentioning the details and get notified when the request is accepted. The team can respond to the job request raised by the admin as per their availability. The admin of business can request a job mentioning all the details about it. For instance, a dog walking job can be mentioned giving details like the place, type of dog, duration of walk etc and the dog walkers can accept it as per their availability. The admin can use tags like the zip code to send the request to right walkers.

  • Tasks – The admin can check whether the tasks assigned to member have been started or not. The progress of the task can be easily monitored. An ongoing task can be easily tracked by the admin with all the minute details. Inefficiency on the part of Pet sitter can be identified against which further action can be taken.

  • Approval – The employees can request time off or shift trade which can be reviewed and accepted by the admin. Instead of sending multiple texts any dog walker can easily request time off which can be approved by the manager and help in smoothly managing the scheduling system.

  • Chat– You can chat between staff if they are serving the same customer in morning and evening can leave notes or exchange information. They can chat with any team member without sharing phone numbers.

Pet industry is known for part-time works and making these members feel like a team is very important by giving them tools that help them raise morale and feel like a unit.

Stay connected and keep your team happy. Sign-up for Hub.