School for the Dogs Case Study

CASE STUDY

The Opportunity

When people talk about “building a business,” they don’t usually mean literally building it from the ground up. But after an electrical fire burned the original School for the Dogs studio space down in December 2013, that’s exactly what co-founders Anna Jane Grossman and Kate Senisi had to do.

“Right around when we were making the switch to Pike13, our studio burned down,” says Anna Jane. “The dog-training space was part of my home, so I had no place to live. We had to find a new studio space that was going to work for us, and a new home for me. It was not the best time.” Fortunately, they soon found a funky new space that suited their and their clients’ unique needs and, with the help of Pike13, were able to keep their business up and running.

The Solution

Anna Jane and Kate first discovered Pike13 at the Association of Professional Dog Trainers conference. Anna Jane says prior to making the switch to Pike13, they found their software to be very frustrating. “I think in our first year, we logged over 80 customer support calls with MindBody, and each call took about 20-30 minutes,” says Anna Jane, “It was annoying because there were so many things about using the product that were difficult to understand.”

Setting up their Pike13 business was a walk in the park, especially compared to the MindBody experience. Anna Jane tells us that the onboarding process was much simpler and the Customer Success team was great to work with.

“It felt like Pike13 was delivering a product that was made for us rather than us having to try to just make some other product work.”

Soon, School for the Dogs had their account up and running in a way that was customized to their business.

The Results

Once settled in their new space, Anna Jane and Kate used Pike13 to manage schedules for multiple trainers, allow clients to register for accounts, and book appointments directly from their website.

"We received compliments from clients on the new process. Using Pike13 makes it seem like we're bigger than we actually are."

The professionalism and ease of Pike13 also helped attract new clients to the business. Retention rates improved as well.

In addition to online scheduling and booking, Anna Jane and Kate value the ability to take credit card information in Pike13. They especially love that clients can pre-pay for a session. Because they require a credit card to create an account, Anna Jane says that they now have a very low cancellation or no-show rate–3% according to their Pike13 report–which is hard to do in their industry.

They also like that clients now have the ability to browse trainers’ schedules depending on their specific needs. For instance, someone with a puppy could search specifically for puppy-training availability. Anna Jane says that 90% of their return customers book their next visits online—saving time and increasing efficiency for both parties.

With Pike13 giving dog owners an easy way to discover, register for, and manage their pet’s training, School for the Dogs can focus their attention on delivering great, personalized service to their canine clients and their owners.

"I think what’s missing with a lot of trainers is that their entire focus is on the dogs. Our business doesn’t overlook the human experience—the dog owners are not an afterthought."