Post by RealPitBull on Jun 6, 2013 8:03:36 GMT -5
So we've talked on here quite a bit about strict policies in rescue/making it difficult for people to adopt. What does it mean? Will people just go and buy an animal instead, if it's made too difficult? If the rescue is doing correct screening and dog/animal matching, is the rescue "at fault" for turning people away and/or someone's impatience, which causes them to go to a BYB, pet store, etc?
Aside from placement policy, I've also been thinking about "customer service" in rescue. This might be a little long-winded, bear with me.....
Recently I've found myself on the consumer side of things in rescue for pretty much the first time (since I've always BEEN the rescue in the past). I've been trying to adopt rats and a cat. Although I have basically just started my searching and application submissions, I already am getting frustrated and I can see how someone who just wants a companion animal and maybe doesn't know or understand all the behind the scenes stuff in rescue could get really turned off and just move onto an easier avenue of animal acquisition.
I started communicating with a rat rescue, told me she had two neutered young males coming in (exactly what I was looking for). I submitted an application and never heard back from her. If she didn't like the application - ok. But to just drop communication when she just got done telling me about two rats that met my criteria....well, kinda bad customer service.
Next we have a cat that I applied for. I didn't get a response after the application submission, so I shot off a quick email just to make sure. I did get a response but was told someone else had put in an application for the same cat before me. That's fine. I replied to let me know if the other application didn't go through, that I had a lot of cat experience, and also ran my own animal welfare organization. No reply. No, "ok great, will let you know", no "Ok well we have other cats, maybe we can match you up with someone else". Nothing.
Now maybe both of these rescues are swimming in applications and don't really care to follow up with everyone because they have a ton of perfect applicants on file. I'm not sure how rat rescue works, but I know cat rescue is super hard and people involved are inundated with cats.
It felt kind of....crummy....to be blown off by both of these rescues. It got me thinking so much about the importance of "customer service" in rescue, to make any applicant, even if they aren't an ideal one, feel that they are important and maybe even give them some feedback on their application, why it may be denied, what can be tweaked, or even just, "We have other applicants for the animal you are looking at, but how about one of our other animals? Or maybe we can help you find another animal?" - this sort of treatment would go over so much better and perhaps keep someone from running out and buying an animal instead.
Without adopters, rescue cannot do rescue. Potential adopters need to be treated with dignity and respect. They need to be acknowledged. Everyone in rescue is busy, a lot of applicants are not even close to appropriate. But it is WORTH the extra time and effort to interact with applicants and offer some help/feedback. It's not just for the applicant's sake, it's for the sake of the animals in your rescue, potential future animals brought into rescue, and the sake of animals that may be bought instead of saved due to someone being turned off by rescue.
And that's my little contemplative rant for the day.
Aside from placement policy, I've also been thinking about "customer service" in rescue. This might be a little long-winded, bear with me.....
Recently I've found myself on the consumer side of things in rescue for pretty much the first time (since I've always BEEN the rescue in the past). I've been trying to adopt rats and a cat. Although I have basically just started my searching and application submissions, I already am getting frustrated and I can see how someone who just wants a companion animal and maybe doesn't know or understand all the behind the scenes stuff in rescue could get really turned off and just move onto an easier avenue of animal acquisition.
I started communicating with a rat rescue, told me she had two neutered young males coming in (exactly what I was looking for). I submitted an application and never heard back from her. If she didn't like the application - ok. But to just drop communication when she just got done telling me about two rats that met my criteria....well, kinda bad customer service.
Next we have a cat that I applied for. I didn't get a response after the application submission, so I shot off a quick email just to make sure. I did get a response but was told someone else had put in an application for the same cat before me. That's fine. I replied to let me know if the other application didn't go through, that I had a lot of cat experience, and also ran my own animal welfare organization. No reply. No, "ok great, will let you know", no "Ok well we have other cats, maybe we can match you up with someone else". Nothing.
Now maybe both of these rescues are swimming in applications and don't really care to follow up with everyone because they have a ton of perfect applicants on file. I'm not sure how rat rescue works, but I know cat rescue is super hard and people involved are inundated with cats.
It felt kind of....crummy....to be blown off by both of these rescues. It got me thinking so much about the importance of "customer service" in rescue, to make any applicant, even if they aren't an ideal one, feel that they are important and maybe even give them some feedback on their application, why it may be denied, what can be tweaked, or even just, "We have other applicants for the animal you are looking at, but how about one of our other animals? Or maybe we can help you find another animal?" - this sort of treatment would go over so much better and perhaps keep someone from running out and buying an animal instead.
Without adopters, rescue cannot do rescue. Potential adopters need to be treated with dignity and respect. They need to be acknowledged. Everyone in rescue is busy, a lot of applicants are not even close to appropriate. But it is WORTH the extra time and effort to interact with applicants and offer some help/feedback. It's not just for the applicant's sake, it's for the sake of the animals in your rescue, potential future animals brought into rescue, and the sake of animals that may be bought instead of saved due to someone being turned off by rescue.
And that's my little contemplative rant for the day.