Rick Denton (00:16)
Hey there, CX Passport listeners. Today we are somewhere new, but really new because we are actually doing a version of CX Passport Live here with Dom Hodgson. And not only are we physically somewhere new, we're actually going to go to a world that I have never delved in before, the world of pets. Dom is better known as the Pet Biz Wiz, founder of the Pet Business Inner Circle and coach to pet business owners around the world who want to run smoother, more profitable,

And honestly, just more enjoyable businesses. Dom started out running a dog adventure business and built that into a real enterprise and now helps dog daycares and pet resorts uncover this hidden profit in their work. And actually, get their weekends back, which is something all of us would want.

There's a focus of translating Disney-style customer magic into the pet world, what he calls, disneyfying your business. Gives experience, loyalty, and premium price, well, a fun new spin. I've said fun a lot of times already, and let's be honest, customer experience through the lens of dog walks, grooming tables, and well, pet parents, that's a brand new angle for those of us here at CX Passport, and it's gonna be a good time. Dom, welcome to CX Passport.

Dom Hodgson (01:32)
Thank you Rick, delighted to be interviewed.

Rick Denton (01:35)
And as we sit here in the Baltimore, Maryland area, your accent doesn't strike me as a Maryland-esque accent. Where are you normally from?

Dom Hodgson (01:44)
You would be correct,

yeah. I'm from the UK. I live in Sunderland, which is a city in the north east of England, near Newcastle and maybe near Durham. of your listeners may be more familiar with those places.

Rick Denton (01:57)
Yeah, well and anyone who watches the beautiful game will know Sunderland because as you are representing today these Sunderland colors in the patch and I love every bit of it. So I want to go to that very beginning when you're first sitting down with a pet business owner. You've had so much experience. Where do you spot the money leaks? There are these missed opportunities and what's that simple first move that helps those owners see results fast without freaking out their team?

you.

Dom Hodgson (02:27)
Yeah,

it's often we start with price. That's the easiest place to start. find ⁓ people are more often than not undercharging for their services. Really? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah. Or certainly there is price elasticity that they can lean into. If not across the board, certainly ⁓ within ⁓ different categories. So the dog day care and pet resort owners that I work with, they do. ⁓

dog daycare, do dog boarding, they do training, they do grooming. So there's not almost always some price opportunities to increase price in one or all of those categories. Another one, the gain to do with price would be ⁓ going from offering one service at one price to offering multiple levels of service. So yeah, like a standard service to a good, better, best. Another way to unlock money really easily because...

Rick Denton (03:21)
You know, that resonates with a lot of folks in the experience space, right? That good, best aspect of it. I want go back to the price one that you mentioned there. That's scary for a lot of owners. Walk me through that conversation that you're having with the owner. Like, well, I can't charge more. People will leave.

Dom Hodgson (03:37)
Yeah, very common and not just in the pet industry, very common in any industry. part of it is showing them examples of... ⁓

maybe even businesses in their town, where you say things like, in your town, does every hairdresser charge the same amount of money? Or does every supermarket sell a similar style? And the fact is, in every town, in every city, all over the world, there's a top and a middle and a bottom service provider. If you look hard enough, there's a...

In the UK we would say it's cheap as chips, so somebody mega low priced and somebody who has decided to occupy that luxury, premium, really top end of the market, which is where all of the customer service ⁓ stuff, customer excellence kind of sits, doesn't it, at that end. And so almost everybody has an opportunity to move up that ladder somewhat, and often that top spot is there already waiting for them to occupy.

Rick Denton (05:12)
I when I was doing my consulting business, was coached, know, just raise your rates and see what happens, right? And suddenly, wait, they don't go away because especially in something you're describing here where it's pets, people will do anything for their pets. So if there's a slight increase or something like that, well, people are probably gonna stick with as long as they're with a provider that they really enjoy. That makes a lot of sense. You do something else that's kind of unique. You've got this, a pet business inner circle. And I was surprised to find that there's lots of

newsletters out there. I have a newsletter but I send an email. You actually do a paper and ink newsletter that you are mailing to folks. Why are you doing something physical in this such digital world and does that change how your members stay engaged?

Dom Hodgson (05:57)
I think so, yeah I think so. mean we have a free newsletter that we email out to prospects and clients and past clients as well. That's just a four page thing. ⁓

That's a minimum 12 page newsletter that goes out to the members, all of my consulting clients. this will be, as we record this, November will be the, that'll be my 100th issue actually. Yes, we'll be this. congratulations. Yeah, yeah, so really excited about that. And for sure, it has, I think it's had a big effect on customer attention. Yeah. It's like a regular, almost a serialization of.

what I'm up to in my business so I can share behind the scenes of what's going on. It helps me with Ascension as well, you know, because I can tell all of my members about things that my top clients are doing, you know, which in turn makes them wanna kind of find, okay, what else does Dom offer? You how else can Dom potentially help me? ⁓ But, and it's also great for ⁓ just content creation. if you are disciplined enough to create a...

12 page newsletter or an 8 page newsletter, you probably have enough content in there for 4 or 5 blogs or articles.

Rick Denton (07:16)
And listeners are going, wait, I can't do a one page news letter. Forget about it.

Dom Hodgson (07:19)
A dozen emails. ⁓ I've done it where, on the Disney, so how my book came about, how to Disney-fy your pet business, that came out because I wrote a newsletter about Disney for the members. I actually had too much content. It ended up becoming three newsletters and I was like, you know what, another 30,000 words and we've got a book here. So yeah, that became a book in the end.

Rick Denton (07:39)
I

like that. Now, is that book still available? Oh, it's still We're going to put that in the show notes for sure. So folks,

If you want to know how to Disney-fy your pet business, and honestly, I'm sure there's lessons to be learned regardless of your business. That link will be there down in the show notes. I mentioned in the introduction this idea of dog adventure. Now, I'm imagining this muddy boot. You're out there. I want to know about that era, and I want to know how does that era now influence you today when you talk about guiding others on staffing levels and service and healthy client boundaries too.

Dom Hodgson (08:13)
Yeah, for sure. So the dog adventure business came about because I was a sales rep at the time and I didn't really want to be a sales rep for another 30 years. At the same time as that, we had recently adopted a dog from a rescue, a shelter. And when you adopt a dog, they often come with a lot of issues, know, and pent up energy and stuff like that. we were taking the dog out for like a jog and a...

take them out cycling and things like that to get the energy out of him really and that was like the spark of the idea of hey I wonder if it would be an idea to offer a more advanced exercise and enrichment experience for dogs would clients pay for that you know so that was where the dog adventure business came about it was like a we're not a dog walker we're doing dog adventures and even just now saying it you know a walk sounds functional an adventure sounds exciting

Rick Denton (09:07)
I would much rather go on an adventure than a walk, even if it was just me.

Dom Hodgson (09:10)
For sure,

yeah. And ⁓ because of that I was able to charge a premium price. ⁓ I've made a lot of mistakes over the years with my business, but the two things that I did really well at the start were I charged more than my competitors to the price point we talked about earlier, and I called it adventures instead of walks. I was instantly, I had elevated myself above the competition because I was offering something more enhanced and experiential. It was very attractive to affluent dog owners who were looking for that kind of thing.

Yeah, and it just meant the business grew a lot more profitably. Almost like without competition I was in a category of one really with that service that I offered. It was a game changer really. That philosophy I've carried through to help my clients with. if we're working with a dog groomer...

I say you shouldn't call yourself a dog groomer, should call yourself a dog stylist. And I know it's only a word, but it makes a huge difference. And because of that, they're able to break out of the commodity factor and just differentiate themselves from the competition. You want to be different all the time. It's a big thing what we teach is. You want to be different and better, ideally, but even just being different. How can I be different? How can I position myself as being different?

Rick Denton (10:37)
So you came over here from the UK, or you will be heading back soon, I would imagine. That's not the longest flight, but it's certainly not a short flight. And it can be really nice when you've got access to the First Class Lounge. So I want to invite you to stop down and join me in the First Class Lounge today. We'll move quickly here and have a little bit of fun. What is a dream travel location from your past?

Dom Hodgson (10:57)
Dream travel location from my past? ⁓ Well, I'm a big Disney nut as you probably know. I do like visiting Disney whenever we can. think ⁓ Barcelona. Barcelona is one of my most favorite cities. ⁓ Such a nice vibe, loads to see, the food and the wines incredible. The people are great. Yeah, Barcelona is one of my top ones.

Rick Denton (11:20)
What

about the other direction? What's a dream travel location you've not been to yet?

Dom Hodgson (11:25)
Well,

we want to go to Iceland. ⁓ My wife has been to Iceland. I haven't been. So that's on our list, for hopefully the near future.

Rick Denton (11:34)
I love it. I was there for the first time earlier this year. Wow! I strongly recommend it. Absolutely. You mentioned Barcelona and Spain and I think of just wonderful food there and all that. What's a favorite thing of yours to eat?

Dom Hodgson (11:46)
wow, I love tapas, yeah. I'll eat anything. No, I'm really not fussy. we eat a lot of spicy food. We like curries. I like to make my own breads. That's something that we like to do as well. Okay. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah, I'm trying to find a way to meld those two.

Rick Denton (12:00)
Dog adventures in bread.

We're going to talk further once the other recording is over here. Okay, so what is something you were forced to eat growing up but you hated as a kid?

Dom Hodgson (12:17)
gonna say, I didn't like a lot of desserts when I was young. I didn't like custard and I didn't like things like that. I don't know if it's just because of school dinners and what we were being or whether my mom wasn't a very good cook. She's wonderful at everything else, but she wasn't a great cook. But I've got over that now and I quite like desserts and custard and all that nice sweet stuff.

Rick Denton (12:38)
Boy, it's funny, I don't think I've heard anybody, and 200 episodes, maybe I've missed one, but has mentioned desserts. So I'm glad that you've gotten it.

Dom Hodgson (12:46)
I'm over it now, I'm over it now.

Rick Denton (12:48)
Sadly, we're gonna have to leave the lounge. What is one travel item, not including your phone, not including your passport, that you will not leave home without?

Dom Hodgson (12:56)
Mackindle. Yeah, definitely Mackindle. Yeah, I love reading. I love writing as well. The reading helps with the writing. ⁓ So yeah, gotta have Mackindle with me.

Rick Denton (13:15)
I want to focus on that Disney-fy aspect of it. Let's get real practical now. What is one, even low cost if that's possible, what's something a pet business, or really businesses in general, could do now to Disney-fy their experience for their customer?

Dom Hodgson (13:30)
I would say adding some kind of ⁓ paper and ink or offline element to their marketing. Be that a thank you card, know, a handwritten thank you card can go so far ⁓ or a simple postcard to reactivate past ⁓ clients. ⁓ So back home, ⁓ our address is Town Farm and it's an old-ish farmhouse. We have ⁓ open fires which

I'll be lighting as soon as I get home because the temperature is dropping. So we have to have a chimney sweep come. He comes once a year and he goes up and cleans it and makes sure it's all. And he sends a postcard. It's just a simple postcard reminder. It's never changed. I've been telling my clients about this for like the eight years that I've been doing this coaching. It is almost an ugly yellow with just black writing on and a picture.

But it's genius. It's just the reminder, know, such a low cost. And to show you how much it works, I knew I needed to get the chimney sweep done because we were going have to put it on. And I said to Beth, I need to the chimney sweep. I need to phone the chimney sweep. And then the postcard landed again. I'm like, there it is. And so,

Rick Denton (14:43)
And it's funny that there was a time there that the physical, the direct mail, all that, we were just inundated with. it's kind of rare when it's personal. We're inundated with depersonalized, unpersonalized. For sure. But something like that is a perhaps.

Dom Hodgson (14:50)
Absolutely, yeah.

You'll stand out, you'll stand out. Like you said, people are getting ⁓ trashy stuff, or they're getting bills through the post, but if you're the one who's providing something of value, you're going to stand out.

Rick Denton (15:10)
That's awesome. You, in fact, we've been in this group here and I've heard you talk about CRMs and I know you're big believer in that as a way to grow. Translate that for the small, for the small shop, the small doggy daycare. What's sort of the minimum, what do they need to get set up and still make a difference? What can they automate to either boost spend or increase that retention of clients coming back?

Dom Hodgson (15:36)
Yeah,

⁓ we just created a free guide actually for our pet business owning prospects about this, about all the different kind of funnels that you should automate in the business. There's an onboarding funnel, hiring funnel, a puppy funnel, you know. But really, if you are driving traffic to the website, and most people are driving traffic to a website.

either through pay traffic or through the social media stuff that they're doing, they want people to go to their website. If you aren't capturing contact details from website visitors.

and following up with them. To me that's the biggest thing that will make the biggest difference to your business going forward. I've worked with small businesses, I've worked with people who have five, six, ten facilities and they're not doing this. They're not utilising simple contact form where they get people's contact details and then they them in a follow-up sequence. It's a complete and total lot of game changer for anybody's business.

Rick Denton (16:33)
Especially if somebody's

already got the relationship, right? They don't need a lead magnet. This is a customer that's in their store. They probably fill out this information and then they can do that.

Dom Hodgson (16:41)
I mean on that point as well the lead magnet not difficult to create you know not too difficult to create some kind of simple ⁓ helpful video or a guide or a tip sheet or something like that you know yeah you do it might take a little bit of work might take you a couple of weeks or a month to do it but once you've done it it'll work and ⁓ onboard clients for years yeah and

Rick Denton (17:01)
You

even just there, just casually dropped in a lead bag that you had.

Dom Hodgson (17:05)
Yeah,

for sure.

Rick Denton (17:06)
We'll talk later, I'll get that on the show notes as well so that folks can see what that looks like and see how these automation paths, what they can choose and what might be available to them. I want to close out with something and it's stepping away kind of from pet in general, but you started with operating a family operated business and you've been open about the challenges that come with operating a family business. I'm actually working with my wife now and so technically we are a family business and it has its pros, it has

its cons, what kind of shifted that mindset from being overwhelmed to organized, and then how can you use what you learned to help leaders make sure their business can run without them being glued to every single detail?

Dom Hodgson (17:53)
Okay.

I think a couple of things really. the right butts in the right seats, know, so making sure that people are doing jobs that they are qualified for, that they enjoy doing, that they're good at. ⁓ That was a big thing for me. I work with my wife as well and with Toby, my son too. it's just identifying what are these people good at? know, what is, not just have to be your family members, but Beth is good at all of the things that I'm not very good at, you know.

And that's why we work so well together. So there's that. Obviously systems, if you have systems that are locked in, systems for everything. Systems for everything that happens in the business. So that people know what the standard is, and then when you bring somebody new in, they're able to just follow the system that you've built. ⁓ Yeah, they're probably the two things that I think would benefit small or medium or even bigger businesses.

Rick Denton (18:48)
I like that. I want to probe. said that was the last question. Go for it. You now made me really curious. How did you have those conversations?

that are so based in logic. This is your skill set, this is my skill set. That sounds very logical, but when you're talking about family, family is very emotional. How did you navigate those conversations to make them successful? Were there lessons learned? Are there things that we can take forward?

Dom Hodgson (19:10)
Yeah,

it didn't happen overnight. Beth, I started the dog adventure business and then I transitioned to coaching about seven or eight years ago. Beth was a teacher. She was a deputy head primary school teacher. So she was in charge of a big department. That became quite stressful for her. She joined the business around COVID time, actually. So like 2020. again, I...

She was nervous about leaving her job and coming into the business, as we both kind of were. But I knew that she had a bunch of skills that I wasn't very, you know, she's very detailed, she's very organized, I'm very big picture and you know, let's just break something and do it fast. And so we have like a good balance, counterbalance to each other, you know? ⁓ But I think certainly from coaching a lot of other business owners who have hundreds of staff members, you know, this is definitely something that they've cracked.

in their business, the guys who are doing really well, they've got the right butts in the right seats. Definitely.

Rick Denton (20:12)
Such an important, such a key and vital part. this has been a great conversation. I love the idea of, like I said, the muddy boots, the dog adventure, even just the simple elements of how branding matters, but then talking about how to run a family business. really, when we talk about the Disney-Fi elements and the automation, these aren't horribly complex or expense elements that any business, whether you're a pet daycare owner or you are any sort of business, can implement right away. Folks wanted to get to know a little bit more about you,

Your business, maybe optimize their own pet business. What's the best way for them to get in touch?

Dom Hodgson (20:47)
They can go to Petbusinessmarketing.com. have a bunch of resources, free ⁓ different programs. We have enrichment programs, we've got a CRM system. There's a bunch of things that people can poke around and have a look and see if can find anything useful to help them.

Rick Denton (21:05)
And the listeners, know, all of that's going to end up in the show notes. So Dom, this has been an absolute treat. Thank you for being on CXPass4Live.

Dom Hodgson (21:13)
You're welcome. Thanks for having me.