15 Months of Adding Value
We camped at Coquille RV Park for a month
We pulled our trailer to Bandon at the beginning of March 2022 and landed at the Coquille River RV Park. We spent the next weeks working through the final details with our real estate agent to close the deal. On April 11th we took ownership of Riverview Kennels. Within days the rest of the family arrived and our journey of owning a pet care facility began. (Read about our family history here and here.)
In the first months, we had numerous things to adjust to (let alone the gale-force winds that rocked our trailer). We relied heavily upon the existing team and are grateful for the window of time they provided us in order to get our homes ready and our feet underneath us.
A house full of boxes in the beginning
The Goal: Add Value
Once the interior of our homes were painted and our floors laid we began an intentional strategy of adding value to an already great business. We did a thorough evaluation of the existing systems and rebuilt almost everything from the ground up.
Adding value was the lens we used as we looked at upgrading the facility, updating the website and software system, training the staff team, adding new services, adding new & updated resources, and focusing our policies to empower us to be the premiere pet care facility on the Oregon Coast.
Though we still have so many more plans to unfold in the future we wanted this blog to celebrate and mark all of the value we have been able to add so far.
The List of Added Value
While it would take too long to list every single change and update we’ve made, we curated a pretty long list of added-value items from our first 15 months. To keep it from just being one long list, we divided the added value into six different categories.
Facility Improvements
Kimberly prepping the exterior of the South Building for new paint
Painted exterior (The North Building is still yet to be done, but the South Building is complete.)
Painted interior (75% of our kennel interiors have been painted. We ran out of time during the slow season and couldn’t get the final kennels completed.)
Upgraded heating system (We now have forced air heating AND COOLING throughout the kennels- especially for those two hot days in our area.)
Upgraded groom room (New groom stations, kennel banks, and clippers)
Cat room shades (Those kitties need a respite from the heat on those two hot days of the year)
Upgraded washer & dryer (These beautiful blue beasts keep beds, towels, and other pet paraphernalia clean on the daily)
Beautified and maintained landscape (Lovely flowers in the flower beds on the drive and in front of the building and 13 new fruit trees in the orchard. Plus we just bought three lovely new pots for the front patio.)
Nicart Gallery art displayed in the lobby (Currently we have beautiful landscape photography from Blayden Thompson on display, but every 3 months a new artist will rotate through the gallery. You can purchase any of the art pieces with just a few clicks.)
2. Customer Convenience Updates
Upgraded Website (Streamlined for mobile use and online reservations, let alone refreshed to today’s standards)
Online Reservations (The convenient way to request a reservation or onboard as a new client)
Upgraded Software (Thank God for PawLoyalty! All of those fantastic reminder texts and emails are so convenient)
Text Communication (Simple updates, notices, and reminders directly to your inbox)
Daily Social Posting (Every day at 9 am we post an animal pic on Facebook and every other day at 6 pm we post an animal pic on Instagram. We also share silly animal comics and memes every other day on Facebook at 5 pm.)
Digital Signage in the Lobby (Those amazing screens display important information in such a lovely way- and those dog and cat videos on YouTube are always on point)
Upgraded Clover POS (Move over Clover Mini- we now have the Clover Flex. It integrates with PawLoyalty and adds layers of efficiency to the checkout process)
Upgraded Phone System (No more garbled calls on our end. Our upgraded phone service and phone system have cleaned up the noise and allowed us to focus on delivering the customer service we long for.)
Blog Posts (At the time of publishing we have 12 longer articles that span the topic range from navigating the busy season to knowing if your dog is a good fit for daycare and learning about our cleaning protocols)
3. New Resources
Lick mats, Kongs, and IQ puzzles are tools we use to reduce anxiety and stimulate the brain
Safer Cleaning Products (We’ve researched to find products that provide the highest levels of cleaning power and the safest ingredients for pets and team members)
From Choke Chains to Slip Leads & Martingales (In line with safer practices, we use removed the choke chains used previously for walks and upgraded to the much safer Martingale collar. We also use slip leads for moving dogs throughout the facility.)
Kongs, Lick Mats, & IQ Puzzles (We have a slew of products that help relieve anxiety and stimulate the brain)
Yappy Hour Dog Treats (Buster & Nipper’s parents own a Coos Bay small business producing high-quality dog treats. We sell their products from our lobby and dole them out to our borders.)
Dog Style Boutique Treats (Another local small business in Bandon produces high-quality dog treats. Their end pieces are such great little nibbles for coaxing boarders toward better behavior.)
4. New & Improved Services
The evaluation process has helped us strengthen our dog-first strategies and provided a safer environment for animals and team members
Upgraded Nose to Tail Baths (We added a few perks to our baths. Each one now includes ear cleaning, teeth cleaning, and nails trimmed)
Full-Service Grooming (We’ve had a few groomers and are currently looking for another. Once we have that person on the team we will be running full-service grooming and neaten-ups again.)
On-Site Trainer (Jan Gordon, our onsite trainer is fabulous. She has three decades of experience and has helped our team adopt more holistic and healthier pet practices.)
Training (Just a few weeks after the publishing of this blog we launched our first training services. We now offer 6-week Good Manners Classes and a Board & Train option. Coming soon we will add one-day Targeted Training classes.)
Evaluations (We started a new process of evaluating dogs. Now every new dog who stays with us begins with a thorough evaluation. We are actively working with dogs who have stayed with us before through the evaluation process. All of this is moving us toward being a fully social boarding and daycare facility.)
Daycare Packages (We offer daycare discounts for those looking for more frequent daycare activity for their dogs. The Happy Dog Daycare Pack provides 10 daycare stays for the price of 9.)
Upgraded Overnight Dog Music (We have a handful of playlists from Spotify we play overnight. The Sleepy Dog playlist is a great acoustic arrangement of popular songs.)
iPad Logging of Feeding, Bowel Irregularities, Walks, and Personal Times (95% of these activities are recorded in our system- making us much smarter as a team- and helping us track necessary information.)
5. Professional Staffing
All of our team members are trained in IBPSA content from day one
From 5 to 11 Staff Members (With additional team members required for grooming, training, evaluations, and for more interaction with the dogs we have more than doubled our staffing power. We feel so honored to be providing so many jobs for our area!)
IBPSA Trained Staff (Every onboarding staff member starts with K-9 Body Language Training and through their stay progresses through Canine Care Provider & Specialist Training, and Feline Care Provider & Specialist Training. This means our team is actively learning to stay sharp as pet care professionals.)
Force Free Training (Thanks to Jan Gordon, our onsite trainer, we have access to the best in Force Free training. You can rest assured that your pet is receiving the kindest and gentlest care while with us.
Staff Training Lunches (Every two weeks we gather the team for lunch to share a meal, connect and work on training or new endeavors. This keeps us sharp and the chatter and laughter in the room are evidence of a great place to work.)
Dedicated Receptionist (We created the Receptionist role so that phone calls and emails will always get responded to within each day’s time. They will be your first touch in the front office, on the phone, and behind the keys on email.)
SOPs for Kennel Techs, Receptionists & Bather/Groomer (These are basics of any business, but we filled the missing gap. Now all roles have job descriptions and standard operating procedures. This is one sample of the high levels of care we provide RVK Team Members.)
6. Dog-First Policies
Dog-First Decision-Making (We don’t make decisions that are most convenient to us or to our customers, but most convenient for our animals. This lens helps us deliver the highest quality of care for our boarders and daycare friends.)
No New Unaltered Dogs in Daycare and Boarding (We all know that dogs have good noses, but we don’t realize the impact of the smell of unaltered animals in a confined place. This policy aids our goal of creating a more peaceful facility.)
From Alone Dogs to Social Dogs Only (Some dogs require being separated from other dogs. As sweet as these animals may be, when they are brought to a social animal environment with close quarters like ours, the added stress to the team and the animals can be quite large.)
Transparency to Every Client about their Dog (We love giving good news to clients about their dog’s stay, but we won’t ever dodge the difficult news that sometimes has to be delivered. You will always hear the truth about your dog’s behavior and stay.)
We’re Not Done Yet
If you’ve gotten to this part of the blog (thanks for putting in work to get to the end!) then you can see in tangible ways the heart we have behind what we do. We long to serve the pet community of the South Coast of Oregon with the highest standards. From the facility to the philosophy of why we do what we do we want things to be healthy and flourishing.
Lord willing in the second 15 months we will be able to celebrate even more significant changes (among which would be an indoor daycare and training building, new roofing on the North Kennel, and newly segmented yards around the kennel).
Click the image above or the link below to learn more about the pricing changes and the limited time pricing special
With the rising costs we have all been facing and the increases coming on July 1 for rural Oregon minimum wage, we will be raising our Boarding & Daycare prices effective July 1, 2023. These price increases will empower us to continue to provide the strongest team to care for your pets and to continue the vast improvement plans we have in store.
Since this is such an important decision, we will be providing a 21-day period (from June 10th through July 1st) in which you can book your future reservations at existing prices and purchase packages at existing prices that will fit your needs and won’t expire for 360 days. Contact our office at 541.347.4689 in order to take advantage of this limited-time offer.
