Essential features

I wanted to love the app (because it’s beautiful and really professional looking)…but for me, I really need an fully integrated CRM for pet sitting, not just a booking app where I still have to keep most info somewhere else.

Client & pet info needs to be fully customizable and able to add a lot of details. The forms might be okay for dog walks, but I do a lot of overnights and I have a lot of things that I ask clients. Right now I have a form I bring with me to the M&G. But I need a CRM where I get the clients to do this and then the info is all in one place (not a Google form, a booking app, etc.).

• Client contact info has to be customizable to add more than one person (both pet parents) and all their contact info (email, phone)

• Multiple emergency contacts, phone, name, relationship, house emergencies or pet emergencies?

• Pet info needs to be customizable: Meals are different in AM/PM; pets routine morning/evening/bedtime, sleeping, crating, medications, behavior, quirks, treats, commands they know — for each pet in the house! (For breed, I just need a blank for people to type in. Not a drop down they have to scroll through looking for “Mixed X and Y…maybe” or “Mexican Street Dog” or “Outdoor feral” because those don’t exist on your list. BTW, when I type one of those in, the form prompts me to “enter a custom breed below” but there’s nowhere to enter it.)

• House info (another half dozen questions here)

I also need to be able to customize the process/work flow. I book a meet & greet and (ideally) have the client fill out their details and pet profiles before we meet. At the M&G we discuss these details and I go over my policies. Only after that do I ask them to sign the contract. And they only have to sign once, not every time they book. I can’t have an app force me to have clients either sign before while requesting a booking or when they fill out a profile. Yikes.

Another essential is to have a way to integrate with weekly/monthly bookkeeping. Who booked what, what did they pay, what did I refund, etc. Right now I don’t even see a way to download a CSV of that data.

I also really need to get daily/visit updates out of my phone’s text messages and this is one of things driving me to find a CRM for pet sitting. But text messages are how all of my clients want updates now so it needs to integrate: Update the CRM with the visit notes & photo > push to the clients preferred contact method (text messages, What’s App, etc.)

Unfortunately, so far Scritches is mainly focused on two areas that aren’t causing me headaches right now: Booking and invoicing. But I’ll be keeping an eye on development!