What do you get when you blend: (1) intuitive understanding of a dog's psychology, (2) deep appreciation for the role that a dog plays as a family member in peoples' lives, (3) business acumen that comes from a person with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management? Why, you get Matt's Mutts, of course!
My partner and I discovered Matt's Mutts when our routine dog walker had a scheduling change and was no longer able to accommodate us. This thrust us into the uncertain world of finding a new person to walk our dog on weekdays. We were nervous. Who would be trustworthy and dependable while still giving us value for the money? For us, having someone to walk our dog during the workday is not a trivial item... our dog is an integral member of our family, and the daily walk is a major (if not THE major) activity of the day. While we are both dreading the next meeting or PowerPoint adventure at work each day, our dog is looking forward to a new opportunity to meet other dogs, get some exercise, water the obligatory bush, and gather vital intelligence about the neighborhood by sniffing every bush in sight. With this heavy mandate, finding a suitable dog walker is critically important.
Despite having experienced the occasional annoyance with our previous dog walker, we had been generally satisfied overall. Our dog tends to pick up various items in her lengthy hair: vegetation, sand, sticks and occasionally an oddball item (example: plastic mesh from the prepackaged sod in someone's newly planted lawn). We had grown accustomed to the daily "harvest" of random objects from her hair, and occasionally had to admonish the dog walker to not bring our dog to the beach or to particularly vegetation-rich environments. After dealing with this for a long time, we had become somewhat resigned to conducting a thorough grooming exercise while greeting our dog in the evenings when we returned from work. Enter Matt's Mutts.
When Matt and his team took over our dog walking, everything changed. Matt actually listened to our request to not walk the dog at the beach and to avoid places where burrs, foxtails and other annoying items (yes, even plastic mesh) could become part of our dog's daily collection of objects. In fact, the "harvest" of objects has dramatically decreased... in fairness, driving the daily haul to zero is probably impossible due to our dog's mess of hair, but Matt is helping us get closer to the nirvana of a zero-harvest life.
In addition, Matt has introduced technology to the dog walking "industry". We were amazed and delighted to learn that he uses scheduling software on his website to allow customers to book appointments. Wow! Better yet... he even accepts credit cards! (although we pay him by check to help him avoid the nasty interchange fees from credit card companies).
Bottom line: Matt and his team have truly elevated the game of dog walking in San Francisco. If you want to engage a truly professional outfit to walk your dog... a business that operates as a business should... a business that knows what customer service means, knows how to treat both the human and the dog as customers, and that seeks and incorporates customer feedback to make the service get better and better over time... then you might want to give Matt's Mutts a try. If our experience is any indicator, you won't be disappointed. read more
