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GROOM’D Seminar Snippets: Pet business coach Joe Zuccarello offered practical tips on protecting your business and staff from lawsuits as well as what to do when accidents happen. He said, “What we are selling is trust; it just looks like a haircut.”
Zuccarello explained that we live in a “society of blamers,” and often people sue because of how they were treated or how they felt they were treated — even if the business owner does everything right. Sometimes, all it takes is an emotionally charged situation to start the ball rolling. People can also sue when they see a potential “money grab.”
For groomers, reasons lawsuits are started include injuries, neglect, abuse, death, loss (dog escapes, wrong dog given to wrong family, custody issues, etc.) and bad haircuts. Lawsuits can be costly, so it’s important to pick your battles if you are sued. Sometimes, the best course of action is to pay for something or refund a groom, even if you know you are right.
Using three lawsuit examples Zuccarello or his clients had first-had experience with, he offered several things you can do to protect your business:
- Make sure your employees are properly trained to perform their job duties.
- Have procedures and protocols in place for every possible scenario.
- If something happens, immediate contact and genuine follow-up with the pet owner are crucial and can save you from a lawsuit. Always be transparent.
- When incidents happen, learn from them and create processes to avoid the issue happening again in the future.
- Install cameras. This is not to “spy” on employees but rather protect them if they are accused of abuse or neglect.
- When incidents occur, interview employees and witnesses immediately. Document exactly what happened and have a timeline of what happened and when. This information will be needed if you do have to go to court.
