Pricing Strategies for Dog Daycare: Pricing & Packaging Your Pet Services.

Setting your prices for your doggy daycare business can be intimidating. It seems like it should be simple, but it requires a lot of careful planning and consideration to ensure you're not pricing your services too high or too low. That’s why a solid pricing strategy can be incredibly beneficial.

A pricing strategy is important for doggy daycare business owners because it can affect their profitability, competitiveness, and customer satisfaction. By setting the right prices, pet care businesses can attract and retain customers, cover their costs, and improve profits.

What is a pricing strategy?

Setting your pricing is one of the first steps before opening your dog daycare business. Determining how much your services are worth to your clients can be overwhelming. There's a lot to consider, and you want to ensure your business is financially attractive to prospective clients and not a deterrent.

Your pricing requires research and a well-planned strategy to carefully calculate what your dog daycare services are worth against what your clients are willing to pay. A pricing strategy is the process and methods to set prices for the services, products, and extras you plan to offer.

Pricing correctly is more than just creating a profit for your dog daycare business. With the right pricing strategy, you can position yourself in the market to attract new clients and remain competitive. You can use many different methods to set yourself up for success with the right prices.

4 benefits of a pricing strategy for pet businesses.

Pricing your services is more than just earning an income. There are several benefits the right pricing strategy can offer your doggy daycare business. Your prices can make or break your business in an increasingly competitive market.

Here are four benefits of using a solid pricing strategy:

1. Attracts more clients: The right price is designed to attract potential pet owners. If you price your services too high, your target demographic might be unable to afford them. You want to be sure you research and price them so they are attractive compared to your competitors.
2. Keeps you competitive: Your pricing strategy should always keep your local competitors in mind. Clients might head over to your competitors if your prices are too high. With the right strategy, you can offer more value at a price that keeps your pet care business profitable.
3. Improve brand awareness and perception: When you're priced competitively, your target customers will take notice. The price of your services can influence how potential clients perceive their value and quality. You can position your services to be perceived as high value or premium to improve your business's perception and increase loyalty and recognition.‍
4. Shows value: A well-thought-out pricing strategy can convey the value of your services. People tend to associate lower prices with lower-quality services. If you're priced well, people will associate your business with a better value and know they are getting quality service at a great price.

How to price your dog daycare services.

Finding the right price that works for you and your clients is a tricky business. You want to set pricing so that clients are more willing to book your services and your overhead costs are covered.

Factors to consider.

Pricing your dog daycare services requires a little more research than pricing products. You're determining the value of the services you offer, and there's a lot you need to consider.

The most crucial factor to consider is what the market is like in your area. Before considering your prices, you need to look at the average cost of doggy daycare services locally. Using the market research you conducted as part of your business plan can help you find the right price.

Understanding your overhead costs can also ensure you aren't pricing your services too low.

Some key overhead costs you want to consider include:

• Rent/mortgage for the daycare facility
• Staff salaries
• Insurance
• Utilities
• Toys and equipment
• Grooming supplies
• Value of your time

When you are on top of your market demands, competitor prices, and overall business costs, you are ready to set prices that will ultimately boost your chances of success.

Types of pricing strategies.

There are different strategies, throughout all industries, that businesses can use to determine what they should price their goods or services at. Here are five of the most common pricing strategy examples you can consider when setting up your pricing.

Dynamic pricing.

Dynamic pricing is a pricing strategy built on real-time market conditions. It allows you to adjust your pricing up or down based on demand and the current market. You can compare competitive pricing as often as needed to determine if you need to make any changes.

Value-based pricing.

Value-based pricing uses the perception of the clients or the market to set prices based more on what they are willing to pay. It's all about perception within the pet services market and the benefits of a dog daycare for your clients to determine the value of your brand. With this strategy, you would use customer-based data and an understanding of the market as a whole to determine client needs.

Competition-based pricing.

Using the competition-based pricing strategy, you choose your pricing based on what the competition is charging. With a dog daycare business, you would look at other dog daycares in your local area and review their pricing on similar packages you offer. This method allows you to remain competitive in an increasingly popular market.

Cost-plus pricing.

Cost-plus pricing is one of the simpler strategies that does not require much research. It's a simple calculation that, with a normal business, takes the production costs and adds a small percentage to earn a profit. For a doggie daycare, you could calculate the cost of supplies and the staff required to run your business and use that baseline number to add a percentage to determine your pricing.

Tier-based pricing.

The tiered pricing method is very popular as it allows you to cater to a larger target market. By offering tiered packages you can service more clients who have different needs and budgets.

For your dog daycare, you could offer a basic plan that includes a stay, a mid-tier plan that includes a stay and a dog walk, and a high-tier plan that offers all of the above and a dog grooming session.

How to package and bundle pet services.

You can bundle your pet services to create more attractive offers to clients. Bundle pricing is a strategy on top of your pricing that you can use to offer more services at one price.

In any business, customers want to be able to buy more for less. The better the deal, the more likely you will close the sale. By bundling and packaging your dog daycare services, you can add more value to your offer.  

Types of service packages.

With a dog daycare business, you can put together several different kinds of service packages. It all depends on what you plan to offer your clients.

You can offer to bundle:

• Full-day care services
• Half-day care services
• Grooming packages
• Training packages
• Activity packages
• Treats and goodies

Any package you offer can be completely customized based on your business or client trends. You can bundle services by offering deals on daycare services with additional grooming, walking or training services.

3 benefits of packaging services.

Packing your services together using the bundle pricing strategy can benefit your business by:

1. Increasing profit: Bundling your services can encourage your clients to spend more. Package offerings are often priced a little lower as a special deal, with higher perceived value. Your clients are more likely to purchase these packages, even if they don't necessarily need everything right at that moment.
2. Boosts loyalty: Not only are your clients getting a great deal by purchasing a bundled service, but they also get to try out something they may not have been willing to purchase on their own. It allows them to love all the services you offer and builds trust and loyalty, leading to a loyal customer base.‍
3. Attracts new clients: Bundles and pricing packages can attract more clients. People are always looking for ways to save money and get more bang for their buck. If you offer an attractive package, you're more likely to snag a new client.

How PetExec can assist in pricing & packaging services.

The pet industry is booming, and setting your doggy daycare prices just right is vital to remain competitive and attract clients. PetExec's Doggie Daycare Software is designed to offer much more than automation and managing the many tasks of your business. It can help you evaluate your pricing and develop packages for your services to help you reach your business goals.

With the reporting and analytics feature, you can evaluate your business on another level. You can review income over a period of time, analyze trends and popular services, and review overhead costs and expenses. With this information, you can decide if prices are set just right or if it's time to adjust.

Beyond pricing assistance, PetExec can help you create service packages for your clients to attract and retain new clients. You can set up various packages that your business offers, from 10-day packages to 3-month packages, to nudge your clients toward the best pricing to keep them coming back. These packages are set up to be automatically managed in your system, so once you set it up, you're good to go.

With PetExec dog daycare software's many features, you can set up your pricing to help boost your business’s success. It can allow you to focus on more important things like spending time with your client's dogs and building relationships.

Final thoughts.

Running a dog daycare can be challenging in many ways, but it's driven by passion and a love of dogs. Setting your pricing right for your target market can be difficult to master.

The best strategy is designed to target the right clients, offer them value, and build loyalty. It's all about understanding your market and your clients, and with that, you'll be running a successful doggie daycare in no time!

To learn more about how PetExec can handle all your pet business needs, book a free personalized demo today!