As part of my interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Candace D’Agnolo. As a pet industry veteran since 2004, Candace has started companies in pet supply retail, wholesale bakery, dog daycare, pet grooming, and more. After successfully selling three businesses, she now mentors thousands of other “Pet Bosses” to see success faster together than doing it alone. As a pet industry business coach, trade show speaker, columnist, and influencer, her belief in the community over competition and her ability to grow and scale companies is impacting other business owners in a big way!

Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

In2006, I opened my first retail store in Chicago called Dogaholics. Here’s the riskiest part — I picked a location only 200 feet from Chicago’s first and most successful dog boutique. Yep, that decision made my life very difficult. Since most vendors wouldn’t sell to me (among other intense challenges), I had to get creative. So, I sourced unique, never seen in Chicago product lines. Customers ended up loving my selection leading to a great reward. In my first year in this hyper-competitive market, we did $600k in revenue!

Within two years, I opened two more locations and grew to 27 employees (and I was only 27, myself! I had no idea what I was doing!). I was $400k in debt, and as luck would have it the recession was just getting started (can you sense my inner wolf growling?). I started to wonder why I had done this to myself. Why did I grow so fast? Where did all the money go? Why was I working 16 hours a day? Why were my employees not listening to me? Why did I gain so much weight? Why was my marriage failing?

Running a pet business sure wasn’t about playing with puppies all day! My journey was paved with serious obstacles and struggles, expansion, and contraction that almost put me out of business, and challenges that taught me to turn any crisis into a growth opportunity.

Since my days of struggle and overwhelm, I’ve taken my initial concept of a brick and mortar retail location and turned it into multiple revenue streams — retail, grooming, doggy daycare, boarding, training, dog walking, play park memberships, online informational products, books, merchandise, and now business consulting through Pet Boss Nation.

How did I turn it all around? The answer is easy. I stopped running my business like I was self-employed and started running it like I was the CEO of a company I’d either want to scale or sell one day.

I believe to my core that when we invest in ourselves, we will always win. It’s never CAN YOU do something? Rather, WILL YOU do something?

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?

Mistakes usually aren’t funny when it’s your business! I have more stories that would make your jaw drop, but let’s see… funny… well, I suppose the funniest thing is that at the time I first opened, I ordered A LOT of expensive little dog clothing. At the time Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie had their TV show and I was opening my store in an affluent part of downtown Chicago, so I just assumed customers would want to buy Ed Hardy carriers and Hello Kitty dresses. It was a disaster! I couldn’t even give the stuff away! What I learned from that is actually something we teach our clients all the time now in retail…

1) Know who your customer is and buy what they want, not what you want. They will vote for what they want with their wallets, so don’t overbuy until you know something is a sure thing!

2) If an item doesn’t sell within the first 30 days, change the price or re-merchandise it.

3) You’re not a museum… don’t hold onto things forever. (I had those items for 5 years!)

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

When I was at my rock bottom in 2010, I met a retail coach who was speaking at a retailer conference at the Chicago Merchandise Mart. I ended up working one-on-one with her, which was very expensive at the time for me to hire her, but I did. I had no idea how I was going to pay for her services, but I knew I couldn’t afford to. She helped me learn everything I didn’t know about business… retail math, inventory management, selling strategies, and how to be a better leader. The most impactful thing I think she gave me though was courage and confidence. She believed that I had everything inside of me to get the business and life that I wanted. Within a couple of years, I went from struggling and broke to thriving! This is why I believe mentorship is critical and one of the main reasons we created the Pet Boss Nation Mentor Program.

Thank you for that. Let’s now pivot to the main focus of our interview. This might be intuitive, but I think it’s helpful to specifically articulate it. In your words, can you share a few reasons why great customer service and a great customer experience is essential for success in business?

Unless you have really unique products or services, gone are the days of being the only place for a customer to shop. Take pet products for example… you can get them at home improvement, office supply, and party stores. I encourage our clients to not worry about being the cheapest price but instead being the best place to shop. Giving a great customer experience is critical. I prefer the term “customer experience” over “customer service” because there are many parts to the customer journey. We have to look at the entire experience they have from the minute they find you online, to the time they visit your store (in-store or virtual) and beyond.

We have all had times either in a store, or online, when we’ve had a very poor experience as a customer or user. If the importance of a good customer experience is so intuitive, and apparent, where is the disconnect? How is it that so many companies do not make this a priority?

I believe there are a few factors that go into this disconnect actually. First, when people are opening a business, sometimes they don’t think about policies, business hours, or the user experience in detail ahead of time. They either make the same policies as other businesses around them or they create a policy after a negative situation arises for them…no checks, no returns, etc. The solution to this is to always consider the question… “What would my customer want?” This phrase is a great guiding light to help with developing a wow customer experience.

Second, as business owners become overwhelmed, working a lot of hours, struggling to find good employees, feeling under-appreciated by consumers — they get burned out and wondering why they are doing this. Speaking from experience, it can be hard to leave all the plates you’re spinning and emotions you’re feeling “at the door” with every interaction you have (whether it’s customers, employees or vendors).

Third, many business owners are worried about margins and giving away money (whether that’s issuing a cash refund, giving gifts or throwing events for customers, or even hiring an additional team member to support the demand). They are worrying about the small stuff instead of thinking about the big picture. Because the reality is they’ll spend way less money and get a greater return in the long run by keeping existing customers happy. Word of mouth is one of the most powerful marketing strategies around…and it doesn’t cost a thing!

Do you think that more competition helps force companies to improve the customer experience they offer? Are there other external pressures that can force a company to improve the customer experience?

I think competition is a good thing. It pushes us to innovate and to reflect on how we can improve. Certainly, great customer service is always the #1 thing people say that differentiates them from competitors, but it’s really a very vague aspect to point to. Which is why the whole customer experience can truly set you apart from everyone else. The greatest external pressure is really social media and review platforms. I hear people often say that they run their businesses as it lives in fear of a bad Yelp review. While it is virtually impossible to please everyone, I think the customers really drive opportunities for change and improvement, because with a click of a button they can shout it out to the world about what they are unhappy with… which is why word of mouth marketing is so powerful!

Can you share with us a story from your experience about a customer who was “Wowed” by the experience you provided?

We were going full force with sharing information during the start of Covid-19, when small businesses were navigating the Cares Act, PPP, and EIDL loans. Many of our Pet Boss Club Members were stressing, worried, and really confused about what exactly to do and who it affected their particular businesses. We reached out to many and offered private calls or discussions to talk it through. We don’t typically provide one-on-one phone consultations to our Club Members, as it’s a group coaching experience, but during this time, we made ourselves available 24/7. One client in particular sent us cookies and a balloon in appreciation the next day.

Did that Wow! experience have any long term ripple effects? Can you share the story?

Many of the Pet Boss Nation Club & Mastermind clients are expanding or opening additional locations. I’d like to think it’s because we were there for them during the panic and overwhelm of April and May. We helped keep them going, providing encouragement and guidance on next steps.

Ok, here is the main question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a founder or CEO should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience. Please share a story or an example for each.

1. Surprises are the best! At Pet Boss Nation when a client achieves certain goals and successes in their own businesses, we mail them a custom gift from us they can’t order anywhere else to congratulate and surprise them.

2. Be easy to do business with. From how easy it is to find your phone number, email, address, or get live chat support on your website to your cancellation or refund policies- it’s eye-opening to see walk through every step of your customer’s journey through their eyes.

3. Empower employees to make decisions without having to speak to a manager. At my store, Dogaholics, we allowed all sales associates the ability to handle returns, credits, and gift cards and to offer any discount up to 15% off to make the customer happy.

4. Employees were trained to be on the customer’s side. No matter what scenario presented itself, employees were all encouraged to say, “I want to help make this right. I am here to help you get the answer.”

5. Communicate with voice (or even better with video) when possible. Picking up the phone and calling a customer to discuss an issue, to check-in, or to share the news with them can REALLY go a long way. Now we even send short video messages via email and text to personalize an experience. People are thriving for human connection. It’s amazing how a little jester-like speaking directly with someone has such a lasting impact.

Are there a few things that can be done so that when a customer or client has a Wow! experience, they inspire others to reach out to you as well?

If your brand can feature customer successes, stories, letters, emails, pictures of appreciation on your social media channels, what will start to happen is others will begin to want to share their experiences as well, tagging you in hopes that you may share it.

Depending on the situation, you should remind the customer that you’re a small business and that their referral or review plays a critical role in your success. It’s perfectly acceptable to ask for a review or to ask if the customer knows anyone else who might enjoy or appreciate your services. Remember…word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing! As business owners, we have to open our mouths too and ASK for the referral.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

We do have a movement! Pet Boss Nation believes pet businesses (or heck any small business for that matter) are a lifeline to creating thriving communities, impacting their local economies, and acting as positive change agents in the lives of pets, customers, employees, and other small business owners. They create legacies that go beyond the four walls of their business.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

https://www.facebook.com/petbossnation/

https://www.instagram.com/petbossnation/

https://www.youtube.com/c/petbossnation/