Barx Parx
Barx Parx Is Adding Bookings, Increasing Revenue, and Delighting Clients (and Their Humans) with RingCentral Texting
30 seconds
TO SCHEDULE A GROOMING APPOINTMENT BY TEXT—INSTEAD OF A 5-MINUTE CALL
5.2%
INCREASE IN DOG DAYCARE REVENUE AFTER ENABLING CLIENTS TO BOOK SESSIONS BY TEXT
0
DOWNTIME MIGRATING THE COMPANY’S COMMUNICATIONS TO RINGCENTRAL.
As an indoor dog park, we have staff constantly moving around the facility and spending very little time at desks. Also, as you can imagine, our office gets loud. We needed a phone system with specific features, including mobility and SMS texting. RingCentral gave us that functionality and more—and it’s helping us streamline and grow our business.
Troy Freet
Co-Owner
Dog parents everywhere face a common challenge: How can we give our beloved canine kids the regular entertainment, exercise, and socialization they need and deserve? This challenge is particularly vexing in geographic regions with extreme climates, where outdoor park visits aren’t feasible for much of the year. Fortunately for the residents of Las Vegas, there’s Barx Parx Indoor Dog Park.
The husband-and-wife founding team behind Barx Parx left their corporate jobs to create a first-of-its-kind service—unique in two ways. First, Barx Parx offers a supervised indoor dog park facility which caters to both humans and dogs alike. Second, Barx Parx has developed a membership program—like a gym membership—where dogs and their humans can enjoy unlimited access to the professionally supervised temperature-controlled facility for as little as $30 a month. They even offer a 7-day free pass for new customers.
The company is a one-stop shop with a unique range of services and activities in a 12k square foot facility. For dogs, Barx Parx offers supervised all day play, doggy daycare, cage-free boarding, training classes, and more. The company holds a high bar when it comes to safety with an excellent 1:12 dog to staff ratio and free behavior assessments for new clients.
And for its human clientele, the facility offers free Wi-Fi, USB chargers, over a dozen TVs, with a bar serving beer, cider, wine, and snacks. Whether you are watching the game on the overhead TVs or plugged into charging stations with your phone or laptop computer, the Barx Parx concept is all about creating an environment that is conducive with the modern pet owner’s lifestyle.
Clearly, the company has tapped into a widespread and unmet need among the dog community. In each of the four years it’s been in business since opening in 2018, Barx Parx has topped the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s “Best of Vegas” list in multiple categories—including Best Pet Grooming, Best Pet Daycare and Boarding, and Best Dog Training. Most recently Barx Parx was voted one of Las Vegas’ best places to work for 2022 by the business press.
INDUSTRY
Pet resort
HQ
Las Vegas, NV
YEAR FOUNDED
2018
EMPLOYEES
45
A business with a unique phone challenge
With awards, media coverage, and positive word-of-mouth increasing every year, Barx Parx has grown significantly since opening its doors just a few years ago. But Troy Freet, who co-owns Barx Parx with his wife Jen, points out that inbound phone calls pose an interesting challenge that few other businesses face.
“At any moment, we might have 80 dogs barking in the background, and you can block out only so much of that noise behind an office wall,” Troy says.
“One reason we were so eager to upgrade our phone system was to find a solution with built-in SMS texting. That way, we could easily and more efficiently answer basic questions about the facility, sign up dogs for training classes, schedule grooming appointments—without the risk of mishearing an important detail.”
Doing business more efficiently with RingCentral texting
When Barx Parx rolled out RingCentral’s cloud-based unified communications solution, Troy explains, they gained the all-important ability for Barx Parx employees to communicate by SMS text with clients. “Now we have people texting our main business phone number, and our ‘Park Rangers’ respond to those messages right from their computers and tablets.”
SMS capability, Troy explains, is helping Barx Parx improve its operations in several ways. As one example, Troy points out that the company’s dog-grooming clients are taking advantage of a key texting feature to improve their experience. “Clients text us photos of what they want their dogs to look like, which makes it easier for our groomers to nail the look perfectly.”
“Texting also gets us bookings much more quickly,” Troy adds. “When clients had no choice but to call one of our numbers, those calls could take 10 minutes—between navigating our phone menus, small talk and having to repeat themselves over barking. But now, they can text us a request for an appointment and that takes 30 seconds, which frees up our employees and helps us book more services. The asynchronous nature of texting also means that our staff can check their texts every few minutes rather than dropping what they are doing to answer a ringing phone.”
Many of our clients prefer communicating by text rather than speaking on the phone. Customers just want a quick answer on their terms and because RingCentral allows us to give clients and prospects this option, clients are more likely to communicate their needs with us.
Troy Freet
Co-Owner
Streamlining operations with other RingCentral capabilities
As Troy explains, the Barx Parx team also uses other components of the RingCentral unified platform to improve their daily workflows.
“We use the automated phone menus to help our callers get connected to the right people quickly,” he says. “Because the RingCentral admin portal is easy and intuitive, anytime I need to change some part of our menu—say, to add a new employee’s extension or update holiday hours on the recorded greeting—I can do that easily online, from anywhere.”
The Barx Parx team also stays connected using RingCentral’s video conferencing solution. “We use RingCentral Video for internal team calls and for meetings with partners and vendors,” Troy says. “We’ve even used RingCentral Video to let our clients see their pup while they are vacationing on some tropical beach. The tool is extremely flexible, and I know we’ll keep finding uses for it.”
Improving the client experience with a HubSpot integration
Barx Parx has also found a way to add both familiarity and efficiency to its client calls, with the RingCentral for HubSpot CRM Integration.
“With RingCentral integrated into our HubSpot account, our trainers and groomers can now text and call clients directly from their HubSpot interface, where we have our detailed client profiles and histories,” Troy explains.
“And when we receive calls or texts from clients, essential details such as the dog’s name and account status show up on our caller ID immediately. This tight CRM integration ensures that we have important details about that client right in front of us without having to look things up or ask unnecessary questions. The integration of our CRM and phone system allows us to provide the best possible experience for our members and their four-legged family members.”
Encouraging better work-life balance
Finally, Troy notes, several of Barx Parx’s employees have told him that having RingCentral on their computers and mobile phones has improved their sense of work-life balance.
Our trainers are thankful that RingCentral makes their lives easy to define their business call rules and availability. These features allow them to stay connected to clients using their business number for calls and texting using their personal devices without having to respond to customer inquiries during their off-hours. This enhanced BYOD experience is improving our team’s quality of life.
Troy Freet
Co-Owner
What is next for Barx Parx?
Having an enterprise grade telecommunications platform that is integrated with other systems will help facilitate Barx Parx’s future expansion plans within their current and nearby markets. While Barx Parx does not currently franchising, they do consult with other similar concepts.
“We recognize that we’ve identified a need and concepts like Barx Parx are sprouting up around the country,” Troy says. “My wife and I have a uniquely complementary background when it comes to building brands and growing and scaling recurring-revenue businesses. We’ve been able to help dozens of concepts get off the ground and add predictable recurring revenue to their bottom line. The RingCentral video conferencing platform allows us to have meaningful sessions with our clients and collaborate on documents like business and marketing plans and financial models.”
Nearly one in five American households adopted a pet during the pandemic and more than 67% of US households currently own pets. This new era of pet owners wants to socialize, and they expect to be able to do it with their dog.
For more information about Barx Parx, visit their website at barxparx.com