{"id":2826,"date":"2013-09-19T15:17:55","date_gmt":"2013-09-19T19:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myassettag.com\/blog\/?p=2826"},"modified":"2026-02-13T06:26:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T11:26:00","slug":"qr-codes-going-to-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myassettag.com/blog\/qr-codes-going-to-dogs\/","title":{"rendered":"QR codes are going to the dogs \u2014 and petsitters are signing up"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pet<\/a>

Pet Check’s CCO, Doug Simon<\/p><\/div>\n

Walking a dog or cleaning a cat\u2019s litterbox are the lowest of low-tech pursuits, but when those chores metamorphose from personal to business, low-tech isn\u2019t good enough.\u00a0 The solution: QR-coded tagging systems specially designed for petsitting entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

Pet Check Technology<\/a>\u00a0is a Chicago-based company that offers pet-sitting companies a QR code-based, full-spectrum business suite that includes scheduling, billing, payroll, financial reporting, GPS tracking and email communications. All these tasks might not be difficult for a sole proprietor who tends to all the pets, but it can be a bit overwhelming for a company that employs a roster of dog walkers, cat sitters and bird feeders who must juggle their clients\u2019 ever-changing schedule of vacations, weekend getaways and high-powered workdays.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this industry,\u201d says Pet Check Technology founder Doug Simon, \u201dthe schedules change so much that it\u2019s hard to keep track,\u201d Simon, whose business card reads \u201cChief Checknology Officer,\u201d speaks from personal experience. He owned a dog-walking company for 10 years, and as his company grew, scheduling, billing and payroll became increasingly complicated. He searched for tools that would make his business more efficient, but says \u201cthe challenges I was facing weren\u2019t answered by anything on the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Simon, who holds an MBA from DePaul University, decided to create his own tools. He assembled a team of experts and developed a system that would automate and link scheduling, payroll, billing and financial and operational reporting and added GPS and email communication functions and a credit-card processing option to the mix.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all based on the company\u2019s QR coded tags \u2014 specially designed magnetic vinyl refrigerator magnets that are imprinted with a unique, numbered QR code for each customer. Clients receive their tags at the initial meeting with the pet-sitting company or directly from the sitter on the first visit.<\/p>\n

Then, each time the pet sitter arrives at an appointment, he or she scans the 4-by-4-inch coded magnet with a smart phone. Unlike typical QR code transactions, which bring the user to a website for \u201cmore information,\u201d the Pet Check\u2019s QR scan triggers a series of business events: an email confirmation to the pet sitter that he or she is in the right place at the right time; an email to the client announcing that the appointment has begun and signals to the automated billing and payroll systems. All the data is compiled so that the owner of the company can create financial and operational reports.<\/p>\n

Clients with walkable pets can log in during the appointment and follow the pet\u2019s path in real time via a GPS map. When the appointment is over, the sitter scans the QR code again to check out and the client receives another email. The system also schedules the sitters and enables them to check their individual schedules online. Future versions of the Pet Check system will send photos of the pets to their owners and alerts that signal a pet sitter is running late.<\/p>\n

Pet-sitting companies that sign on with Pet Check Technology receive a supply of pre-numbered, unique QR-coded tags and can reorder new supplies as needed. Prices vary from $29.99 a month for a single user to $299.99 a month for 30 or more users.<\/p>\n

Simon says his brainchild is doing well; the company has logged some 1.4 million pet visits, and he has gotten inquiries from as far away as the U.K., Australia, Israel and Brazil.<\/p>\n

For those techier-than-thou folks who say the QR code is going to the dogs, Simon and his legions of dog-walking clients can only agree.<\/p>\n

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