Rex’s Place Newsletter Fall 2019

WELCOME TO OUR FALL NEWSLETTER Kathy together with Seaquel and Picasso

Autumn is in the air. You feel it as you walk your pups about the neighborhood crunching the crisp new leaves of fall underfoot and -paw. We hope that after your next walk, you’ll take a moment to read through our latest newsletter to learn about important changes, new features, and special promotions taking place this Fall at Rex’s Place Doggy Day Care and Boarding House. In the meantime, Happy Autumn!
gingr

gingr Gitches, Gaffes, and Great Gains

We’ve heard from many of you since launching gingr, our new reservation management system. Overall, it’s been a resounding success so we’d like to take a moment to share some enhanced features as well as helpful tips we’ve  learned from client-users to help ensure that everyone has an optimal experience with the application.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Whenever there is important news to share, it will be featured in gingr. A prime example, and one that will eliminate inconvenience and confusion, are when changes will occur to the normal Rex’s Place schedule — in particular, announcements about closings. Closing announcements will appear directly in the gingr calendar, identifying any days that Rex’s Place will be closed. A top benefit of this new feature is that it automatically disables the ability for booking reservations on dates when the facility is closed.

ONE FAMILY/TWO DOG BOARDING DISCOUNT:

A software glitch brought to our attention was the system’s failure to apply the discount on second doggy boarders, when two dogs from the sameseveral dogs of different sizes looking up at the camera family board at Rex’s Boarding House at the same time. This has been rectified with a new setting in the program, ensuring the 10% discount on one boarding is applied toward your bill. This discounted rate applies regardless of whether your dogs share one, or are each in their own private kennel – as long as both pets are members of the same human family.

ERROR MESSAGES:

For those who have experienced the annoyance of error messages, particularly those that don’t seem to go away, here’s the key: After entering missing information the system has prompted you to complete, refresh your screen (re-enter the site.) After refreshing you should see your new entry and a page free of error messages.

YOUR gingr PROFILE:

large dogs on and below a picnic table in the outdoor play yardWe want to urge everyone to please make sure your gingr profile contains the most accurate, up-to-date and complete  information.

  • A PHOTO IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS: Uploading photos of your dog is an important tool for our team. It enables staff members, particularly new staff, to readily identify your dog and expedite pickup as well as address any special requests or issues about specific pets.
  • AN APPLE A DAY KEEPS THE DOG DOC AWAY: Updating the most current information about your dog’s vaccine records is also extremely important. Direct benefits to you include alerts when your dog is coming due for shots which in turn, helps prevent the inconvenience of a denied reservation that may occur if the software has outdated and inaccurate information about your pet’s health.
  • YOU NEVER GIVE ME YOUR MONEY – YOU ONLY GIVE ME YOUR FUNNY PAPER: We want to dispel any reluctance about credit card data and assure you that gingr’s security is comprehensive and multilayered.
    • gingr uses state-of-the-art tokenization that securely protects credit card information.  A token is a reference to the actual card data that contains no specific card information itself. Furthermore, each token transmits as an encrypted message to gingr’s Level I PCI-compliant gateway where the data is housed (we’re talking big fortress of computers with climate controlled, fire suppression systems, requiring multiple levels of password protection.)  The token then reads the real card information and sends a message back to gingr that the credit card can be processed. No credit card information is stored on Rex’s Place servers and even more importantly, no actual card information is passed back and forth. So, even if somehow, someone was able to gain access to our computer system, there is nothing of value to access. Both Rex’s Place and our clients’ data is fully secure!

We hope we’ve addressed and put to rest any data security concerns you may have had and we encourage anyone with additional questions to contact us directly. In the meantime, we want to make everyone aware that when credit card data is missing from your gingr profile, the software will prompt you to enter it. This is particularly important for those attempting to reserve space at Rex’s Place Boarding House as the software will block/deny reservations for both the kennel and for cage-free boarding when credit card information has not been entered into the system, or has not been provided to Rex’s Place for manual processing.

Another benefit of having credit card information on file in the gingr app is that, in the unlikely event a dog requires emergency healthcare attention while pet parents are out of town or otherwise inaccessible, most veterinarians require payment and without credit card access, may refuse to provide care.

That said, for those few who are adamantly opposed to putting this data on gingr, please contact Kathy directly to provide your credit card number, expiration date, billing zip code, and three-digit security code. Our goal is to provide exceptional care and efficient service and  the ability to take deposits at the point of reservation and charge balances at pickup, simplifies the process for all of us. We appreciate your business and believe that instituting across-the-board policies makes things easier, safer, and more equitable for all of our clients.A foxhound looking to the left

PolicyWHO LET THE DOGS OUT?: Now that we’ve got your attention, we want to take this opportunity to remind everyone about policy changes. We don’t want anyone to be surprised by important new fee policies, such as:

    • Those who fail to cancel and are no-shows for Boarding Reservations will be charged in-full for the entire reservation dates.
    • Half-Day Daycare reservations apply to visits up to six (6) hours. Daycare reservations that exceed six (6) hours are considered a Full Day. This means that even if your original reservation was made for a Half Day, but your pet’s visit lasts more than six (6) hours, the Full Day Daycare rate will be applied and billed. This policy applies regardless of how much time over the six (6) hour maximum, that defines a Half Day Daycare reservation, elapses.

Holidays 2019

IMPORTANT DATES TO NOTE THAT REX’S PLACE WILL BE CLOSED

  • We will close for Thanksgiving, Thursday November 28 and will remain closed on Friday, November 29, 2019.
  • We will be closed on Christmas Eve, Tuesday December 24, 2019 and on Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25, 2019. We will reopen Thursday, December 26, 2019.
  • We will be closed on New Year’s Eve, Tuesday, December 31, 2019 and on New Year’s Day, Wednesday, January 1, 2020.
  • We will be closed on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, 2020!
  • We will be closed from Memorial Day, beginning Friday, May 22, 2020 through Monday, May 25, 2020. Rex’s Place will resume normal hours Tuesday, May 26, 2020 — with our staff fully recharged and refreshed.

TURKEYS, AND REINDEER, AND SNOW, OH MY!:  With the holiday season fast approaching, we urge those of you who will be traveling, entertaining (and need a safe haven for your furry family member), or simply need a pet-parent break around Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and/or New Year’s, to avoid disappointment and inconvenience and Reserve your spot at Rex’s Boarding House soon! We are filling up fast for dates surrounding Thanksgiving and the Winter Break holiday season. 

LET’S GET SOCIAL!:  We invite you to Follow us on Instagram and also encourage you  to Like Us on Facebook. And, we  welcome your posts and doggy pics on Rex’s Place with the hashtag #RexsPlace!