Shelter’s Edge

Wanna save time and paper, make both your clients and adoptions counselors happier and get those adoptions processed quickly and efficiently—particularly during especially busy days and big adoptions events? We’ve got one word for you: iPad. Check these juicy tips on how to use them in your adoption center, courtesy of the Humane Society of Boulder Valley and Greater Androscoggin Humane Society.

1. Looking to convince your agency to give iPads a try? Get your talking points here:

• They allow flexibility: “Any wireless space with walls is easily converted to an animal meet room,” says Bridgette Chesne, director of shelter services at Humane Society of Boulder Valley.
• They save you time:  “All animal review can be done anywhere there’s wireless with client and animal, instead of the traditional review, remember, and regurgitate methods,” adds Bridgette.
• They make your adopters happy and make you look good. “Clients appreciate the efficiency and are impressed with how modern we are,” says Bridgette. “Saves paper, too!”

Will Rounds, client services coordinator at Humane Society of Boulder Valley, utilizes an iPad during an adoption meet in one of HSBV's outdoor dog/puppy “get acquainted” areas.

2. Save PetPoint—or whatever animal database you’re using—to the iPad screen. Explains Zachary Black, operations manager at GAHS, “That way, when you open your browser the login screen is what comes up.”

3. All-access passes: At GAHS, trained volunteers are given passwords and usernames so they can log into the database to view animal’s records and process their adoptions.

Kate and Laurie, two of Greater Androscoggin Humane Society's superstar iPad users, after processing adoptions for 6 hours straight during the Maine agency's Mega Match-a-thon Adoption Event earlier this month. Go, ladies!

4. You’ll also want to save your website (and/or your available animals section) to the iPad screen, so when you open that browser all of your available animals come up.

5. Stick it to ‘em: “Using iPads is a great way to ease some stress off employees and give your volunteers a new fun task,” says Zach. “But don’t forget to make sure they glue the iPad to themselves at all times—it’s one expensive tool that you/we wouldn’t want anybody to scoop up!”

6. Hit Print: “We also have a wireless printer to use with the iPad so our volunteers can take adoptions off-site,” says Zach. “Now adopters can do everything in one stop, rather than from the off-site location, to the shelter, back to the off-site location.”

Using iPads to process your adoptions? Leave a comment to let us know how it’s going and/or to share your tips for those getting started.

Related links:
“Take Five Friday: Fancams, Snow Days and a Dog Who Has Better Rhythm than Most Humans”
Tips: Putting on a Successful Adoption Event
FOUND!!: Homes for 6,144 Animals During Mega Match-a-thon Weekend

Tags: Saving Lives, Tips, Tools

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.