As animal welfare organisations across the country face greater demand on services than ever before, Dogs Trust, the UK’s largest canine welfare charity, has taken a unique approach to staffing its contact centre.
The Dogs Trust team has identified a number of dogs with a talent for communication and, from Monday, these skilled pooches will be answering calls in the charity’s contact centre. With record numbers of calls and emails being received by Dogs Trust, it is hoped that these talented pooches can add to the support already provided by the dedicated team of human call handlers.
Last year the Dogs Trust Contact Centre handled a breath-taking 1,036 average interactions per day and currently receives a call every two minutes.
The canine contact centre has been kitted out with the latest dog-friendly office equipment and wellbeing initiatives to ensure their new employees settle in, including:
- Snout-touch operated phones
- Adjustable doggy desks
- Regular lunch time walkies
- Tennis ball breaks
- “Em-paw-ee” of the month initiatives
- Doggy beds and mandatory afternoon nap time
Although answering the phone is a first for dogs in the charity’s care, for many years it has worked with organisations including police forces to identify dogs with special talents. One dog rehomed by Dogs Trust was part of the following the earthquake. Davey helped to find three survivors and provided vital intelligence for the rest of the team about where to focus their rescue efforts.
Al Sation, Dogs Trust new Canine Contact Centre Manager, says, “Dogs Trust is busier than ever before, and we are doing all we can to support dog owners struggling with the rise in the cost of living through this difficult time.
“Some people say that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks but this simply isn’t true. Dogs love to learn new skills and tricks, regardless of their age, and as we’ve shown, in some cases they can learn to do things you wouldn’t expect from a dog, including answering the ‘dog and bone’.
“We’re sure this new way of working won’t be without challenges – one ‘em-paw-ee’ has already requested tennis ball breaks, and we’ve had to make sure that there’s plenty of treats on offer. But all our dogs are paw-some and have so much to offer, whether here at Dogs Trust or with their new families when they go on to find their forever homes.”