# Reptile Shop Peer Review System



## nicnet (Apr 3, 2011)

Reptile Shop Peer Review System

OK this is an Idea we had when we had our tropical fish shop running a few years ago, and unfortunately just as it was starting to take shape my health dictated that we sell up on the shop so it never really went much further than 3 shops. 

How it works is that each shop would sign up to a code of conduct and minimum care requirements. These are over and above what is required by your shop licence though and does require a certain amount of trust between the shops to work.

Each shop that signs up to the code gets randomly inspected by either staff or a trusted customer of the other shops during set time periods. Secret shoppers are allowed to test the knowledge of floor staff also. 

After the inspection a report is written up on 'points to improve' or 'best environment achieved' (add ideas here)

This is in essence a self regulation system for the shops to work from and the idea is for them to form close bonds and help each other out with advice on care or to even send customers to a fellow member if they have an animal that the customer wants that you know a fellow member has.

members would be given visible peer review certificates that they can display in the shop (details of that would need to be worked out)


The benifits of this is that if more than one shop is in the area, and they all get their care and stocks up to a good standard then the area becomes a 'hotspot' for herp keepers to go to, everyone benifits as people who travel to see one shop will know that the peer review has been done on the ones near them and this will be displayed in each shop. In essence free advertising of fellow peers in that area.

Great way for shops to take advantage of each others strenghts by having access to specialist knowledge when needed, and also a great way for shops weak spots to be seen and other shops to help them get their knowledge of certain species up to date.

Any shop showing their peer review badge will also gain more confident shoppers as the customers will know that they are doing their best to keep their environments and knowledge up to date.

This would need some shops to sign up to initially though and for someone to step forward in the industry who would be willing to try put it into action.

Opinions?


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## scotty667 (Oct 14, 2011)

How are you going to get this out to the shop's?.


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## Dan Trafford (Mar 10, 2011)

It's a good idea but would need a lot of work. When I used to work at a games shop in town I had myself and all the staff go around the other similar shops and introduce themselves and see for what reason we might send a customer there if we couldn't help and it worked a treat. They even started sending some our way.


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## nicnet (Apr 3, 2011)

Would need to start off with a few on here signing up and then spread by word of mouth really.

If someone wants to take this and run with it, Donny would be a great place to get others to sign up to it.


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## sn8ks4life (Jul 27, 2011)

hey, i think if done correctly this could work very well in everyones favor, and i would love to do it down here in portsmouth..
only trouble is the two close pet shops that sell reps are so bad i wont even step foot in the door, ive rung the council numerous times with no result unfortunatley, all thou emsworth aquatics and reptiles would be a good one to join, there'd be a shop either end of pompey then there so big and specialist thou would it even be worth trying? ill let you know what they say when i go up there next..
but yes all in all this is a good idea..
chris


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## Dan Trafford (Mar 10, 2011)

sn8ks4life said:


> hey, i think if done correctly this could work very well in everyones favor, and i would love to do it down here in portsmouth..
> only trouble is the two close pet shops that sell reps are so bad i wont even step foot in the door, ive rung the council numerous times with no result unfortunatley, all thou emsworth aquatics and reptiles would be a good one to join, there'd be a shop either end of pompey then there so big and specialist thou would it even be worth trying? ill let you know what they say when i go up there next..
> but yes all in all this is a good idea..
> chris


 
Strictly speaking they should be more up for it than anybody else, if they are good, why hide it?


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## C_Williams1985 (Mar 2, 2010)

Depending on the details. I'd be happy to join in with this


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## nicnet (Apr 3, 2011)

sn8ks4life said:


> hey, i think if done correctly this could work very well in everyones favor, and i would love to do it down here in portsmouth..
> only trouble is the two close pet shops that sell reps are so bad i wont even step foot in the door, ive rung the council numerous times with no result unfortunatley, all thou emsworth aquatics and reptiles would be a good one to join, there'd be a shop either end of pompey then there so big and *specialist* thou would it even be worth trying? ill let you know what they say when i go up there next..
> but yes all in all this is a good idea..
> chris



Its the specialist ones you'd want on board, its the knowledge base that you'd want and once you get to know other staff you know who to call if you have a herp problem you need help with.

Ideally this would work on a national basis, or regional with a central review system.

First would be to get the code of conduct written up and possibly get specialists on different species to write up realistic 'shop' environment sheets for all the shops to stick to. Would also require a 'pet' care sheet to be written up. We all know that shops can't always keep reps in the perfect environment due to shop size / viv size available but simple cares sheets attached to the vivs would give an idea to customers on whether the herp they are looking at would be suitable or not.

Standardised colour coded laminate cards with picture and viv size requirements, uv% needed, humidy, heating etc. Colour code would indicate green for beginer herp to red for advanced keeper.

I could help out with some ideas and proof reading etc but as I'm stuck in the house I couldn't really help out much 'on the ground'

Whoever took on a project like this would need to have plenty of time to do the legwork on it really.

I think each member would also need to contribute a small membership fee to cover printing etc on initial care sheets / correspondence / certificates. That could get tricky as it would mean you'd need a legal head involved to sort out the legalities of a treasurer etc.


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## sn8ks4life (Jul 27, 2011)

nicnet said:


> Its the specialist ones you'd want on board, its the knowledge base that you'd want and once you get to know other staff you know who to call if you have a herp problem you need help with.
> 
> Ideally this would work on a national basis, or regional with a central review system.
> 
> ...


 without a shadow of a doubt there the sort of shop ide love on board, but they seem to have the attitude there the best and noone compares... there's only one way to find out if there up for this on a national scale thou, get grange and southcoast exotics in on it to, there some very good ideas you got mate, well worth a thought between the shop communitys for sure


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## nicnet (Apr 3, 2011)

To approach the big shops you'd need to have all the details on paper or at least a good rough draft. If you already have some of the smaller shops signed up and work in progress then they are more likely to want to be involved in it.

once you have a good member base then you can look at involving the chain shops, they are likely to try take over the idea though so you'd need to be fully operational first.

Feel free to hijack the thread and run ideas etc lol.

Could also involve the specialist breeders as an advise base and they could have their own system of breeder review within the same system. Reviewed breeders could then have a good base for moving stock to reviewed shops. Everyone wins.


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## sn8ks4life (Jul 27, 2011)

nicnet said:


> To approach the big shops you'd need to have all the details on paper or at least a good rough draft. If you already have some of the smaller shops signed up and work in progress then they are more likely to want to be involved in it.
> 
> once you have a good member base then you can look at involving the chain shops, they are likely to try take over the idea though so you'd need to be fully operational first.
> 
> ...


 you've really thought about this haven't you.. im going to talk to my boss tomorrow and see if he's up for joing this if all goes ahead.. hope we can all come together and work together one day, it'll be so much better for this hobby..
there's a few shop owners and workers on here so lets wait for them to pop there heads in hopefully and see what they say..
i might start drafting up a little bit of paperwork later and roll on up to emsworth to see if they'd be intrested, if so we can start looking into doing it properly and maybe starting something truely amazing for the hobby:2thumb:


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## nicnet (Apr 3, 2011)

Give me a shout if you want paperwork written up / proofreading etc. Just send me the rough drafts to [email protected]

I can help out in a limited capacity to get it on its feet.

You'd also need to come up with some ideas on how to deal with someone not agreeing with the review they recieved so some sort of standard review sheet would need to be made up.


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## UKCrestie (Sep 9, 2011)

Sounds like a great idea I think.
Although it isnt an official regulatory board as such I think sometimes they work better as it is your competition that your are trying to keep up with, and not a governing body dictating what you should be doing - giving you the option to opt in, but also the opportunity to show your customer and competition how serious you are about the business.
Also, may sound totaly off-topic but a similar scheme is in place for Pub landlords, 'National Pubwatch' - which is in essence a similar idea and a voluntary organisation which started off very small, but now encompasses the majority of the pubs/bars ive visited.
There could be something you could take from the way they conduct their organisation - or possibly not lol.
Heres a link anyhow.
National Pubwatch | Welcome to National Pubwatch


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## nicnet (Apr 3, 2011)

hmm had another idea on this while swimming in my little bathy.


Manager relief system.

I know I used to go nuts worrying about who could run the shop for me for a few days if I was off sick / wanted a holiday. We did eventually get a staff member who was more than capable of running the shop which was great. 

Now we all know that not all staff members are created equal, and while one person would be fantastic at dealing with shop floor, they wouldn't have a clue on cashing up or banking or stock ordering. Would make recouping from an illness a lot less stressful if you knew that someone was in the shop who was competant to run it for you for a bit. This would require police checks done though so both sides would know where they stood. The idea of close bonding between the shops would more than likely mean that the relief manager would be well known to the shop anyway.

Life happens and at times getting someone to take the lead while your away is vital to keeping the shop open for the duration. last thing anyone needs in financial times like these is a shop closing for a few days. Even a day can cost a lot due to lost trade if you lose a new 'walkin' customer.

Shop A could trade a staff member with shop B for a bit. Since they are both working from the same songsheet as regards to care etc both can be confident that things should run smoothly.

Can even send their trainees to each other to get a feel for how other shops run.

I seen those pubwatch stickers at one of our pubs around here before, I should ask my sister in law about it really. She used to be manager of a wetherspoons pub with her husband for quite a few years.



I think the whole idea of helping each other achieve good practice would have to be the driving force though, nobody would ever want to get the impression that someone is in their shop passing judgement. That would just cause bad blood between people.


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## Scales and Fangs (Mar 22, 2007)

I've not had a chance to read this through properly but from the little I have glanced over, I may well be up for this.

OP - I will contact you by PM as I may just have something that could interest you.

Rob.


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## nicnet (Apr 3, 2011)

Going to bump this thread as I still think this is a viable idea and any more input would be handy.


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