How Zoom Room Was Uniquely Prepared and Positioned

Franchise Journal – June 15, 2020

A few months into the quarantine, Aaron Bakken sat down virtually with Zoom Room CEO Mark Van Wye to discuss how the dog training franchise was uniquely situated to be as prepared as a business could possibly be for the COVID-19 pandemic. There was no crystal ball on hand to predict the outbreak; this readiness was organic and coincidental. Van Wye explains:

We are very fortunate because our business model for the past 10 years has always required “social distancing”. All customers have to maintain 6 feet distance in a training environment. We already used hospital grade germicides throughout the facility & after every training session. We have always offered small class sizes – 8 or fewer dogs/owners in each class plus 2 instructors. So, we already met most new state standards for COVID-19 preparedness. Our Virginia Beach store has been open throughout this shutdown & has seen a 25%+ sales increase. Our Texas franchisees just re-opened & classes were 85% filled within a couple of days. We expect that when the remainder of our stores open, they’ll be right back at least where they were in terms of pre-pandemic demand. Plus, this pandemic has caused an unprecedented spike in dog adoptions and purchases, creating hundreds of thousands of new customer opportunities.

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