What is your phone number?

We are often asked for the Crockett Doodles’ phone number. Sometimes families go so far as to say they will not adopt a pup from us if we won’t give them a number to call immediately. We want to explain why we no longer give out a publicly listed phone number for Crockett Doodles.

The first reason is that we like to have all correspondence in writing. Occasionally in the past a Forever Family has told us that a particular team member promised them something (huge discount, etc). If the “promise” was verbal we had no way to validate it. By keeping communication in writing we are able to have a clear record of all previous communication to be sure that we follow through on our commitments (no matter which Crockett Doodles’ team member made the commitment).

The second reason that we no longer publicly list our number has to do with the logistics surrounding the increased demand for our puppies. At Crockett Doodles, we have always had FAR more demand for our Doodle puppies than supply of available puppies, things have become even crazier following the COVID-19 pandemic. Our daily puppy applications tripled, and our website page views grew to almost three million a month (with more than 900,000 monthly unique visitors).

Before the pandemic we often received over a hundred emails a day of correspondence with puppy questions, but during the pandemic email traffic increased to more than four hundred emails a day. Nearly a decade ago, we frequently talked to people on the phone (sometimes for more than an hour) answering all their questions. As we have grown to become a nationwide network of more than 150 partner homes, we have tried to answer 99% of your questions through our website and email correspondence.

Additionally, we found that often the families who spent the longest time talking on the phone were not actually ready to commit to a puppy. Our team members often spent the most time with families who never ended up adopting. With 25,000 to 35,000 daily website visitors, we estimate that we would receive 450 to 650 phone calls a day if we displayed our number. If the average call length was 15 minutes, we would estimate approximately 140 hours a day (980 hours a week) of phone time. This would mean hiring and training 25 new full-time employees for our team or 50 part-time employees. The adoption pricing on our puppies would likely need to double to accommodate the extra expense.

For families who have an application accepted, place a deposit, and are matched with their puppy, we give them the full contact info (including cell phone number) of the Partner Home where they will pick up their puppy. Additionally after your puppy adoption, we like for you to receive personal correspondence from Barry (the Crockett Doodles president) and receive the personal cell number of our team member who works with any potential health concerns that you may have about your puppy.

We’ve learned that it is very important to give phone numbers to the right people at the right time. In the past, we’ve occasionally had families tell us that because that they are to busy to read our website, they don’t want to do business with someone if they can’t pick up the phone and call. We understand that, and we realize that Crockett Doodles is not a perfect fit for everyone. If you have concerns or questions about our reputation, please read our hundreds of amazing reviews on Facebook or the Better Business Bureau. We wish we could talk to each one of you, but it’s honestly just not possible. Our team will do their best to serve you well via email.