It's a dog-eat-dog world out there and with competition for business so high, it's important to stay ahead of the game.

For Joel McGlamry, the case couldn't be truer after taking over The PawPlex in Suwanee, Georgia, just 40 minutes north of Atlanta.

Specializing in doggy day care, holistic pet food sales, pet boarding and pet grooming, McGlamry took on a business that had very little organization, but could see the potential for growth and a more disciplined business model. That's when he discovered CallFire to help him whip The PawPlex into shape.

"What led me to CallFire was for training purposes," says McGlamry. “I purchased the business in 2010. Training was non-existent. It was a family owned-and-operated business with very little institutional control.”

Needless to say, McGlamry saw a number of key areas that needed attention. “You had a very mixed message depending on [which] employee you got on what day; answers to your questions, quotes you got for pricing. There was just no consistency.”

So, McGlamry sought out a solution that accomplished two feats: 1. Measure the effectiveness of certain ad campaigns, and 2. Be able to listen to calls for training purposes.

“On both fronts [CallFire was] able to help me with that,” says McGlamry.

He did it using CallFire’s Call Tracking solution that also allows inbound calls to be recorded. CallFire unleashed McGlamry's ability to know exactly how The PawPlex staff was treating customers and was able to nip problems in the bud before they had a negative impact on the business.

According to McGlamry, “[CallFire] provided me with a tool to accomplish my goal, which was to be able to train my people.”

With a staff of three to five people answering phones at a time, it was big job made simple by streamlining the process of gathering information needed to make the necessary changes.

In addition to training his staff, McGlamry also uses CallFire’s Call Tracking solution to measure the effectiveness of his ad campaigns and traffic to his website.

With a total of six numbers, McGlamry has assigned each number to his website, email blasts, brochures and mailers. When each number is called, McGlamry can see whether spending his hard earned dollars and valuable time on particular campaigns is paying dividends.

So far, he tells us his website generates most of the calls, about a couple thousand a year and he can see that calls spike when mailers are sent out.

After using CallFire for more than a year, McGlamry enjoys the simplicity of the software platform and the affordability of integrating the Call Tracking tool into running his business.