We were lucky to catch up with Virginia Roy recently and have shared our conversation below.

Virginia, appreciate you joining us today. Taking care of customers isn’t just good business – it is often one of the main reasons folks went into business in the first place. So, we’d love to get a conversation going around how to best help clients feel appreciated – maybe you can share something you’ve done or seen someone do that’s been really effective at helping a customer feel valued?

We love our customers and express our appreciation in many ways. From the simple gratitude at check out when we say, “thank you for spoiling & loving your dog, we appreciate you-your dog appreciates you.” To offering free birthday cookies to all dogs celebrating a Gotcha Day or Birthday. We give free new dog parent gift bags at all adoption events we participate in. Holiday seasons we give free Valentine, Christmas, or Halloween cookies to customers on these days. Dogs that are having an outing or sleepover from any local shelter with prospective new parents get free ice cream to ensure they have an especially fun day.
Recently we started a loyalty punch card where the 6th ice cream is free to our dear regular customers. We genuinely appreciate our customers because we and they know that with every purchase they are helping a dog in need through our monthly donations to the Pima Animal Care Center and a local dog rescue.

Virginia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Cones for Bones is a business born from 2 friends and their love of dogs. Virginia Roy & Wendy Roberts have put this love in the forefront of the business model. Kindness, compassion and care can be a business model and we have evolved a passion project into a sustainable dog ice cream shop. Virginia & Wendy funded the start up from their own funds with the sole purpose of helping as many dogs as possible. Thus, the business name was decided, “Cones for Bones.” With every ice cream cone a customer buys, it gives a “bone” to a dog in need. We have maintained this promise, even at the beginning when there were no profits, the donations to the Pima Animal Care Center was made out of personal funds. We proudly display the donations made each month, so customer feel good about supporting a local business that cares about animals and is transparent with where funds are going.

Our store front is in Tucson and offers a wide variety of dog goodies. We aim to make the experience fun, and our customers always peruse the entire store smiling and laughing at all the fun items. We sell items customers would not find anywhere else. The sections in the store include: apparel of outfits, hats, sneakers, and bandanas. We have a “bar” fully stocked with various flavors of dog beer and 2 kinds of dog wine. The bar also has toys in the same theme. We have Doodle’s Deli (inspired by Virginia’s Aussie, Snickerdoodle) where we offer mix and match meat treats, bark-cuterie boxes, Himalayan cheese, bully sticks and more. We have a huge bakery selection with cute and funny cookies and dog pastries. Cookies ranging from “Pawtron”, “Grrr-rona”, poop emoji cookies, tacos, and so much more. We recently created the Tucson Adventure Dog section where customers can purchase tactical backpacks, hiking boots, googles, helmets, and more to ensure their dog is outfitted for adventure. They can even take photos in the doggy Cones for Bones Jeep. We carry home make cakes, frozen yogurt cakes and cupcakes, along with 4 options of dog cakes ranging from $10-$20. But what all the dogs are barking about is our ice cream. We carry 8 flavors of ice cream just for dogs (lactose & sugar free). We try to introduce a new flavor each month; such as mango and May we will be making watermelon. Bacon and cheddar always seem to be a hit, and our “must have” flavors will always be on the menu. But we don’t simply serve ice cream; we offer an experience. Customers are offered “tasters” of flavors their parents select to find the favorite. Then the fun happens with frozen yogurt bits as a topping option, a cone for the perfect photos, 4 dry topping choices and pup-cream options to make it an amazing ice cream sundae.

Customers love that an amazing doggy date is helping dogs in need. They love the vibe, environment, and we do as much as we can to be a part of the solution in finding the right homes for these amazing animals.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

Virginia Roy & Wendy Roberts met by way of dog sitting. Virginia utilized Wendy’s dog sitting service and the two became fast friends. Over the years they have become best friends. One Christmas Wendy gifted Virginia an ice cream for dogs cup (as sold in most pet stores) and over an evening the two thought how great it would be to have entire shop for dogs to try all the flavors. This evolved in their passion to help dogs in need and the heartbreaking situation of overcrowding at shelters and the inevitable euthanasia practices. The two wanted to do more to help these darlings and provide an amazing experience for all dog parents that cherish the ones that stole our hearts.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

We learned through trial and error that the best way to the hearts of our customers is through being genuine, transparent and celebrating the love they give their dogs every day. Our web site displays “customer of the week” proudly with a dog that has had an exceptionally fun time at the shop. We find that customers will check the website often to see if their pooch is the customer of the week. We also do Instagram reels of all the dogs having their best day, and our customers love to see their dogs there. We also have a wall of dog photos, “Dogs of Tucson” in which we frame the pictures of our doggie customers for $20 with proceeds going to the shelter. We find that customers enjoy seeing their pooch proudly displayed and will also buy a spot for their friends and family as gifts. Simply put, when your intent is pure and you are authentically excited about what you do, customers feel it. Customers appreciate it and will tell their friends and also return again and again.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://conesforbones.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conesforbones/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv677E8vVU4TgSg2wQ3HrLw
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/cones-for-bones-tucson