The project seeks to simplify the complicated adoption journey through customer care services, encouraging families seeking pets to adopt instead of shop
(AUSTIN, TX) February 26, 2025–Human Animal Support Services (HASS), an international project bridging the gap between human and animal welfare, today launches the Modern Adoption Process (MAP) project. MAP will address functional challenges of the adoption journey by implementing strategies from for-profit business models. The emphasis will be on fostering connections, meeting the needs of adoption visitors, and providing support to the adoption team through leadership development and counselor training.
“In our previous project work, HASS identified that 17% of those who visit a shelter and do not adopt the same day, never come back,” said Elkie Wills, Director of Human Animal Support Services. “We are seeking to fill this gap, among others, by making the experience at a shelter less transactional and more relational. MAP puts adoption counselors and teams in the driver’s seat with the customer-service tools they need to be successful.”
MAP will be implemented at three HASS partner organizations with support from the HASS Team, including a one-week on-site visit to provide training directly to shelter staff. These shelters, including Maui Humane Society, Lynchburg Humane Society and The Animal Foundation, will work with HASS to garner better understanding of shelter visitor’s pet adoption goals and increase adoption rates by improving the shelter visitor experience.
At its core, the MAP project is anchored in arming adoption-centric staff and volunteers with the sales-like training and conversational approach tactics they need to advocate for pets and connect with shelter visitors successfully–a challenge shelters traditionally have yet to tackle. This includes mastering the art of relationship building, asking the right questions for matchmaking, overcoming any obstacles, and a follow-up process for all visitors who do not adopt same-day. A shelter’s adoption team, consisting of both staff and/or volunteers, will work together to manage animals in care, monitor the organization’s foot traffic data, the adoption process lifecycle, and–arguably the key to success–an adopter’s overall satisfaction. It’s through this methodology that the adoption process can sooner resemble a more customer-service experience and lead to clearing kennels more quickly.
Utilizing insights found through the MAP project, HASS will develop a first-of-its-kind tool to calculate ideal adoption staffing. This tool, in addition to new resources and an online staff training course, will be available for free to all who are interested in implementing MAP at their own organizations.
For more information and to follow along on the project’s progress, visit humananimalsupportservices.org.
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About Human Animal Support Services (HASS):
The Human Animal Support Services (HASS) project is a movement seeking to revolutionize the animal welfare industry by leading with and embracing a community support model. By providing both private and municipal animal shelters with equitable access to data-driven resources, education, and implementation tools, HASS aims to create pathways toward unified support systems for pets and their people in every community. HASS encompasses a network of more than 1,500 animal and human welfare professionals. A project facilitated by Austin Pets Alive! (APA!), HASS’s 41 pilot shelters and 300+ partner organizations have joined the movement by committing to implement the HASS model. To learn more, visit www.humananimalsupportservices.org.
