A dog grooming business serves a special and enthusiastic clientele. Dog owners love their pets and want them to be clean, healthy, and pampered when they go to the groomers. Many dog owners have plenty of questions both before and after their service. You want to provide the best customer service possible, but you also don't want to spend an infinite amount of time chatting with each dog owner about your grooming process.
What are a few dog grooming business ideas that can improve your customer service and your business efficiency at the same time? We have seven great ideas to get you started on faster and more satisfying customer care for dog owners.
The first and the best thing you can do for your dog grooming clients (and staff!) is set up an online booking. Most people these days don't want to call in for an appointment and would rather get an automated confirmation email than write down the date and time of their dog grooming. Install a simple booking widget into your website that connects to your scheduling software.
When scheduling is easy, curious pet owners can let customers book dog grooming appointments at times that work best for them - and reschedule or cancel up to one day before the appointment. Self-managed scheduling with customer accounts is the ideal way to make booking easy.
A local who gets their dog groomed with you once is likely to come back again. You can improve customer relations by rewarding that loyalty with cumulative rewards. Consider offering special punch-card deals for either free grooming sessions or grooming perks when customers come in a certain number of times. Alternatively, you can create a points system where customers earn points and then spend them on bonus services, perks, and products.
Want to really impress your dog grooming customers? Get a mobile dog grooming trailer or bus on the road. Take dog grooming to your client's curbside to make appointments easy and accessible - even to dog owners who can't drive to your venue. Elderly, infirmed, parents of young children and quarantined families can all benefit from a mobile dog grooming service and will be delighted that you offer this special curbside experience.
A dog grooming trailer is a popular trend being adopted by brands all over the country. All you need is a truck or van with a washing station in the back big enough for most breeds. Open up the back doors to welcome each pooch to your mobile grooming station.
Phone support is essential for dog grooming. Any time someone is worried about their dog - before, during, or after grooming - they are likely to pick up the phone. Owners may want to speak to the pet groomer directly, ask questions about how grooming is done, schedule a pre-grooming tour of the facilities, or talk about concerns after a service.
Make sure there's someone available to answer the phones, and that the wait time does not get too long. When a customer's call is responded to promptly, pet owners are more likely to trust that their dog will be treated with care as well.
One way you can avoid keeping your customers waiting on hold forever is to use a chatbot to answer frequently asked questions or even help you book appointments.
Pet owners have a lot of questions. Some want to know if you use organic shampoo. Some ask if you have kennels or a play area. Some want to know what brand of trimmers you use, or if you can handle anxious dogs. You probably don't have time to be online answering these questions 24/7, you're busy grooming dogs and running a business. But the right chatbot built just for your industry can provide every anticipated question with the right answer.
On your website, a chatbot can give curious and worried dog owners all the answers they need. Which shampoo you use, your nervous dog whispering techniques and your store hours can all be delivered to customers in a friendly and interactive way with the help of AMY, a customizable chatbot designed for small businesses. You can edit pre-built templates to tailor Amy to meet the needs of you and your customers. You can also integrate Amy with Calendly so that your customers can book their appointments directly on your website.
Practical packages are a hallmark of dog grooming customer care. One of the best ways to make customers happy is to show them great value and an easy experience. Instead of having dog owners pick and choose each part of their package, offer packages based on style, breed, and price point. List the steps of each grooming package and the products used.
Grooming packages are also a great opportunity to throw in little client-pleasing extras like bandanas and chew toys that will make both pooch and pet-parent feel like they've been pampered by the experience.
Provide Camera Tracking for Dog Owners
If you really want to go above and beyond in dog grooming, place a few streaming cameras in the venue where dogs can be found. Let pet parents peek in on their dog, just like cutting-edge daycares and day camps for children. Pet parents can watch their dog get groomed while they are at work or peek in while they run other errands. They can make sure their dog is napping happily or socializing with other pets before grooming and see them lounging on a towel after grooming. Don't want to install cameras? Provide a stage-tracking UI instead where pet parents can see if their dog is waiting, being groomed, or drying.
Pet parents who worry about leaving their fur baby at the groomers will appreciate the comfort of being able to virtually check in - and you'll get fewer worried phone calls asking for updates.
Dog grooming customer service is a unique yet rewarding experience. The more information, responsive answers, and live tracking you can offer, the happier pet parents will be.
Amy is the only chatbot built for small businesses and their unique needs. Amy consistently learns from every interaction to provide the best customer support to the clients of small business owners. In other words, Amy works to learn more about your business and customers, so that you can do more in your daily role and operations.
Amy is not hard to set up, it’s fast to deploy and just works. The chatbot brings intuitive chat solutions to everyday small business owners. This means you won’t need an IT technician to help you get Amy ramped up and running.
Sign up for Amy for free today to get a chatbot with pre-built templates specifically designed for your industry, at a fraction of the price.