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Many people think that our very large business must have a complicated appointment system. On the contrary, it is so simple most grooming business owners cannot figure how it works out, but it does and has for 40 years. Here it is. We used a weekly planning appointment book. At the top label of each workday, we wrote the number of complete trim and bath ("T") grooming appointments we were willing to book that day, and also how many bath-only ("B") grooming appointments we were willing to book that day. For example, above the word "Saturday" we would write "40 T / 25 B. Therefore, the receptionists knew to book 40 complete trim pets and 25 bath-only pets before closing off the day as "booked." Remember, many pet owners have two or more pets, so we don't count customer names, but total number of grooming appointments.

Sometimes among those 40 T and 25 B there were some pets that would take longer than others to groom. That's the stumbling block today's grooming business owners find in this system. They are right unless they are well-staffed and their staff is generally team-oriented and willing to do some occasional overtime, or to pitch in and be productive. So the problem isn't this simple system, it's personnel management, one of the largest problems in the industry. Based on our 40+ years using this simple system, this system always worked very well for us. In truth, it works best with 3 or more groomers, or a small staff when you can count on to do some extra work without much notice. Don't wait to be surprised though. The wise owner and/or manager using this simple system always takes a LOOK at the next day's business ahead of time and anticipates the work load, and prepares for it the day before. You become expert at this system only by experience. The unit system is actually a bit difficult to use in a business of this size, but it is not impossible.

Many owners know the limit of each groomer they hire, and simply book the number of appointments for each groomer based on the groomer's ability. Some even allow their groomers to dictate how many they will groom each day of the week, and then that's how many appointments they take. You will again have to compensate for very large dogs, special care pets taking more time, tangled hair pets that will be de-matted, and breed styling demands.

Mobile groomers typically average 4-5 appointments a day. Travel time is a great part of their planning. They need to be smart in their daily planning so they are not running back and forth from one side of town to the other repeatedly in the same day. It wears out a vehicle and the more travel time the less pets groomed as a rule of thumb. Mobile groomers charge more for the same grooming, in essence, because they must account for their travel time. It's great for them to serve pet owners with 2 or more pets, as that means they are likely to travel less and groom more.

In our many years of experience as consultants we have often been approached by grooming business owners that love to tell us that they are always booked and turning away business, and their customers are "trained" and have to wait weeks if they don't schedule ahead. First, it's a great that you have built up such a business. Second, it's not good customer service. Not really. Good customer service provides flexibility of today's busy pet owners, especially since many are families and today's heads of households have a hard time committing too far ahead. Parents know things happen, and changes in their schedules are a part of life. Changing an appointment shouldn't mean they have to wait another month or more to get an appointment. We honor our clients, as the pet doesn't pay us, the owner does. Clients deserve our always striving to provide better service by delivering convenience to them. We grew our business continually adding more staff so that our clients never had to wait more than 5-7 days to get an appointment. We grew our business by offering extended hours to compensate for traffic delays as our valley become quite populated. Our client services and convenient appointment scheduling is why we are grooming the 3rd generation of our original clients, now 40 years.

Cancellation lists are a must. If you are booked solid, and cannot work in a client, take a cancellation list. It's amazing how many times even confirmed appointments don't show because of a car accident, car breakdown or whatever. Instead of losing the income from cancellation, we referred to our cancellation list and rushed someone in. They loved the service, and they became very loyal in return for the special care service.

We strongly recommend you study the Preferred Client Program appointment scheduling program in the book, From Problems to Profits. Most groomers today offer a "standing appointment" where the pet owner may leave with their next appointment scheduled. Wow! Those are great clients, and you get the maximum number of appointments a year from them. Some owners tell us, "We have nearly all clients as "standing appointments", but unfortunately too often it is not a matter of management expertise, but the result of telling their clients if they don't become a standing appointment client, "We may never be able to get you in again for weeks." In truth, sublime truth, these clients are being "trained" by threats. It's not uncommon either.

Madeline Ogle's Preferred Client Program offers more than a standing appointment option. It offers clients an "appointment scheduling call" 2-8 weeks AFTER their last appointment. Today, over 1,000 readers of her book are providing up to 60% of clients this innovative system of scheduling reminders professionally regulated. Why? Well, if you have 500 clients that come in 4 times a year that 2,000 appointments, and at about $30 average per appointment, that's $60,000 a year on the register. Maddie found that be regulating appointment frequency with the courtesy of a scheduling call, she got extra appointments out of EVERY client each year. In fact she nearly doubled her business, meaning those same 500 clients came in about 8 times a year instead, ringing up $120,000 a year on the register instead of $60,000. We urge you to use her courtesy appointment system in From Problems to Profits, and know that hundreds have come to learn the system in detail at one of the Madson Group consultations or workshops. It's a HUGE trade secret used by more than 1,000 readers. No wonder some first time grooming business owners liftoff like a rocket because they get more appointments from the same clients their competitors have! Smart!