Flea time, groomer speeds, and sedation — notes from a big multi-service salon

I had a chat with a grooming salon near by. A very big operation - they do dog-sitting, training AND grooming. They mentioned some interesting bits about their booking process.

For them, certain customers or dogs can only book at a certain time of day. But the reason for that has more to do with what’s going on with the dog than with the customer’s availability. For example: dogs with fleas will need more time to groom (due to the bath with anti-flea shampoo). So if you wanted online booking to handle that, you’d need to either a) only allow an existing customer to book (that you know has a flea problem) or b) have your new customer booking request include the requirement to disclose that the dog has fleas (and possibly declare that there is a surcharge for undisclosed flea issues, due to the additional work it will entail for your salon).

Just thinking out loud on that last one.

Another topic they brought up was that different groomers groom at different speeds. This is totally a thing to acknowledge and respect. If we’re doing online grooming, how can we handle that? Maybe we can set different “time requirements” per groomer. So if Lisa is fast, a standard grooming duration could be 45 minutes. And if Chris is slow, we set his standard grooming duration to 1:15 (hour and fifteen).

For this salon, most customers want a consistent groomer, so no roundrobin for them. This is definitely a point that salons are divided on almost 50/50 - half want dedicated groomers, and half want the groomers to be swappable. Both strategies have their pros and cons, and this is totally a salon-owner decision. Respect.

OK - another point, which I have heard from two salons so far. Knowing the cost of the last service - and what it was - is essential for an appointment setter or intake person to know right away. So we’ll definitely be adding this to the booking flow.

Last - and this is a good one I have not heard from any salon after 40+ conversations - sedation. What if a dog needs sedation? How does that impact things? Well for one, if it’s an unknown dog, and it needs sedation, you’d have to take the approach we mentioned with fleas (disclose on form, surcharge if it happens). And if it’s a known dog (a customer you’ve seen before), you can adjust the time required for the dog - and add a warning that your intake person needs to check if sedation was given already.