Happy Holidays!!!

It is 11:55pm on Christmas Eve, and I just finished wrapping the last present!

I took off today in hopes of having a relaxing Christmas Eve.

I think that I should have groomed.

I haven't stopped moving since 8am.

We hope that everyone has a wonderful Holiday tomorrow.

Take time to relax from all of that hectic holiday grooming.

I am sure that some of you may have seen this Youtube video.

I found it last year and smiled the whole time I was watching it.

Rocking around the Christmas Tree

Enjoy!

Have a safe, Happy Holiday!!

Merry Christmas, MFF

Scheduling Woes

I wrote a post yesterday.

Where did it go?

I never published it.

I was almost finished writing it.....no I wasn't writing.....I was ranting.

It was a rant through and through.

I felt like I had turned into Ebenezer Scrooge.

All because of few customers.

I am better now.

Today was a pretty smooth day.

One more day of grooming left before Christmas.

Why is it that when I have so many really good customers, I let the few PITA customers ruin my day?

A few of them manage to do or say something just about every time they come in.

So why do I keep them as a customer?

Because every darn one of them own dogs that I really like.

During the first two grooming jobs I had, I was never allowed to wait on, or talk to the dogs owners.

The receptionist would bring in the dogs and tell me what the owners said.

I used to hate that!

I wanted to talk to the owners so bad.

I wanted to see their reactions to my grooms.

Boy, they aren't kidding when they say "be careful what you wish for."

I actually do like talking to the owners, but sometime I really wish that there was a way for the dogs to materialize on my table, and then when I was done I could blink and they would be home.

No interaction with the owner.

I think that I have watched way too much 'I Dream of Jennie'.

I have written before about how we book most of our customers appointments a year in advance.

We have been doing this for more years than I can remember.

 We send out almost 400 letters at the beginning of October with forms for our customers to fill out.

They tell us how many weeks between appointments that they want to go.

They tell us what day they want to come on.

They tell us what time that they want the appointment.

All we ask is that they check off three possible days and times that they would be available for an appointment.

They can even number their choices by preference.

If they like to come in on Tuesdays, they would mark it as their number one choice, maybe Thursday as their second choice and so on.

I only other thing that we ask is that they mail them back by the end of the month of October.

 We were still getting forms back as late as the end of November.    

Once we get the forms back, my daughter puts them in order of customer seniority.

The customers that have been with me since I started grooming go on top of the pile and so on.

I have to give my daughter all of the credit in the world.

She has always helped me with this job, but a few years ago she took it over completely.

One of her reasons for taking it over was, because she knew that I have a bad habit of fitting dogs in on days that I shouldn't.

 My daughter takes the whole month of November, working a couple of hour each night, to make up these schedules for our customers.

She works very hard to give as many customers as possible their first choices.

She works around their vacations.

She takes the extra time to figure out appointments for the people who want to come in every 4 weeks in the summer and 6 weeks in the winter.

Or, want their appointments to match with their paydays.

You name it, she figures it out.

We hand the customers their new schedule, for next year, when they come in for their last appointment of this year.

That is when the problems start.

Like I said before most of my customers are great.

They love and appreciate getting their new schedules for the next year.

They look at their schedule, say 'great', and that is the end of that.

Then their are the ones who always have a problem.

They forget what they wrote on their form.

They suddenly remember some event that they will be at on the days you scheduled them for.

They don't understand why they don't have an appointment for each month when they asked for appointments every 6-8 weeks.

God help us if we made one of their appointments for 5weeks instead of 4 weeks, because 4 weeks was booked.

One customer ask my daughter why her July appointment was one week longer.

"We are going to be on vacation that week. That is why your appointment is a week longer." my daughter told her.

"So why can't you groom her that week?" the customer asked again.

"We will be away," my daughter said.

"So you can't groom her that week? the customer asked with a puzzled look on her face.

"No, we can't."

What also amazes me, is how some of these customers seem to get personally offended that they were not given the day or time that they wanted.

Come on, I can't have every dog come in at 9am.

If we gave you a 10am appointment because there were no more 9am appointments left, please don't have a meltdown over it.

One year we had a regular customer storm in all upset about her appointments.

"Why did you make all my appointments every 8 weeks when I wanted 6 weeks?!" she said very angrily.

"Because you asked for every 8 weeks," my daughter told her.

"No I didn't," the customer said in no uncertain terms.

My daughter turned, walked into the grooming room and came back out with her big black three ring binder.

She looked up the customers number and turned to her form.

Then she turned the form to the customer so that she could see that she wrote 8 weeks on her form.

I give my daughter credit, she was very polite while talking to the customer, and things were smoothed over.

At least she waited till the customer was gone and she was back in the grooming room to celebrate her little victory.

"See Mom, that is why I keep all of these forms," she tells me with a happy little smirk on her face.

"Their not going to come in tell me that I did something wrong."

My daughter keeps all of the forms, and all of the customers little notes that they send with the forms.

It has paid off a few times.

Even though the girl has a photographic memory, she wants proof in her hands when someone disputes something.

Then you get the customer that is down right mean about their new schedule.

They don't yell or get angry, they get cocky, smart, and like to throw in "I have been coming to you since you opened. I thought that you scheduled by seniority. Why don't I have an appointment closer to Christmas next year? Why is my last appointment December 13th? Didn't you follow this years schedule?" We had December 21 this year."

"Because you made a note on your form that you wanted an appointment for the week of 12/9/12," my daughter told her.

I really should not have let this customer get to me yesterday.

I didn't even talk to her.

My daughter took the call.

It is just that this very long time customer  has burned their bridge...blown up their bridge...obliterated their bridge so many times over the years, that every time they do this kind of stuff it drives me nuts.

I know..I know...but I really like their dog.

They were not the only one to have issues with next years scheduled yesterday.

They were about the fourth.

They just happened to be the last one of the day.

I really have to work on not letting customers get to me.

They go home and forget all about it, and I go home and think about it all night.

You would think after all of these years that I would have learned not to let customers petty grievances bother me.

I have gotten a little better, but not much.

I am too sensitive for my own good.

It seems to take only one PITA customer to ruin your day.

I have to learn to concentrate on the nice customers that I had for the day.

Oh well, I guess I just ranted again.

Trust me, it wasn't as bad as last night.

One more day.

Tomorrow will be a good day. :)

Tomorrow will be a good day. :)  :)

Tomorrow will be a good day. :) :) :)

 

Happy Grooming, MFF

Tuesday's Tip #38 Quoting Prices

Quoting prices...

I hate price shoppers.

I hate when people call for a price quote for grooming their dog.

Half the time they can not tell you exactly what kind of dog they have, what kind of hair their dog has, or what kind of cut they want, BUT they want to know exactly how much I will charge them.

When I first opened my shop, I had a long price list.

I had every breed listed and one price next to each breed.

When a customer called to ask for a price, I would look at my price list and quote a price.

Only the dog that they described, a small Shih-Tzu in good shape, did not walk in my door.

What walked in my door would not even come close to resembling a Shih-tzu.

The dog would be 50 pounds, matted to the skin, and they wanted the dog groomed for the price that I quoted on the phone.

Or, A Shih-tzu would come in, only it was not a normal sized Shih-Tzu, it was Lhasa sized.

The customer did not want to hear that the dog they brought in did not look like the dog they described on the phone.

Where you calling them a liar?

I had that darn price list for a long time.

I learned to ask more specific questions so that my prices would be quoted closer to what they should be.

I also started saying "the groom will be around $40 or more."

Well, that would backfire too.

The customer would not hear the word "around" or "or more", all they would hear was $40.

I eventually stopped putting up a price list.

I started quoting prices by the size and hair length, instead of breed.

Of course that didn't work either.

Let's say that I set a price of $30 for a small, long hair dog.

That might be great for a sweet little Maltese mix that got a simple clip all over with a #4f blade.

But, it did not work for the small, matted, Tasmanian devil, obese Maltese want-a-be, that took twice as long to groom.

So, for the last 10 years or so I have had basic prices for sizes, hair length, and whether the dog is getting just a bath, a close cut , or a hand scissor cut.

I talked about this in my Pricing Your Grooms post.

I have found that this way of pricing seems to be the fairest, and has worked the best for me.

There is only one problem.

I still get the price shoppers that come in or call before making an appointment.

My husband usually puts them on hold and comes back to ask me for a price.

I admit, I get frustrated.

How big is the Golden?

Does it have a ton of hair or just a little feathering?

Has it been groomed before?

Is it blowing its coat?

All of this factors into the price.

As of January my prices will be going up for the first time in two years.

I held off raising prices because of the economy, and I wanted to help my customers.

My bills have been going up too, and the time has come for a price raise.

All of my customers have been notified of this prior to making appointments for the new year.

So far all of them have been very understanding.

The increase for regular customers will be: small/medium $2-3, Large $5-7.

I have also decided to write up a new breed price list.

Not to display.

This list will be for my husband to look at when a new customer calls.

My new price list will not be a single price for each breed.

It will be a price range for each breed.

My new list will read something like this:

                        Bath, Brush &Trim                       Hand scissored                     Golden:                50-70                                              80-95

The call would go something like;

MFF: "My Furry Friends, can I help you?"

Customer: "I want to get my Golden groomed. How much do you charge?"

MFF: "What are you looking to have us do?"

Customer: "Groom him."

MFF: "Where you looking for just a bath or did you want his hair cut?"

Customer: " I want him bathed and some of his hair cut."

MFF: "Are you looking to just have his feet trimmed along with the bath?"

Customer: "Yes, and around his butt too. He gets poop there."

MFF: "Okay. I can only give you a ballpark figure. I would have to see your dog to give an exact price.  Goldens come in different sizes and hair thicknesses, the price for a Bath, comb out, and light trim can run anywhere from $50 to $70. The price also depends on your dogs temperament and the condition of the coat. If you want more than just the feet and rear trimmed, the price may be higher."

I very rarely charge 70 for a Bath, Brush and Trim on a Golden, even when it is blowing its coat, but I want to quote high just on the off chance that the Golden that comes in for the appointment is a giant bear sized Golden that deserves to be charged 70.

I don't want any surprises for me or the customer.

It is the same for a Shih-Tzu.

                   Bath, Brush & Trim                         Short Clip                 Hand scissor

Shih-Tzu:             30-40                                       43-48                         48-60

The Shih-tzu customer is told that the Bath, Comb, and Trim price is based on the size of their dog and the length and thickness of the hair.

They are also told that the ballpark price quoted is for a dog in good shape, and that de-matting will be extra.

This Shih-Tzu is groomed the same as the one below, only this Shih-Tzu is twice the size of the one below.

Because the prices quoted are ballpark prices, I am able to charge two different prices on both of these different size Shih-Tzu's.

I hope that makes sense.

 So what is the Tuesday tip?

There are a few.

First: Be very straight forward with your quotes.

Don't hedge around, or let a customer try to tie you down to an exact price.

Be nice when explaining that dogs come in too many shapes, sizes and hair types to give exact prices without seeing the dog first.

Also tell them that it would not be fair to you, or them to give an exact price only to have to change it once you saw the dog.

They are either going to come to you and pay your prices, or they are not.

My experience has taught me that customers that knit pick over your prices turn out to be  PITA (pain in the a**) customers in the long run.

Second: Only give a ballpark price.

Have a list so that you are always giving the same ballpark quote for each customer when they call.

Especially when you have more than one person answering the phones.

Third: If the customer makes an appointment, write down the the ballpark price quote given.

Also, make notes about what was talked about right there on the appointment book.

If you have more than one person making appointments, have that person making the appointment write their name down so that you will know who the customer talked to.

Last but not least: Post a sign that says that all price quotes given are subject to change upon evaluating the dog.

I have always struggled with pricing.

Even today, I still will have a dog come in that I don't charge what I really should for the work, because I feel bad charging so much.

I am trying.

Following the tips above have helped.

Happy Grooming, MFF

Photoshow

Tonight is a photo-show of my sisters cat.

She brings her over once in a while to have her combed out.

The cat will not allow anyone at home to comb her.

I told my sister that her cat is good for me, but I am not sure she totally believes me, so I told her that I would take pictures the next time that she brought her in.

That was yesterday.

My husband or my older son usual take pictures for me when I want pictures as I am grooming.

My husband was busy with the Self-Serve, and my oldest son was bathing a dog.

That left my 11 year old son.

My, can't stand still for two minutes, everything is a joke, son.

My son, that if you ask him to do anything, you would think that you just killed him.

He was the only one available to take pictures for me.

So I called him into the grooming room.

I handed him the camera, and asked him to take pictures for me.

He started to die on the spot.

I pulled him back up by his shirt, and gave him a look that only a Mother can give.

I threatened him with death if he didn't take this seriously and do a good job for me.

I reminded him to gently squeeze the button on the camera so that he would not get a bunch of blurry shots.

"How many pictures do you want?" he asked me.

"Just keep taking pictures while I am combing out the cat," I told him.

I figured that way I would at least get a few good pictures.

He took about 50 pictures.

Only one was blurry.

He did a great job.

Of course he does not want to hear me say; "See what a good job you can do when you don't fool around."

So sit back and enjoy the picture-show of my sisters really pretty kitty.

Miss Kitty had a lot to say about her grooming.

"Good grief, Mom brought me here again!"

"No matter how much I talk, they don't pay attention."

(She is a talker, she is not hissing in this picture)

"Soooo.. I don't let anyone comb me at home."

"What's the big deal?"

"This isn't too bad."

"To the right, up, up, now back over just a little, that's it..right there!"

"Okay.. that wasn't so bad...we're done...right?..."

 "You just had to find that big knot didn't you?"

"I wish that darn dog over there would stop barking."

" Don't give me any of that lovey, dovey talk."

"I know you're not done with me yet."

"Not the belly."

"Why?"

Why must you comb my belly?"

" You are bond and determand to comb out my belly, aren't you?"

 "This isn't so bad."

"Go ahead...get it over with."

 "Who are you looking at?"

"Are you done yet?"

"Now, what are you doing with my back leg?"

"Oooh, can't we have some privcy...all of the dogs are watching!"

"This isn't anymore lady like than the other way you were combing me."

"This woman is obsessed with my belly."

"Someone is going to pay for this."

"What do you mean you want to comb my back again?!"

" OMG!... She is lifting my back leg again!"

  "What are you feeling my belly for?"

"You got it all...there is nothing left!"

"oooooh....I like this....but if you think this makes up for all of that combing...you are sadly mistaken.!"

"I can't believe it!"

"She picked up that darn comb again!"

"Someone take this darn comb from her before I don't have any hair left on my body"

Okay...where are you Mom?...I am ready to go home now."

After I was done combing out my sisters cat, I took the camera to get some of my own pictures.

I love taking pictures of cats faces, and then playing with the pictures in Photoshop.

Happy Grooming, MFF