Pet Peeve

Dear Pet Customer,

     I have a little pet peeve I need  to get off of my chest today.

     When I called yesterday with your appointment reminder for the following day, you asked if I could have your dogs grooming finished by noon because you had made plans for 1pm and must have your dog back no later than noon to get to your other appointment.

     There was only one small problem. Your dogs appointment was for noon! You wanted to bring your dog in by 11am so I could have it for you by the needed time out. You got very upset with me when I informed you that I already had other dogs slated for 11am, and other dogs that had earlier appointments were slatted to be finished by noon.

     You were adamant that you could not move your other appointment and there was no one else available to pick up your dog. Also that you would not be available to pick up your dog till long after our closing time if I did not have your dogs grooming finished by noon. We were also booked too far out to move your appointment.

     You have been a long time customer, so we went out of our way to call another customer to switch appointment times so that you could bring your dog in earlier, so that I could have her finished by the noon time that you so badly needed.

     Sadly, you were 25 minutes late for your new appointment time. You once again got upset with me when I informed you that I would still make every effort to have your dog finished by noon, but that I would no longer promise or guarantee that she would be finished right at noon, because I had now lost 25 minutes of grooming time. I would also not promise to stay open until you were able to pick up later that evening. I assured you that I would most likely have her finished on time, but I did not like rushing your dogs groom.

     You left your dog in my care. I groomed her, she was a good girl, and had her finished by 11:30pm. Well before your needed time. You were called right away to let you know that your dog was ready to pick up. You answered and said  that you were on your way.

     Noon came.....you did not.
     You were called again at 12:15pm, no answer.
     12:30pm came....you did not.
     Again you were called, no answer.
     One o'clock, two o'clock.....your dog was still waiting. I was fuming.

     Two thirty came and so did you. Calmly walking into my shop with your cell phone to your ear. (another pet peeve...don't get me started) With a big smile you asked if your dog was ready.

     Ready?!?!?! REALLY!!!!!! Yes, your dog was ready. She was ready at 11:30am when we called you, and noon, and one, and two. She has BEEN ready for three hours!!! (No, I did not say that to you even though I wanted to) I did say to you; 'Yes she has been ready since 11:30am when we called you and told you she was ready. I thought you needed her by noon because you had another appointment you needed to get to,' in as polite a manner as I could muster. 'Oh, my plans changed, you didn't need to have her done by noon,' you informed me while still on your phone. 'So I thought that I wouldn't rush you and give you extra time.'

     There was just one problem with the extra time you decided to give me for the grooming. You never bothered to notify me!

     Dear customer don't ask me for any more favors in the future. Your bridge has been burnt to ashes, the ashes have washed away, and there is no more wood to build another bridge.

     Oh, one other thing...don't make other plans at the same time your dog has an appointment. She does not deserve to be rushed through her appointment because you can't manage your day better.
                                                                                                                      Thank you

This scenario has happened more times than I can count over the years.

It happened twice last week.

Pet Peeve: Don't demand that your dog be finished by a specific time if you have no intention on picking up by that time!

Yes, I will continue to do favors for my customers.

Most of them are great and very grateful when we help them out.

It's just those few...... 

 

Tip Follow Up

This is a follow up to my last tip post about the small light and the telescoping magnet.

I have been using them both and love them.

I have used the telescoping magnet to pick up my comb numerous times.

Yes, I tend to drop my comb a lot.

What I love the most is, that I don't have to step away from the dog I am grooming for even a second, or even take my hand away for the few seconds that it would take to bend over and pick up the comb, I can keep hands on the dog at all times and reach with this magnet to pick up my comb.

I even used it once to pick up my scissors when I dropped them.

Okay, so much for that, I like that tool. :)

As for the light.

I wasn't so sure about the light.

I knew what I wanted it to do and help with but I was not sure it would work. 

So, did it do what I wanted?

Yes!

The light worked great lighting up the underbelly to see what I was clipping.

It is small enough that it did not get in my way.

It also gave off a good amount of light.

I could also stand the light up and aim at areas under the dog or between the legs that are normally  in the shadows when I scissor.

I also placed the light behind the dog to have the light shine in between the back legs to see better while scissoring.

I found that this light did not heat up while it was on.

So, no worries about a dog possibly sitting down on, or stepping on a hot light.

Just thought that I would share. :-)

Frustrated...

As groomers we all have dealt with being thrown under bus by a Veterinarian that can't come up with any better diagnosis than to 'blame the groomer.'

The groomer did this or the groomer did that.

I guess in hindsight our shop has been pretty lucky, and have not been blamed by Vets very much over the years.

I did send a customer to their Vet once after I found something that I thought needed to be checked, only to have the Vet tell the owner that it must have been something the groomer did during the grooming.

Thankfully the 'something' that I found on the dog, I found at check-in while the owner was still there, before I groomed the dog.

The owner actually called me to tell me that the Vet tried to blame me.

I can't for the life of me remember what the Vet ended up saying had caused the issue with the dog.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago my daughter took her Bichon into our Vet because he was favoring one of his eyes, and the whites of his eye was very red and irritated.

Our Vet was on vacation so she saw the stand in Vet.

He diagnosis it as a form of pink eye and gave my daughter medicine for the eye for 5 days.

Five days go by and her Bichon is still favoring the eye, so she called to ask if she should continue the medicine for a few more days.

The answer was yes.

Fast forward about a week and a half and the eye is a little better but still a little red and irritated looking, so my daughter takes her Bichon in for our regular Vet to check the eye and see if he had a different diagnosis.

So, did he agree with the pink eye diagnosis or have a new one?

Oh, he had a new diagnosis alright!

A couple as a matter of fact.

The first one; my daughter was probably not keeping the hair out of her dogs eyes and it was causing them to become irritated.

 This is Cooper.

This is the way he looks all of the time.

My daughter never lets his hair grow into his eyes.

She trims around his eyes every one to two weeks.

This dog never has hair in his eyes!

My daughter made sure that the Vet  knew that 'hair in the eyes' could not possibly be the problem.

Sooo, without blinking an eye, the Vet came up with a new diagnosis.

My daughter was bathing her dog too much and the shampoo she was using was irritating the eyes.

(Now remember, only one eye was having a problem) 

Really!?!?

We are now blaming the groomer right to their face??

My daughter once again set him straight.

She told him that she had been bathing her dogs every  week for their entire lives with no problems and had never gotten any shampoo in any of their eyes.

Plus the fact that her Bichon had not started favoring his eye till four days after the bath.

Nothing more was said.

My daughter was given a different medicine and left, but she was fuming.

She was sure that our Vet did not believe her about not getting any shampoo in the eyes.

Our Vet had blamed the groomer, and she was the groomer of her own dog!

My question is....if a Vet does not know why something is going on with a dog why can't they just say;  "I am sorry, I am not sure why the eye is irritated but lets try this medicine and see if we can clear it up."

Is it that hard to admit that part of Veterinary medicine is a guessing game?

Believe me, over the years I could have thrown several Vets under the bus for things that they had done wrong with some of my customers dogs.

I am proud to say that I try to be professional and not bad mouth a customers Vet if I don't agree with how they are advising my customer.

Instead I will just suggest that they get a second opinion to see if a second Vet agrees.

Do Vets take a course on how to blame the groomer in Veterinary School?

I wonder....

Sorry, rant over.

Customer Service 101

I have said it before in other posts.... Good Customer Service is very important!

Most of the time, something as simple as a phone call goes a long, long way.

Like yesterday for example.

Yesterday we had our car in at the dealership for a recall repair and an oil change.

We had an appointment at 8am for the car.

We always drop our cars off the night before and pick them up after work whenever we have repairs or maintenance done.

The service department always calls when the car is ready to be picked up.

The whole day went by without receiving any call from the dealership.

So, my husband called them when we where ready to leave work.

The service departments phone just rang and rang.

We have a 40 minute ride home. 

The dealership is about 10 minutes from our house.

My husband tried to call two more times on the way home with the same results...the phone just rang and rang.

We decided to go ahead and walk in to see if the car was done.

Mind you, it had been scheduled to be worked on at 8am. 

The lady behind the service deck copped an attitude as soon as my husband asked about our car. 

He was not in anyway nasty with her.

My husband explained that we just walked in to check because the phone was not being answered every time he tried to call.

"We have two people out today and I have been on the phone all day. How can I answer the phone if I am already on another call!" the lady behind the counter told my husband in a very snide tone.

 Our car was just then being pulled into the bay to be worked on.

"Your car will be ready in about an hour if you want to wait."

Needless to say, my husband did not stay.

He had to get away from the woman behind the service desk before he lost it.

It was now 4pm.

He checked to make sure the lady had our home phone number and told her that he was only 10 minutes away, and he would come to get the car as soon as she called.

Fast forward to 5:30pm.....no call.

My husband calls the dealership once again.

The dealership receptionist once again tries to transfer my husbands call to the service department. 

The receptionist comes back on the line and tells my husband that the service department is not taking calls at this time. 

My husband explains why he is calling and the receptionist says that she will pass along the message and have the service department call us back in a few minutes.

Fast forward again to 6pm.

My husband calls again.

He once again explains why he is calling and that the service department has yet to call him back.

The receptionist puts him on hold.

After a few minutes she comes back to the phone; "I am sorry sir, the service department is now closed for the day. I am sorry I can't help you. You will have to call again tomorrow." 

Fast forward again to this morning.

After we get to work, my husband checks the caller ID.

Sure enough the dealership called the shop at 5:51pm the the day before.

They called the shop number after my husband specifically told the woman that he would be home and made sure that they had the home number.

So many things handled wrong.

First of all....answer the phone!!

Believe me, I understand getting busy, but you should always answer the phone and do at least one of two things.

If you have multiple lines coming into your business, ask the person that you are already talking to to please hold for a second, answer the other line and tell that customer that you will be right back with them as soon as you finish on the other line, and then get right back to the first person you were talking to.

It is then up to the other caller whether they want to wait on hold or hang up call back a little later. 

At least you acknowledged the call and did not just let the phone ring and ring. 

The second thing that this large dealership should do is, have an automated system that will kick in and come on if the phone is not answered after a certain amount of rings to say that all their representatives are busy at the moment and give you the option to hold or call back.

We as groomers should always answer the phone.

Your customers pets are in your care, and if that phone is not answered owners will panic, and the next thing you know you will have an owner showing up at the door because you did not answer your phone and they thought that you closed up with their dog still there.

If you are the sole groomer and do not always hear the phone because you are drying a dog, you should have an answering machine that will pick up after two rings and let the customer know that you are working with a furry friend at the moment and unable to get to the phone,  and will return their call as soon as possible.

Remember to return the call!

The next example of bad customer service....

Don't take your bad day out on the customer.

I understand that some customers can be nasty. (my husband was not)

There is no reason to take having a bad day out on the customer.

I have found that most customers understand and are sympathetic when you call them to warn them and explain that your are having a rough day and have fallen behind in your work.

A simple phone call can go a long way.

Just give the customer the common curtsy of a phone call. 

A simple call from the dealership to let us know what was going on would have saved a lot of frustration and hard feelings.

If you are having a rough day and talk in a nasty tone to a customer you are waiting on, they are going to think that you are also being nasty to their dog....I would think that. 

And for goodness sake, don't wait on a customer and start gripping about your bad day, or the bad dog you are working on.

That is unprofessional.

Just try to make a little joke that 'you have had better days', or 'it's been a long day' and leave it at that.

I personally can't stand when I go into a business and the employees are having a discussion, while waiting on me, about how bad the last customer was, or how stupid their boss is, or how much they hate their job, or what an idiot a fellow employee is, ect.

It is not always easy, but keep a smile on your face and be polite.

If you have a grumpy customer try to get them to smile.

I like to do that.

I take it as a challenge.

Kill them with kindness till they smile.

It works almost every time.

I have to say, that I do have a few that couldn't smile if their life depended on it, but I keep trying. :-)

The last example of bad customer service...

Make sure that you do what the customer asks you to do.

Call them where they tell you to call.

Of course, in the grooming world this means do what the owner asks you to do if you can safely.

The dog always come first!

Great customer service will get you great word of mouth (free) advertising.

Today great customer service is hard to come by.

Customers will remember how well you treated them.

They will come back.

They will tell others about you.

 

 

 

Tuesday's Tip #62: Helping Tools

Well, at least I think these small silly tools could be helpful some days.

My kids.....

Well they took one look at what I bought today and told me I was officially crazy, nuts, insane, and have finally lost it.

True, all true, but that's okay.

I know that I am not normal. 

That is what the dogs love about me. lol

Anyway, I had to make a run to the bank today and Harbor Freight was right across the way.

I decided to go in because we needed to replace a couple of the earphones we use while drying the dogs.

And because I was by myself.

You see, my family hates to go to home improvement stores and tools stores with me. 

They say that I spend too long in them.

We never just run in, pick up what we need and walk out.

I love walking around home improvement stores.

Hence, just one of the reasons my kids think I am nuts.

So, I walked up and down every isle of that tool store.

That is how I came across these two things.

WHAT!!???

 That's right, I heard you.....all of you.

WHAT!!???

That is the same thing that my kids said to me when I got back to the shop and they saw these two items.

 "What are they for?" to be exact.

I am sure you are also wondering; 'how is she going to use these two tools to groom, and for that matter, what are they?'

This is a Telescoping Magnetic Pickup Tool.

I guarantee you that I will be using this tool just about everyday.

Yes, I said just about everyday.

Why?

Because I am guaranteed to drop my comb everyday, and sometimes a blade or two. 

My daughter took one look at this tool and said; "Mom, just how lazy can you be?"

Let me just say that I did not get this tool to be lazy. 

I got it because my back hurts everyday.

So do my knees, and I have tendinitis in my ankle.

I sit to groom about half of my dogs to give my ankle a break.

When I saw this tool, the thought of not having to bend over to pick up a blade or my comb was enticing.

But, there was one other reason I thought that this tool would come in very handy, and it was the main reason I bought it....

Now I know other groomers can relate to this.

How many times have you dropped your comb, or had it kicked out of your hand, and it falls to the floor into a pile of dog hair...and disappears!!

You spend precious grooming minutes searching through the hair, and sometimes still can't find the darn thing.

Wouldn't you just love to have a magnetic tool that would root through all that hair and grab that comb?

Or, you have a dog on the table that you can not, must not step away from, but your comb landed a couple of feet from your table.

Wouldn't this expandable tool come in real handy?

It expands to about 36 inches.

Picks that comb right up!

So, what if the comb is under a pile of hair?

Will it find the comb and still pick it up?

Yes!

How about a blade?

Yes!

How about a blade under a pile of hair?

Yes, even with all the hair.

See, there it is.

Yes, I am excited.

Do I sound excited?

Why not?

The silly thing only cost me $4.50

 Now you are just dying to know why I bought this and and what am I going to do with it, right?

Right?

You are still there aren't you?

I mean you have to at least be a little curious, right?

Well, if you have stuck with me through this entire post, thanks. lol

Anyway, I haven't tried it yet, but I plan on using this light to sit on my table when I am scissoring hard to see areas under the dog.

This old girls eyes are not what they used to be.

 I can stand it up and aim it at legs, or I can lay it down and aim it up at a belly to see better when clipping.

I will see, not sure if it will help or not.

I'll test it out the next few days and will come back and update this post.

Doesn't hurt to try, the silly light only cost $3.

So there is my silly tip for the day.

Maybe these tools can help another groomer. :)