Grooming clients using an independent grooming salon expect a more personal relationship between themselves and their grooming professional. Personalized service is one of the most significant advantages an independent grooming business has over the big-box chains, who if given the opportunity, would absorb your entire client list without blinking an eye.
The need for a personalized customer experience, detailed record keeping, and reliable groom work will be the most significant characteristics defining the successful independent grooming business, who will indeed carve their own niche in this highly competitive market. Grooming software allows grooming businesses of any size to provide a personalized customer experience to each and every client, regardless of the size of your staff or the depth of your client list.
Rich grooming client records and detailed pet groom history (including photos) provides you with the information needed to deliver the exact services your clients desire with each and every groom. Ditch the clip cards, as these new electronic records will never fall victim to drops in the tub, getting lost in a pile of junk mail and tossed in the trash, or random bored dog attacks. Saying "the dog ate my homework" never really flew in school, and it definitely isn't an excuse you'll want to use in your business.
Grooming software provides dynamic, active scheduling with automated appointment notifications for new appointment confirmations, appointment reminders, reschedule notifications, and will even automatically email invoices to clients, helping reduce cancellations and improve your business's income consistency. The scheduling advantage is astounding and you will notice a measurable increase in business revenue once you begin actively attending to your constantly changing appointment book.
Expense Management tools in grooming software allow you to maximize your business's tax write-offs and leverage your daily business expenses to your advantage.
Groom Pro offers highly flexible web-based grooming software built, tested, and used by people directly involved at the clip and fur level of the pet grooming industry. There are many different grooming software options out there, so many in fact, that choosing the best product for your business can be downright confusing. While browsing through the different choices out there, we couldn't help but notice many claims to being "the best", "the easiest", or "amazing!" but found that many of the systems were falling a little short of their claims.
Grooming software comes in many different flavors, and the product you choose will depend entirely on your business goals. Groom Pro grooming software offers flexibility not commonly seen in the other systems available today. If you are looking to grow your business and one day hire managers to take over you role in running the store, having unlimited users, locations, clients, and appointments features will be of high-interest to you. These features will help you continue toward your goals of retirement with the comfort and security of retaining a strong business earning your residual income for you year after year. At the time of this writing, Groom Pro is currently the only system offering all of these features for one low monthly fee.
Note 1: Use caution whenever considering an online system that needs the support of smart phone apps to be used on various devices. The development cost to maintain these various programs for android, iOS, and Windows phone will cause the cost of the system to rise over time, and generally leads to phone apps that aren’t quite as functional as the web software - leaving you waiting for updates or longing for features.
Note 2: Don't forget to read the fine-print, as many companies charge for extra users, clients over a certain limit (the limit is generally just slightly below the average grooming client list, costing you more), or even charging more per location.
The high-cost, limited flexibility, costly updates, and inherent dangers of PC based software (anything with a disc or download that is installed on your computer) make these systems very unattractive to the proactive business owner. Consider the dangers of leaving your entire client record system, including grooming appointments, on a single local computer. We have heard the stories time and time again telling of a lightning strike, a stolen computer, or Fido shaking off his drenched coat right next to a new laptop ruining the business computer, costing money with lost appointments, and endangering the future of this once successful grooming business.
Note 3: If the software requires a download and installation, it's a definite "no".
Smart phone apps are all the rage, with offerings ranging from currency converters to cook books all right from the convenience of your smart phone. We've found a few appointment calendar applications on the market, each costing only a few dollars to own. While at first glance, this may seem like an attractive option for your grooming business, phone appointment apps are subject to the same limitations and dangers of PC based grooming software. If you lose your phone (theft, loss, damage) you lose your entire appointment book… forever. After all, would you really trust a $2.99 phone application to hold client information on a business that generates $60,000 - $100,000 per year? The answer for us is a definite NO, as it should be for your precious grooming business.
Note 4: If you can download the application from the Apple or Google Play stores, it's a definite "no".
Long gone are the days when it was considered acceptable to use "clip cards" to keep track of client groom history. With the expanding population of pets and the increasing general knowledge of pet health and grooming standards, our grooming businesses have many more clients - all of which are now beginning to expect a much higher level of service. The records kept on a 6x8 index card cannot provide you with the depth of information necessary to provide an exceptional customer experience.
Note 5: Save some trees and move your business to the future with grooming software.
The future of all software is on the internet. Web-based grooming software is the only choice as we move into the future, providing you virtually limitless access to your business records from any device or computer using a modern web browser. Updates are free, frequent, and are deployed seamlessly with no download and installation issues for you, the grooming business owner.
Grooming software helps you achieve your business goals by storing a long history of rich client information spanning from the very first to the very last groom 15 years later. Clients will appreciate your attention to detail and trust you to care for their precious pet, knowing exactly what they will get each and every time. Groom Pro grooming software provides you quick access to every detail of information you need to provide consistent grooming time after time, year after year.