PetGroomBossPro Blog — Cat Grooming

Two-Person Cat Appointments: Running a Team of Two in One Grooming Van

“Needs two people for nails.” It is one of the most common lines in a cat's notes, and it has a direct effect on the schedule. A two-person cat booked on a day when the groomer is alone means a rescheduled visit, a half-done appointment or a hard morning.

PetGroomBossPro handles this with van teams and set schedules. It does not have a special two-person cat setting, and it does not need one.

The Note Comes First

The rabies date in Rabies Due Dates for Cats: Typing Them In and Seeing Them on the Card is one field on the pet. The behavior note right next to it is what usually decides whether a cat needs two people.

Because the next visit at a home fills in from the last one, a note like “two people for nails” stays on the cat visit after visit. That is what the office looks at when it decides where the cat goes on the schedule.

Setting Up a Two-Person Van

In PetGroomBossPro, employees are set up with their own PINs and assigned to vans, which the software calls teams. A groomer and a bather can share a van. So can two groomers, or the owner and a helper on certain days.

• Each person logs in. Both use the company login plus their own personal PIN on their own phones.
• Both see the van's day. The appointments for that van show in order, with set times and every pet's details and notes.
• Both clock in. The time clock on the groomer app records each person's hours.

Putting Two-Person Cats on the Right Days

Once there is a two-person van, the scheduling rule is simple: cats that need two people go on that van, on the days both people are in it.

Some groomers build a whole cat day around it. Others keep the two-person van on mixed days and slot the two-person cats in at set times. Either way, the software keeps it steady:

• Set times on every appointment, shown on every card.
• Add Recurring Grooming books the cat on the same weekday, time and van every 6 or 8 weeks, so the cat stays on the two-person van for the whole series.
• Recurring Clients lets you move a cat to the two-person van for all upcoming visits if its notes change.

To be clear, the software does not read the note and assign the van for you. The office does that, once, and the repeat schedule keeps it.

Checking the Day Before

The day-before confirm on Pending Jobs is where van mix-ups get caught. When the office opens tomorrow's tab, it can check that every cat whose note says two people is on the two-person van. If someone is out sick and the van will only have one person, the office can move those cats and text the owners before the van leaves. The day-before routine is in Confirming Repeat Cat Visits on Pending Jobs the Day Before.

Pricing a Two-Person Appointment

Two people in the van is more labor for that appointment. Whether you charge more for it is a business decision. Some groomers price two-person cats with a separate service or add-on, such as a “Second Handler” add-on you create yourself. Others build it into their cat prices. Since you set up your own services and add-ons, either works, and either shows clearly on the invoice.

Two People, One Record

On a two-person appointment, the checklist is still one per pet. Decide in advance who works through it and who writes the customer note, so the record is not done twice or not at all. Before and after photos are saved with the job no matter which phone took them.

At the end of the day, the time clock shows each person's hours, and the jobs show what was done. That is the information you need for payroll and for seeing whether the two-person day earns its keep.

Van GPS and the Office

Van GPS shows each van on the office map. On a two-person cat day, the office can see where the van is and give owners a real answer when they ask when the groomer will arrive. Owners who chose alerts also get on-the-way and arrived texts automatically.

The Right Cat, the Right Van

A good behavior note, a two-person van team and a repeat schedule that keeps the cat on that van are all it takes to stop booking two-person cats on one-person days. For how this fits with the rest of cat grooming in PetGroomBossPro, see the cat grooming software page.