PetGroomBossPro Blog — Online Booking & Quotes

Where Grooming Bookings Land: The Leads List and the Email You Get

The customer has picked a service, added the dogs, chosen every 6 weeks, ticked teeth brushing, picked Tuesday morning and seen their price. They tap the button to send it. Now what? This article covers the other side of the booking page: where the request goes, how you find out about it, and what is in it.

Everything They Picked, in One Place

The last article, The Note Under the Price: Telling Customers Heavy Matting May Cost Extra, covered what the customer reads just before they send. Once they send, the request lands in Leads.

Each lead holds everything the customer chose on the booking page:

• Their name and contact details
• The service they picked
• Each pet's name, breed and size
• How often they want you to come
• The add-ons they ticked
• Their preferred day and time of day
• The price they saw

That last item matters more than it looks. If you change your prices next month, the lead still shows the price this customer was quoted. When you call them, you are working from the same number they are.

The Email

You also get an email for each new booking. For a mobile groomer, that is often how you actually find out. You are in the van with a dog on the table, not sitting at a desk watching the Leads list. The email arrives on your phone, and you can glance at it between grooms to see who booked and what they want.

You do not need to reply from the email. It is a heads-up. The full request is waiting in Leads for when you sit down to schedule.

A Request, Not a Booked Slot

It is worth repeating because it affects how you work: a booking from the page is a request. It does not put the customer onto your calendar on its own. The preferred day and time of day are what the customer would like, not a reservation.

For mobile work, that is a deliberate choice. You know which side of town you are on each day, how long the giant breeds take, and which days already have a full van. A request lets you fit the new client where it makes sense, and confirm with them before anything is promised. How to handle that confirmation is the subject of the next article, A Booking Request, Not a Calendar Slot: Confirming the Time With the Customer.

Working the Leads List

A few habits keep the Leads list useful:

• Check it at the same time every day. Many groomers do it when they plan tomorrow, since the office schedules the day before anyway.
• Reply fast. A customer who sent a request last night is still thinking about it this morning. A few days later, they may have booked someone else.
• Read the pets before you call. Breed and size tell you a lot. A Large Bernedoodle on a first full groom is a call where you will want to ask about the coat.
• Look at the address. Where the house sits relative to your existing route tells you which day to offer.

When the Request Needs More Than a Call

Most requests turn into a booking with one call or text. Some need more. Five dogs. A cat that needs a lion cut and a dog that has not been groomed in a year. A neighbor who wants to know if you can do the whole street.

For those, send an estimate built from your service list. The customer approves it online, and the approved estimate becomes the job with the pet details carried over. Estimate follow-up emails remind the customer if they go quiet. The estimate articles later in this series cover it in detail, starting with Building Grooming Estimates From Your Service List.

Booking Page Leads and Other Leads

The booking page is not the only way new customers reach you. People call. They text. They fill in the request form on your website, or the sign-up form that captures a card. Website form submissions land in Form Responses, and a sign-up converts into a client with one click.

Having the booking requests in Leads with the full detail means the bulk of your new business arrives already sorted: you know the pets, the service and the price before you say hello.

From Lead to Client

Once you have confirmed a time, you book the visit. A one-time groom goes on the schedule. A repeat client gets set up with Add Recurring Grooming on the same weekday, time and van every 4, 6 or 8 weeks, with every visit written up front and waiting on Pending Jobs until you confirm it. The pets go onto the job with their breed and size, ready for you to add coat, rabies due date and cut notes.

For the rest of the booking and quoting tools, visit the pet grooming booking software page.