PetGroomBossPro Blog — Billing, Tips & Payments

Paying in the Customer App: How Grooming Clients See Their Invoices and Pay Online

Every grooming business gets the same handful of billing calls. “Can you resend my invoice?” “Did my payment go through?” “My card expired, can I give you the new one?” Each one takes a few minutes. Together, they eat an afternoon. The customer app is how most of those calls go away.

The Customer's Own Billing Page

The invoice email, covered in Grooming Invoice Emails: What the Customer Gets After the Van Pulls Away, gets the bill to the customer. The customer app is where they can find it again.

PetGroomBossPro gives your customers their own app. On the billing side, they can see their invoices, pay any that are open, update the card on file, and leave a tip on a paid invoice. On the service side, they can request service, sign up for services and pricing, rate and refer, and set their alert preferences.

Seeing Every Invoice

In the customer app, the customer can see their invoices without asking anyone. Each one shows the pets, the services, the add-ons and the total, and whether it has been paid. If the card on file was charged when the groomer tapped Complete, the invoice shows as paid. If not, it is waiting for payment.

That one screen answers the two most common billing questions — “what was this for?” and “did it go through?” — without a call to the office.

Paying Online

For customers without a card on file, or with an invoice that did not charge, the customer app is where they pay. They open the invoice and pay online. There is no check to mail, no card to read over the phone, and no waiting for the groomer to come back.

This also helps with past-due invoices. When the office sends a reminder, the customer can open the app and pay right away, while they are thinking about it. The easier paying is, the faster it happens. For more on chasing the ones that slip, read Past-Due Grooming Invoices: Following Up Without Losing a Good Client.

Updating the Card

Cards expire, and customers get new ones after a lost wallet or a fraud alert. In the customer app, customers can update their card on file themselves. The office does not have to take card numbers by phone, and the next visit can be charged as usual.

When a charge declines, the fastest fix is a short text from the office: “Your card on file didn't go through for today's groom. You can update it in the app and we'll take care of the rest.” The next article, Updating the Card on File: Letting Grooming Clients Fix Their Own Payment Details, goes deeper.

It also helps the office. Every card update a customer makes on their own is one fewer card number written on a sticky note or read aloud over the phone. Every invoice a customer pays online is one fewer payment someone has to record by hand. Over a busy season, that adds up to time the office can spend booking grooms instead.

Tipping the Groomer

Mobile grooming customers often want to tip and have no way to do it. They were not home, or they had no cash. On a paid invoice in the customer app, the customer can leave a tip of $10, $20, $30 or another amount.

App tips show up on the tips report, so the owner can see what came in. If you share tips between a groomer and a bather, the report gives you what you need to do that as an office practice. The software reports tips; it does not split them.

Tips also stay out of the awkward space at the van door. The groomer never has to wait around or hint, and the customer decides privately, on their own time. For customers who like to tip but rarely carry cash, the app is often the only practical way to do it.

The Rest of the App Brings Customers Back

Customers do not open an app just to pay bills. They open it on grooming day to see the route: “You're stop 12 of 20 — the groomer is 5 stops away,” on a live map. They open it to request a groom, or to pick their alerts: the night before, when they are next, when the groomer arrives.

That is good for billing too. A customer who already uses the app to watch for the van is a customer who will find the invoice there. And because the app runs in the browser and can be added to the home screen, there is no app store download for the customer to deal with.

A customer app turns billing questions into self-service. To see it alongside card on file, invoice emails and the tips report, visit the pet grooming invoicing software page.