PetGroomBossPro Blog — Running a Mobile Grooming Business

Pricing Add-Ons in a Mobile Grooming Business: Teeth, Nails, De-Shedding and the Rest

Add-ons are the small line items that sit on top of a groom: teeth brushing, nail grinding, a de-shed treatment, a blueberry facial, a bandana on the way out. Each one is a few dollars. Across a week of grooms they become a real part of what the van earns. The trick is choosing the right ones, pricing them simply, and making sure every add-on done is an add-on billed.

Add-Ons Sit on Top of Size Pricing

The base layer of a grooming price list is covered in Setting Service Prices by Size in a Mobile Grooming Business. Once your base prices and size steps are set, add-ons are the second layer.

Think of the base price as the groom itself and add-ons as the extras a customer chooses. Keeping them separate keeps your base prices honest and lets each customer pay for what their pet actually gets.

Choose a Short List

A long add-on menu looks impressive and confuses people. Pick the extras you actually do well and that your customers ask for. A typical mobile grooming add-on list might include:

• De-Shed Treatment
• Teeth Brushing
• Nail Grinding
• Flea & Tick Bath
• De-Matting
• Ear Cleaning
• Paw Balm
• Blueberry Facial
• Bow / Bandana

PetGroomBossPro lets you set up whatever add-ons you offer, each with its own price. You can rename them, add your own, and leave off anything you do not do.

Flat Prices Are Easier

Most add-ons work best with one flat price, because they take about the same time on any pet. For example, your own list might read “Teeth brushing $15,” “Nail grinding $20,” “Paw balm $10.” Customers can add them up in their head, and you can say yes on the doorstep without checking a chart.

Some add-ons do scale with the pet. De-shedding a giant double-coated dog is a different job from de-shedding a small one, and de-matting depends on the coat. For those, you might set a starting price and adjust on the invoice when you see the coat. Be clear with the customer about how those are priced before you start.

Let Customers Pick Add-Ons When They Book

The best time to sell an add-on is before the van arrives, when the customer is already thinking about their pet. On the PetGroomBossPro booking page, customers pick add-ons along with the service, the number of pets and each pet's size, and they see the price update instantly. The request lands in Leads with the add-ons listed, so there is no doubt later about what they asked for.

Estimates work the same way. When you build an estimate from your service list, add-ons go on as line items, and an approved estimate becomes the job with those add-ons on it. The booking page itself is covered in The Book Now Link: Putting Your Mobile Grooming Business on Google and Social Bios.

Tick Them on the Job

The quiet way money leaks from a grooming business is add-ons that get done but never billed. A customer says “can you do his teeth too?” at the door, you do it, and nobody writes it down.

In PetGroomBossPro, add-ons are ticked on the job. The groomer app shows them on the card for each visit, and the grooming checklist includes them alongside the main steps for each pet, so the groomer sees exactly what was ordered. If a customer adds something on the doorstep, add it to the job so it lands on the invoice when you tap Complete. The office sees the completed checklist on the job, add-ons included, and can print a Grooming Report for the customer.

Add-Ons on Repeat Visits

Many add-ons belong on every visit. A dog who gets teeth brushing every groom should not need it re-ordered each time. Because the next visit at a home fills in from the last one, the pets and the cut notes carry forward. Write standing extras into the pet's notes line, such as “teeth every visit,” so they show on the card every time and get ticked on the job. If a customer wants to drop or add an extra going forward, update the note once.

Watch for add-ons that become part of the routine for a particular pet. If a doodle needs de-matting every single visit, it may make more sense to talk with the customer about a shorter repeat schedule or a different cut. That is a conversation, not a price increase, and the notes line on the pet is a good place to record what you agreed.

Raising Add-On Prices

Add-on prices drift less than base prices, but they still need a look now and then. Product costs change, and some extras turn out to take longer than you planned. When you change an add-on price, it applies from then on, and regular customers should hear about it before the next invoice.

Next in this series: Writing a Cancellation Policy for Your Mobile Grooming Business. To see how add-ons flow from the booking page to the groomer app to the invoice, visit the mobile grooming business software page.