PetGroomBossPro Blog — Running a Mobile Grooming Business

Tips in a Mobile Grooming Business: Letting Customers Tip From the Invoice

Plenty of grooming customers want to tip. The trouble in a mobile business is that there is often no moment to do it. The customer is at work, or they paid by card on file and never saw the groomer, or they simply do not carry cash anymore. A customer who meant to tip and could not is a small missed thank-you for the groomer. Making tipping easy, without making it awkward, fixes that.

Why Tipping Is Harder in a Van

Payment on completion was covered in Getting Paid on Completion in a Mobile Grooming Business. When the card on file is charged at the end of the groom, the customer never has to hand over money at the door. That is great for getting paid, but it removes the usual moment for a tip.

In a salon, a customer tips at the front desk. With a mobile groomer, the customer may never see you at all. If tipping is going to happen, it has to happen where the customer already is: on their phone, looking at the invoice.

Tip on the Paid Invoice

In PetGroomBossPro, customers can leave a tip on a paid invoice in the customer app. They pick $10, $20, $30 or another amount. There is no awkward conversation, no envelope under the mat, and no cash for the groomer to keep track of.

Because the tip sits on the invoice after it is paid, it never changes your price. The groom costs what your service list says, and the tip is the customer's choice on top.

Let Customers Know They Can

Some customers will not realize tipping is possible in the app. You do not need to push it, but a light mention helps. A line on your website's FAQ, or a note in the welcome text you send new customers, is plenty: “You'll get your invoice in the app after each groom. If you'd like to leave a tip, you can add it right there.”

Do not ask for tips in your texts or reminders. Customers notice when tipping becomes a sales pitch, and it can sour an otherwise great relationship. The texting side is covered in Texting Customers From the Office in a Mobile Grooming Business.

Good Service Earns Tips

The best way to earn tips is to give customers something to be pleased about. A few things help:

• A great groom, done the same way each time. Pet notes that carry forward mean the cut is right every visit.
• Being on time, or saying why. Night-before reminders and arrival texts go out automatically.
• Telling the customer what you saw. The grooming checklist includes a note for the customer, and the office can print a Grooming Report.
• Before and after photos. They are saved on the job, ready if the customer wants to see them.
• A small extra now and then. A bandana or bow on a regular dog costs little and is often remembered.

The Tips Report

PetGroomBossPro has a tips report that shows what came in. For a solo groomer, it is simply a record of the extra thank-yous. Once you have employees, it becomes important, because it tells you how much each person should receive.

How you share tips is your own policy. Some owners give each tip to the groomer who did the job. Some split tips between the groomer and the bather when they share a van. Some pool them. Whatever you decide, write it down, tell your team, and apply it the same way every time. Questions about how tips are taxed or paid out through payroll are for your accountant.

Tips and Monthly Accounts

Monthly accounts like senior living communities and doggy daycares get one statement covering every visit. Tipping there works differently, if it happens at all. Some residents may want to tip on their own. If residents are set up as their own clients with their own invoices, they can tip on those invoices in the customer app, the same as a home customer.

Do not worry if accounts do not tip. The value of a monthly account is a full, predictable day, not the tips.

A Small Part of a Healthy Business

Tips should never be what the business depends on. Your prices should cover your costs and pay you well on their own. Tips are a bonus that tells you customers are happy. Making them easy is simply a way of letting customers say thank you when they want to.

The history behind each customer is covered next in Customer History in a Mobile Grooming Business: Every Visit, Note and Invoice in One Place. To see how tips fit with payment and the customer app, visit the mobile grooming business software page.