PetGroomBossPro Blog — Pet Grooming Software

The Groomer App: A Mobile Pet Grooming Day on One Phone

The office side of grooming software can be as detailed as you want. The groomer side has to be simple. A groomer working in a van has wet hands, a dog on the table and an owner waiting at the door. The phone needs to show what matters and get out of the way.

Everything From the Last Few Guides, in One Place

The pets, the add-ons and the details covered in Van Notes: Parking, Gate Codes and Water Hookups for Mobile Pet Grooming all end up in the same spot: the appointment card on the groomer app. This guide walks through a day on that app.

No App Store, Just a Login and a PIN

The groomer app runs in the browser on iPhone and Android and can be installed to the home screen, so it opens like any other app. There is nothing to download from an app store and no special device to buy. Groomers use the phones they already have.

Each groomer signs in with your company login plus a personal PIN. That ties every appointment, photo and clock-in to the right person, and when someone leaves, you turn off their PIN.

The Day in Order, With Times

The first screen is the day's appointments in order. Each card shows its set time, so the groomer knows the 9:00 is first and the 10:30 is second without reading a separate calendar. Mobile grooming runs on appointment times more than on a loose route, and the times are on every card for that reason.

The order matches what the office set on the schedule. If the office moves an appointment, the groomer's list follows.

What's on Each Card

Open a card and the groomer sees:

• The address with a navigation button for one-tap directions
• Each pet with name, breed, size, coat and cut notes
• The add-ons on this visit
• Van notes for parking, the gate code and the outlet or water hookup
• Past notes from earlier visits

That is enough to run the appointment without calling anyone.

Start, Skip, Complete

Three buttons run the day. Start tells the office the groom is underway. Skip is for when the appointment cannot happen, like nobody home or the dog is at the vet, and it takes a note so the office knows why. Complete finishes the job.

Between Start and Complete, the groomer works the grooming checklist for each pet, ticks the add-ons and can leave a note for the owner. The checklist is covered in its own guide: The Grooming Checklist and the Grooming Report: What Got Done for Every Pet.

Before-and-After Photos

Photos taken in the app stay with the job. A before photo of a matted coat and an after photo of the finished cut are useful for the owner, for the next groomer who wants to match the style, and for the day someone says the ears were not done.

Automatic Texts

The groomer does not have to text the owner. “On the way” and “arrived” texts go out automatically as the day moves, based on the alerts the owner picked. If the owner replies, the reply goes to the office through two-way texting, not to the groomer's personal phone.

Paid When You Tap Complete

Complete creates the invoice. If the customer has a card on file, it can be charged right then. The owner sees the paid invoice in the customer app and can leave a tip. For the groomer, that means no fumbling with payment at the door, and for the business it means fewer open invoices at the end of the week.

Time Clock and Van GPS

The time clock is on the same phone. Groomers and bathers clock in and out there, so hours are recorded as they happen instead of guessed at on Friday. While the groomer works the route, the van's GPS location shows on the office map, so the office can tell a caller roughly when the van will get to them.

Built for a Groomer's Hands

Big buttons, short cards and as few taps as possible. A groomer should be able to check the next card, tap navigation and drive, then tap Start, Complete and move on. The less time the phone takes, the more time goes to the dogs.

If you groom solo, you are the groomer and the office at once. The same app runs your day, and the office screens are there when you sit down in the evening. For more on running everything yourself, read The Solo Mobile Groomer: Grooming, Booking and Billing From One Van. For the full set of guides, go back to the pet grooming software page.