PetGroomBossPro Blog — Repeat Appointments

Stopping a Recurring Grooming Series When a Client Moves or Quits

Not every repeat client stays forever. People move across the country. Budgets get tight. A beloved old dog passes away. When a repeat client is done, the most important thing is that their visits stop showing up. Stopping a series in PetGroomBossPro takes care of that while keeping everything you have already done for them.

When to Stop a Series

The opposite job, keeping a series going, is covered in Extending a Recurring Grooming Series Before It Runs Out. Stopping is for when the arrangement is over, or about to change completely. Common reasons:

• The client is moving out of your service area.
• The client has decided to stop regular grooming.
• The client's only pet has passed away.
• You and the client agreed on a new frequency, and you will add a fresh series.
• A long break, like a season away, where there is no point holding the slot.

How to Stop

Open the Recurring Clients list, find the client's series and stop it. The upcoming visits that were waiting on Pending Jobs come off, so they will not appear on tomorrow's tab, will not get confirmed by accident and will not trigger reminders to a customer who is no longer expecting you.

The series leaves the Recurring Clients list, which keeps that list an honest picture of who is actually on a slot today.

What Stays

Stopping a series is not deleting a client. Everything that already happened stays:

• The client and address stay in your clients, with their tags and custom fields.
• Past visits stay, with the pets, cut notes, grooming checklist and photos from each one.
• Invoices and payments stay, including tips, so your reports and tax records are complete.

That matters when a client comes back. Plenty of people who move away move back, and plenty who pause for money reasons return when things settle. When they call, their pets and cut notes are still there, and the next visit fills in from the last one.

If the client has a card on file, think about what should happen with it, too. A client leaving the area may ask you to remove it; they can also update or manage their card in the customer app. Any open invoice should be settled before you say goodbye, and the past-due follow-up will remind them if one is outstanding.

Stopping Versus a One-Off Skip

Do not stop a series for a short absence. If a client will miss one visit, skip or move that single visit and leave the series running. Stopping is for when you do not expect the slot to be used for a while. The middle ground, vacations, is covered in Vacations and Repeat Grooming: Skip, Reschedule or Stop.

A good rule of thumb: if you would rather give the slot to someone else in the meantime, stop the series. If you want to hold it, skip or move the visits instead.

Changing Frequency by Stopping and Restarting

One of the most common reasons to stop a series is not a goodbye at all. When a client moves from every 8 weeks to every 6, or from every 4 to every 6, the cleanest way is to stop the current series and add a new one at the new frequency on the same slot.

Start the new series where the next visit would have been, so there is no long gap or double booking. The pets and cut notes carry over, so the groomer will not notice anything except the new rhythm.

Freeing the Slot

Once a series is stopped, its slot is open. That is a chance to fill it. Look at Pending Jobs and the No Day tab for a new request in the same area, or think about a one-time customer nearby who might want a repeat slot. A stopped series in a busy neighborhood is often the easiest slot you will fill all month. More in Filling a Grooming Van's Week With Recurring Slots.

A Kind Goodbye

When a client leaves because a pet has died, a short, kind text from the office goes a long way. Stopping the series right away also matters here: the last thing a grieving owner needs is a night-before reminder for a dog that is gone. Make stopping the series part of the same moment you hear the news.

For the rest of the repeat tools, from fixed slots to auto-charge, go back to the recurring grooming software page.