PetGroomBossPro Blog — Cat Grooming

Confirming Repeat Cat Visits on Pending Jobs the Day Before

A repeat schedule is only as good as the day-before check. The cat that was booked every 8 weeks at 10:30 on Tuesdays might have a sick owner, a new address or a vacation nobody mentioned. Catching that the afternoon before is a phone call. Catching it at the door is a wasted stop.

In PetGroomBossPro, that check happens on Pending Jobs.

Where the Repeat Visits Wait

In Repeat Cat Appointments Every 6 or 8 Weeks With Add Recurring Grooming, every visit in a cat's series was written up front. Those visits do not go straight onto the schedule. Each one waits on Pending Jobs with its planned day, time and van until the office confirms it.

Pending Jobs is a map and a list of planned repeat visits and new requests. It has day tabs, with tomorrow first, because the office usually schedules the day before. There is also a “No Day” tab for new requests that have not been given a day yet.

The Day-Before Routine

A typical afternoon in the office looks like this:

• Open Pending Jobs on tomorrow's tab. Every repeat visit planned for tomorrow is there on the map and in the list, cats and dogs together.
• Look over the cats. Check each cat's notes. Is a two-person cat on the van that will have two people tomorrow?
• Handle anything that changed. If an owner texted to move, move that visit.
• Confirm. One click keeps each visit's planned day, time and van and puts them on the schedule.

Once confirmed, the visits are on the Scheduled list for tomorrow, in the van's route, and on the groomer's phone in the morning.

Why One Click Matters

Most repeat visits do not change. A cat booked at Tuesday 10:30 in Van 1 is still Tuesday 10:30 in Van 1. The one click that keeps each visit's planned day, time and van means the office does not re-enter what it already knows. The time goes into the exceptions, which is where it should go.

For cat owners, that consistency is the point. The same time every visit is what lets them plan to be home with the cat ready.

Using the Map

The Pending Jobs map shows where tomorrow's visits are. For a mixed day with cats at set times and dogs in between, the map helps the office see whether the route makes sense. If a new cat request in the “No Day” tab is two streets from one of tomorrow's stops, it may be worth a text to see whether the owner can take tomorrow.

Once the day is confirmed, the Scheduled list can auto-route Closest First or Furthest First from the shop, or you can set the order by hand. Set times show on every card, so you can check that the order still fits the times you promised cat owners.

The Night-Before Reminder

Owners who chose the night-before alert get a reminder by text or email. For cat owners, that reminder is often what gets the carrier out of the closet. If an owner replies that tomorrow does not work, the reply comes into the office through two-way texting, and the office can move the visit before the van leaves. Reminders and replies are covered in Texts to Cat Owners: Night-Before, On-the-Way and Arrived Alerts and Two-Way Texting With Cat Owners From the Office.

What Pending Jobs Does Not Do

To be clear about the edges: Pending Jobs does not confirm visits on its own, does not text owners to ask whether they still want the visit, and does not fill a cancelled slot from a waitlist. A person looks at tomorrow and confirms it. For a small mobile grooming business, that is usually a few minutes in the afternoon, and it is the step that keeps a long repeat schedule honest.

Changes Beyond One Visit

If what changed is bigger than one visit, such as the owner wanting every visit moved to Thursdays, change it from the Recurring Clients list rather than visit by visit. Changes there apply to the upcoming visits in the series. Moving a cat to the two-person van for good is the same kind of change.

A Few Minutes That Save a Wasted Stop

Every repeat cat visit waits on Pending Jobs until someone has looked at it. That day-before look is the step that catches the vacation, the new address and the van mix-up before they cost you a stop. For how this fits with the rest of cat grooming in PetGroomBossPro, see the cat grooming software page.