PetGroomBossPro Blog — Cat Grooming

The Grooming Report for Cat Owners: What They Get After the Visit

Cat owners often are not watching the groom. The cat goes out to the van in a carrier and comes back an hour later looking different. Many owners want to know what happened in between: what was done, whether there were mats, whether the nails went fine. A short written report answers those questions before they are asked.

In PetGroomBossPro, that is the Grooming Report.

Built From the Checklist

The report comes straight from the per-pet checklist covered in The Grooming Checklist for a Cat: Working Each Line on the Groomer App. The groomer ticks what was done for each pet, adds the add-ons and writes a note for the customer. The office sees all of that on the job and can print a Grooming Report for the owner.

Nobody types up a separate summary. If the checklist was worked honestly, the report is already written.

What the Report Shows

The Grooming Report is a plain, printed summary of the visit for the customer. For a cat, it covers:

• The pet. The cat's name, so a home with several pets gets each one clearly.
• What was done. The checklist lines the groomer ticked, such as brushed out / de-matted, sanitary trim, nails and final brush-out.
• Add-ons. Extras like De-Matting, Ear Cleaning or Nail Grinding.
• The groomer's note. “Matting behind the ears is coming back,” or “Mochi was a star today.”

Being honest about what it is not: the Grooming Report is not a photo report card, and it is not sent as an automatic text with pictures. It is a printed report from the office. Before and after photos are saved with the job in the office, separately.

How Groomers Use It With Cat Owners

Different shops use the report differently. A few common ways:

• Hand it over next time. Print the report in the office after the visit and have the groomer hand it to the owner at the next appointment.
• Send it with the invoice. Some offices print reports for clients who ask for them and include them with paper statements, such as monthly account billing.
• Keep it for questions. When an owner calls asking whether the sanitary trim was done, the office prints or reads the report from the job.

Pick the approach that matches your workflow. The report is there whenever the office needs it.

Why Cat Owners Like a Written Record

Many cat owners are careful about who handles their cat. A written record of what was done, in the same format every visit, builds trust in a way a quick chat at the door often does not. It also gives the owner something to look back on: if the report says “matting behind the ears is coming back” two visits in a row, the conversation about a shorter schedule practically starts itself.

That does not mean the report should push. The customer note is best kept factual and friendly. Writing it well is the subject of the next article, Writing the Note for the Cat Owner at the End of Every Groom.

Reports at Monthly Accounts

Some mobile groomers do pet days at senior living communities or apartment communities, where several residents' cats and dogs are groomed on the same visit. Those accounts can be set to Monthly billing, so the community gets one statement each month covering every visit.

The Grooming Report is per job, so each resident's pets still get their own report. That is useful when the person paying is the community and the person who wants to know what happened is the resident.

Keep the Checklist Honest

The report is only as good as the checklist behind it. If the groomer ticks everything whether it happened or not, the report says the cat had a bath that it never had, and the owner may notice. Make “tick what was done, nothing else” a rule from day one, and the reports take care of themselves.

Watch the customer note, too. It goes to the owner, so keep it free of shorthand meant for groomers and free of anything that reads like a diagnosis.

A short report also helps new staff. An office person who joined last month can read last visit's report for a cat and answer the owner's question on the phone with confidence, without tracking down the groomer between stops.

A Report That Writes Itself

The Grooming Report turns the checklist your groomer already works into something the cat owner can hold. For how it fits with the rest of cat grooming in PetGroomBossPro, see the cat grooming software page.