PetGroomBossPro Blog — Cat Grooming

Van Notes at Cat Homes: Parking, Outlets and the Way to the Door

A cat appointment often starts and ends with a walk: from the van to the door, through the house to wherever the cat is, and back out to the van. If the groomer has to circle the block for parking, hunt for the building code or find out the outlet is on the wrong side of the driveway, that walk gets longer and the cat waits.

Van notes in PetGroomBossPro keep that information on the stop.

Not the Pet Notes, the Van Notes

Running a Cat-Only Mobile Grooming Business on PetGroomBossPro looked at the business as a whole. This article goes back to a single stop and the notes that are about the place rather than the cat.

PetGroomBossPro keeps two kinds of notes for a visit. Each pet has its own notes line for the cut and behavior. The job also has van notes: where to park, the gate code, and the outlet or water hookup. Both show on the groomer's card, and both are there again on the next visit.

Parking

Where the van goes matters more for mobile grooming than for most field work, because the van is the workspace. Good parking notes say exactly where:

• “Park in the driveway, left side, close to the garage.”
• “Street parking only. Best spot is across from the mailbox.”
• “Apartment: use the visitor spots by building C, not the fire lane.”

For a cat appointment, a short walk from the van to the door can make the handoff easier for everyone. If a closer spot is possible, say so in the note.

Gate and Building Codes

Many cat owners live in apartments, condos and gated neighborhoods. A code in the van notes saves a call to the owner from the front gate:

• “Community gate: vendor code at the Oak St entrance.”
• “Buzz unit 214. Elevator on the right.”
• “Side gate latch is on the inside, reach over the top.”

When a code changes, update it once on the visit, and the next visit fills in from there.

Outlet and Water Hookup

Some vans run on their own power and water. Others plug in or hook up at the house. If yours does, the van notes are the place for it:

• “Outlet on the garage wall, inside. Owner leaves the garage open.”
• “No outside outlet. Run on the generator.”
• “Spigot on the left side of the house.”

For apartments where there is no hookup at all, a note saying so stops the next groomer from looking.

The Way to the Cat

Cat homes add one more thing worth writing: how to get to the cat, or how the cat gets to you. These can go in the van notes if they are about the house, or the pet notes if they are about the cat:

• “Owner brings the carrier out to the van.” (van notes)
• “Ring the side door bell, front bell is broken.” (van notes)
• “Hides under the guest bed. Owner to have her in the carrier.” (pet notes)

A simple rule: if a new cat moved into the same house, would the note still apply? If yes, it is a van note. If no, it is a pet note. Pet notes are covered in Behavior Notes for Cats: Saving the Lines That Make the Next Visit Go Better.

Notes Plus Navigation and Texts

Van notes work with the rest of the groomer app. The card has navigation to the address, the van notes say where to park, and the owner gets an on-the-way text and an arrived text automatically. Between them, the groomer arrives at the right spot and the owner knows to open the door.

The owner's arrived alert pairs well with apartment notes. When the text says the groomer is here, the owner can come down and let them in, or bring the carrier out.

Keeping Van Notes Short

Van notes are read in the driveway, often in a hurry. Short notes get read. Long ones get skimmed. Edit them rather than adding to them, and take out anything that is no longer true, such as a code from last year or an outlet that has since been replaced.

When a groomer notices that a van note is wrong, such as a new gate code or a moved outlet, the fastest fix is to tell the office the same day. The office updates the note on the next visit, and every visit after that fills in with the right information.

The Stop Before the Cat

Good van notes turn every cat stop into a quick arrival: right spot, right code, power if you need it and a clear way to the door. For the rest of how cats are handled in PetGroomBossPro, go back to the cat grooming software page.