Quoting Grooming by Phone or Text Without Losing Track of the Price
No matter how good your booking page is, some customers will call or text first. They want to hear a voice, or they have a question the page does not answer, or they just prefer it. Quoting by phone or text is fine. The problem is when the quote lives only in your memory or in a text thread, and three weeks later nobody remembers what was promised.
The Booking Page Covers the Standard Cases
Many phone and text questions are the same ones the booking page already answers: what does a full groom cost, what about a big dog, how much for nails. The last article, Puppy Intro Grooms on the Booking Page: Pricing and Booking a Puppy's First Visit, showed how even puppy visits can be priced there.
So the first option for a phone or text inquiry is often the simplest: send the link.
Option One: Reply With the Book Now Link
When someone texts “How much to groom my lab?” the fastest helpful answer is the link to your Book Now page with one friendly line. “Thanks! You can see your exact price here and send a request; I'll confirm a time with you.”
This has real advantages over typing a price:
- The price comes from your settings, so it is consistent with every other quote.
- The customer adds every pet with breed and size, so you hear about the second dog now.
- The request lands in Leads with the price they saw, so it is written down.
- You get an email when they send it.
Some customers will not click. That is fine. Move to option two.
Option Two: Quote in the Conversation, Then Record It
If you quote a price by phone or text, make sure it ends up somewhere other than your head. Once the customer is a client, two-way texting with customers from the office keeps the conversation with them, so a price you texted is easy to find later.
When you book the visit, put the quoted price on the job. For a repeat client set up with Add Recurring Grooming, the price you enter is the price on every upcoming visit until you change it on the Recurring Clients list. That way the invoice matches what you said, visit after visit.
It also helps to use the pet's notes line for anything specific you agreed: “Quoted full groom including de-matting for first visit.” The next groomer and the office can see it.
Option Three: Send an Estimate
For anything beyond a standard groom, an estimate is the cleanest way to quote. A household of five, a dog that has not been groomed in a long time, a giant breed with a heavy coat, a community wanting a monthly pet day: these are jobs where you want the price written down and agreed to before the van arrives.
Estimates in PetGroomBossPro are built from your own service list. You send it, and the customer approves it online. Once approved, the estimate becomes the job, with the pet details carried over. If they go quiet, estimate follow-up emails nudge them. More detail is in Building Grooming Estimates From Your Service List.
What to Ask Before You Quote
Whether by phone or text, the same handful of questions decide a grooming price. The booking page asks most of them; on the phone, you ask them yourself:
- How many pets, and are they dogs or cats?
- Breed and size of each?
- Which service?
- How often would they like you to come?
- Any add-ons?
- When were they last groomed?
That last one is not on the booking page, which is why the note under the price exists. On the phone, you can just ask.
Keep Your Phone Quotes and Your Page in Sync
The biggest risk with phone quoting is drift. You quote one number on the phone and the booking page shows another. Customers notice, especially when friends compare notes. Use the same price list for both. If you find yourself regularly quoting something different from the page, change the page settings, not just your phone script.
When you raise prices, change them everywhere at once. That process is covered in the article on raising grooming prices later in this series.
Phone Quotes and the Rest of the Day
Every phone call during a groom is a dog on the table waiting. One reason groomers like the booking page is that it moves the quoting conversation out of the van. Many owner-operators let calls go to voicemail during grooms and reply with the link between stops. Whatever your approach, aim for one place where every quote ends up recorded.
For the rest of the booking and quoting tools, visit the pet grooming booking software page.
Every Quote Written Down
PetGroomBossPro gives you a Book Now link to text customers, two-way texting from the office, and estimates customers approve online.
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