PetGroomBossPro Blog — Scheduling & Routes

Night-Before Reminders for Mobile Grooming Appointments

A mobile grooming visit asks something of the customer: be home, or leave the pet where the groomer can reach them, and do not book the dog walker for the same hour. The simplest way to make that happen is to remind them the night before. PetGroomBossPro sends that reminder on its own for every customer who wants it.

The Reminder That Prevents Skips

The groomer's side of a missed visit is covered in Skipped Grooming Visits: What the Groomer Notes and What the Office Does Next. The night-before reminder works on the other side: it gives the owner one clear nudge while there is still time to plan around the visit, or to say they cannot make it.

Repeat clients on a six- or eight-week schedule are the ones who most need it. Their visits are far enough apart that the date slips out of mind, even though the slot has been the same for a year.

How Reminders Are Sent

Reminders and alerts go out automatically by text and email. Nobody in the office has to remember to send them, and they go to every customer on tomorrow's schedule who has the night-before alert on. The reminder carries the appointment time from the job, so a customer moved from 9:00 to 11:00 hears about 11:00.

Texts count toward your plan's monthly text allowance: 500, 1,000 or 2,000 texts sent and received on Start, Pro or Crew, in the US and Canada.

Customers Choose Their Alerts

Not every owner wants the same messages. In the customer app, each customer picks the alerts they want:

• Night before — a reminder of tomorrow's visit.
• When they're next — a heads-up that the groomer is headed their way.
• When the groomer arrives — a message when the van is at the curb.

Some owners want all three. Some who work from home only want the arrival text. Letting them choose means the messages that go out are ones they actually read.

Confirm Tomorrow Before the Reminders Go

Reminders are only as good as the schedule behind them. That is why the day-before routine matters: open the tomorrow tab on Pending Jobs, confirm the visits, place any new requests, and route each van. Once the day is confirmed, the reminders go out with the right times.

If a customer has asked to move and the change has not been made yet, the reminder will still say the old time. Making changes as the texts come in, rather than saving them up, keeps the reminders honest. Rescheduling is covered in Rescheduling a Grooming Appointment Without Wrecking the Rest of the Day.

What Customers Do With a Reminder

Most customers do nothing, which is the point; the visit just happens. But a reminder also opens a door. A customer who replies “Can we do 2:00 instead?” or “Forgot to say, we have a new puppy too” is replying to the office through two-way texting. The office can adjust tomorrow's visit, add the puppy to the job, or move the time, before the van leaves in the morning.

That is far better than finding out at the door. A new puppy added the night before can go on the job as a second pet with breed and size, and the groomer sees it on the card.

What to Put in Your Own Messages

The automatic reminder does the routine work. Your own texts from the office can do the rest. A few things owners appreciate:

• A clear time, or a short window if the day is running loose.
• Anything they need to do: “Please leave the side gate open for us” or “We'll need the outdoor outlet.”
• A friendly way to reach you if something changes.

Keep texts plain. Long messages full of special characters can cost more in text allowance, and short ones get read.

If you add your own message on top of the automatic reminder, keep it for the visits that really need it: a first visit, a changed time, or a stop where the owner must do something before the van arrives. Customers who get one clear reminder and the occasional useful note are more likely to read every message than customers who get several texts for every visit.

Reminders as Part of the Whole Day

The night-before reminder is the first of the messages a customer can get about a visit. The on-the-way and arrived texts follow on grooming day, and the live map in the customer app fills in the rest. Together they mean the owner is rarely surprised by the van. The next article covers the day-of texts: On-the-Way and Arrived Texts From the Grooming Van. For every scheduling and reminder feature in one place, see the mobile grooming scheduling software page.