PetGroomBossPro Blog — Scheduling & Routes

Repeat Grooming Appointments on the Schedule: Every 4, 6 or 8 Weeks in a Fixed Slot

The steadiest mobile grooming books are built on repeat clients who come back on a regular schedule, in the same slot, without anyone having to call and rebook. A repeat schedule turns a one-off groom into a standing appointment, and it turns the schedule from a puzzle you solve every week into one you mostly confirm.

What a Fixed Slot Means

Quick visits like nail trims can be repeat clients too, as described in Fitting Quick Nail Trims Into a Full Grooming Day. This article is about repeat schedules in general.

In PetGroomBossPro, Add Recurring Grooming books a client on the same weekday, time and van, at whatever frequency they choose:

• Every week, every 2 weeks or every 3 weeks
• Every 4 weeks, every 6 weeks or every 8 weeks
• Monthly
• Custom days, for anything that does not fit the list

There is one service list; the frequency is picked per client. A full groom is the same service whether one client books it every four weeks and another every eight.

Every Visit Written Up Front

When you set up a repeat schedule, every visit is written up front with its planned day, time and van. That has two big benefits. First, the slot is held. Nobody else gets booked into Tuesday at 8:30 on Van 1 every six weeks because the visits are already there. Second, you can look ahead weeks or months and see what the book really looks like.

Those visits wait on Pending Jobs until the office confirms them the day before. One click keeps each visit's planned day, time and van. The full routine is in Pending Jobs: Confirming Tomorrow's Grooming Visits the Day Before.

The Pets Come With the Slot

A repeat visit is not just a time. The next visit at that home fills in from the last one, so the pets, their breed, size, coat and cut notes, and the add-ons carry forward. The groomer sees “#7 blade body, teddy bear face” on the card every time without the office re-typing it.

When something changes — the owner wants a shorter cut, a new add-on, a second pet — update it on the visit and it carries forward from there.

Managing Repeat Clients

The Recurring Clients list is where you manage repeat schedules as a whole. From there you can:

• Change the van, day, time or price for upcoming visits in one step.
• Extend a schedule that is coming to the end of its written visits.
• Stop a schedule when a client moves away or stops grooming.

Changing a schedule here is better than editing visits one by one. Every upcoming visit moves together, and nothing is left behind on the old day.

Why Fixed Slots Make Routing Easier

Repeat clients in fixed slots give each van's days a stable shape. If you book repeat clients on a van's day when it is already in their neighborhood, that day stays grouped visit after visit. The route you build for a Tuesday this month will look a lot like the route next month, because most of the same clients are on it in the same order and at the same times.

Different frequencies do mean different mixes on different weeks. A Tuesday with every 4-week and every 8-week client on it is fuller than a Tuesday with just the 4-week ones. Looking ahead on the Scheduled list or Pending Jobs shows those heavy weeks before you get to them.

Offering a Repeat Schedule

The Book Now page asks new customers how often they want to be groomed, and you can offer an optional discount for repeat schedules. The customer sees the price for the frequency they pick, and the request comes into Leads with that choice. Once you confirm the first visit, set them up with Add Recurring Grooming so every visit after it is written up front.

For existing one-off customers, the end of a good groom is the natural time to ask: “Want me to put you down for the same time in six weeks?” The owner picks the frequency; the software holds the slot.

Not every customer wants a repeat schedule, and that is fine. One-off visits are booked like any other job and do not hold a slot. But when a one-off customer comes back a second and third time, it is usually worth asking whether they would like a regular slot, so they stop having to text you each time and you stop having to find room for them.

Billing for Repeat Clients

Repeat clients are a good fit for card on file. When the groomer completes a visit, the invoice is created and the card can be charged automatically. For monthly accounts — a senior living community or a doggy daycare — an account set to Monthly gets one statement each month covering every visit. For how repeat slots fit with the rest of the schedule, see the mobile grooming scheduling software page.