PetGroomBossPro Blog — Online Booking & Quotes

Puppy Intro Grooms on the Booking Page: Pricing and Booking a Puppy's First Visit

A puppy intro groom is often the start of a very long client relationship. The owner is new, the puppy is new, and both are looking for someone they trust. Putting a puppy intro on your booking page makes it easy for new owners to find you at exactly the moment they start looking.

A Service of Its Own

Cat services were covered in Cats on the Booking Page: Letting Customers Book Cat Grooms and Lion Cuts Online. Puppies work the same way: give them their own service on the booking page with its own base price.

Call it something an owner would search for, such as “Puppy Intro Groom” or “Puppy's First Groom.” Describe what it includes on your website in your own words. What goes into the visit is your call as the groomer; this article is only about putting it on the booking page and getting it scheduled.

Pricing a Puppy Intro

Many groomers price the puppy intro below their full groom, since it is often shorter. Others price it the same and treat the extra patience as part of the value. Either way, a few settings matter:

• Base price. Set the puppy intro base where it makes sense for your business.
• Size add-on. Size add-ons apply per pet across services. A Golden Retriever puppy and a Maltese puppy may both be Small today. That is fine; the price reflects the puppy today, not the dog next year.
• Minimum. If your puppy intro price is below your minimum, the booking will show the minimum. Set the minimum with that in mind, or price the intro at or above it.
• Add-ons. Decide which add-ons make sense to show. A puppy booking with a long list of extras ticked is worth a quick conversation.

Should a Puppy Intro Offer a Frequency Choice?

The booking page lets the customer pick how often. For a puppy intro, many groomers want the first visit booked first, then talk about a schedule. Others offer a repeat schedule on the puppy service from the start so the owner books a few short visits in a row.

Both work in PetGroomBossPro. If a customer picks a repeat frequency on the puppy intro, you can set them up with Add Recurring Grooming once you have confirmed the time. If they pick one time, book the one visit and talk about a schedule after.

The Confirmation Call Matters More Here

A puppy request is a booking request like any other. It lands in Leads with the pet's name, breed and size, the service and the price, and you get an email. You confirm the time before it is booked.

With puppy owners, that call is a chance to set expectations and answer their questions about how the visit works with a van at the house. If they ask about vaccinations or anything medical, point them to their vet. You can record the rabies due date on the pet when they give it to you; the groomer types it in, there is no upload.

Many puppy owners prefer a quieter time of day for a first visit. The preferred day and time of day on the request is a good starting point.

The Puppy on the Job

Once booked, the puppy is saved on the job with its name, Dog, breed, size, coat, rabies due date and a notes line. For a puppy, that notes line is where the groomer writes what they want the next groomer to know: what the puppy was fine with, what made it nervous, how long the visit took.

The groomer app shows the puppy on the appointment card with those notes. The grooming checklist runs for the puppy like any other pet, and the note for the customer ends up on the printable Grooming Report. New owners tend to appreciate a written summary.

Growing Into a Regular Groom

The real value of a puppy intro is what comes next. As the puppy grows, it moves from the puppy intro to a bath & brush or full groom, and from Small to whatever size it ends up.

Because the next visit fills in from the last one, you only change what changes. Update the size when the puppy grows. Change the service when it moves to a full groom. If the client is on a schedule, the Recurring Clients list lets you change the price for upcoming visits to match the new service.

Some groomers think of the booking page as the front door and the repeat schedule as the house. The puppy intro is often the first step through both. The full process of setting up a schedule is in Turning a First Online Booking Into a Repeat Grooming Client.

Let New Owners Know

New puppy owners search a lot. Make sure your website and your Google Business Profile mention puppy intro grooms, and put the Book Now link right next to the mention. For everything else about booking and quoting, see the pet grooming booking software page.