PetGroomBossPro Blog — Repeat Appointments

Changing Prices on Upcoming Repeat Grooming Visits Without Rebooking Anyone

Shampoo goes up. Fuel goes up. Your skills go up. Sooner or later every mobile groomer raises prices, and the hard part is rarely the decision. It is the admin: finding every repeat client, changing every future appointment, and making sure nobody gets charged the wrong amount. In PetGroomBossPro that is a short job, and nobody has to be rebooked.

Two Places Prices Live

Changing a client's slot is covered in Changing a Repeat Grooming Client's Day, Time or Van Going Forward. Price changes work the same way, but there are two places to think about.

• Your service list. This is where your standard prices live: a $85 full groom for a small dog, +$30 for a large dog, a $95 cat groom, $15 teeth brushing, $20 nail trim, or whatever you charge. New bookings start from here.
• Each repeat client's series. When you booked the client, the series took a price from your list and add-ons, adjusted if you agreed on something different. Upcoming visits carry that price.

Updating the service list alone changes what new bookings start from. To change what existing repeat clients pay, you update their series.

Step 1: Update the Service List

Start with your service list and add-on prices, so every new client, estimate and booking-page quote uses the new numbers. If you use the online booking page, update the base prices per service, the price add-on per size, the minimum and any frequency discounts while you are there, so a customer requesting service sees the right price instantly.

Step 2: Change the Price on Upcoming Visits

Next, open the Recurring Clients list. For each series that should move to the new price, change the price for upcoming visits. Every future visit in that series picks up the new price; visits already groomed and invoiced stay exactly as they were.

You are not stopping series, re-adding clients or rebuilding anyone's slot. The day, time, van, frequency, pets and cut notes all stay. Only the price changes.

Who Gets the New Price, and When

Not every repeat client has to change on the same day. Some groomers move everyone at once on a set date. Others keep long-time clients on their old price for a while, or only raise the price on large-dog or heavily matted grooms. Because the price lives on each series, you can do whichever fits your business:

• Change every series for visits after a set date.
• Change only the series for one service, such as full grooms.
• Leave certain clients alone and revisit them later.

The Recurring Clients list makes it easy to see who is on what, so nobody slips through on an old price by accident.

Whatever you decide, write it down in one place. A short note in the client's custom fields or tags, like “kept on old price through spring,” helps whoever does the next price review understand why one client pays a little less than the rest.

Telling Repeat Clients

Repeat clients deserve a heads-up before the new price shows on an invoice. Two-way texting and email from the office let you send a short note: what is changing, when, and a thank-you for being a regular. Send it a few weeks before the first visit at the new price so nobody is surprised when the card on file is charged.

If a client has questions, they can reply to that text and the conversation stays with the office, not on a groomer's personal phone.

Invoices and Auto-Charge

When the groomer taps Complete on a visit, the invoice is created with that visit's price, line items and sales tax, and the card on file can be charged. So once the series price is updated, the very next completed visit invoices at the new amount, with no one in the office touching it.

That is one more reason to update series prices before the change date rather than after. A price changed on the series is a price that bills correctly on its own. The billing side is covered in Auto-Charging Repeat Grooming Clients With a Card on File.

Adding a Regular Add-On

Not every price change is a raise. Sometimes a client decides they want teeth brushing or nail grinding every visit. Add the add-on to their upcoming visits and update the price on the series to match, so the groomer sees the add-on ticked on the card and the invoice includes it.

For the full set of repeat tools, from fixed slots to extending and stopping a series, go back to the recurring grooming software page.