PetGroomBossPro Blog — Repeat Appointments

Two Vans, One Book of Repeat Clients: Splitting Recurring Grooming Across Vans

The day a mobile groomer adds a second van is a big one. More capacity, more clients, maybe a first hire. It is also the day a book of repeat clients that lived in one person's head has to be split in two. In PetGroomBossPro, every repeat client is already on a slot with a van, so splitting the book is a matter of deciding who moves and then changing the van on their series.

Vans in PetGroomBossPro

The online booking page, covered in Repeat Schedules From the Online Booking Page: Frequency Discounts and Requests, is often what fills a first van to the point where a second one makes sense.

In the software, each van is a “team.” You set up employees with their own PINs and assign them to vans. A groomer and a bather can share a van. Each repeat series belongs to a van, so its visits show on that van's days and on that van's groomer's phone.

Decide How to Split

Before touching any series, decide how the two vans will divide the work. Common ways to split:

• By area. Van 1 takes the north and west, Van 2 takes the south and east. This usually makes the tightest routes.
• By day. Both vans cover the whole area, but on different weekdays.
• By type of work. One van focuses on big doodle and double-coat grooms, the other on bath & brush, small dogs and cats.
• By groomer. The owner keeps their long-time regulars, and the new groomer takes the rest.

The Pending Jobs map helps here. Look at where each weekday's repeat clients sit around town and you will often see a natural line.

Move the Series

Once you know who moves, open each moving client on the Recurring Clients list and change the van for upcoming visits. If the split is by day too, change the day and time at the same time. Every upcoming visit follows; past visits stay with the van that did them.

The full details of slot changes are in Changing a Repeat Grooming Client's Day, Time or Van Going Forward. It is worth doing this in one sitting, with Pending Jobs open, so you can see each van's days fill as you go.

The Pets and Notes Move With Them

This is where having everything on the client pays off. When a client moves to Van 2, the new groomer sees the same card the old groomer did: each pet's name, breed, size, coat and rabies due date, the cut notes like “#7 blade body, teddy bear face,” behavior notes like “muzzle for nails,” the add-ons for that visit, van notes like where to park and where the outlet is, and past notes from earlier visits.

A new groomer does not need a week of ride-alongs to learn the clients. The book teaches them. That is a big part of what makes a second van workable for a small business.

Tell the Clients

A client moving to a new groomer deserves a heads-up. A short text from the office works: who their new groomer is, and whether their day or time is changing. If only the van changes and the slot stays the same, say so plainly, since the day and time are what the client plans around.

The automatic texts take it from there. Their reminders use the right day and time, and the on-the-way and arrived texts come from the new groomer's phone as they work the route.

Running Two Vans Day to Day

With two vans, the day-before routine is the same, just with more on the screen. Open tomorrow on Pending Jobs, handle any exceptions, confirm the repeat visits with one click, and slot new requests into whichever van is nearby. On the Scheduled list, filter by van and route each one, Closest First or Furthest First from the shop, or by hand around set times.

During the day, van GPS shows both vans on the office map. If one van finishes early or a groomer is out, the office can move a visit to the other van for the day without touching the series.

Plans for Growing Teams

PetGroomBossPro plans are Start at $59, Pro at $89 and Crew at $199 per month, with a 14-day free trial and no credit card. Compare what each includes on the pricing page before adding vans.

For the rest of the repeat tools, head back to the recurring grooming software page.