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Everyone gets frustrated every once in a while. It is an unfortunate risk we take waking up every morning 🤣. The last thing that we want here at Paw of the Family is to be one of the causes of that frustration. In a service driven industry, no matter how hard we try, sometimes it is unavoidable. We do our absolute best to deliver the best customer service we can with every interaction, but sometimes, even with the best customer service, frustrations can arise from prices, booked schedules, missed appointments and associated charges, to having to shave a matted pup, to being unable to groom a pup when it is in the best interest of the dog. I want to talk about these, so that it can perhaps provide a lens into this side of the business. Each of these issues could be their own blog posts and perhaps they will in the future, but at least for now, I want to touch on these at least in a synopsis and without making the post too much to read.
First, I want to discuss price. We are not the most expensive, and we are not the cheapest. We looked at the industry and other reputable salons and we actually did our best to stay competitive by creating entire grooming packages, instead of making you pay for each and every item individually. This does 2 things:
1. While on the surface we may appear more expensive, however, if you add all the items we are including from other salons, we are actually cheaper. You may say that you do not want everything, but that leads us to point 2.
2. We 100% believe in providing the best for your dog, and we stand by that and mean it. By including everything in packages and not allowing 1 off services, we are actually ensuring that your pup gets their teeth brushed, that they get that de-shed to alleviate a compacted coat, and they get their ears cleaned/plucked. Your dogs should have their teeth brushed daily, or given specific chews to clean their teeth. Just like we need to care for ourselves, that is what grooming should be for your pup.
Second, lets talk about booked schedules. I know this one can be particularly frustrating. We 100% do our best to provide multiple options for sizes of pets for each day. Fortunately, and frustratingly 😆, our groomer is very good and the folks that come to her keep coming back (Joking, please keep coming back!). What this means is that typically, folks set up their next appointments before they even leave the store, so she stays pretty booked out at least a few weeks. We offer that to our current customers because we want to show the same loyalty back to them that they do for us. There is nothing more frustrating than being loyal to a particular business, but they make it difficult for you every time you try to utilize them. We want to keep growing and building and gaining new customers 10000000%, but we also don't want to leave our current and loyal customers out hanging in the wind. So we must put limits on the number of new customers we take in so that we can continue servicing and taking care of those who have taken care of us. We are actively working on a solution for this. We are underway on an expansion that will give us more room and allow us to hire more groomers!
Third, Missed appointments and associated charges. Again, this one can be particularly frustrating. I have missed doctors appointments and had to pay missed fees just to name one example. There is a reason behind it and it's not because the particular business is money hungry. I can speak to ours and why we have a late cancellation or missed appointment fee. A groomer only has so much capacity to groom X amount of dogs in a given day. We also do not believe in overbooking or overpacking the schedule. That can lead to rushed jobs, injuries, and unsafe work environments for both our groomer and your pup. So since we do not overpack the schedule, 1 missed appointment is a pretty big hit for a groomer's paycheck. This is also a common occurrence as everyone has a busy life and schedule, it happens 100% and there is no blame, anger, or any bad will whatsoever. We do charge a $35 fee for missed or late cancels, not out of anger or retribution, but to ensure that the groomer can still make a healthy paycheck for their mortgage, bills, families, etc... While some salons still charge the entire cost of the groom, we don't believe in that, things happen! We believe $35 is fair since it is cheaper than our smallest package. While 1 appointment may be thought to not be a big deal, the reality is that this can happen a minimum of at least 5 times or more a week in our experience. We try to help with easily accessible communication methods, clear policies, online ways to modify/cancel your booking ahead of time, reminder emails and texts, but again, things happen!
Fourth, shaving your pup or being unable to groom them. We actually have 3 negative google reviews regarding this one. We want to provide the best care possible for your dog. Sometimes that care can mean that we are not performing the services. It could mean that we will recommend you to a specialist such as a vet groomer or a behavioristic groomer. We are not a money hungry business and will put your pup first every time.
I would like to share an example with you all. Recently, we have recommended a very matted pup to the vet groomer. Against our recommendation, the parent went to another salon not equipped to handle that situation. The pup ended up at the vet with an extensive bill and bleeding/suffering that lasted longer then it needed to. This is NOT the groomers fault. This would happen anywhere, including the vet's office. Only, at the vet, they can treat immediately stopping excess suffering to the pet.
Well, that about sums it up! These are the 4 to 5 items that we feel can be the most frustrating for our customers. If you made it this far, thank you for reading! I hope that the tone and voice of this blog post was communicated well enough to not be received as a complaining piece, but more of a glass lens into the reasoning and choices that are made. We live here, we are your neighbors and friends, and we want to be seen as the best business with the best customer service. We strive to do this, even when things don't work out as good as we hope each interaction can be. If you have been frustrated with us, I hope this article helps to show that the choices were from a good place, and if you have not been frustrated with us, I hope you never will be and every interaction is the best one you have ever had.
Written by Chelsea and Ryan at Paw of the Family
