🐾Savvy, Barkley, Topline, Book Your Pet, Shake Your Tail to name a few. 🐾
Why an online appointment and business management system will be the best tool you invest in this year
An online appointment and business management system (sometimes called a business management system or customer relationship management system – CRM for short) is an invaluable tool to help you run your business smoothly. Building a business is not easy and finding customers can be even harder, once you find them you want to establish and maintain a good relationship with them.
An online appointment and business management system will help you do this!
What an online system can do for you
As a busy groomer, you have your hands full of wet dogs, dog hairs, clippers to name a few and can’t dash off to answer that ringing phone or answer messages coming through different places. If only you could have a link on your website or Facebook page that would allow your customers to book themselves in, it would be so much easier! Well, you can, as that is what these systems allow you to do 😊
You will have all your client’s information in one place, no more looking through diaries for info from past appointments or trying to find that post it note you scribbled their details on while you were up to your elbows in shampoo. You can collect all the info you need about the dog, even their birthday so you can send a little card. You can store all their medical history, which shampoo you used, blade and scissor type and so much more.
Another key benefit is that all your customers’ past appointments are stored on their record so you can see if they haven’t turned up or cancelled at the last minute, allowing you to decide if they need to pay a higher deposit for example.
Keeping your customers happy and your business compliant
An online system helps keep your customers happy, as they are not waiting for hours to get through to you. We all live busy lives and being able to book online is quick and easy for them. The system will also send reminders to your customers which cuts down the number of no shows.
If you only have paper records, something else you need to think about is GDPR. Keeping GDPR compliant can be difficult and costly if you accidently break the rules. Your online system is fully GDPR compliant as your customers give their permission when registering their details for you to store the information and use it for contacting them and marketing. This builds their trust in you as they know their personal information is going to be kept securely.
An overview of your online appointment and business management system
There are many options available at different prices, so it does depend what system you choose but as a general rule, they will allow you to:
🐾Keep track of all your appointments so you can clearly see what you have on for the day
🐾Accept bookings online, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and book in repeat appointments cutting down the time you need to be answering messages
🐾Send out forms and contracts to customers, so you can gather all the information you need before the appointment
🐾Send out appointment reminders, reducing no shows and meaning you don’t have to worry about remembering to send them manually
🐾Access all your customer information, grooming notes, and appointment history in one place
🐾Communicate with your customers via text message or email, so they can keep up to date with new services and exclusive offers
🐾Link to payment systems and sometimes take deposits within the platform itself.
Online appointment and business management systems allow you to work smarter not harder, cutting down your admin and giving you more time to groom! 🐾🐶
Watch out for the next blog where I dive into the different systems available.
Paws Up
If you’re thinking, ‘Heck yes, I want this’, but don’t know how to set one up or don’t have the time, get in touch and I’ll do it for you. I offer various packages depending what stage you’re at in your grooming business.
