Make the next grooming appointment the obvious choice
A dog that needs grooming every eight weeks needs grooming every eight weeks whether or not the owner books it in. Groomers do not really compete on winning new customers so much as on being the one the owner calls when the coat starts matting again.
Start your free trial →Stamped at pick-up, when they are already stopped
Collection is the one moment the owner is standing still, paying and talking to you. That is where the scan belongs — they point their phone at the screen while you fetch the dog, and it costs neither side any extra time or an extra conversation.
Turns an eight-week gap into a count
Owners do not track how long it has been; they notice the coat. A visible stamp count gives them a second, earlier signal that this is a recurring thing they are part-way through, which is usually enough to get the next appointment booked before they leave.
The reward can be small and still work
A free nail trim or a de-shed add-on costs you very little and is worth booking towards. You do not need to give away a full groom, because the owner is not price-shopping — they are deciding whether to sort it now or leave it another fortnight.
The appointment that does not get booked
Grooming demand is not really elastic — the dog needs doing. What is elastic is when, and by whom. An owner who leaves the salon without a next appointment will get round to it eventually, and somewhere between “eventually” and now is a window in which a friend recommends someone else, or a nearer salon has a slot.
Closing that window is the whole game, and it is mostly about giving the owner a reason to decide at the counter rather than later.
Why a stamp card fits grooming better than discounts
Discounting grooming is unattractive: your costs are almost entirely time, so a 20% discount is 20% off a fixed-capacity day you could have filled anyway. A stamp card is different in two useful ways.
- It only pays out to repeat customers. A one-off owner passing through on holiday never reaches the reward, and costs you nothing.
- The reward can be an add-on rather than a discount. A nail trim or an ear clean uses a few minutes of a slot you have already sold, rather than cutting the price of the groom itself.
Running it at the counter
One screen where owners collect. They scan, the stamp lands on their phone, and you can see the count too — which gives you a natural line at exactly the right moment: two more and the next nail trim is on us, shall I put you in for the eighth of next month?
If someone gets stamped in error there is a two-minute undo from either side, and you can credit a stamp manually from the dashboard for the owner whose phone was in the car.
Cost
$29/month flat per salon. Unlimited owners, unlimited stamps, no per-scan fee, and no hardware beyond a screen you already own.
The questions everyone asks
Should the card be per pet or per owner?
Per owner is simpler and it is what most groomers use, since the person scanning and paying is the owner regardless of how many dogs they bring. If you groom multiple pets for one household, a single card that fills faster is usually a feature rather than a problem.
My customers book by phone. Where does the scan fit?
At pick-up rather than at booking. The scan does not need to be attached to the appointment at all — it is a separate action at the counter when they collect, so how they booked makes no difference to how it works.
Do I need to buy a tablet for the counter?
No. The kiosk is a web page, so an old tablet, a laptop or a monitor you already have will do. Nothing gets printed, because each QR code expires after thirty seconds and a printed one would stop working straight away.
What if an owner misses a couple of cycles?
Their stamps are still there. The card is remembered on their phone for a year rather than expiring between visits, so an owner who skips a cycle over the summer comes back to the count they had rather than to nothing.
$29/month · 7-day free trial
Unlimited stamps · Unlimited customers · No per-scan fees
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