Each year, the AKC releases its list of top 10 most popular breeds. Many of the breeds don’t have a lot of coat. How does a grooming business proactively maintain its volume when haircut dogs are less popular? You build your bath and brush business!
Bath and brush dogs can have a huge impact on your bottom line, with enormous potential forrevenue generation. To encourage pet parents to come in, ultimately you need to provide a better service than what someone at home or using a self-wash can.
When you're dealing with a short and tight-coated dogs, you're not going to see that big transformation that you see when you're dealing with a haircut type dog. But there’s subtle differences that you can do to make that client go, "Wow. That was the best he's looked. It's the best he's smelled. It's the best he's felt." Those are the types of things that you're going for.
Success is in the Details
- Pay attention to details and get them squeaky, squeaky clean. Use a great shampoo that has a nice fragrance to it, not overly heavy, but fragrance so that when that dog goes home, they know it's clean. It smells good. It smells fresh, and when you pull that dog out of the tub, you want it to be squeaky clean, whether it’s the really tight-coated breeds, a lab, or the French bulldogs.
- Make sure those ears are super clean.
- Not only trim nails, but consider utilizing a Dremel to file those nails so that they're nice and smooth and they don't have sharp edges on them.
- Offer breath freshener or teeth brushing to enhance the client's experience with their dog at home. It's an easy upsell, and it's something that generally clients don't do for themselves at home with their dog.
- Bows on collars, bandanas, collar frills and nail polish all add to the wow factor.
Solve Client Problems with Shed Control Service
Now, the other thing to look at is with the Shepherds and the Goldens and any breed that has got that type of coat is to provide a shed control program. I live with Maremma sheepdogs. Maremma sheepdogs are like oversized white golden retrievers, and they shed. When we instituted a shed control program at our salon, the results were amazing.
What you want to do is bring those bath and brush dogs in on a really regular basis. Create a packaged service based on frequency. Ideally, I love to see them every two or three weeks. That really helps keep the shedding under control. It keeps the film, the dirt on their coat down, and it keeps them smelling great. Encourage those customers to come in on a really regular basis and provide those services that they are not going to do themselves. You are going to be able to do such a better job, and it goes without saying too, you've got the high velocity dryer. They don't, and we all know how important that tool is.
Your High Velocity Dryer is Your Secret Weapon
Whether you're dealing with a tight-coated dog, a short-coated dog, or a bath and brush type dog like the Shepherd or the Golden retriever, the high velocity dryer and technique mastery is going to be absolutely critical to doing a really knockout job on those dogs. Done right, the resultingcoat should be glossy and float freely as the dog moves. There should be an irresistible desire to reach down and bury your hands in a freshly groomed pet.
My goal when a customer brings their dog in is to treat it with respect and love and compassion. When that client picks up their dog, what I aim for is to see a smile because the dog looks amazing.
Those bath and brush dogs are some of the easiest dogs that you're going to do, but they really have a huge impact on your bottom line. And that's what we're in business for. We are in business to provide a service for our customers that they're going to appreciate. So pay attention to the details and get those bath and brush dogs coming back in on a regular basis.
A bigger bath business means increased profitability for the company. How? Build a team of Groom Techs who can perform all the necessary grooming steps for bath breeds, such as trimming feet, sanitary trims, and even light furnishings trimming. That’s right. You don’t need a fully skilled Groomer to perform these simple grooming tasks. Using your Groomers for bath appointments can hijack slots for haircuts, and worse, giving Groomers baths underutilizes Professional Groomer's skills. And Groomer compensation is much higher than Groom Techs. Easier appointments, a new workforce of Groom Techs, opening up more haircut slots, and less overall compensation all equal more business and more profit! Check out Paragon’s Level One - Groom Tech training to start building your team.
Happy trimming!
Melissa
Want to develop a high-demand Shed Control service? Add Groom Techs to your team through industry-leading training at ParagonPetSchool.com. To further hone skills, visit Learn2GroomDogs.com to join a community of groomers and stream more than 1,200 video Groominars™ designed for every level of groomer.
