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My poor boss, Christmas at the grooming shop is heck.


imported_Cassie

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We are now working 6 days a week at the grooming shop. Normally my boss is only open 5 days a week. The Christmas rush is on, my boss has been booked up for Christmas a year ahead of time. Most of her regular clients book their next Christmas appointment during their last Christmas appointment.
Any way, there are a lot of clients who leave it

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Guest Anonymous

Oh god I feel for you all!

I don't think I could do that. I would have to put my foot down and tell them it's just for now because I'm so busy this other groomer is great!

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EEEK! Cassie, I can't imagine why she'd put herself through it, especially with her talent and experience! I only work a four day week (off Saturday, Sunday & Monday), but occasionally work the odd Monday to work in someone that I had to bump (like this past Thursday when I locked my keys in my car and had to wait half the day to be rescued... bumped my clients for that day to tomorrow :oops: ).

My clients consist of almost solely year round prebooking folks. I haven't taken new clients in a couple of years (except a very few referred by regulars) and won't be browbeat over the holi[u]daze[/u]. It started before Thanksgiving... the people calling and begging and pleading and negotiating and everything else to get an appointment and then getting ugly when they don't :o . If I had a dime for every person that got mad and said, "hmph! I'm in the wrong business! I should be grooming dogs if it's so great that you can turn down money!!" I'd be rich and could stop grooming altogether :roll: . It got so bad that I couldn't hardly work for the phone (I am a one person salon... bather, brusher, receptionist, groomer, it's all me). Voice mail has turned out to be the best invention ever. Not only am I able to weed out sales people (I do not answer out of town or blocked numbers), I've left a detailed message saying something to the effect of, "not accepting new clients at this time... due to my desire to provide personalized, one on one attention to each dog... blah blah... due to the overwhelming volume of calls and inquiries, I am able only to return the calls of established clients.... blah blah blah...". Much longer than I'd like (I know... I hate sitting through LONG messages to leave one), but it's certainly saving my sanity especially through the holidaze).

I used to let myself get beat down by demanding clients, but I'm trying to reduce stress in my life, not create it. I can't groom every dog in the area. I guess it'll work out well since your boss has been able to hire a new groomer. That's a great option. It's not an option for me, though. The only time ever I tried to hire a new groomer to get some of the workload off me turned out to be a disaster and left such a bad taste in my mouth, I decided I'd rather cut my client load and do it alone.

Good luck to you all and hang in there! Only a few more weeks until it's all done and over with! 'Tis the season, aye??

Love that poem! :)

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the groomers by us are all booked. People want to get their pets bathed, brushed, cut and "prettied up" for the holidays and company. The vet I go says her groomer is about to have a nervous breakdown. Think of it kinda like a hairdresser. Everyone wants the one they usually go to because they know how the cut will turn out.

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[quote name='Kat']so people put a special effort in to get their dogs groomed for Christmas? I would have thought that would be just a time for the high street stores to be busy! :o[/quote]
Shoooooooooooot yeah, people get crazy around the holidaze about having their dogs groomed. I think a lot of the time it's kind of a housekeeping thing. Some people neglect their dogs' grooming all year long and then don't want to have company over to a big meal and a nice clean house with a stinking matball of a dog skulking around. From what I see on the grooming boards, people everywhere virtually fall over themselves trying to get their dogs groomed for Christmas. Apparently, six and seven day groomer work weeks are pretty common during the holidaze. A lot of groomers count on the extra income at this time of the year. Some people work very well under stress, but not me. I crack under pressure. :oops:

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HF, my boss has a huge regular customer base. We are the only groomer's in town who will do large breeds. We are basically set up to do large breeds, plus large breeds are the love of my boss's life. It's nothing for us to have at least 9 Newfoundland dogs in the shop to groom before a show. She also takes care a numerous kennels, keeping the dogs in shape for showing and in a show clip. She is quite in demand, no one else in our area does show clips. The other groomer's also do not take on the large breeds as you tend to loose money on them. You can whip through a lot of smaller breeds compared to one Newf.
My boss also had a message on her phone that she is no longer taking new customer's. She recently changed that when she hired the new groomer...she is trying to establish a clientel for her. This groomer is wonderful, she has been grooming for over 10 years and ran her own grooming shop in BC, Canada. She is gentle with the dogs and gives them time outs like we do when they seem to be getting stressed.
We never have a slack time throughout the year. It dies off only slightly after Christmas.

DivineOblivion19, I forgot all about the vet clinic's and the squeeze me in for booster vaccines for boarding people :lol: yikes, I don't know which ones are worse.

Kat, every holiday brings about the antsy owners. As HF mentioned they seem to let their dogs go and then expect us to get the dog looking great for any holiday. I really think most of our clients with Shelties wait until the poop is so caked on the dog's rear that the dog needs to be groomed just to go to the bathroom :-?

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Newfiemom, if you could meet my boss you would see how she can be such a pushover :lol: she is so non assertive, her customers rule her world. She is a wonderful groomer with talent, but, when it comes to saying no she has a hard time. She tries, but, she comes across as being rude not assertive when she finally does try to be assertive.
You should see her when she goes to a dog show :roll: :lol: she has been taking her dogs to get their obedience titles...and a little R&R for herself. She gets to the show and all heck breaks loose. She has her breeder clients asking if she could just trim their dog up a little before going into the ring. Every show she attends she spends grooming Newf's, Bernese Mountain dogs and pyrenees. She just can't say no...its just her personality.
You should see some of the Newf's we get in for grooming :roll: oh my, some have been matted solid from ears to tip of tail. Here are some of the great excuses we get for matted dogs.
"He stuck his head out the window on the way over :o "
"He was out in the snow for a few minutes this morning and got matted" :o
"We brush him EVERY DAY :o " we had a little Lhasa come in which the owners groomed daily...the owner of the grooming facility has a policy of humanity before vaniety...she will not put a dog through the torture of dematting huge mats. This little Lhasa was shaved and the groomer kept the well groomed coat for the owners to see when they picked up. The coat was just like shearing a sheep..it came off in one huge matted peice...my boss held it up and just showed it to the owners...she then demonstrated how to properly groom a dog :wink: Its amazing how many people just brush the outer hairs and leave the mats alone :lol:

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that sounds all to familiar to me :lol: We have customers call up just a few days before X-mas, expecting to get in the day they call.

This is usually how a phone conversation goes with a pain in the a** customer:

"I want to bring my dog in today"

"Sorry, we're all booked today"

"What do you mean you're all booked? No room at all?"

"Nope, sorry"

"You're kidding, right? You're telling me you don't have anything?"

"That's right"

"This is ridiculous! Im gonna call some place else!"

"Ok, bye!"

:roll: :lol:

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