Lesson 14 - How to Charge What You're Worth

• Customer Service
• Vocational Education

Lesson Outline

Theory

How to Charge What You're Worth 

Practical

Full Groom (Clipper + Scissoring)

Models

Meowdels

Lesson 14

How to Charge What You're Worth

Presented by:

Why Do We Offer Grooming Services?

Dispel the myth that out of home experiences for cats should be shunned instead of encouraged. 

When properly handled and executed in the right hands, cat grooming can be an enjoyable and rejuvenating experience for both cats and their owners.

Nekomori's Mission

The Nekomori Cat Salon’s everyday mission is to offer high quality grooming and spa services for cats. 

We want to transform the public perception of cat grooming and educate cat owners on the importance of personal feline hygiene. 

We aim to do this by creating and championing a team of passionate cat groomers who are not only well-versed in their art but also patient, caring and kind.

Nekomori's Vision

To provide a superior grooming experience for as many cats as possible, in which they learn to enjoy grooming sessions and out-of-home experiences at Nekomori. 

We want to contribute towards better pet parenthood by providing convenience to our customers by helping them do away with the stress of grooming and handling their cats.

To provide a superior grooming experience for as many cats as possible, in which they learn to enjoy grooming sessions and out-of-home experiences at Nekomori. 

We want to contribute towards better pet parenthood by providing convenience to our customers by helping them do away with the stress of grooming and handling their cats.

Nekomori's Ethos

Our feline clients should always be treated with kindness, care and gentleness. As we want the travel and grooming to be a pleasant experience for them, clients should never be forced into uncomfortable situations that may cause them to feel stress or fear. 

This should be communicated to customers so that we can align expectations of the grooming experience.

What is Your Goal?

• Care for cats?
  

• Good quality care for all cat clients?
  

• Improve the quality of life for both cats and their owners?
  

• Improve on your grooming skills?
  

Having a goal or big picture will help you stay on track and focus on what you want to personally achieve by advancing your profession as a groomer.

What are Your Non-Negotiables?

• I will not groom cats from manipulative/abusive clients

I will not groom cats that are overly aggressive

I will only groom cats with severe pelting if the owners are willing to pay

Create personal non-negotiable policies to protect the business and your worth. 

Create guidelines that will make your job easier. The rules should protect you against manipulative customers and make your job organised. Don't just make rules; follow them closely. 

If you follow some and leave the rest, there will be conflict of interest. Don't accept payment that lowers your brand. Also, do your job to be outstanding and crave perfection.

What is Your Work Worth?

Factors to Consider:

• Legitimate Certifications
• Grooming Related Accomplishments
• Grooming skills

Legitimate Qualifications or Ceritifications do not mean seminars that you have attended. It means institutions or academies you have attended and have gotten certified from. This includes CPR or first-aid courses. These are added values that you are able to provide as a groomer.

Accomplishments can includes awards that you have gotten at competitions, be it competing and winning or competing and placing.

You also want to be realistic and evaluate what your skills are as groomer so you don’t end up overpricing your services.

Our Price List

Cats of different breeds and coat lengths fall under different categories.

Express - $60

Essential - $70/75/80

Classic - $90/100/110

Signature - $140/160/180

Undercoat - By volume $10 for approximately a palm size of fur removed, anything more than an hour will be by the salon’s rate of $100/hour

Dematting - Depending on the time spent and difficulty

It is important to know the pricelist and services includes for packages by heart so when a client asks we can provide an answer immediately. Constantly checking the pricelist may lead them to feel that we are unsure and unprofessional.

Having a pricing system helps to maintain and increase your revenue, promote a good clientele because it “punishes” neglect and rewards preventive and maintenance care.

Impacts of Under-Charging

• Owners become accustomed to these prices, then they expect you to charge them the same price, regardless of the condition of the cat
  

• Overworking yourself and experiencing burnout
  

• Rushing through grooms to earn more which can be dangerous for both groomer and cat
  

• Faster wear and tear of your tools that will require you to spend money to service them to purchase new ones
  

• Attracting more stingy clients – we are not running a charitable non-profit organisation! 
  

Grooming is an art and expertise. Just like how doctors and lawyers charge for their time and resources spent, us as groomers are skilled professionals that are engaged to provide a service to pet owners. Working with stingy clients lowers confidence, creates self-doubt and makes it harder to find clients of the right calibre. We don’t want to cultivate this sort of clientele.

The pricing system is set up to be fair to both the client and groomer if the pet is put on a regular grooming schedule and is well maintained at home. We should not be punishing ourselves for the owner’s neglect.

We see many grooming places that charge half the price of what we charge, but we should never lower our prices just to satisfy the client. Our rates are clearly stated on the website and reiterated during check in, so everyone should be on the same page before grooming commences.

You Guys Are So Expensive

Not only are we charging for our time, but charge for the amount of effort too. Grooming is essentially a service that is rendered which can be rough on our body over time. If you provide a discount once, they will expect you to do it again. Pet parents shouldn't be rewarded for keeping their cat in poor condition.

This is a comment that groomers and vets get very often from pet owners and they may even insinuate that we are doing it for the money instead of the well-being of the pet.

This can be very emotionally and mentally draining so it is important to always remind ourselves why we need to charge our worth.

Potential Scenarios

• Client is late for appointment by 15-30 mins
  

• Cat has ingrown nails
  

• Client does not respond to texts/phone calls during the groom
  

• Client is late for pick up
  

• Client does not show up for multiple occasions
  

(Get students to answer and discuss possibilities and provide reasons why for about 10 mins)

This is a comment that groomers and vets get very often from pet owners and they may even insinuate that we are doing it for the money instead of the well-being of the pet.

This can be very emotionally and mentally draining so it is important to always remind ourselves why we need to charge our worth.

Policies to Curb Unforeseen Circumstances

• Implement a late fee or downgrade their groom, otherwise it may affect your other appointments which is not fair for other responsible clients 

• Ingrown nail removal charge

• Do not proceed without client’s approval. Provide a time for them to get back and let them know why –– if they miss it, do whatever else you can

• Implement a late pick up charge

• Collect a partial deposit before the session. If they do not turn up, the deposit will be forfeited 

Implement measures to ensure your capacity to serve as many clients as possible. 

If there is neglect involved and it requires more of your time to solve the issue, there should be fees involved for them.

We hope that by working together and with respect we can enjoy a long, enjoyable relationship that serves everyone and most importantly, provide the best possible grooming experience for the pets.

What Do We Hope to Achieve?

• Stop and Take Notice

• A higher bill makes clients pay more attention

• Correct neglectful behaviour

• Get clients out of the neglect cycle and onto a preventive maintenance schedule 

• Repeat clients

• The clients trust you and your brand because they understand what its like to invest in something of quality and status

Clients may still express unhappiness during payment but how we can counter this is to remind them that:

1. We will be able to get the pet comfortable after the issues have been resolved 

2. In the future when the coat is well maintained because he’s on a monthly schedule, the fee will be lower

It is important and empowering to know your big picture and why you’re doing all of this because you will be able to appear confident in front of the client so they are more likely to trust you and not try and bully you.

Streamlining Your Workflow

• Add your policies to your website, terms and conditions on the booking page, quick replies, client contracts etc. so that clients are aware and agree before the groom

• Ensure that they are acknowledged beforehand

When dealing with a large volume of clients, we need everyone to be on the same page and follow through the terms and conditions that have been set out. This makes it easier to reference if there is any miscommunication.

During grooming, we should be focused on grooming the cat and not have to worry about other things as much as possible.

Old Clients, New Prices

Working old (GOOD) clients into the new pricing

1. Give them a 6-8 week lead time before increasing your prices
   
2. Let them know you raised your proces to stay in business for the long run. You had to do some reassessing and this was essential to be able to keep grooming for them your other loyal clients. 
   
3. To thank them for their loyalty, you would like to keep grooming their pet for them at almost the old rate if they pre-book and remain on a 4-week or less schedule.
   

Raise your old price for them by a bit then do so again every year to keep up with inflation. Frequent grooming will keep your workload down to a minimum.

For this to happen, they need to pre-book and ensure that the pet is on a fixed regular schedule plan that you have drawn up for them.

Let them choose –– if they decide to get off the regular grooming schedule, they will have the adhere to the new rates. 

Always give the client options. Let them choose if they want to engage you for your expertise at the loyalty rate you have given them, come whenever they want and pay new rates and neglect fees or go elsewhere for cheaper.

Be Positive

Be Honest - Communicate well without giving out too much info that the client does not need to have

Make a Plan and stick to it

Conclusion

• Communicating well
  

• Building a good clientele base that understands your value
  

• Establishing trust and respect
  

Practical

• 1 student to 1 meow-del
• Complete a basic groom for your meowdel
  
• Check for any undercoat or matts and remove them
• Do a pre-clip before bathing (wet/dry) your meowdel 
• Bathe and blow dry your meowdel (Practice on your dummy while waiting for your cat to dry)
• Trim your meowdel

What is your personal goal as a groomer?