Christmas

Anyone do anything exciting or special for your christmas puppies? We do photography, christmas themed pictures and also photo's with Santa. Clients love it and it makes great gifts!

I had some bandanas made from Holiday themed fabric. I also am offering $5.00 off regular prices until Dec. 31st. The week before Christmas I'm giving my customers a small bag of organic dog biscuits. I tried to pre-book all my favourite regular customers for that week.

We also only book reg clients for the week before xmass, we just have time to be deling with new clients.

just a question, but why would your offer a discount at one of the busiest times of the year? Its hard for me to give a discount for my hard work! but if i do its only if i think it will generate more business.. but at this time of year more business isn;t needed, maybe next month though!
or is the discount only for the regulars and its your way of saying thanks?
becky

I plan to do a little bit more for my clients this year. In past years I have given jingle collars, last year I was very lazy and only gave Xmas bandanas. This year I got come stuffed ornaments (from Costco) then I got some raw hide type treats. I tie the treat to the ornament with some ribbon. It looks very cute.

How much do you spend on each client? In the past I usually allowed $1.00 per dog. This year it's worked out to just under $2.00 per dog. I figure most of my clients tip me at least $5.00 every groom so for me to give $2.00 back isn't too much. However, when I look at how much I've spent (over $100 in supplies) if seems like such alot of money. What does everyone else do?

groomingwithfinesse, I noticed that all the dogs that came in over the last two or three months were repeat clients. Our local newspaper was offering a special, 1/4 page ad for almost half price. I decided to go for the holiday grooming angle and offer a $5.00 off coupon. Of course, because the paper goes to everyone in the community, my regular customers would see the ad too. The good news is, it has generated new customers for me, and many of them said they would recommend me to family and friends! It is hard, however, to offer a discount on a dog that is particularly difficult to groom!

This is only my second Christmas grooming, so it's exciting. I do Christmas bandanas and bows. That's about it, but some day I would like to do Christmas pictures as well.

Well it has started.....the calls......."I would like to have my dog groomed dec 21st.....but my dog has not been groomed in 6 months"

All my appointments are filled until Dec. 24th. I can't believe, however, that yesterday and today I had a cancellation! That really annoys me, because I could have filled those spots if they had let me know more than 15 minutes before they were due to come in!!

Bandannas and treat bags

i'm doing xmas bandanas and home made cookie treat bags. So far they're going over well! Even my own picky pooch will eat the cookies.

I'm only in my second year of business and I've been booked all of December since the middle of November. I have another groomer on staff to take the last minute grooms and newbies. It's working out really really well!

We always give bandanas, and I'm giving each dog a treat bag from Tiburon Treats. They are a local company (Whitby) that makes natural gourmet dog treats. I got a great deal for small holiday packages for all of our clients. We're also giving everyone our Christmas newsletter, and are offering Christmas photos of the dogs for sale.

Well the insanity has begun.............
We are totally booked and the phone is ringing off the hook, drives me nuts.

Yep us too....its nice to be booked and have clients phoning, if only the last few months were similar to this!!!!

I always put a tie or flower on each pups collar.
For Christmas I've been giving out little gift bags with a Chewfah Loofah bone and a doggie toothbrush.
Both items I purchased through the Pet Edge catalogue. I got the Chewfah Loofah bones on sale for $0.39 each and a jar of 50 toothbrushes for $18.
US Funds, but still less than $1.00 per gift and the clients love that I'm so thoughtful to give little Scruffy a Christmas present.