Pillar
Client experience and retention
What the owner sees between bookings, and why they come back.
Lessons
9
Recipes
8
Tracks
48
Decision guides
1
Product guides
34
Lessons
Each one shows the screen it is about, running on demo data.
11. Notifications: what the client gets, what you get, and whenMessages do not have a switch each. They follow a handful of switches, and the row tells you which one. The timing is yours to set; the wording of the reminder is not.Lesson3 min read · Owner13. Intake forms, from the first question to the answer you neededWhere a form is attached decides who gets it. Where the answer lands decides whether anyone ever reads it.Lesson4 min read · Owner or manager14. Adding a customer fast, and the number that already existsA phone number sits on one profile at a time. Almost every "they already exist" message ends at a profile you cannot see, or at a partner who needs their own number on the same account.Lesson4 min read · Owner or front desk15. The client's side, from sign-up to cancellingYou cannot see the screen a stuck client is on, which is most of the problem. Simulate puts their booking form and their profile in front of you, against your own live settings.Lesson4 min read · Owner or front desk24. Your own number, bulk SMS and emailing your listReminders already go out on your plan. Your own number, replies and bulk sends are the Communications Booster, and a bulk send only ever counts the clients who opted in.Lesson4 min read · Owner25. Notes, alerts and report cards: what the owner seesA booking carries three separate note boxes and only one of them reaches the owner. The report card is built from that one, and from the photos attached to it.Lesson3 min read · Owner or front desk34. Attributes, tags and custom fieldsAn attribute can change a price, a duration or a place. A tag cannot. Picking the wrong one is why a note never reached the booking.Lesson2 min read · Owner101. Style memory: what the last groomer wrote, and where it livesA style saved on the booking is gone by the next one. Three cards on the pet hold the cut, the coat and the handling, and whoever is on the table next reads them without asking.Lesson3 min read · Owner105. Feeding, medication and belongings on a stayThree different things are written down before a stay, and they belong in three different places. The one that has to be true every time does not belong on the booking at all.Lesson3 min read · Owner or front desk
Recipes
One task, one screen, no introduction.
Approve a vaccination a client uploadedThe owner types the vaccine name and the dates. Nothing counts until somebody opens the file and saves their own version.Recipe90 sFind a pet that has disappeared from searchEvery list defaults to active records. An archived pet is one radio button away.Recipe90 sLet both owners log in on one accountA second number on the same profile, not a second profile. Both people book, and the history and the card stay in one place.Recipe90 sMove a pet to a new ownerBuild the new owner first, then ask for the move. Deleting the dog and adding it again loses every visit it ever had.Recipe90 sOpen the pet activity timelineTimeline & Notes on a pet's file, where diary notes, booking notes, finished grooms and photos land in one list.Recipe90 sPreview an intake form as a brand-new clientThe preview is a working form. Fill it in, hit the validation, and nothing is saved or sent.Recipe90 sResend the activation SMS to a client who is stuckThe entry is only on the menu while they have not accepted your terms. After that, Quick Login is the one that gets them in.Recipe90 sTurn off the booking emails to your own inboxThe copy of every online booking that lands in your team's inbox is one row on the Booking Created card, and it is not the same switch the client follows.Recipe90 s
Tracks
A run of lessons that answers one whole job, in the order to take them.
Set up right, onceThe configuration that decides whether anyone can book you. Hours and sessions, capacity, the service menu, and the launch itself. Most no-availability calls come back to one of these.Track9 lessonsFront Desk in a morningThe eleven things a front desk actually does between opening and lunch, in the order they come up. Take a booking, change one, find a client, check them in, take the money.Track11 lessonsA client says they cannot bookThe six settings that hide your availability, in the order worth checking. Run Simulate as that client first, because it usually names the cause before you have finished reading this.Track5 lessonsRunning the dayThe eight things a front desk does every day, from the morning board to the last checkout. Take it in order once and the rest of the week runs on muscle memory.Track8 lessonsMigrating inYour book is loaded. Here is what to check, what to fix, and what to leave alone, including the two things to switch off before a single client hears from you.Track7 lessonsStop the no-showsDeposits, holds, reminders and a cancellation policy clients have actually accepted. Four settings and one report, which between them cover most of the empty slots.Track6 lessonsChristmas and peak readyPeak rates, closures, deposits and the book-now message, in the order to do them. Worth running in October, because most of it wants to be in place before the phone starts.Track6 lessonsThe Grooming trackLanes and size tiers first, because that is what a grooming book runs on, then the day itself and the record you leave behind on each dog.Track8 lessonsSee it before you sign upThe whole journey from the owner's side: sign up, upload a vaccination, sign the terms, book an assessment, get approved, buy a membership. What a prospect asks to be shown on a demo call.Track6 lessonsGo-live weekSeven days from loaded to live without a client getting a stray email. The messages stay paused until the last step, which is the one people skip.Track7 lessonsGrowingThe features that add revenue once the calendar is steady. Packages and plans first, because they change what a quiet week looks like.Track7 lessonsThe Owner's trackEverything an owner has to decide rather than delegate, in the order the decisions come up. Twelve lessons, and the account is set the way you meant it.Track12 lessonsOn the floorFor whoever is with the dogs rather than at the desk. The board, the notes you leave behind, the run sheet, and the walk-in nobody booked.Track6 lessonsOn the roadFor a walker, driver or sitter working off a phone. The route, the series that repeats, the record you leave, and the shortcut that makes it feel like an app.Track6 lessonsThe Trainer's trackCourses and intakes first, because a trainer sells a plan rather than an hour. Then the forms, the credits and the messages that keep a cohort together.Track6 lessonsSoloOne person, one calendar, no front desk to hand anything to. The settings that matter when nobody is covering for you, and the phone shortcut that replaces the office.Track7 lessonsFill the quiet daysFind who has stopped coming, message them, and give them a reason to book the Tuesday nobody wants. Five clips and a quiet week looks different.Track5 lessonsA price rise without the painChange the prices, decide what happens to the bookings already in the calendar, and tell clients before they find out at checkout.Track3 lessonsThe client experienceEverything the owner sees and receives, in the order they meet it. Worth running once from their side before you decide the messages are fine.Track5 lessonsWe are closing for a weekBlock the days, deal with the recurring bookings that fall inside them, and tell the clients who already have one. In that order, because the last step depends on the first two.Track4 lessonsA regular got a second dogAdd the dog to the household, then check what the second one is allowed to book. Two clips, and it is usually the second that bites.Track2 lessonsA household splitTwo owners who both need to book, or one dog that has moved. What to change on the household, and what to move rather than re-create.Track3 lessonsThe notifications are spamming meYour own inbox is not the client's inbox. Turn off the copies that come to you, then read what clients actually get.Track2 lessonsI cannot get into the app on my phoneThe shortcut that makes Petboost behave like an app, the password reset, and what a client sees when they are the one locked out.Track3 lessons5 minutes before openingPrint the sheet, find the client who rang, and put the walk-in on the board. Three recipes, done before the first dog arrives.Track3 lessonsThe Boarding trackPer-night pricing and the multi-night stay, which is where boarding questions start and usually end. One stay worked through end to end, then the pens behind it and what has to be written down before she arrives.Track9 lessonsThe Training trackCourses are the spine of a training book, so they come first, then the intake and the money. Levels are the part people run by memory until the third intake, and that is where it stops working.Track7 lessonsThe Puppy School trackAn intake fills on what happens in it, so the template and its weekly titles lead. Then the age window, the forms and the reminders that get six owners into a hall on the same Wednesday.Track6 lessonsThe Walking trackThe run and the round it is built from. Trips first, then the suburbs you sell to, the recurring series behind the week, and the plan that turns a regular into a standing order.Track7 lessonsThe Concierge trackTwo visits a day and an overnight in somebody else's house are two different bookings, and mixing them is what makes an invoice unreadable. Then the proof of visit, and what holds a fortnight.Track8 lessonsSwitching from MoeGoWhere a MoeGo book lands once it is in: pet codes as attributes, discount codes still riding on the pet, and the credit, package and membership balances that have to survive the move.Track8 lessonsSwitching from GingrGingr icons become attributes, store credit and package credits stay apart, and you turn Gingr's own online booking off yourself on go-live day. Then the rest of the migrating-in run.Track8 lessonsSwitching from Revelation PetsThe customer export holds every customer and pet but no bookings, so those come out separately. Then what happens to tags, store credit, package credits and renewal dates on the way in.Track8 lessonsSwitching from PawPartnerPawPartner publishes no export steps, so the book is read out of your own account and that login has to stay alive. What lands where, then the go-live run.Track8 lessonsSwitching from Savvy Pet SpaYour one long grooming note comes apart into head and face, body and tail, and feet and legs. Then the credit, package and membership balances, and the rest of go-live week.Track8 lessonsSwitching from TimelyTimely keeps what you know about a dog in one notes field. Where the blade and comb numbers in it end up, and what happens to credit, packages and renewal dates.Track8 lessonsSwitching from Acuity SchedulingAcuity has no pet record, so the dog comes out of the client's name field and the owner list is the first thing to read. Then the credit, package and membership balances, and go-live.Track8 lessonsSwitching from Square AppointmentsOne Square customer with three dogs becomes one owner and three pets. What else moves, what stays behind, and the go-live run after it.Track8 lessonsSwitching from Pet ManagerWhat moves across from Pet Manager, and the household comparison afterwards that finds a pet entered twice. Then the rest of migrating in.Track8 lessonsSwitching from SHARCSHARC holds more clinical detail than a pet profile has fields for, so it lands on the timeline instead. Where everything else goes, then go-live week.Track8 lessonsSwitching from HalaxyHalaxy raises an invoice per appointment and counter payments never come back to it, so those balances are left behind on purpose. What does move, and the go-live run.Track8 lessonsSwitching from PetExecThe temperament test result and the treats and lunch nap flags come across on the pet's timeline. Then credit, packages, renewal dates and the rest of migrating in.Track8 lessonsSwitching from BusyPawsThe Customers CSV carries very little, so the pet detail is read off the profiles instead. Where segments, credit, packages and renewal dates land, then go-live.Track8 lessonsSwitching from Scout for PetsScout's weight field mixes pounds and kilograms, so no weight is written and the old figure waits on the timeline. Everything else that moves, then go-live week.Track8 lessonsSwitching from Pet PocketbookTags, store credit, package credits and membership renewal dates, and what each becomes on the way in. Then the go-live run that follows any migration.Track8 lessonsSwitching from FreshaFresha keeps a client and nothing for the dog, so the pet is read out of the client notes, and a client with no dog named gets a placeholder to rename. Then the go-live run.Track8 lessonsSwitching from VagaroVagaro keeps nothing for the dog and exports notes one customer at a time, so the pet is read out of those notes, and a customer with no dog named gets a placeholder to rename. Then the go-live run.Track8 lessonsSwitching from DaySmart PetNo single DaySmart Pet report lists every client, so the whole book comes from the backup. What maps across, what stays behind, then the rest of migrating in.Track8 lessons
Decision guides
Product guides
Where to set it, once you have decided.
Keep reading
Longer pieces on petboost.com.au.
The Client Did Not Rebook. Now What?Client Onboarding Done Right: The First Impression That Keeps Them Coming Back5 Ways to Reduce No-Shows at Your Pet BusinessWhat Pet Parents Actually Care About (And It's Not What You Think)How to Handle Difficult Client Conversations in Pet BusinessesWhen a Client Is Not Worth Keeping, and How to Part WellHow to Collect and Use Customer Feedback to Improve Your Pet Business