Customer Interview
Most pet stylists or pet professionals don't come into this business thinking of making millions and certainly
not hoping to look glamorous all day. They came because they love to work with animals. It is not an easy job to
be a pet stylist and to be an exceptional pet stylist it takes a tremendous amount of hard work to achieve that level.
I'm surprised at the amount of people that never even ask one question or only ask the price before leaving their
precious pets with us and that is why when one of my customers called and asked me specific questions I asked
her if we could put this sample interview up on my website.
If you think our job is basically to maintain a dog's appearance. You are wrong! That's only a tiny aspect
of what the job encompasses. Besides making your dogs look gorgeous our jobs entails dog breed knowledge,
dog anatomy, product knowledge, answering the telephone, communicating with clients about their dog's needs
and disposition, helping to diagnose health problems; since we see them so often we are often the first to find
a problem, and for some of us to run a profitable business.
Here is how our interview went:
| Erica: | Are you a certified groomer? |
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| Dawn: | Yes, I actually graduated top in my class at Pedigree Career Institute.
I also won many
awards while I attended such as an Achievement Award. |
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| Erica: | How long was your course? |
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| Dawn: | It was full time Monday thru Friday 8am - 5:30pm for 6 months. Over 300
hours of hands on training. We had a written test every Monday and it was divided into 4 stages,
with an exam at the end of each stage as well as a final exam at the end of the course. |
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| Erica: | How long have you been in business? |
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| Dawn: | Well, this is a brand new business for me. I owned another grooming salon The Pampered
Pooch in Belmont for 10 years before selling it. Then I worked as a grooming manager at a local salon for 5
years before deciding to branch out and open my own business again. |
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| Erica: | Are you familiar with grooming a Bichon Frise? |
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| Dawn: | Yes! I actually have 2 of them myself and they are my favorite breed. I always had
German Shepherds and other very large dogs and when I started grooming those little puff balls won my heart!
Of course I love all dogs big and small! We will try and groom anything ONCE! If it's not working out we just
call their mom or dad and send them home! |
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| Erica: | Which brings me to my next question: How do you handle aggressive dogs? Do you tranquilize them? |
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| Dawn: | Oh absolutely NOT! We are not veterinarians, so we can not tranquilize a dog and I wouldn't
want that responsibility on my staff. If we can't do a dog we send them home. We don't want to stress the dog
out or our other clients that are here. We will decide together with his/her parents what to do next. They may
want to get a sedative from their veterinarian and try again or we try on a day that's not too busy. It all
depends on the dogs. We are all trained to deal with a dog that are stressed or scared and that's what makes an
aggressive dog aggressive - fear! |
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| Erica: | So would it be okay for me to stay during the first grooming session, especially if my dog is scared? |
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| Dawn: | We actually recommend you don't stick around. Your dog needs to gain self confidence and trust in us and he/she won't do that with you standing right there. All they will want is to get to you or be near you and that doesn't help them or a groomer. If I think that is the only way to get your dog done we may recommend it, but for the most part I don't ever recommend it. People are always welcome to check out our facility if they are nervous about leaving their dogs, but it is preferable to do that before you leave your dog, not when it's here with us. Otherwise it just stresses the dogs out more to see you come and go again. |
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| Erica: | How Long will my dog have to stay here? |
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| Dawn: | Great question! Most people think they will be here all day, and they won't! We pride ourselves on the fact that dogs are here less than ½ a day! We do not pet sit afterwards either. When a dog is done we appreciate it if the owner will come down and pick up their dog as soon as possible. When the dogs are done, they know it and they are very excited about going home. |
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| Erica: | How many dogs do you groom a day? |
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| Dawn: | Each groomer usually grooms between 7-10 dogs/day. It's really hard to answer that question because we book depending on what kind of dogs we are getting in. So for instance, if next Tuesday there's already a Standard Poodle in the book I'm going to book only 5 or 6 other dogs because I know how time consuming a standard poodle is and we like to take the time with each pet. |
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| Erica: | How many regular clients do you have roughly? |
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| Dawn: | Hundreds, I don't know exactly because it's hard to know who is still coming, if they have decided not to keep their dog for some reason, if they come only a few times a year. I consider a regular customer someone who comes every 4 - 6 weeks. |
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| Erica: | What is the most common haircut you do here? |
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| Dawn (laughing): | We do A LOT of cocker spaniels, shih tzus, bichon frise of course, poodles. Lately the designer dogs have been yorkies and the designer mixes like; yorkie-poo, shia-poo, cocker-poo…you get the picture?? And A LOT of goldens and golden mixes! |
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| Erica: | What other services do you offer? |
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| Dawn: | That's another great question! In the Day Spa we offer a whole menu of spa
services such as a blueberry facial, a mineral scrub, whitening shampoos, spa renew shampoos, paw-dicures in
every color (with rhinestones). We also have a preferred client program, which I strongly suggest you sign up
for. You can find all that in the Day Spa webpage.
We also offer Doggie Day Care! We have The Pampered Pooch Palace for the little guys and gals and the Barker
Lounge for the Medium/Large pooches! They have so much fun! We love to watch them romp around, make friends
and cuddle up to each other!
We also offer dog obedience training by a professional dog trainer and hope to offer holistic services such as
Homeopathy, Reiki, Massage, Chiropractic, Animal Communication, supplements and remedies soon! |
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| Erica: | Wow! That all sounds wonderful Dawn, thanks for taking time out of your busy day to talk with me. It really makes me feel better knowing who and where my dog will be with! |
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| Dawn: | You are welcome! That's exactly how I want our clients to feel; like they matter, because they all do and we want to give you that peace of mind, because that's what I need when I have to leave my dogs somewhere or I wouldn't leave them! |
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