I made an appointment a week ago with Jackie to have my 10 year old rescue Pomeranian groomed on Fri, June 29th. I adopted him 18 months ago - explained all of this to her and she was fine with that. Told her he's quite small, not snippy just yappy like most little dogs and he's been groomed before without any incidents. I also have the paperwork from my vet to show he's up to date on all vaccines. She gave me a 2pm appointment which was good because I work virtually on Fridays, however, this particular day I had a few things to do and some appointments because I am leaving for vacation so I rearranged my schedule to accommodate the 2pm appointment.
Jackie asked me to confirm with her the day before via text message, which I did, however at 12:30pm on June 29th, I got a text from her saying she would be running late - no time frame, just late. So I texted back asking what time did she think she could make it to my house - she said 3:30pm - not 10, 15, 30 mins later than my originally scheduled appointment but 90 minutes late because she now had a larger dog to do before my 12 pound dog.
I told her that I had a 5:30pm appointment and asked if she thought she'd be done in 2 hours and she asked me to text her a picture of my dog and what I needed done. We had discussed what I needed done last week - which was honestly just a bath, a trim and clean up the sanitary area on him because he already has a low haircut (aka the puppy cut).
What I think happened here is that she took on another client and considering I am new, my business did not matter much to her. She then just asked if I wanted to reschedule for another day when she had more time - ummm, no thank you. You already left a very bad taste in my mouth.
I say this because my husband is a business owner in our neighborhood and over the last 15 years that he's been in business, he has never pushed back a client (new or existing) to accommodate another one - an appointment is an appointment and with the exception of a family emergency, it should not be cancelled or disregarded as if it's not that important or just rescheduled for another day that works FOR HER. I was not offered a later appointment today - you do this to accommodate your clients when you get backed up, nor was I offered an appointment for the next day - Saturday.
So with that being said, I know I'm just one person, however I do have 2 dogs and I was a potential client and I have plenty of family, friends and neighbors with dogs that I would've recommended her to had she not dismissed me like it's not a big deal - very unprofessional when you are in a very competitive business.
Needless to say, I will not be rescheduling or recommending her. It's honestly all about the way you do and say things in addition to how you treat your clients - period. read more