PetGroomer.com Magazine
85
October / December 2020
SURVEY DISCUSSIONS
Customer Demand The grooming industry clearly showed how amazingly adaptive it was to get back to work and serve pets and owners. The biggest insult, in our viewpoint, was how the issue of “essential” was applied early on, and much later for some. To be clear we are not stating it was all one way or another. Indeed there were states that minimized the issue and the lockdowns, and did they really fare worse as a result? Nope. Was it ineptness, political or simply a serious folly that many groomers experienced quite extensive closures with questionable backup reasoning. We will let everyone figure that out for themselves and allow their opinions. The lockdowns and essential issues deeply impacted customer relations for many groomers. In a side survey over 60% of grooming business owners said that their clientele contacting them were not in agreement with pet grooming assigned non-essential status. Further 72% reported client confusion from grooming being allowed in some stores but not to grooming only vendors.
elsewhere, and hopefully return when their businesses could or would re-open. Did their clientele come back? In a side survey conducted shortly after we closed the main survey we asked 100 groomers what has been their experience. Fortunately, 81% said the large majority of their clientele had returned and 44% of their clientele had gone to another groomer while they were not in operation. That’s good new for customer relations and something perhaps to be proud of, obviously well-earned. By the way, 77% of these business owners said they did not charge extra for dematting their regular clientele upon their return. It was an expression of gratitude. Some had to be stripped or shaved because it wouldn’t have been humane to demat coats too far gone. Customers have faced inconveniences too. Some groomers went out business. Estimates range from 2,000 to 4,000 of businesses. At GroomerTALK℠ members report businesses that closed or didn’t reopen and yet seeing new businesses opening, most often new mobile operations.
In areas where this confusion was especially active over 78% of grooming business owners said they faced having to realize that their regular clientele were Copyright © 2011 Find A Groomer Inc. All rights reserved going eGroomer to haveJournal to use grooming services PetGroomer.com Magazine www.petgroomermagazine.com Subscribe Free
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