Pet groomer going to the dogs
Or cats…
A friend of mine sent me this post about a really poor customer service experience that she had.
I have a long-haired cat who needs a lion cut and bath. I can’t take him to a walk-in groomer because he’s a “pooper.” He gets so upset that he pees and poops and those groomers won’t take him without the cat first being sedated. Vet won’t sedate for a grooming session. Mobile groomers is able to deal with “pooper” cats and anxiety won’t be as great without all the other dogs around.
SO – - last time I had it done, I had tried to go with a new mobile groomer service, because they were much cheaper – but they didn’t call me back in time and only came to my neighborhood one day a week – - a day that wasn’t convenient at the time. I ended up going with another groomer who charged almost double – - though I was otherwise happy with the service.
The first groomer (the less expensive one) has a website where they say that they prefer you to fill out an online form and they’ll reply. Well – I filled out the form – - twice – - and nothing. It just went out to cyber space and disappeared. So I called and left a message. And another. And another. Two weeks later, on a Friday afternooon, they finally got around to returning my call, and they gave me a window of a few hours to call them back (they promised to leave their cell phone “on” uring those hours.) The voice mail message tells people the preferred method of contact is again that web form and the message says that they only return phone calls “some nights.”
So,I wasn’t able to call them back in the narrow window provided and another week transpired with me leaving messages and them not calling me back.
Until last night. At 7 pm on a Saturday night they called and had an opening the next morning – Sunday morning )today) at 9 am.. So – I took the appointment – thinking at least they were quick in setting appointments up (probabbly because they have no other business). I asked them if there was anything they needed froom me (last groomer needed access to a sink for hose to drain) and they said no – I didn’t need to do anything.
SO TODAY – the groomer shows up and runs over my neighbors bush where she parks. When I ask her to move the van so the neighbor doesn’t get bent out of shape – she seems all miffed. Before she gets out of the driver’s seat, she tells me she’s going to need proof of my cat’s immunizations and rabies’ shot. Funny. It’s not like I keep it handy and carry it around with me; I could go to the vets and get the necessary proof – - but not at 9 am on a Sunday. Soo – because I didn’t have the proof that I wasn’t told I needed, the groomer left.
When I called the scheduler back, she said the reason she didn’t tell me about the immunizations is because she doesn’t particularly care about that, but some of the grooomers do. Huh? Like that makes sense.
Wow – there is so much bad customer service that it is hard to know where to start. Not responding to email? or Phone? Not preparing the customer for what is needed? An employee who runs over bushes?
I think it is a pretty clear bet that these folks have lost a customer for life