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Head groomer afraid to raise prices in our shop! Advice?
Hello all! I need a bit of advice.
When I got out of grooming school I worked under a groomer with 15+ years of experience. She is VERY good and uses all of the best (and expensive!) shampoos and tools. She stopped taking new clients a few years ago and they are all maintenance schedule dogs. She is typically booked for the year and people get angry when they can't get an appointment with her. When I worked for her, we could do up to 12 dogs a day. I told her she does high quality work and should charge more for her grooms, especially since her prices have been the same for 15 years. Even though she was reluctant, she tried twice to raise her prices by $5 and both clients got upset and threatened to go somewhere else. So now she is petrified to try raising prices with anyone else.
Now I groom myself at the same place with her (Let's call her H) and another groomer who worked under her for 3 years (We'll call her S). Since I started grooming, H doesn't want to hire another assistant, therefore she can only do 5-6 dogs a day, which means she has to pass on her clients to us some days. Me and S would like to raise our prices, but we try to keep them the same across the board. If we can't get H, the head groomer, on board it doesn't make sense for us to raise our prices, especially since she talks us out of it saying they will go somewhere else.
Small puppycut dogs and Schnauzers are generally $40.
Goldendoodles and Standard Poodles are $60.
Golden Retriever cuts are $45.
German Shepherds are $40.
Large Labs are $35.
We are in Ohio, and I know other shops charge at least $50 for small dogs and $70 for standard poodles. One time I called a popular shop and they wanted $60 for a min schnauzer! Do you think our prices are too low? We are even in an area with high income clients. I think there's an illusion that people only come to us because we are so cheap, but when clients try somewhere else they come running back. Any advice on how we can reorganize our pricing? Or maybe just S and I should raise ours for new clients?
When I got out of grooming school I worked under a groomer with 15+ years of experience. She is VERY good and uses all of the best (and expensive!) shampoos and tools. She stopped taking new clients a few years ago and they are all maintenance schedule dogs. She is typically booked for the year and people get angry when they can't get an appointment with her. When I worked for her, we could do up to 12 dogs a day. I told her she does high quality work and should charge more for her grooms, especially since her prices have been the same for 15 years. Even though she was reluctant, she tried twice to raise her prices by $5 and both clients got upset and threatened to go somewhere else. So now she is petrified to try raising prices with anyone else.
Now I groom myself at the same place with her (Let's call her H) and another groomer who worked under her for 3 years (We'll call her S). Since I started grooming, H doesn't want to hire another assistant, therefore she can only do 5-6 dogs a day, which means she has to pass on her clients to us some days. Me and S would like to raise our prices, but we try to keep them the same across the board. If we can't get H, the head groomer, on board it doesn't make sense for us to raise our prices, especially since she talks us out of it saying they will go somewhere else.
Small puppycut dogs and Schnauzers are generally $40.
Goldendoodles and Standard Poodles are $60.
Golden Retriever cuts are $45.
German Shepherds are $40.
Large Labs are $35.
We are in Ohio, and I know other shops charge at least $50 for small dogs and $70 for standard poodles. One time I called a popular shop and they wanted $60 for a min schnauzer! Do you think our prices are too low? We are even in an area with high income clients. I think there's an illusion that people only come to us because we are so cheap, but when clients try somewhere else they come running back. Any advice on how we can reorganize our pricing? Or maybe just S and I should raise ours for new clients?
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