Who it is for / Dog groomers
With a wet dog on the table, the phone has to wait. While You Work answers the calls you miss in your business name, finds out what the owner wants and when, and sends you the details a minute later.
Founding members pay £49 and their line switches on as soon as they finish the set-up form. The first week on a live line is free.
On every call
Urgent jobs
Everything else is sent to you as a booking request within a minute.
Real calls
Grooming calls need the breed, the size and the coat, and the receptionist asks for all three, so your callback is a quick confirm rather than an interview.
The maths
Say you miss 3 calls a week and two in five of those callers would have booked a full groom worth about £45.
3 calls × 40% × £45 = £54 a week. × 52 weeks ÷ 12 = £234 a month of work going to someone else. An example: put your own numbers into the missed-call calculator.
A dog is groomed every six to eight weeks for its whole life. The owner who could not get through books with the groomer who answered, and stays.
Timing
Monday mornings, school holidays, and the weeks before Christmas and summer. The phone rings while you have a wet dog on the table and clippers in hand.
What callers hear
The receptionist asks one thing at a time, checks the number back and never makes up a price. The details reach you by email a minute after the call, and by text straight away when it is urgent.
What reaches you
Mark (new customer), 07700 900813. Full groom for a cockapoo, next week.
Receptionist: Hi, you’re through to Waggy Tails Grooming. Sophie can’t get to the phone right now, but I can take your details so she can get back to you. Calls are recorded so nothing gets missed. What’s your name?
Caller: Hi, it’s Mark. My cockapoo needs a full groom, any chance next week?
Receptionist: Thanks, Mark. Have you brought him to Waggy Tails before?
Caller: No, he’s new.
Receptionist: And what’s the best number for Sophie to ring you on?
Caller: 07700 900 813.
Receptionist: So that’s 07700 900 813. Is that right?
Caller: Yes, that’s right.
Receptionist: Thanks, Mark. Sophie will get back to you about a day next week, and I’m sending you a text now to confirm.
Set up
A short form made for dog groomers:
One code on your mobile sends calls you do not answer within 20 seconds to your While You Work line. Turn it off whenever you like.
Every caller is greeted in your business name. You get the details a minute later, and the caller gets a text saying you will ring back.
Questions
Yes. Put it in the anything else box on the set-up form, such as how long a full groom takes or what to bring, and the receptionist tells owners who ask.
Yes, with the Voice Booking and Pay module. It offers the caller your real free times, books the appointment and texts them a confirmation, with your deposit link if you take deposits. Without the module it takes the details and tells the caller you will ring back.
£49 a month including VAT for founding members, locked for as long as you stay, with no contract and the first week free once your line is live.
Yes. It asks the breed, the size, the coat condition and whether the dog has been groomed before, and puts all of it in your message.
If you put that in set-up, it tells callers gently that badly matted coats sometimes need a short clip and that you will assess on the day.
More detail: what a missed call costs, UK call answering prices and how we compare.
Founding price locked for as long as you stay. No contract. Your line switches on as soon as you finish the set-up form.
Also for salons, clinics, cleaners, beauty therapists, barbers, personal trainers and every other kind of business.