A full groom is an hour on one dog and most of a morning on another, and an appointment booked at the wrong length does not cost you that hour; it costs every appointment behind it. Picktime lets owners book by breed and coat, holds the table with the groomer, and keeps the coat, the cut and the last visit on the dog’s own record.
Blu GroomingBook online
Full groom · large double3h · Table 2$95.00
Full groom · small smooth1h · Elin$45.00
Puppy first visit45mBook
Next free9:15 AM1:30 PM4:00 PM
Booked online
11:04 PM
While the salon was shut
Deposit
$23.75
25% on the long grooms
Groomer and table
Both free
Or the slot is not offered
Every one of these exists because a grooming day is a chain, and one appointment that runs over is felt by everybody booked after it.
List the groom by size and coat rather than as a single service, so a large double coat books the morning it needs and a small smooth coat books an hour. The diary is then the day you are actually going to have.
The coat, the cut you did last time, what the dog is like with a dryer and what happened at the last appointment all sit under the animal’s name, while the phone number and the confirmations belong to the person.
Vaccination dates, anything the vet has said, whether the dog is anxious, whether it has ever bitten, when it was last groomed. On the paid plans the answers come in with the booking instead of on a doorstep with a lead in your hand.
A coat comes back on its own schedule, so book eight weeks ahead at the counter while the owner is still paying. On the paid plans that booking repeats on its own. Either way it is a diary that fills itself rather than one you refill by texting last year’s customers in January.
A second groomer does not double what a salon can take unless there is a second table to put a dog on, and a bath or a drying area is the same kind of constraint. Picktime holds the person and the station together, so an appointment is only offered when both are genuinely free and nothing lands on a Saturday morning that has one table and two people who need it. Each groomer keeps their own hours and only the grooms they take, so a regular who always asks for the same person is offered that person’s days rather than the salon’s.
A short appointment that no-shows is annoying. A three-hour groom that no-shows is half the day, and it is the appointment most likely to be booked by somebody who has never been before. Take a deposit as the booking is made, a fixed amount or a percentage set differently for the long grooms, so the morning is held by something rather than by an intention. The confirmation carries the link to move it, and so does a reminder before the day on the paid plans, which is what turns a cancellation on the night before into a slot that goes back on the page while somebody can still take it.
Quarter past eight, first dog of the day, booked online as a tidy-up because that is what the owner picked from a list that offered one kind of groom. The coat is matted through and it is going to take three hours to do properly, or a conversation neither of you wants about clipping off.
Everything behind it moves. The eleven o’clock waits in the car with a dog that does not like waiting, the afternoon runs to half past six, and the person who booked eleven o’clock does not book again, not because of the groom, which was good, but because of the hour in a car park.
Picktime lets you list grooms by size and coat with the time each genuinely takes, and, on the paid plans, ask about the coat on the booking form before the appointment exists. The day in the diary is the day you are going to have.
A full groom, a bath and tidy, a puppy first visit, a de-shed. Each is split by size or coat type with the time it actually takes and what it costs. This is the whole of it, and it is the part a single service list gets wrong.
Set each groomer’s hours and the grooms they take, and add the tables so two people cannot be given one. On the paid plans, write the questions the booking form has to ask before a dog is booked in.
The booking page is a link, so it goes on your Google Business profile, behind a Book Now button on your site, in your Instagram bio and behind a QR code on the salon window for somebody standing outside on a Sunday.
A groomer never has a free hand. There is an animal on a table that cannot be left, a dryer running that makes a conversation impossible anyway, and a phone going in the next room with somebody on it who wants to book. Picktime’s AI receptionist answers around the clock on a number of its own, takes the caller through what they are asking about, captures their details and turns it into a confirmed booking against the same availability the booking page uses, so it cannot give away the Saturday morning you have already sold. It handles several calls at once, and hands over to a person when somebody genuinely needs one. Every call is transcribed into your dashboard, so the one that came in while you were finishing a face is still something you can read at six.
The free plan is a plan, not a trial. There is no date at which it stops, no card to add, and nothing that quietly turns off in a fortnight.
A booking lands in the calendar you already have open, and the paid plans sync it both ways, so it moves there when it moves here. Deposits and payments run through PayPal, or through Stripe or Square on the paid ones, so the money arrives where your money already arrives, and the booking page sits on the Google Business profile most people looking for a groomer start from.
Picktime runs in a phone browser as well as a laptop, and there are iOS and Android apps, which is the only version that is any use in a salon, because nobody grooming a dog is going to walk to a desk to check Thursday.
The one that lets a groom be a different length for a different dog, because a diary built on one service and one duration is wrong every time a large coat books an hour. Picktime lists grooms by size and coat with the time each takes, holds the table with the groomer and keeps the record against the dog. Free for one groomer, with no card.
Picktime’s free plan covers a booking page of your own with a length per size and coat, the table held with the groomer, email notifications as bookings come in and a record for every dog. Your own booking-form questions, repeating appointments and reminders sit on the paid plans. No card, and no date at which it stops.
For a salon, the app that matters is the one that works with a dog on the table. Picktime runs in a phone browser and as an iOS and Android app, so the day, the next booking and a dog’s history are all reachable without walking to a desk.
Yes, and it is the point of setting it up properly. Split the groom by size or coat type and give each its own duration and price, so an owner booking a large double coat books the morning it needs rather than the hour they hoped for.
Yes, on the paid plans. The booking form asks whatever you need before a dog is booked in (vaccination dates, anything the vet has said, whether the dog is anxious or has ever bitten), in your own wording, and the answers arrive attached to the appointment.
Yes, through PayPal on the free plan or Stripe or Square on the paid ones. Charge a fixed deposit, a percentage or the full price, set differently per service, so a three-hour groom cannot be booked without one while a nail trim stays free to book.
Yes, and it is the cheapest thing on this list. Book eight weeks ahead at the counter while the owner is still there, and on the paid plans let it repeat with a reminder before each one: a diary that refills itself instead of one you rebuild every January.
Free usually means the booking half rather than the whole salon, so the honest comparison is between free booking and a paid platform with a till, retail stock and photo notes in it. Picktime is the booking half: grooms timed by size and coat, the table held with the groomer, a record per dog, and no card. If you are already running retail through a point of sale you will end up with two systems, which is a real cost and worth weighing before you set anything up.
Their own pricing page is the only figure worth trusting, and we deliberately do not copy competitors’ prices into ours, because a number lifted across goes stale in a quarter and the reader is the one who pays for that. What we will say about this one is that the free plan is a plan rather than a trial: no card, no end date, and the paid figures are on our pricing page rather than buried in a paragraph.
Consultations Consultations, vaccinations and follow-ups, with the history under the animal.
See veterinary scheduling
Nights and runs Stays booked by the night against a run that can only hold one family’s dogs.
See pet boarding scheduling
Courses and classes Six-week courses with a cap, and one-to-ones for the dogs that need them.
See dog training schedulingFree forever for one groomer. No card, no trial clock, and your booking page can be live before you finish the first dog.
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