Getting Your Boss Onboard Ep207

Episode 207. How do I get my boss on board? Geez, Chrissy. I like the show and I wanna do all these things, but I'm not self-employed and my boss isn't on board yet. So if you work for someone else, it may feel impossible to make these kind of changes, but we're gonna talk about that this week. 'cause there are some really great discussions that we can have with your boss.

You are listening to the Creating Great Grooming Dog Show. I'm Chrissy Nemar Smith. I'm a master groomer behavior specialist, master Canine Stylist, master Certified grooming expert, certified behavior consultant for canine certified professional dog trainer, fear free, certified in grooming and training and educator and Dean of Academics at the whole Pet Grooming Academy.

And this my friends and colleagues, is the show where we talk about teaching pets to be good for grooming and other types of care.

As groomers, we see so many pets with behavior problems, and I know that you've probably been drawn to this show because you work with [00:01:00] pets with behavior problems, or maybe your own pet has a behavior problem, or you're a trainer who is really interested in cooperative care. But I think it's really easy to forget that many, many groomers are still thinking in terms of selling haircuts.

And I want us all to kind of take a step back from selling haircuts. So if you are in the mindset that you're selling haircuts, it might seem like every haircut needs to be completed to perfection. And that's where the disconnect is. So if you're working for someone else and they're looking at you thinking, that is the craziest thing I've ever heard, we actually have to get this done.

This dog has to look perfect, then here are some things to consider. A recent survey says that 99% of dog owners are experiencing training or behavior problems with their pets, and I want you to think about how, how that can translate for us as dog groomers to talk to an owner about. But he's having [00:02:00] difficulty here.

They know their pets aren't perfect. They know their pets aren't perfect angels. Um, they know that there are behavior issues and difficulties. So if, if we embrace that, if we lean into that with like, Hey, listen, he's having trouble with this, or he's not well prepared for this, and frame it out as a training issue because most owners realize that they have some training issues.

. Behavior problems are training problems. Sometimes they're physical problems, but even then there's some sort of training, behavior modification that we need to do, and that's important. So if we start talking to our owners about like, oh, you wanted a full trim today, but your pet's really not ready for that.

This is how we can explain it to a business owner too. , we know that the problem with grooming is that pets find it unpleasant, uncomfortable, and or scary. And if we are not working on that and we just try to do perfect trims, what we're often doing is making it more unpleasant, uncomfortable, and or scary, which is not our goal.

And frankly makes it harder to get work done in the future. So I want you to think about we aren't selling haircuts, we are selling hair cutting services for pets who are well prepared for those services if they are not yet well prepared? What are we selling? We are selling behavior services.

Behavior services. Oh, wait, what? Yeah. This is where as groomers we kind of have to step back from our role as doing a beautiful haircut into the role of, I am willing to do training sessions toward beautiful haircuts. Am willing to work with a trainer with you, help you get set up with things that you need to know, , so that your pet can have.

Beautiful haircuts. Oh, do you see the difference? So instead of saying, I'm going to do this beautiful haircut, I'm saying I wanna help you with the lessons that your dog needs to be able to have a lifetime of grooming services. So when we talk to our boss, I want them to know this is not going to lose them money.

This is a different type of sale and it with something that's really necessary, and it's something that many of our owners are looking for. Owners search for somebody who is going to be gentle with their pet, who is going to be, compassionate about how well their pet can handle this and to help their pet through this process.

Not every owner. But I'll tell you what, when we frame behavior problems out as safety problems, like we've talked about in the safety policy, and we've mentioned it many times on the show, when we frame it out that way, what happens is most of these owners say, I had no idea my dog could be injured. I didn't know that.

I didn't know that you guys didn't have some special way of doing it, as far as they're concerned, they're going to the mechanic who has all the right tools, not realizing that their car is different than their pet, and all of the right tools doesn't necessarily mean that their pet won't be a challenge.

For the grooming process. They don't know that we have to spell it out. And as business owners, if your boss, if you work for somebody else who is like, listen, this trim has to be perfect if we explain to them. Yeah. But if we talk to an owner and say, your dog isn't well prepared for this, but your dog does have 15 years worth of grooming needs that we need to prepare for.

And I am willing to sell you those services. I want business owners to realize that they should always have an idea of how much to charge for , a groomer's hands on time. And all of your pricing should be based on that anyway, right? Even if you have your price list on like, you know, dogs of like with this coat type at between these weights, all of those things should be based on that workstation and that.

Employees hands on time, and if you know that number, then that's what you charge for. Behavior services and behavior services are going to be different because when we're trying to teach a pet to be comfortable with it, we have to let go of the idea that it needs to be perfect. Let go of the idea that it needs to be perfect and that can be really challenging.

But we're not selling a haircut and in this case, we're not yet ready to sell this pet owner haircutting services. We are selling them behavior services and it's a specialty and it's an upsell. You can charge more for that hands on time for behavior services. Now, what I think, a lot of business owners aren't really thinking about.

Is how they can lose money by forcing dogs through grooming. So that's the other side of the coin here. A lot of groomers are very frustrated where they are because they're thinking, I would love. Two, slow down and spend the time working on this and let him go home looking less than perfect and have the the behavioral win.

Have a dog who is excited about this, who isn't frightened, who walked away feeling like that was a pleasant experience. That wasn't so bad. My groomer is not so bad, who are feeling pressured. These groomers are feeling pressured to, at the end of that session, still do a beautiful job. And, that's where I was at before I started my own business.

 I was so frustrated because I would make behavioral progress and then it was like, yeah, that was great and I'm glad you worked on that, but now we need to get that finished, which would erode all of that hard work that I just did.

You know, you can trust me. I'm not gonna push you too far. You can trust me. I'm not gonna push you too far. You can trust me. I'm not gonna push it too far. Oh. Except that we're two hours in now and I actually have to get it done. ? And I actually had somebody at one point say, well play time's over, just get it done.

 And what it does is it tells them , I can trust you sometimes, maybe not all the time. How do you feel about someone that you can trust? Only sometimes. We call them untrustworthy. So it was really frustrating for me and I get a lot of groomers saying the same thing. They're really frustrated because they're like, I just want to make this behavioral progress and behavioral progress may seem really slow.

Okay, and you may have an owner who's upset, but not if you have the whole conversation beforehand. The whole conversation about behavior problems being safety problems is at the root of your success. [00:09:00] That's where the owners have to opt in or go someplace else. I know, and that's a tough one for a business owner, isn't it?

Like, well, alright, but you weren't here. Can't we book this dog with someone else who's gonna hold him down and add some more straps and get him beautiful while he screams? , but that erodes every bit of hard work you've been doing. And so we need to really commit to it tell people that like, well, you know, he needs the behavior work.

I can't just do beautiful trims on dogs that need behavior work. It's not going to happen. Everyone take a deep breath. What do we say if somebody comes in with a matted dog and says, I don't want any fur taken off. I know he's not matted, he's fine. Just do the pretty trim that I want. We tell them no.

 We need to remove the mats, or we need to brush through the mats, or we need to schedule something different. But no, I'm not doing a [00:10:00] beautiful trim over mats. We're used to saying no. Now we need to switch that over to doing perfect trims over behavior problems.

Is just as bad as doing perfect trims over mats. So we are selling a different service and it's a necessary service. And I'll tell you what, there are a lot of trainers out there who are really frustrated trying to find dog groomers. Who will help with the behavior part that they've been working on with that owner.

It doesn't just affect us in the grooming room. If an owner can't touch their dog's eyes, that owner has a significant training problem. They cannot just bring that dog to a groomer. They should not be just bringing that dog to the groomer yet. We know so many of them do, and if they're working with a trainer, maybe they recognize that they have a pretty important problem going on at home and they're working with a trainer.

That trainer is looking for a groomer who's not going to undo all of the hard work that they've been doing. This is a service. This is valuable, and this is a different way of approaching grooming problems. So when we start thinking about our process, I want you to think about, I'm going to first explain to owners that behavior problems or safety problems.

I'm gonna tell them I have some solutions for them. And maybe you don't yet. Maybe you've been listening to the show and you're like, Hey, cool, I've got some pretty good tools in my tool bag. I, I wanna work on this. But if you aren't comfortable working with a behavior problem.

Maybe this is something that you send to somebody else. Maybe this is something that you have them work with a trainer. And I wanna mention here too, if you see a behavior change, if this behavior problem is new, that's a vet check. Our very first thought should be, is there something physically going on with this pet brand New behavior changes.

 Let's check with the vet. Let's make sure that this pet is healthy.

 So not every training problem is going to be resolved during dog grooming and.

Not every grooming problem is going to be resolved with the dog trainer. ? We do need to kind of meet in the middle, and it is going to be very important for us to help an owner understand that they cannot get the perfect trim today, and if you work for somebody else to explain to them. Perfect trims can't happen on dogs who aren't ready for perfect trims.

It literally creates more problems and it's going to get somebody hurt. And um, there are some really awful, awful videos and terrifying stories of dogs being injured and even dying during grooming because they were struggling and someone didn't know what was going on and just kept adding more restraint and, um.

Yeah, it's pretty horrific. , the modern groomer does not do that. We do not do that. So if this helps, I'm gonna add another example. Imagine you have a car that you're looking through some ads and you're like, Hey, wow. They'll do a. A paint job for X amount of dollars. Make your car look new again.

And you're like, great. That's exactly what I want. I want the paint job that's gonna make my car look new again. And you bring the car in and they're like, yeah, you can't get the paint job that makes the car look new again. 'cause you have rust and you have dents. They don't apologize about it. They're like, yeah, I can't sell you that.

You have to do all this other foundation work before we can give you the paint job that makes your car look perfect. Again, that's for people who don't have dents and don't have rust. So if you are the owner of the car with some rust spots and a couple of dents, yet, you're just gonna have to sit, down and figure out your finances and decide if you can get those dents taken care of.

[00:14:00] If you can take care of the rust so that you can get the perfect finish. The perfect haircut is the perfect finish. , it's that paint job. It's on the surface. We need to take care of all the stuff underneath, and that is really important. And if you paint over rust, the rust is still there. It's just gonna come right back.

If you paint over a dent, it's not like anyone's fooled, , and also you're. Your technician is not gonna be like, oh yeah, sure, we'll pull those dents out for free or for like an extra $20. Actually let's talk about that for a minute too. If you work for somebody who upsells just a little bit of a handling charge, I'm not real keen on doing business that way, and let me tell you why.

I do want you to charge for your time, but if you are doing, oh, it was a full groom, but also he wasn't very good, so we're charging you $20 more. The owner just hears that they have [00:15:00] to pay more. They do not hear that they have any work to do or that there was anything wrong. Oh, you know how Sparky is?

He's just so goofy. He's spicy. Oh, I hate that term. Sorry guys. I know a lot of you use that term, but Oh, he's just so spicy. 'cause they go home and they're like, because he's so spicy for his nails, he costs mummy $20 more every time. Ha ha ha. And they do not fix it. They do not even think that there's a problem.

Your upsell version for them is sort of like, oh yeah, and brushes teeth too, and, oh, and, and can I get a bandana and some perfume? They are not thinking that they have a training problem. They're not thinking that they have a safety problem, so instead sell them behavior services. Sell them behavior services.

Don't sell them a beautiful haircut with an upsell of he's a spicy dog. That's not going to help solve the problem. Tell them they need [00:16:00] behavior services. And we offer behavior services. And actually I have had a couple customers over the years say, why would I go to my groomer for behavior stuff?

And I'm like, well, I'm actually a trainer also. But I mean, that's okay. If you're working with a trainer, great, this is what I need your dog to be able to do. And that includes standing still, being touched all over, being touched all over with weird stuff and things, and doing it for a long duration and, go work on it with you and your trainer and work on it at home, and

bring him back. , we'll do smaller, shorter grooming sessions and see what he can do. I don't need to be the one to do it, but if we don't spell it out that they need behavior services, they think they can buy a haircut and they cannot, just like the dented, rested car can't get a beautiful, beautiful paint job.

Okay. It, it's not realistic yet for so long. Groomers have been pressured into perfect trims, pressured into perfect trims. , the other part for a business owner is I want you to consider if your staff are burning out because all of the dogs, quote unquote, all of the dogs have behavior issues. , when somebody tells me that all the dogs that they work with have behavior issues, my first thought is, um, you are in a situation where you have to do perfect trims and you are in a situation where you have to do them fast.

And that is the recipe for a whole clientele of dogs who aren't good for grooming. So know what the hands-on time is worth. And know what to charge. And that's gonna be an important part for transitioning into selling it as behavior services and not feeling like that table and that groomer is losing you money if you start thinking.

Oh, I could have groomed these two sweet little dogs in the same amount of time that I just spent on that one and made more money than you're not charging properly. It's not because there's a behavior problem, it's because you're not charging for your behavior services properly. So this is just another point of view for us to consider if we are talking to maybe a boss or an employer or if you are an employer saying, how do I get this started?

 You might find that you have a groomer working for you who's like, oh no, I have to get him completed. This might be the discussion you have with an employee. No, this dog is behavior services. This dog isn't ready for normal haircuts. And I've met groomers who are not comfortable working behavior cases at all.

And you know what they do? Gorgeous trims on dogs who are well prepared for it. I don't mind if I do the training part. And then as that dog becomes better, he goes to somebody else in the room. No problem. [00:19:00] That's great. 'cause I like behavior work and not everyone does. So think about these behavior services almost like.

Do you offer hand stripping or not? Do you offer hand scissoring or not? Think about it as just another service, another way of doing things, behavior is a specialty service.

If you wanna know more, I'm actually gonna be at the Pet Pro Classic and I'm teaching all Stay Saturday, June 7th. I'm gonna teach, five classes on a Saturday. Good God. And that's coming up this week. Um, also. Teaching the Master Groomer Behavior Specialist Diploma Program at the whole Pet Grooming Academy.

And I have some shorter classes available at the whole Pet Grooming Academy too. We have modern behavior and handling for groomers, and we have Groom Smart.

So those are two workshop style online classes that I think are great. Entry level. Let's just learn more about this kind of classes and you have access to me in those classes, which is kind of fun. So everybody have a great week. Bye.