GroomPod 474 The art of Customer service (and generator woes!) transcript

susy Hello, groomers. You found the groom pod. Welcome to our virtual salon. My name is Suzy and I'm your host. I'm a mobile groomer from Seattle, Washington, and anybody who knows me will tell you I love to talk, especially about my job. And one of my favorite people to talk to is my friend and mentor and the co-star of the show, the curator of ingredients, Miss Barbara Berg.

barbara bird Hey, Suzy, so glad to be here with you today. What's going on?

susy Well, what's going on is we're on video. How cool is that? I know it's I know it's the way podcasts are going, and I figured we should at least give it a try, even though I'm not sure anybody will just really want to watch us talk back and forth because we don't have a lot of graphics or anything like that. but it's fun to see you. We see you every Sunday, but it's fun to actually let our listeners see you as well. Welcome to episode four hundred seventy four of the Groom Pod for seventy four. Wow. Woo! I know it. Uh, and we're recording on March eleventh, which isn't our regular day, but we're here because we love you guys. Anyway, this week it's all about customer service. So what's new this week is of course brought to you by Grew More software.

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susy The grooming gods, Barbara are pushing me into the wagon tales van. They're pushing me so hard. Like the forces of nature in the world are saying it's time, Susie. You need to replace your time. So let me tell you a little story. My regular generator with the electric start that I can push a button. Like not even I can be in the grooming trailer and push a button and my generator will start. That beautiful, beautiful generator has decided not to give me twenty amps of power for some reason I also burnt out the electric starter. So Terry, my husband needs to do some work on that generator. Well, my backup generator was also having difficulty giving power for some reason, but the husband said he fixed it three different times now. He said he fixed it. I don't know why I trusted him this last time, but I. Because usually he's really, really good at this kind of stuff. So he told me it was ready to go. I said, well, let's pull out the one that's not giving me a full twenty amps and you can mess with that one. And I'll just use the backup one until the van thing happens, right? I only need it for a couple weeks. It'll be no problem. I can pull start that one. It's not bad. So anyway, I put that in the truck. I went to my house in the middle of the city, parked thankfully right in front of the house. I don't know how I lucked out because I never get that parking spot, but I got it this morning and went and started the generator up, and it just purrs like a kitten right off. First pull. No problem. Stick the plug in. No power. Nothing. Which is the problem? It's had every other time. So it worked at the house. But by the time it jostled enough out to the place, it didn't work anymore. So I was like, crap. Well, luckily it's a Christmas lights house. I didn't know it was a Christmas lights house because apparently I wasn't there at Christmas time. But there are outlets all over the outside of this house, so I. I tossed my cord in and I plugged into the outlet that was next to the door and it gave me twenty amps, which I was really happy about and I was able to groom. The little dog took me a while. I was very puzzled at why I wasn't getting any power out of that. So anyway, I was I was luckily able to plug in and went home and I said, Terry, this generator isn't working either. Actually, I didn't go home. I take that back. Sometimes you've got to weigh out whether to cheat on your husband or not. And I decided that I would cheat on him and drop that generator off at the power tools place, because he had already tried to fix it enough times that I wasn't really confident that he could get it working right. So I left it for Harold. Harold is a really nice guy who I don't often have to have repair my stuff, but he is my generator graveyard. When we burn up a generator, he'll take them and throw them in the back and do whatever he does scavenges scavenges off the parts or whatever. But I gave him that generator. Haven't heard back from him yet, so I don't know if it's fixable or not. Then I came home and I called the neighbors because they have three generators. They inherited a couple and I said, can I borrow a generator? And I was like, sure, okay, it's gigantic. It's a whole house generator. So we had to unhook the trailer, drive over to the house, put the ramps up. Three of us had to push this generator up into the back of the truck. Then I had to lock it down with my cables so nobody steals it. Put the cover back on and off I went to work. I get to the house and the bigger the generator, the harder it is to pull start. So I was like, wow, this is really hard to pull start. Finally I got it going. Then I plugged in my trailer and the lights came on and I was like, all right, everything's great. And it died the minute I turned on the heater and the water heater. I put a load on it. In other words, it died. I was like, ah, crap. But I was also at a house where, with a really long extension cord going into the house, I could go into the laundry room and make that work. So that's what I did. And I came back home, dropped the trailer off, Drove over to the neighbor's house, put the ramps on, push the generator out, grabbed their even bigger extra generator, and I pushed that up into the back of the truck. And then I drove to my appointment yesterday and that one worked. So I have a band aid, but I'm taking it as a sign. Yep, it's a sign.

barbara bird Enough of this fucking around.

susy Yes. And my friends who own the the van that they're selling me, they are coming down today. And they could have brought the van today, but they want to get it all cleaned out inside. So I did not tell them I'm having a complete crisis with my generators. I just said, sure, clean it up because how nice will that be to have it professionally cleaned van to start in? So I'm excited about that. But I also told her that I was going to just give her a deposit for now, so that she feels like that everything is taken care of and finalized. So I'm making the commitment. I'm going to take the Wagging Tails grooming van and live the rest of my grooming life in it. So woo, I know what a week.

barbara bird Congratulations. You you're making the change. I'm so proud of you. Even though you have no arms.

susy I'm fascinated by.

barbara bird How are you going to groom with that? With no arms? I don't know, it's scary. Find a way. Oh, it's find a way. Also.

susy In between my headphones and the space that's in there between my headphones and my hair. You can see outside my window because I have a backdrop on.

barbara bird I know it looks like a magical hijab that you have that has, you know, like some kind of a radar system or something in there.

susy Yeah. So if I'm distracted, that's what's going on. So what's up with you? I think you've got something happening.

barbara bird Well, I'm one day away from going to Atlanta for groomed, and I'm so psyched, and I'm going. I'm going to be a member of the Hanvey Engineering booth and the team there. I'm going to be a team player.

susy Excellent.

barbara bird But I'll be there. I'll also be there. Diva. You know me. And, um.

susy Hey, I got a question for.

barbara bird You, so go ahead.

susy Um, since we're on the subject and I know that you're going to be talking a lot about bathing beauties this weekend. Uh, one of our listeners, Nicole, has bought a bathing beauty knockoff from, I don't know, one of the other companies and she's got like a dishwasher nozzle on there and it doesn't look like it does quite the same thing as like the Hanvey nozzle does. How much do you think that affects the effect? How much do you think that affects the way the bathing beauty works? Because I told her you should change out that nozzle to one of the other ones, and she has the other one, so I don't know.

barbara bird So she's got one of those where it's got a squeeze handle.

susy Yeah.

barbara bird Well, that's that's repetitive stress right there. You know, the good thing about the bathing beauty is it does have a volume valve, but you don't have to touch it unless you want to change the volume. So you pretty much do everything at max volume except turn it down for puppies and faces.

susy Right. And sometimes for me on the old dogs, it seems a little forceful on the old dogs. Back it off for them as well.

barbara bird Well, it depends on coat too. You know, like, you know, but you, you get to select your, your volume pressure and you keep the same spray pattern. It's just a little lighter touch. And, um, uh, you know, I, I would have to kind of bathe with the other kind to get an idea to really answer your question. But I, I do personally and professionally feel like the handy bathing beauty is the gold standard of recirculating bathing systems. It was designed to be an upgrade of the original hydro surge. Um, it's got a very flexible hose. It's just really easy to use and you don't have to keep, um, I, I, I don't even like rinse hoses where I have to keep constant pressure on the hose in order to get the water at the right pressure. That's the, you know, like somewhere along your aging process, your hands will tell you. Fuck this shit. What I.

susy Know. Yes.

barbara bird But your body, your body tells you, you know, like, like. And if you can anticipate that and you'll put it off. I, I really think you want to get rid of a handle that requires you to constantly squeeze it.

susy My thought also was when looking at her video, which is on the grumpy discussion group at facebook.com slash. the iPod. It did not look like the faucet. The what do you call it? The sprayer really gave a lot of force. And it was diffused amongst many holes, so I just wasn't sure it would get into a double coat as effectively as the one that came with the bathing beauty and the hydro surge, you know?

barbara bird You know, Kurtis Handy spent months deciding on a spray pattern for his nozzle to the bathing beauty, I mean, and it's got a combination of. Size and size of holes and spacing that works really well. And, um.

susy I actually use it on my rinse hose as well. I've got one for the bathing and for the rinse.

barbara bird And on on, you know, and I mean I've even with big heavy coated dogs. I've even taken the nozzle off and just used the the hose to just get a more flush. Um, but if you have needlepoint small holes, you're going to get more suds and more air and less flow of the water itself, which is which what you really want. It could have just I'm prejudiced. Yeah. I'm biased. I, uh, you know, I just think that, um. You don't need to. Why do. Well, everybody has to have their thing.

susy Yes. And then I saw another post, which kind of cracked me up. And it was a picture of a bathing beauty or a recirculating bathing system. And then the other was the foamer thing, the frother, the frother and they were like, okay, which do you like better, the frother or the bathing beauty? And, and I just feel like they're two different animals that you can't even really, really compare them. One of them's a pain in the neck and the other one is magic, in my opinion.

barbara bird Well, and and the frother is really a hand bathing accessory. It's an accessory to hand bathing. The recirculating bathing system is an alternative system to the hand bathing. And, you know, like, and there's just, there's this, um. There's this unconfirmed thing about. That shampoo froth is the, uh, the And all you know is the solution. Froth has its place, but it doesn't exactly replace the going through over and over, sending the bathing solution or the conditioning solution through the whole coat with pressure over and over again to to get every single strand of hair and the skin treated with the solution that's in the tub. It's just two things. If you've got a hand bathe. Frothing is a good adjunct. It's a good accessory. It's a good thing to use, especially if you're using sudsing shampoos. Um.

susy But they're different animals.

barbara bird By a Circulating. Yeah, there are different animals. And if you're going to be if you're going to make. Commitment to doing the best and, and doing kind of a number of dogs a day, you're going to. Have a lot of saving of time and effort with a recirculating bathing.

susy Totally. Exactly what.

barbara bird I wanted. Humble opinion.

susy Yes.

barbara bird Yeah.

susy Okay, good. Well, I saw it and I thought, oh, that was an interesting thing to discuss. But in reality, we're going to discuss customer service today. So let's take a break here from our sponsor. And then we'll be right back with our discussion about customer service. Let me tell you about best shots. Newest addition to the Ultramax Pro line. Ultramax Hair Hold is a flexible hairspray that can be layered on for a stronger hold. Ultramax Hair hold spray is great, but my favorite new product is called the Max and I won't groom without it. It's a fragrance free ultra concentrate conditioner and detangler. It reduces drying time and handles undercoat and tangles like magic. Just a few drops in the final rinse or spray it on and dry it in. Contact your favorite best shot distributor or learn more online at Best Shot dot com. Grooming success begins with best shot in your tub made from the best stuff on earth. Ready, groomers? Here comes our first appointment. We talked, like last show about an article that you had written about, like helping yourself through the customer service moment when you're right there and you're having a confrontation. But tell me, why is it that we take so much of this stuff personally as groomers, when somebody tells us the haircut wasn't what they wanted or whatever. There was an owie. Um, we seem to just internalize that instantly.

barbara bird Oh, we are so defensive oriented, you know? Um, I learned a lot about this from my hairdresser, Meredith. R I p, my darling. And she, um, if I had the least little bit of a grievance and mentioned it, she would stop everything and say, well, tell me what's on your mind. Tell me all about it. I want to hear. And I would tell her what's going on and she would ask questions about, um, did I this? Never, never got defensive, never said, well, I did my best or. That's the way it happens. It's your hair. Um, no. She just listened and listened and nodded. And then she would say, well, what I hear you saying is that it seemed to be a little bit too short in the bangs, and they curled up on you. And I said, oh yeah, you got it. It was. She said, you know, I didn't expect your hair to do that. And we'll just, um, make a note and it will grow out and I won't, I won't take that's what happens. These bangs up here. Yeah. If you take them real short they just turn into curly, curly stuff. I like little Debbie Reynolds bangs or something. You know, it's it's just so look at I've got the I've got the, um, you know, the hanging thing, the hanging thing going here. The one, the one hanging thread. That's the newest look. I got it going. So, um, yeah, my, my bangs just curled up in this little, really stupid little thing and it never happened again, you know? Um, and she's one of the things that she said to me is that the client never cares about what you have to say until she feels heard, that you've heard what she has to say. And so it's really let the customer speak first, even thank them for having the courage. Thank you for speaking up. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Um, thank thank you for telling me how you really feel.

susy And in this.

barbara bird Case.

susy In this case, it's not about right or wrong, especially as we perceive it. And sometimes we part of that defensiveness is that we think, well, that's the wrong way to do that haircut or whatever, but how do we avoid that trap?

barbara bird Well, we just feel that's because that's because we feel that if we let them be right, it makes us wrong. You know, it just it just makes them. It just is communication. You have you have to not take it so personally. You have to put your little take it personally brain, put it on a leash, say don't go there. That's why I wrote it out step by step. Just don't go there. Listen to the client first. Second, repeat back what you heard them say. So that gives them a oh, no, I didn't mean that. I just meant it looked a little wonky over here on the rear end. Now, you know, I didn't mean the whole room was horrible. Or maybe it was. You know, I was just hoping that if you took a second look at it, you would see it more. That there was something you might be able to do to fix it. I always offer to fix it if you can. You know, there's so much there's just a lot of little things, um, that you could do in the moment to, you know, you can take the face shorter, you can take a little off here. You can always take off more. You can't add more, but you can say, I'd like to make a note of that so that I never do that again.

susy And that's a perfect spot for the Rogaine joke. Well, I'll just run down to the drugstore and grab a little Rogaine and we'll see if we can get that hair to grow back. People will usually let some of the steam off if you can make them laugh during the middle of it. But I think that sometimes you can look at a complaint as an opportunity to make more of a connection with the client.

barbara bird Definitely, you know, you can deepen your relationship with them by having a communication where their. Thoughts are are heard. And a lot of us women, people of color, abused former form or abused children, we have issues about not being heard. And so we can empathize with our customer that just, you know, like maybe their husband doesn't listen to a damn thing they say and they're trying one more time with you. So hear them.

susy And that's an important part of it. Yes, an important part of it is actually taking the time to let them know that you've heard him, like you said, by reflecting it back and then offering up a solution that seems to convey that the amount that you care about their relationship and their pets and the haircut and your service and all of that stuff, it it's the power of validation, really.

barbara bird It is the power of validation and the power of acknowledged that to them. It's important to me that I do that I meet your expectations. You know, I'm sorry that you had this experience. It's it's all right to apologize without accepting legal responsibility, you know, to be sorry for their experience. Um, and don't say I'm sorry. you take it that way because that just puts it right, right up that, you know, I had an argument with my my caregiver, Jodi Murphy, not Jodi Murphy. Jodi. Oh, hey. Jodi Murphy. Um, Jodi Hamby. I had a because he always says, I get, I might get upset or angry about something. In this case, uh, it was about an Amazon box that I wanted to save to ship out, uh, a couple of books to my friend and science partner. Chris and I waited weeks for the right size box for this big book on, uh, essential oils to fit in. And I finally get yesterday morning. Early delivery. Amazon brought me the perfect eight and a half by eleven inch box. And I've been waiting like maybe ten weeks for it. Find a box. And I grabbed it and I put it on the couch. And then I went to physical therapy. And while I was in physical therapy, Jodie came by and he trashed the box. Didn't ask me. Didn't remember that I was looking for a box that size. He just trashed it. And then when I got a little upset because I thought I had solved a problem only to find out I still had the problem. And then he mindlessly threw away the box I'd been looking for. And he said, don't get mad at me. It never does any good and you need to not sweat the little things.

susy Okay?

barbara bird Do you know that? That just. Do you know that? That just made me more mad.

susy I can imagine.

barbara bird My things are now. My things are now. Little things. My my anger. He invalidated my. You know, like, you shouldn't be mad at me. It's never going to work. Well, thanks. Thanks. Ahead of time.

susy So a complete customer service fail on his part.

barbara bird Complete. You know, like, don't turn it around on them. Just take it. Just take it. And sometimes they're real gripe doesn't come out in the first point. It comes out later in the conversation. After they get comfortable that you're listening to To them, then they might say, well, and I just thought that. And then the real news comes out. So let them go on until until they're finished.

susy I was going to say, when they are coming to you with that initial complaint, when their first phone call happens or when they come into the shop and they say, hey, last time this happened. Don't interrupt them until they come to a pause, until they reach that natural pause at the end of their effluence or whatever you want to call it, at the end of their statement. Yeah, telling you what's going on.

barbara bird They probably got a little something prepared. You got to give them a chance. Don't start finishing their sentences and don't start just like explaining yourself right away. Well, the dog was squirrely all over my table. And, uh, you know, it's a puppy. And that's how it happened.

susy How about body language? How do you deal with that body language and the words you choose when you're interacting with somebody who's angry?

barbara bird Look at don't do this.

susy Don't cross your arms.

barbara bird Don't cross your arms, don't cross your arms in front of your chest at, which is basically, don't tell me nothing. I'm not I am not inputting any of that. Protect me from that. No. Don't put don't cross your arms. Open hands. You know, pleasant little.

susy Eye contact.

barbara bird But no eye contact if it's culturally acceptable.

susy Right?

barbara bird Um, nodding. Nodding. That means you're taking it in. I hear you, I hear you, I hear you, I hear you, I hear you, yeah, yeah.

susy And letting them finish also telling yes.

barbara bird Yeah, let me tell. Let me thank you for telling me that. Uh.

susy Thank you.

barbara bird Here's my side. Yeah. Thank you.

susy Oh.

barbara bird Thank you for complaining. Thank you. Thank you for allowing me a chance to make it right.

susy Okay. That's a good one right there.

barbara bird Thank you for allowing me the chance to make it right. And. And you can negotiate. Um, first of all, if it's something you can fix, you can either make an appointment up for a fix up or do it right. Then sometimes it's just a little. Take the nails shorter or something like that. You can do it right then, or you can make an appointment for for a fix up. No charge. Um, and you can make notes in the file for next time. And what else?

susy It's important that they know you're doing something to make it better.

barbara bird Yeah, they you, they, you know, like.

susy Don't give the store away though.

barbara bird No, don't know. And don't throw money at them.

susy Did you have a little experience in that one, Barbara?

barbara bird Well, I did, you know, I did have a meltdown at least once and throw money at a customer. I you know, like the thing about dog grooming is that you get in that salon and sometimes you don't have lunch, and some of the tough stuff that comes to deal with comes in the later afternoon. Well, I had this customer march in and the week before I had bait her three cats. She was moving and she had a flea problem, and she brought the cats in for flea baths. And I bathed those cats at Least twice, maybe three times to get all the fleas. Send them home. She comes back in the next week. Well I've got. I moved and I've got fleas at my new place. And that means you didn't do a good job. No, honey, that means you didn't do a good job. But I didn't. I didn't handle that. I, I tried to sidestep it. I tried to explain how many times we had done that. I tried to explain that you have to do the furniture, but, you know, unfortunately, I should have had a handout to give her when I did the the major flea shampoo about what you need to do at home. Uh, and after that, I created one. But, um. You know, I just got we just got angrier and angrier at each other. And so finally, I just took cash out of the cash register. I was standing right there and I just threw like sixty bucks at her. And she walked out of there. She. And I, she walked out of there thinking that I was just, like, crazy and maybe violent. Not not good, not good. Barbara, you know, like, here you go.

susy How can you avoid that moment of panic like that? What what are ways like we were talking a little bit about role playing. Do you think that's a great way for to deal with this kind of thing?

barbara bird Well. You need to stop and take a deep breath. That's it. You need to stop and take a look at yourself. You need to be able to learn to catch yourself in the act of screwing up.

susy Oh, yeah, that's a good one.

barbara bird You know, boy, you gotta learn how to self correct. You know, like that's part of being a really. Professional service provider or professional business owner. You need to be able to catch yourself in the middle of an activity. Oh, I'm going down that road. You can feel it. You can feel your tension. You say I, you know, like. You could create a create a bathroom emergency and run off and get a drink of water and, and calm yourself and come back and try again, you know, and just notice that you're taking it personally. I happen to be a person who lived my life taking things personally. And it was.

susy It's a.

barbara bird Tough.

susy Way to live.

barbara bird It created limitations. God, I would have I would cry in the band. I, you know, I would cry in the band.

susy You're not. There's no crying in music. There's no crying in music.

barbara bird Oh, I you know, like. And it made and you know, like, God forbid I would have ever entered a grooming competition. I cried at my first certification. My dog was so difficult. And it just like so set me off. It's so ruined the experience for me and I, I had tried so hard to, uh, accommodate him, but he just hated it. He hated the plane trip. He hated the hotel. He hated the sitting around waiting. He hated that I was a nervous wreck. He. He hated it. And he just fought me for his grooming, and I just ended up in in tears in my certification. That's that's me. So it was later that I fully appreciated that being so personally sensitive really limited my learning ability that I was, you know, I was missing opportunities to learn and grow and I just forced myself to You noticed when I was having those feelings and just set it aside?

susy It's interesting when you do learn how to regulate yourself that way and you hear yourself saying something, and as it's coming out, you can see the words floating through the air. You think that's not really quite right. And I just want to give everybody permission to make a mistake and correct it right there. It's okay to be wrong. Say no, that's not that's not really what I mean. And start over again.

barbara bird Right. Can I start over again? I didn't really mean it to come on like that. That's not really what I meant to say. Um. Thank you.

susy Yes.

barbara bird I appreciate your business and I appreciate that you're upset. And I apologize for having to go through a disappointing experience with your grooming. heaven forbid. You know, like where you really need to be careful and on your toes as if there's been an actual injury to an animal, right? There's no room to screw up.

susy Yes, absolutely. Important that you acknowledge that there's been a problem first. You don't want them to go home and find a problem and call you back. This is a constant thing for me as a mobile groomer because I try to be aggressive, but not too aggressive on the nail trims. But it's just something that happens occasionally. I quick a dog, a dog that won't let me use the Dremel or a dog that has that. Maybe I missed a nail or I didn't go short enough and now the nail looks extra long and then I go quick, the dog. And I am a talker. Obviously you guys know that. And I'll get to telling a story or a joke or talking to the people, and I forget to let them know that I had a bleeder. And then fifteen minutes later they call me back going, the dog is bleeding all over the inside of the house. What do I do? And then I look awful.

barbara bird I just got new white carpeting and matching sofas. Well. Silly you.

susy Yes, I think it's a good idea to have a little money set aside that you can handle emergencies like that. Because one of the things I do is I make sure that they know that I will pay to have the carpet cleaned. If I screwed up and didn't give them a good enough warning or anything. And I know when I made a mistake, I'm well aware when I forgot to tell them that I had a bleeder and that the clot might come off and maybe keep him in the kitchen, or let him play outside for a little while, or have a nap in the crate. I know when I do that, and it's always because I'm telling a story, because that's just my life. But I always say, let me know if you need to have that cleaned, because I'll happily pay for it. Or we can take it out in grooming or whatever. I'm really sorry and just own up to it right there on the spot because that's the way to keep your people. But what if you don't really want to keep them? What if you've got a situation where, for your own personal sanity, it would be a better choice to let this person go? We're going to talk about that in our next segment. How was that for a segue? Whew. That was a that was a kickass segue.

barbara bird Good job, good job boss. All right.

susy Hang tight while we hear from our other sponsors. Then we will be right back to talk about the firing portion of our deal.

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susy So let's talk about when to let a client go. So what are some of the reasons that you would choose maybe not to continue on with a client?

barbara bird There is such an animal called the toxic client.

susy So the toxic client, what are some of the traits.

barbara bird That takes a little more than one experience because an angry client is not necessarily a toxic client. Um, because their anger might be justified in their mind, you know? But the toxic client is one that keeps all. Never can be quite satisfied. Always kind of leave you hanging. That maybe you needed to do a little more for them. And so they just suck up all your special care. And your forgiveness. And you're making exceptions for them. And you know, you're always. I'm so sorry you weren't happy. I had I had one customer that had a standard poodle and a standard poodle be shown mix, which was very unfortunate. It looked like a b shown a giraffe. Um. And they wanted, you know, puffs left and bracelets and all of this. And I did my best and they were never, ever happy. And so finally, I had to like, give them permission to seek another groomer. You know, I think I'm, I think I've done the best I can. I never seem to be able to satisfy you. Um, I, I think there's probably somebody out there that will be a better match.

susy This problem comes up for me when people want a more complicated haircut than I can do in a timely manner. And I will always give it a try. And I always preface it by, you know, this isn't my special skill. My special skill is dealing with dogs that have a difficult time with the process. Not necessarily hand scissoring your bichon, but I'll give it a try. And if I've really given it my best effort for a couple times, and you can just tell it's not what they're looking for. Then I will absolutely let somebody know that they would be better serviced from someone else rather than me. But I do run into it occasionally, and it's not quite the same thing as somebody having a bad day at home. Occasionally people have bad days and you don't know what's going on, and sometimes.

barbara bird That's.

susy Right. Yeah, they'll take it out on you accidentally, or maybe not accidentally because your haircut hasn't been right or something like that. But don't you don't have to fire those people. Those aren't the people you want to let the door hit in the butt. But sometimes, sometimes there are people that you have a personality conflict with. Or perhaps you see the name come up on your your register there as an appointment coming up and you feel dread in your heart. We don't need to work like that. We can pretty much if you're your own boss at least, or even if you're working for a decent boss, maybe someone else can groom that particular dog. But those are the kind of things that really translate through your handling and grooming and and energy around the dog. And I think it's a bad idea to groom for people that you're not comfortable with or dogs that you don't have a rapport with.

barbara bird I just had a flash of this shaggy dog in a crate. I had, I had a woman one time, I think she had two cocker spaniels. They were just a big mess and they were un. Trained, untrained, um, hyperactive dogs. She would end up rushing them in late. She would want unreasonable work done for the condition they were in. She would do things like don't trim their feet that were, you know, like, uh, not in the best interest of the dog. And, um. I finally I mean, I just kept running up against her and I finally said, you know, I, I just don't think that I'm the groomer for you. Um, I'm I'm sorry. Love you. Love you dogs. But this isn't working. This doesn't work for me.

susy I love that. One of my favorite things, you know.

barbara bird Doesn't work for me. And, you know, like that phrase, whether that works for phrase can be used to find out what works for the customer when you know, like it's better to ask them if you, if you've got an open finish time and you want to, you want to set it at, they'll be done at two o'clock. Or you can ask them, will Two o'clock work for you to pick up. Now, if they've got kids in school, any kids go into classes and sports and all of that. They got to slide in between things to come and pick up. It's helpful to be for them to be able to say what works for them for a pick up time, you know? And, um.

susy So the people that suck that works for. Right?

barbara bird But talk to people, talk to people are people that they probably gaslight their marital partner all the time. Gaslighting you. Making you bad and wrong all the time and never being able to totally satisfy them. Uh, always sliding in with an excuse. Um, just, uh, inconsiderate is not respecting your, uh, position or, uh, situation at all. You know, it's all about them. The, uh, you don't need that kind of a client. They need mental health. You need to be able to, to kind of, you know, like I have a, I have a real advantage because I was a, a therapist for quite a few years. So I really get to, I have some kind of spidey sense for, um, these mental health. We all have some mental health shortcomings. Let's face it, I don't, I don't know anybody that's totally mentally healthy, except, of course, my caretaker. Um.

susy Sorry. I was I was like, is she gonna say me? Are you gonna say me? But I'm quirky. I'm not. I'm not. Okay. No.

barbara bird You're not toxic. You're not. You're. You're close to perfect.

susy I am pretty close. I have my issues. But, you.

barbara bird Know, I say that you've got you've got self-awareness. You know, you know your shortcomings and you, you, you know, like that's that you acknowledge. Yes, yourself, your real self. Yeah. And, um, that's important. And people that kind of know, you know, um, I've had people say, you know, Barbara, I'm never going to comb out this dog at home. Like lying to you. Yes. Lying to you, you know, like you. Why do people lie? They're afraid of your judgment. So you need to say, you know, if you're not going to be able to. Brush your dog at home, just let me know. We'll do a shorter haircut.

susy Yeah, that's one of my special skills right there. Yeah, yeah.

barbara bird You know.

susy Yeah. Well. Yeah. The thing is, it's there's a lot of groomers out there. There's a lot of different types of opportunities for people to get their pets groomed. Just because you are not a good fit doesn't mean you need to keep struggling on to the detriment of your mental health or your health of your shop. You know the wellbeing in your shop. You really need to think about these things. And I know that making the making the commitment and then having the conversation can be really challenging. Like, I'd rather not fire someone when I do a dog for the first time. I tell people I'm very bad with rejection, so I'm not going to make your second appointment. You can call me back and then I'll know everything worked for you. And then if you don't, I don't get my feelings hurt. And people like that. It's a good way to let them know. That's why I'm not booking their next appointment. I only do that on the first appointment because after that, everything gets everybody gets pre-booked. For me, pretty much maybe ninety eight percent of my dogs are pre-booked. But um, yeah, there's no way to really practice that in the moment correction that's needed. But also you can have an in the moment decision to let somebody go. I think it's a good idea to always leave the door a little bit open if they want to come back, if they storm out or something like that. So make it on them, not necessarily on you. Like don't forbid them to come back. But a long time ago, you mentioned something called the happy price. And sometimes dealing with someone, it just, you just need to be paid enough to deal with them, whether it's a time suck or a constantly late. You know, you can charge a late fee if they're happy to pay it. It's more money in your pocket. You know, as long as it's not to the detriment of your well-being or your mental health, I think that's pretty important. So anything else we should know about letting people go?

barbara bird Well, no. You know, lying, not paying on time, not, you know, like just repeated failures to show that kind of thing. Uh, but sometimes on repeated failures to show, I say, do you need a, a phone call the night before your appointment? Some people, older people, people that have a confused schedule or something going on, like they're getting ready to move to Chicago or something, they might need an extra notice besides. Just a text or whatever the routine is. Um, they might need a personal call the night before. I'm very accommodating. I really try to find a way to make my service work for as many people as possible, and I try to be flexible. I try to. Notice their needs and some people need to be called right away when their dog is done. Some people need to leave them until in the afternoon so I can do shopping. You know, like you gotta figure it out. You gotta fit your your business in with their life. And it's a challenge, but it's fun when you make it work. I agree. You know? Yeah. And I, you know, and I, I like that that different people come and present different challenges, but when they're toxic and, you know, they're just making everybody in their life bad and wrong are right and they just can't. Just so long. It's been good to know you.

susy Yeah. And you will feel so much better not seeing that name on your books. These people, when they are really giving you bad juju and you look on there and you're like, God, they're coming next Thursday. And then you think about it the whole time up until next Thursday. And then they come in and you work on their dog. Like there's only been maybe one or two dogs where I did not have a rapport with them when they were in with me, and I had a lady who I really didn't like her personality all that much, and the dogs never warmed up to me, neither one of them. It was just a funny situation. They were cocker spaniels and they were also, um. She wanted to leave hair on them, but they were never brushed through. So I found every bit of that person difficult to work with. And when I finally did the happy price thing and raised her to a price that she wasn't happy with, and she went somewhere else. I felt such relief.

barbara bird I would tell her, you were so happy. So, so I always, I always used to say, I can, um, groom a dog that I don't like for a customer that I like or a customer that I don't like and a dog that I love. And. But I cannot groom a dog that I don't like for a person that I don't like, that's that's asking too much of myself. Yep. You know, that's a good rule. Yeah.

susy I like it.

barbara bird Yeah.

susy Okay. Well, I think we're going to call it a day with our video broadcast. Let us know if you enjoyed this, if it's fun to watch us talk back and forth and over each other and laugh and giggle and cough and all of the cool stuff that happens on a live broadcast. Or if you'd rather, you always have the option to listen to the beautifully edited version that will also pop up on YouTube. And you can find it every one of your podcasts, collectors or players or any of that stuff. And thank you for being here. Thanks for supporting our show. Thanks for supporting our sponsors. And of course, happy grooming everyone. See you next time on the Green Pod. Bye bye now.

barbara bird And take care of yourselves because we love you.