The Worst Thing About Charging Hourly
Charging hourly in your grooming business an be the best and the worst. Setting your prices based on time is GREAT. Telling clients you charge by the hour is not. I prefer looking at the scope of work, not just strictly time. An hour spent on a large, overweight pet who is overdue for grooming is different than an hour on a well behaved pet maintenance groom.
But the WORST part about charging by the hour is TELLING a client you charge by the hour. It can cause confusion for clients because they don’t know how long the groom will take (they either have never used a groomer before or are comparing your business to previous salons they have visited - which may have a very different process than you). But it also means the client doesn’t understand what the upper limits of the grooming price could be. “Starting at” doesn’t give an accurate description either because it mentions nothing about the higher range if the pet is overdue for grooming.
People will actually pay more for something called “Price Certainty,” instead of wondering what the price will be, will it be too high, will it include the things they are expecting. With saying you charge hourly, you (the service provider) are incentivized to work longer while the client is incentivized to want you to work shorter. The bottom line is that telling clients you charge hourly creates a situation of you vs. your client.
So the bigger issue that needs to be solved is what is a better way to communicate pricing to your clients. While on the business side, you should absolutely consider time while figuring out your pricing structure, the customer needs more information that is relevant to them. (The age old, “What’s In It For Me?” situation).
Communicate pricing simply to the client
Estimate a range
Then provide factors that could affect the service (length of appointment, pricing, etc.)
Upper limit of appointment fee
Offer to confirm price (or narrower price range) when you assess the pet for their appointment
Make it easy for potential clients to say yes, while also cutting down any opportunities for miscommunication before you even get started.