Confirm the booking, remind once the day before, text when the dog is ready, ask every client for a review the same way, and nudge them when they are due back.
Frazer McLeod
27 September 20268 min read
Quick version
Text a grooming client five times across a visit: a confirmation when they book, one reminder the day before, a ready-to-collect text when the dog is done, a review ask at the same point for every client, and a due-back text when the next groom is due. Let software send the confirmation and the reminder, and send the ready text and the review ask yourself, because both depend on something only the person with the dog can see.
Five Texts, Each With a Job
Texting clients goes wrong in both directions. Send too little and the owner forgets the booking, or finds out at four that the dog was ready at two. Send a text for everything and they stop reading, which is how the one that mattered gets missed.
The set that works is small: a confirmation when the booking is made, a reminder the day before, a text when the dog is ready, a review ask after the visit, and a nudge when the next groom is due. Let software send the confirmation and the reminder. The due-back text can run on its own too, once clients can reply to you. Send the ready text and the review ask yourself, because both depend on something only the person with the dog can see.
Where we stand. Petboost sends texts like these, so we have an interest. Everything below works from any system, your own phone included. Where Petboost sends one of them automatically or leaves it to you, we say which, and the settings and rules we mention are sourced at the end.
If you use Petboost, one thing first. Every customer message switch starts off on a new account, and automatic reminders do not run during the free trial. None of the automatic texts in this post go out until you turn them on under Settings, Notifications.
1. When They Book
Confirm every booking in writing within a minute of it being made, including the ones you took on the phone or at the counter. The confirmation is where the owner finds out you heard the right day, and a wrong day caught now costs a text instead of an empty slot.
It needs the dog's name, the service, the day and time, and how to change it. Anything practical they should know before the day belongs here too, like where to park.
Hi Sarah, Kiwi's booked in for a full groom on Thursday at 9:30am. Park in the lane out the back, the front is a loading zone. To change the time, use the link in your booking email.
Keep offers out of it. ACMA's guidance is that a mostly factual message, such as an account or service message, can still breach the spam rules when it also carries promotional or sales content. A confirmation with a discount code on the end is no longer only a confirmation.
In Petboost this one is automatic once Text the customer: booking confirmation is on, for bookings you make as well as the ones clients make online, and Email the customer: booking updates sends the email version. The text's wording is fixed and fills in the pet, the service, the time and your business name. Your own words go in the Pre-Appointment Message, under Custom Messages on the same Notifications page. It appears on confirmation and reminder emails, and on the texts as well when you turn on Also add to confirmation and reminder texts. If a booking is waiting for your approval, the same switch tells the owner it is a request rather than a confirmed booking.
In Petboost
Have a look at the actual screen.
SMS Messaging has its own page, built from the real product rather than a mockup of it.
One reminder, the day before, is the one that earns its place. A day out, the owner can still rearrange and you can still offer the time to someone else. Why reminders work at all is covered in what the research says.
A second reminder on the morning is worth adding for early drop-offs, where one forgotten 7:30 start empties the first slot of the day. For most services, one is enough.
Hi Sarah, a reminder that Kiwi's in tomorrow at 9:30am. If anything's changed, let us know today so someone else can have the spot.
Only ask for a reply if you can receive one. Without the Communications Booster, Petboost's texts come from a shared sender that clients can't reply to, so a question in that text is one nobody can answer. Point them to your phone number instead.
In Petboost, Text the customer: reminders goes out at the Reminder Time you choose. A second reminder can be switched on for the whole business, or set on a service's own Notifications tab for just the services that need one. A text that would land between 11pm and 4am, business time, is not sent, although the email reminder still is. With the Communications Booster you can turn on Confirmation Reply (Y/N): a Y keeps the booking and gets "Thanks! See you then." back, and an N cancels it within your change and cancellation rules. The SMS messaging page shows the settings.
If you stagger drop-offs, show clients a window instead of a clock time. The window appears on confirmations and reminders, and the arrival window post covers when a window beats a time.
3. When the Dog Is Ready
Send it when the dog is dry and could walk out the door now, rather than when you start on the face. An owner who arrives and then waits twenty minutes was told the wrong thing. Say how long you can keep the dog, so a late pickup doesn't catch anyone out.
Kiwi's all done and very pleased with herself. We're here until 5, so come whenever suits.
This one should be sent by hand, and in Petboost it is, because only the person holding the dryer knows the dog is done. When you mark the appointment complete, choose Send pick-up SMS as you do it, or send it from the appointment later. The standard text says the dog is ready for pickup, signed with your business name, and you can replace that wording for each service on the service's Notifications tab. It uses your plan's SMS and doesn't need the Booster.
4. The Review Ask
Ask every client at the same point, once, with nothing offered in return, and never suggest what they should write. Google's policy for reviews on Maps does not allow a business to selectively ask for positive reviews or to offer an incentive for one. It also says a business should not ask for specific content to be included.
So choose one moment and ask everyone who reaches it. The evening after a client's second groom works well, because by then they have seen what you do twice. Everyone who gets there is asked, including the client you suspect went home a bit flat.
Thanks for bringing Kiwi in, Sarah. If you've got a minute, an honest Google review helps other dog owners find us: [link]
Petboost never sends a review request on its own. From the appointment, open Manage, then Google Reviews. Send Google Review SMS texts the client a thank-you with your review link from your dedicated number, so it needs the Communications Booster, and its wording is fixed. Send Google Review Email copies a ready-made email for you to paste into your own email. It includes a draft review for the client to use, which is the kind of suggested wording Google asks businesses not to send, so delete that part before it goes. Set your Google Review URL under Settings, Branding first, so the link opens your review form rather than a Google search.
5. When They Are Due Back
The best due-back text is the one you never have to send, because the next groom was booked before the owner left. A standing appointment set up at the counter does that in one step, and standing appointments covers why it beats chasing.
For everyone else, send one text when the dog is due, going by that dog's own gap between grooms, and keep it about the dog. Leave discounts out. They belong in your marketing, and a due-back text that always carries one teaches clients to wait for it.
Hi Sarah, Kiwi's about due for her next groom. Want me to find you a time? Reply here or book online: [link]
A text that asks for a booking sits close to marketing, and once a message carries promotional content, ACMA's guidance is that the spam rules apply to it, including consent and an unsubscribe that works. ACMA's example of an SMS unsubscribe is "Reply STOP", which only works from a number that can receive the reply.
In Petboost this is Rebooking Reminders under Settings, Notifications, set to go by each dog's previous appointment history or after a set number of weeks. It sends at 10am and never texts the same dog twice within 30 days, and a dog that already has a booking is skipped. It is text only and needs the Communications Booster's dedicated number, because the text has to be able to take a STOP reply, and "Reply STOP to opt out" is added to the message. A client who says no to these reminders when they book, or later in their profile, doesn't get them. The client retention page shows the setting.
The Ones That Aren't on a Schedule
These five are the routine. The texts that are hard to write are the one-offs: filling a slot that just opened, the matted coat, the late cancellation, the unhappy client and the client who quietly drifted. We wrote a prompt for each in the messages you dread writing, and the client who drifted has a guide of its own.
Sources
Australian Communications and Media Authority, Telemarketing and e-marketing: common issues and mistakes: acma.gov.au. Last updated 15 December 2025, accessed 27 September 2026.
Australian Communications and Media Authority, Avoid sending spam: acma.gov.au. Last updated 29 November 2024, accessed 27 September 2026.
Google, Maps User Generated Content Policy, Prohibited and restricted content: support.google.com. Accessed 27 September 2026.
Petboost Help Centre, Notifications: help.petboost.com. Accessed 27 September 2026.
Petboost Help Centre, Communications and Messaging FAQ: help.petboost.com. Accessed 27 September 2026.
Petboost Help Centre, Google Review Requests: help.petboost.com. Accessed 27 September 2026.
Names and messages are invented examples. Diagrams show the real Petboost interface with demonstration data.
