Stop Digging Through Index Cards to Find Out Who Owns the Goldendoodle
BarkBook’s pet grooming client management keeps everything about a client, their family, and every one of their pets in a single place — so you stop wasting time searching and start spending it grooming.
You're Managing Clients Across Sticky Notes, Spreadsheets, and Your Own Memory
You know the feeling. A client calls and says "this is Sarah, I need to rebook Biscuit." You have three Sarahs. One of them has two dogs and you can never remember which Sarah that is. So you flip through your notebook, scroll through your spreadsheet, or click through six screens in your current software trying to figure out which Sarah, which dog, and when they were last in.
Too many clicks. Too many places to look. Too many chances to mix up the nervous Shih Tzu with the one who bites.
A new client walks in with a Standard Poodle. You've never seen this dog before. You don't know the coat condition, you don't know if the dog is anxious on the table, you don't know if there are matting issues, and you definitely don't know how long this groom is going to take. So you guess — and either overbook your afternoon or undercharge for an hour of dematting you didn't expect.
Meanwhile, your regular Mrs. Chen calls to book her three dogs. You need to find her phone number, check which dogs are due for what, look up what you charged last time, and see if her daughter's puppy still needs the special shampoo for that skin condition. That's four different lookups across two different notebooks — or five clicks and three scrolls in software that wasn't designed for a household with multiple pets.
Then there's the vaccination question. "Is Biscuit's rabies up to date?" You know it was last year, but you wrote it on a Post-it that's now buried under your appointment book. You let the dog in and hope for the best.
This is what complexity looks like in a grooming business: not one big problem, but dozens of small ones that eat your time and your patience all day long.
BarkBook Puts Every Client, Every Pet, and Every Detail in One Place
Households, Not Scattered Records
BarkBook organizes clients the way your business actually works — by household. A family and all their pets are grouped together in one record. The Chens and their three dogs? One household. You see the primary contact, their preferred scheduling days and times, and the complete appointment history for the whole family. No hunting, no cross-referencing, no guessing which Sarah this is.
Search by name, phone number, email, or pet name — it all leads to the same place. Type "Biscuit" and you get Biscuit's household, not a list of 50 results you have to click through one at a time.
Find Anyone in Seconds with Global Search
Hit Ctrl+K from any screen in BarkBook and the global search opens instantly. Start typing a client name, a pet name, a phone number — BarkBook searches across clients and pets simultaneously and shows real-time results as you type. Up to five clients and five pets appear before you even finish the word. No loading screens, no waiting. You're already looking at the record while the client is still talking on the phone.
Fewer clicks. That's not a marketing line — it's the design principle behind every screen.
Pet Profiles That Actually Prepare You for the Groom
Every pet in BarkBook gets a detailed grooming profile that tells you what you're working with before the dog is on your table. Breed, size across four categories, coat texture across seven types, coat length across four options, and nine coat condition flags so you know about matting, tangles, or skin issues in advance.
Seven temperament flags let you note the anxious ones, the biters, the dogs that panic with nail clippers, or the ones that need extra handling. Add special handling notes, health concerns, allergies, and current vaccination records with expiration dates so you never have to guess whether a dog is up to date.
Track seasonal coat preferences for dogs whose grooming needs change through the year — because the Husky owner who wants a deshed in July needs a completely different setup than the same dog's winter maintenance trim.
Every pet's grooming history lives right on their profile. What was done, when it was done, who did it, and what was charged. When a client calls to rebook, you already know exactly what to expect.
Before-and-After Photos That Show Your Work
Upload photos directly to any pet's profile — before-and-after shots, appointment-specific progress photos, or portfolio images of your best grooms. JPEG, PNG, GIF, and WebP formats up to 10 MB each, with captions so you remember the context. A built-in photo gallery keeps everything organized per pet.
Show a nervous new client exactly how their breed looks after a groom. Pull up last session's photos to match a returning client's expectations. Build a visual record of your work that lives right where you need it, not buried in your phone's camera roll.
Per-Pet Service Defaults That Save You Time at Booking
Every pet can have custom duration overrides for each service — because a Standard Poodle full groom and a Yorkie full groom are not the same appointment. Set the duration once, and BarkBook auto-applies it every time you book that pet for that service. Add optional seasonal variations for dogs whose grooming needs change with their coat cycle, so your scheduling stays accurate year-round.
No more manually adjusting every booking. No more accidentally scheduling 45 minutes for a groom that always takes 90. The calendar reflects reality from the first click.
Contact Preferences That Respect Your Clients
Store primary and secondary phone numbers per household, with per-phone notification opt-in and opt-out. Set each client's communication preference — email, phone, SMS, or any — and BarkBook respects it across every automated notification. Nobody gets texts they didn't sign up for. Nobody misses reminders because you had the wrong number on file.
Built by Groomers Who Were Tired of Workarounds
Every feature in BarkBook's client management exists because a groomer somewhere was solving this problem with a workaround — a second notebook, a spreadsheet tab, a sticky note on the kennel, a text message to themselves. Household grouping, detailed pet profiles, vaccination tracking, photo galleries, and global search aren't feature-list padding. They're the tools that eliminate the dozen small interruptions that turn a good grooming day into an exhausting one.
When your client records are complete and accessible, everything downstream gets easier. Booking is faster because the pet's defaults are already set. Check-in is smoother because you know the temperament flags. Checkout is simpler because the history is right there. And the next time Sarah calls about Biscuit, you'll know exactly which Sarah, which Biscuit, and what happened last time — before she finishes her sentence.
Start Your 14-Day Free Trial — Every Feature Included
Set up your first household. Add a pet profile. Try the global search. See how it feels when every detail is exactly where you expect it to be — and getting to it takes fewer clicks than anything you’ve tried before. Every feature. Every plan. From day one.