The Pooch Pit

The Pooch Pit is a dog, cat and small-pet groomer run by one person. Bookings were arriving by text, by Instagram message and over the phone — which meant some got lost, and the ones that did not still had to be written down somewhere. This site took the whole job over.

A client picks their pet, the service, any add-ons and a time, then sends a request. Nothing is confirmed until the owner approves it: this is a shop with one animal in it at a time, and a calendar that books itself would be no use to her. Once she approves, the slot locks so nobody else can take it, a $25 deposit is paid on the site, and a reminder goes out the day before. After the visit the client pays the balance and can add a tip. Everyone also gets a private link to check, add to their calendar, or cancel — no account to make, no password to forget.

She runs the rest herself: approve or decline requests, mark days off or a recurring afternoon away, set every price and add-on, rewrite any page, post photos of a groom, and approve the reviews clients leave. She can also see every email the site has sent and what it said, which settles the day somebody insists they never got a reminder.

The parts that matter are the ones you would only notice if they broke. Two people cannot be given the same slot. A photo straight off a phone uploads and looks right, whatever format that phone used. And a booking or a message is written down before the site tries to email anyone, so a mail problem on somebody else's server can never lose her a customer.