Woofle is built around three things: your clients and their pets, your calendar, and the messages that keep everyone in the loop. Almost everything you do day to day touches one of those three, and they're all linked together — so a little setup at the start saves a lot of typing later.
You don't have to do it all at once. But these four steps, in order, give you a foundation that makes the rest of Woofle quicker to use. Each one has its own deeper guide if you want to follow along.
Your first week, step by step
-
Set up your services
Your services are simply the grooming options you offer — full groom, bath and tidy, puppy intro, nail clip, and so on. On the Services page you give each one a name and pop them in the order you like. They become a tidy pick-list that's ready whenever you book, so you're choosing from a button rather than typing it out each time. The full how-to is in Setting up your services.
-
Add your clients and pets
Bring your existing client list across in one go from the Import Data page — upload a spreadsheet, match your columns up, and Woofle brings in the people and their dogs together. Prefer to add them as they come? You can create a client and their pets by hand at any time. Each pet gets its own profile for breed, colour, temperament, alerts, and grooming notes. See Importing your clients and pets for the spreadsheet route, or Adding clients and pets to do it manually.
-
Book a few appointments
Open the calendar and book in your next few jobs. Pick the client and pet, choose the service, and set the price and how long it'll take. Need to move something? Drag it to a new slot to reschedule. When a groom's done, marking it complete and booking the next one is just a click or two. There's much more in Using the calendar.
-
Set up reminders and nudges
This is where the texting pays off. On each pet's profile you can say how many days before an appointment to remind the client, and how many weeks after their last groom to nudge them for a re-book. Woofle then keeps an eye on your diary and flags each one on your dashboard when it's due, ready for you to send with a tap. Start with Reminders and re-book nudges.
How it all links up
The reason a bit of setup goes a long way is that everything in Woofle is connected. A pet belongs to a client. An appointment pulls in that client and pet. A reminder knows the date, the dog and the owner, so the text practically writes itself. Once your services, clients and pets are in, day-to-day work becomes choosing from lists rather than retyping the same details over and over.
A few things worth knowing as you find your feet:
- Nothing here is permanent. You can rename services, edit a pet's notes, change a price, or move an appointment at any point. The fastest way to get comfortable is simply to start using it.
- A client needs a mobile number to be texted — and each one has a Send messages switch (on by default) you can turn off for anyone who'd rather not hear from you by text.
- Texts cost credits. Your plan includes a batch each month, and the compose box always shows the cost before you send, so there are never any surprises.
The wider toolkit
Those four steps cover the essentials, but there's more waiting when you're ready for it.
Messaging in full
Beyond reminders, Woofle can offer a text whenever you book, complete, cancel or take payment for an appointment, plus thank-yous and one-off messages you write yourself. You tailor the wording on the Message Templates page using simple placeholders like [ClientFirstName] and [PetName]. For the whole picture, read Understanding messaging in Woofle.
A portal for your clients
You can also give clients their own portal — a personal page where they can fill in their pet's details, so the information comes to you accurate and saves you the data entry. Setting up your client portal walks you through switching it on.
Where to go next
That's the lay of the land: services, clients and pets, the calendar, and messaging — four pieces that lean on each other. Pick whichever step you're on and follow its guide a little deeper. You'll find them all, plus everything else, on the guides index.