Questions a groomer or kennel should ask an agency

Mid-March is when the pitches start landing. Shedding season is a few weeks off, summer boarding dates will start filling by May, and every agency with a pet care case study wants a call before the busy months arrive. Most of those calls sound alike: more leads, more reviews, a dashboard.

A grooming shop or boarding kennel is not a generic local business, and the quickest way to sort an experienced agency from a pitch deck is to ask questions only someone who has worked in the trade can answer. Here are the ones we would ask in your seat, including of us.

Do they know what your state requires of you?

An agency that writes your site and your Google profile is writing claims about a licensed business in some states, and it should know which.

• Colorado. The Pet Animal Care and Facilities Act covers businesses that board, train or groom pets for pay. A boarding facility is one caring for more than three animals at a time besides the owner’s own, and a groomer facility can be “permanent or mobile.” The rules were updated effective July 15, 2025.
• Connecticut. The Department of Agriculture licenses grooming facilities and commercial kennels under Conn. Gen. Stat. 22-344, and the application asks for zoning approval.
• Massachusetts. Kennel licenses come from the city or town, which must refuse one until an animal control officer has inspected the kennel. Day care counts as kennel use there.

Colorado’s rules also limit what your marketing can say. Grooming facilities may not give any drug or calming product to settle an animal during a groom, so copy that hints at sedation for nervous dogs is a problem, not a selling point. Facilities must also keep current rabies, distemper and parvovirus records for dogs. An agency that has never asked where your vaccine policy lives on the site has not thought about the owner who arrives without records and gets turned away.

Ask: “Where would my license and my vaccine requirements appear, and what would you never write about how we handle anxious dogs?”

Can they set up a Google profile for a van?

Mobile groomers are where careless agencies cause real damage. Google’s rules are plain: a business that travels to customers and has no storefront with signage is allowed one service-area profile. A rented mailbox or virtual office is not an eligible address, and listing one invites a suspension of the profile you depend on.

A shop that also runs vans is a hybrid. Google lets it show the storefront address and set a service area, as long as the location is staffed and can receive customers, and it expects permanent signage with the business name at that address.

Ask: “I groom from a van and park it at home. What address goes on my profile?” The right answer is none: the profile is set up as a service area. If the agency suggests a virtual office to rank in the next town, end the call.

How will they get reviews without breaking the rules?

Reviews decide this trade more than most, because nobody hands over a dog to a business with eleven reviews and a two-year gap. BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey, published in February, puts numbers on that:

• 47% of consumers won’t use a business with fewer than 20 reviews.
• 74% only care about reviews written in the last three months.
• 68% will only use a business rated four stars or higher, up from 55% a year earlier.

The tempting shortcut in pet care is the free nail trim or blueberry facial for a five-star review. Google’s contribution policy bans incentives for posting any review and bans asking only the happy customers. The FTC’s rule on consumer reviews, announced in August 2024, bans incentives conditioned on a positive review and allows civil penalties. An agency proposing either is putting your profile and your business at risk.

Ask: “How do you ask for reviews?” A good answer sounds like a text with the direct link sent at pickup to every client, plus a reply to every review within a day or two, written by a person.

What would the first ninety days actually include?

You should get a sequence, not a menu. For a grooming shop or kennel we would expect something close to this:

• Tracking first: separate counts for bookings from the Google profile, the website, Rover and walk-ins, and a count of calls missed while everyone’s hands are on a dog.
• The profile and site next: the right primary category for what you mainly sell, real photos of your cuts, runs and play yards, the vaccine policy and cleaning routine on the booking page, and the license where your state issues one.
• Rebooking: the next groom booked at checkout, with a reminder before it, because in our experience regulars who are left to call back on their own drift a week or two later every visit.
• Local Services Ads, if they suit you. Google has separate Pet grooming and Pet boarding categories, both carrying the Google Verified badge. Grooming applicants need general and professional liability insurance; boarding applicants need none. Screening takes weeks, so it starts early.
• Paid search and Facebook and Instagram campaigns last, and aimed at the months that do not fill themselves.

If an agency leads with ads and leaves rebooking out entirely, it is planning a first visit, not a client.

What will the monthly report show?

Clicks and impressions tell you little. Ask to see a sample report and look for these:

• New clients by source, with Rover shown separately so you can see how much of your boarding depends on it.
• How many grooming clients left with their next appointment booked.
• Calls answered against calls missed, by hour.
• Reviews gained this month and how quickly each got a reply.
• Cost per new client for any paid channel, set against what an Animals & Pets search lead costs in the market. WordStream by LocaliQ’s 2025 benchmarks put the median at $31.82 for April 2024 to March 2025, a category that mixes pet retail with pet services.

What we are telling clients

• Put your vaccine requirements and cleaning routine on the booking page this month, before summer boarding inquiries arrive.
• If you run a van, check your profile address today. A service area, not a mailbox.
• Start asking every client for a review at pickup, by text, with the direct link, and stop any review incentive you are running.
• Decide now whether Local Services Ads fit you, and gather your insurance certificates if you groom, because screening takes weeks.
• Ask any agency you are talking to for a sample monthly report and a ninety-day sequence in writing.

The agencies worth hiring will be glad you asked. If you want to see how we think about the trade, our page for pet groomers and boarding kennels lays out the year, the rules and the order we work in, and our Google Business Profile service covers the storefront and service-area setup in more detail.