The problem
A doodle with a matted coat can take an hour longer than a terrier for nearly the same price. If full grooms on cockapoos average 2.5 hours at $73£55€65A$106C$103 that's $29£22€26A$42C$41 an hour, against about $40£30€36A$58C$56 an hour for the rest of the diary, and a groomer doing 30 of them a month is losing a lot of table time.
What the AI does
Export 3 months of bookings from your booking system or diary with breed, coat type, service, time on the table and price, and delete owners' names and numbers. Upload the file to ChatGPT and ask for earnings per hour by breed and service, with a chart. Its data analysis runs the sums in Python, so you can ask to see the method. You decide which prices to change. Full data analysis is on Go (about $9£7€8A$13C$13 a month) and above.
A worked example
A one-groomer salon in Taunton exports 3 months of bookings and finds cockapoo full grooms earn the least per hour. The groomer raises them from $73£55€65A$106C$103 to $86£65€77A$125C$122 and tells regular owners a month ahead.
Before
Cockapoo full grooms at $73£55€65A$106C$103 for about 2.5 hours, about 30 a month
After
At $86£65€77A$125C$122 still about 30 a month: $399£300€357A$576C$564 a month more
What it's worth
About $399£300€357A$576C$564 a month in extra profit, against about $9£7€8A$13C$13 for ChatGPT Go. A $13£10€12A$19C$19 rise on about 30 cockapoo grooms a month is $399£300€357A$576C$564 and because the work and products don't change, almost all of it is profit, as long as bookings hold.
How to set it up
- Export 3 months of bookings with breed, coat type, service, time on the table and price. Delete owners' names and phone numbers.
- In ChatGPT Go (€8, about $9£7€8A$13C$13 a month) or above, upload the file and ask: 'Work out earnings per hour by breed and service. Show a table, a bar chart and the formula you used.'
- Check two breeds by hand to make sure it used time on the table, not the booking slot.
- Ask follow-ups such as 'Which breeds overrun their booked time most?'
- Change one price band at a time, give regulars notice, and run the check again after 2 months.
What goes wrong
- If your diary records booked slots rather than real time on the table, note real times for a month first.
- Coat condition matters more than breed for some dogs. A per-hour or matting charge may be fairer than a breed price.
- A price rise can cost bookings. Tell owners why, such as longer drying and de-matting.
- Free data analysis is limited. Go and Plus are personal plans: turn off 'Improve the model for everyone' in Data Controls if you don't want your data used for training.