Business owner premium pricing

[CurlyDoodle]

Okay business owners, I need your help! After three years in business, we are blessedly busy and I have three staff groomers. They are trained by me and do things exactly the same way, but I am having a hard time weaning some clients off of me personally. I physically can't do that many grooms without hurting myself, and I need to focus more energy on running the business. Do any of you charge a premium for requesting the owner to provide the service? If so, is it a set amount or a percentage? Thanks 🐾

[ehflower]

Yep!!!  Set amount for  each certain particular service, with a cost increase every year.  However, it may not dissuade your client because that is why they initially went to you because of your skill.  (so the extra money will be nice)

See if there are any tasks that you can assign throughout your other groomers to take a bit off of your plate.  For instance, If inputting daily financials into a software system you might even be able to hire someone to come in weekly.  Or maybe passing off some social media engagement to someone.  Heck if they still won't "wean" you might have to hire for certain task and of course that would be reflected in the costs of your services (to offset)  You earned it and good luck, you got this!

[CurlyDoodle]

Thanks! It was easy when I had a dozen clients, but now we have nearly 700 over two locations! I am setting up new clients with my other groomers right away so they can bond to them. There are only a few I always do myself like cats and dogs who bite, as I don't want to put my staff at risk. 

[mitin]

Hi @CurlyDoodle I have seen salons do this regularly, they have Sr Stylists or barbers sometimes that will have a higher price like 10% more, partly it is to accommodate new stylists and also its because they have the experience. You could do something similar like a Sr Groomer pricing  

[CurlyDoodle]

This is what I decided to do. I added a 20% differential as prices vary by service type. I couldn't figure out how to add it as a modifier so I created a service called Preferred Groomer Fee. I made that service variable and calculate the price manually. This works for now because there are only a handful of clients that apply. I expected pushback but I was surprised that one client responded with a thank you! I think if this is what they really want, they are happy to have a way to lock it in.

[SiBellebeauty]

I know a lot of people that do this within their business and absolutely think its a good idea. Unfortunately Square Appointments don't do pricing tiers but there are a couple of ways to get around this. You could add a variation and only allow you to be booked for this variation with the increased price. Or have it as a individual service in itself. I think the variation will allow you to flow better through the booking system. Hope that helps! I know many people add an additional set fee to every appointment rather than it being a percentage. 

[mitin · Accepted solution]

Trying to brainstorm this , here is a method that might work but it would depend on your upcharge style if its a percentage or a flat dollar amount.  The poor mans way to do this with the current Square Appointments limitation is by doing a MODIFIER

Here are the steps for it, hope it helps

The modifier just lives on the service. Here's what the actual flow looks like:

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Step 1 — Create the modifier list

1. Go to Square Dashboard > Items & Orders > Modifiers
2. Click Create modifier list
3. Name it something like "Senior Technician Upcharge"
4. Add your dollar tiers as individual modifiers — e.g.:
   • +$5.00
   • +$10.00
   • +$15.00
   • +$20.00
5. Save

Step 2 — Attach it to your services

1. Go to Items & Orders > Item Library
2. Open a service
3. Scroll to Modifiers and add "Senior Technician Upcharge"
4. Repeat for each service — or I can do this in bulk for you

Step 3 — At checkout (the manual part) When a senior tech is on the appointment, whoever checks out the client manually selects the appropriate upcharge tier from the modifier list before completing the transaction.

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That's the full picture. There's no staff assignment step because Square doesn't support it. The discipline has to live with your team at checkout.