SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Carm’s Dog House is one of many businesses to find success with mobile services during the COVID-19 pandemic with its mobile dog grooming.
Its mobile grooming has been so popular, it had to create a new phone number for those orders separate from the main number for the store a couple of years ago.
“We at one point had two people at the front desk all day long just answering calls helping clients,” Carm’s Vice President Jamie Rosecrans said.
So it designated Danielle Rich, who’s been with the company since its beginning, as head mobile groomer in charge of all mobile grooming.
There are six mobile grooming buses, each equipped with generators, water tanks, electricity, a hydraulic table and a big bathtub.
“We’re able to do everything and anything right on the bus for the groom start to finish,” Rosecrans said.
That’s a big part of the convenience for customers as it doesn’t need to hook up to their house for anything. The bus parks right outside the customer’s home and the groomer takes it from there.
“I go to the door,” Rich said. “I get the dogs. I get them to come on the bus. I fully groom them. I bring them back.”
That’s important for customers like Connie Miles, whose two dogs Rich has been grooming for two years. Miles is older and one of her dogs, a great dane, weighs 50 pounds more than she does. She also doesn’t travel on the highway anymore.
“The whole thing is convenient,” Miles said.
It is convenient for the dogs as well. The dogs don’t have to go for a car ride or go into a noisy salon around multiple other dogs. With the bus parked right outside the home, the dogs can look through the window of the bus and see their home throughout the grooming appointment.
“A lot of dogs that have anxiety or don’t like to go in the car, it’s good for them because they know they’re home, they can see their house,” Rich said.
Carm’s had all six buses on the road before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Now, Rich is the only groomer and Rosecrans said they are looking to hire more, even offering a $1,500 sign-on bonus after a probationary period.
Rich says it’s a service that was getting more popular even before the pandemic came, and sees it as a service that will only get more popular with time.
“Doctors come to your house, (now) the groomer comes to your house,” Rich said.
Carm’s has locations in Cicero, Baldwinsville and soon a Liverpool location it is hoping to open March 1.
It also hopes to get its new canine cardio bus, a bus equipped with a treadmill for dog exercise, in the coming weeks.
