Happy Friday Daily Groomers!

If you’ve been getting mysterious calls lately asking for prices on grooms, you’re not alone and it’s not a scam.

It’s Google.

That’s right: Google quietly rolled out a new feature on local business listings called “Have AI get prices.” 

When pet parents search “groomer near me,” they now see a button beside local listings inviting them to let Google’s AI call around for quotes.

Check it out below 👇

How It Works

• The pet parent clicks “Have AI get prices.”

• Google asks a few intake-style questions: pet type, breed, weight, service (bath, haircut, etc.), and location.

• Then, using that info, Google’s AI service makes automated phone calls to local groomers to ask for quotes and availability.

• The pet parent receives a text with responses from multiple salons including your business with pricing and callback info.

I obviously had to try this myself and here’s the text I got summarizing local grooming prices near me…

What This Means

Essentially, Google has built its own AI receptionist, and it’s now calling grooming salons at scale.

We’ve seen about 50 of these calls a week across the Teddy network. What’s wild is that sometimes, Google’s AI ends up talking to our AI receptionist.

So yes — we’ve officially reached the future:

• A customer uses AI to find prices to groom their dog,

• Google’s AI calls the salon

• Our Teddy AI receptionist answers

• And the two AIs have a polite conversation about shampoo and pricing…

• Before reporting the data back to their human overlords 🤣

It’s kind of crazy, but this is exactly where the industry is headed.

Okay, maybe it won’t swing all the way to one extreme…. we’re not replacing humans anytime soon. But it’s worth noting: one of the biggest and most powerful companies in the world, Google, is now using AI voice agents to save their customers time.

And that’s exactly what we’re doing on the other side with Teddy… giving small businesses the same kind of technology advantage. When groomers are busy and can’t get to the phone, Teddy steps in to handle the conversation, capture the lead, and keep things running smoothly.

The same tech that Google’s using to serve billions is now helping local salons keep up just from the other end of the line with Teddy.

What You Can Do About It

1. Be ready for AI calls. Train your front desk (or AI receptionist) to recognize these calls. They often start with, “Hi, I’m calling on behalf of a customer who searched for grooming prices on Google.” Treat them professionally — your response might influence how your business is represented in Google results.

2. Make your Google Business Profile ready for the AI future. Keep your Google Business Profile up-to-date with accurate data and details. The more info Google and customers can pull automatically, the fewer AI calls you’ll get.

3. Own your leads. Since Google masks contact details, your best move is to convert the people who do reach out directly. Always collect their info in your own system not just through Google.

4. Stay curious. Google is gathering data to understand local service pricing at scale. The more we learn about how these systems work, the more we can adapt and even use them to our advantage.

Looking Ahead

And look — you can be an AI skeptic, and that’s fair. But it’s pretty telling that in Google’s own press release and product blog for this feature, the main example they use isn’t restaurants or plumbers.

It’s pet grooming.

When one of the world’s biggest tech companies chooses our industry as the headline use case for their new AI voice product… it says a lot about how fast things are moving and how central grooming is becoming in the service economy.

So whether you love AI or roll your eyes at it, it’s officially here and it’s calling your salon or mobile grooming business. (Someone tell Google how hard it is to price quote a Doodle that was groomed 2 years ago… 🤣)

Want to see how Teddy handles your calls?

If you’re curious what happens when Google’s AI meets Teddy’s, book a quick demo and we’ll show you how the future of pet grooming customer service actually sounds!

Have you been receiving these calls? Email me back your thoughts on this!!

For the love of AI,

Alex

That’s all folks! Keep calm and groom on 🐶🤘