Notes

This standard governs notes in the customer record system: the five note types, where a note is attached, pinning, and editing. It applies to front desk staff and groomers, who write the notes the next person will act on, and to managers, who review note quality. The records remember what happened; notes remember what it meant. A note is the difference between "customer has a poodle" and handling information that allows the dog to be groomed safely. Notes are business records. Staff shall write every note as if the next reader is themselves on a bad day, and shall handle note content under the Privacy Policy.

The five types

Note type is a fixed vocabulary: five values, no more

• Internal: staff eyes only. The candid record: billing disputes in progress, warnings, context a customer shall not see. Never shown to the customer.
• Customer visible: the customer can see this. Pickup instructions, care notes, and observations such as a lump found that the customer should have checked by their veterinarian. Write it knowing the customer will read it: professional, specific, and with no shorthand they could misread.
• Appointment: tied to one appointment. Day-of context: "running 15 minutes late, called ahead," "wants the summer cut this time." Useful at that appointment and noise everywhere else, which is why it is scoped to it.
• Pet handling: tied to the pet. Handling and safety: temperament, triggers, and what works. This is the type that prevents bites. Anything that affects how a person touches the animal goes here, and goes here the day it is learned.
• System: written by the system, not by staff. The abandoned-booking capture writes these, naming the originating booking. Staff shall not edit system notes; they are the audit trail of what the system did and why. If a system note is unclear, read its reference; it names the originating booking.

Picking the wrong type is the most common notes mistake, and it has real consequences. An internal note about a billing dispute marked customer visible is a privacy incident. A handling warning recorded as an internal note on the appointment, instead of a pet handling note on the pet, will not surface at the next booking. When in doubt, answer two questions: who needs to see this, and when? The answers give the type.

Pinning

A note may be pinned or unpinned with a single change. Pinned notes stay at the top. Staff shall pin the note the next person needs before they know they need it: the bite history, the "do not book with" constraint, the standing instruction. Unpin a note when it is no longer the most important thing; a profile with eleven pinned notes has no pinned notes. Review pins when the underlying fact changes, not on a schedule.

Editing

Note text may be corrected. The rule is: fix facts, do not rewrite history. Correcting a pet's stated age is a fix. Rewriting a note recording that a customer disputed the wait into a note saying the customer was satisfied, after the fact, falsifies the record. If the situation resolved, add a new note saying so. The old note is what happened; the new note is what happened next.

Where notes live

A note may be attached to a customer, a pet, an appointment, or a grooming record. That scoping decides where the note surfaces

• Attach it to the pet when it is about the animal: pet handling notes especially. Pet-scoped notes survive across bookings and surface at every future appointment.
• Attach it to the appointment when it is about that visit. "Running late" belongs to that day, not to the pet forever.
• Attach it to the customer when it is about the person: billing, communication preferences, "prefers text over calls."
• The grooming record attachment is for post-visit notes: behavior observed during the groom, coat condition, what was done differently.

Notes are also written automatically: appointment actions record customer notes, and the booking carry-over brings customer notes from the booking onto the appointment. If a note appears that staff did not write, check its type: system means the system wrote it, and the text usually says why.

The notes that matter most

If staff write nothing else, they shall write these

1. Handling warnings (pet handling, pinned). Bite history, triggers, what calms the animal. This is safety equipment made of text.
2. Standing grooming instructions (pet handling or customer visible). Blade numbers, cut preferences, exclusions. Whether the third groom matches the first is the difference between a regular who stays and a regular who leaves.
3. Billing context (internal). Disputed charges, promised callbacks, manager-approved discounts. The next person to touch the money needs the story.
4. Communication preferences (internal, on the customer). "Text, do not call." "Email only on weekdays." Sending paths honor these only if they are written down.

A profile with no notes is a stranger the system has met before. Staff shall not let that happen on their watch.

Controls

• An internal note shall never be marked customer visible. If a note's content could embarrass the business or disclose another matter if read by the customer, it is internal, or it shall not be written.
• A handling warning shall be recorded the day it is learned, on the pet, and pinned where the next groomer needs it first.
• System notes shall not be edited by staff.
• Notes shall record facts. Speculation about a customer, and personal remarks unrelated to service, shall not be entered; notes are business records and may be produced in response to legal process.

Records

Each note is kept in the customer record system with its type, text, pin state, and its attachment to a customer, pet, appointment, or grooming record. Edited notes and system notes are kept as part of the same record set.

Escalation and review

Managers review pinned notes, handling warnings, and any note disclosed to a customer in error. A misdirected customer-visible note shall be reported to a manager at once. A notes fault that the store cannot resolve shall be reported to support@aapawz.com. Legal process concerning a note or customer record shall be directed to legal@aapawz.com.