REPORTS / METHODOLOGY
How a report is built
Every report on this site is built the same way: find what the business itself has published, cite it, and say plainly when we could not find something. This page spells out exactly what that means, because a directory that asks you to trust it should explain itself, not just assert that it is trustworthy.
The three source marks
Every answer on a report carries one of three marks. The third mark is the reason this site exists.
Confirmed, first party
The business states it on a page it controls, and the report links that page so you can check us.
Third party only
A directory or listing claims it, the business itself does not. We label it exactly that, never upgrade it.
Not publicly stated
We searched and found no public answer. Not a demerit. It is a fact about the record, and the question you now know to ask first.
On every card, confirmed facts sort first and gaps come last, neither hidden. A report with nothing confirmed opens with our plain-language take instead of a wall of gaps.
What we verify
For each groomer, we look for the business's own website, its own Facebook or Instagram page, and, where those don't exist or don't cover a fact, a public directory listing (Yelp, the Better Business Bureau, or a booking-platform profile page). We record what those pages actually say: type of business (storefront salon, mobile, or both), the neighborhoods or service area named, whether cats are groomed, whether large or giant dogs are accepted, published pricing, and a plain-English summary of the services offered. Every fact links back to a source URL you can check yourself.
A report is dated with the "last verified" date it was checked against the business's own pages. We re-check periodically, not continuously, so if something looks off, the business's own current page is the more current source; tell us and we'll fix it.
What we deliberately never do
- No fabricated ratings. We do not assign stars, scores, or "best of" rankings. Nothing on a report page is a rating.
- No republished Google or Yelp star ratings or review text. Even when a directory listing is one of our sources for a basic fact like an address or a service type, we do not copy its star rating or quote its reviews. A directory's star rating measures something different from what a report is for, and reproducing it would make our page look like we vouched for it, which we don't.
- No phone numbers, in this version of the site. Every report links out to the business's own website or social page instead. This is a deliberate choice, not an oversight.
- No claims of visiting, testing, or grooming a pet there ourselves.We have not sent a dog or cat to any business listed here. Every sentence in a report is sourced to a page the business controls (or, where noted, a directory), never to our own firsthand experience, because we don't have any.
- No invented "years in business," awards, or credentials. If a business states its own founding date, certification, or years of experience on its own page, we cite it as their claim. If only a third-party directory states it, we say so explicitly rather than presenting it as confirmed fact.
What "not publicly stated" means
The gap mark means exactly what it says: we found no public statement either way. It does not mean the business refuses cats, refuses large dogs, or has something to hide on price. Many excellent shops simply have not written these answers down yet. Each metro file also publishes its coverage counts (how many policies we checked and how many came back unconfirmed), because a gap you can see beats a guess dressed up as an answer. If you need one of those answers and it isn't public, the fastest path is asking the business directly through the link on its report.
Paid placement, if it ever happens
This site does not currently sell placement, sponsorship, or ranking position to any groomer. If that changes in the future, any paid placement will be clearly labeled as paid placement, visibly, on the page where it appears. It will never be disguised as an organic ranking, a "top pick," or an editorial recommendation. The findings and gaps on a report are not for sale under any circumstance; a business cannot pay to have an unfavorable "not publicly stated" gap removed or a fact changed that isn't actually true.
Corrections, claims, and removal
Research done by people, checked against public pages, will sometimes be wrong or go stale. If you run a groomer listed here and something is inaccurate, or you're a pet owner who found an error, we want to fix it, free. Removal is free too, no argument, and no groomer can pay to change what a report says. A formal claim-and-correct form is planned alongside the full site launch; until then, treat every report's cited sources as the tiebreaker if something here looks out of date.