I have been mobile for a few months now and I have come across this situation a few times, what do you do if a client forgets about their appointment or isn't in when you call?

I have a lady and I do her nails quite regularly (she doesn't look after them at all!!) and she's always forgetting the time and date of appointments or will cancel at the last minute. I've had other clients who I could have booked that day but had to put off and then her appointment doesn't happen So far I've just gone with it because she is a good friend, but it did make me think how would I deal with other clients wanting massage and beauty stuff.

Obviously if they give you plenty of notice it's fine but would you/or do you charge clients who miss appointments?

I thought maybe a 1 stike and you're out approach - you know that they have 1 chance but if they do it on a regular basis they would have to be charged. I don't want to be hard but at the end of the day I could lose potential clients if I can't fit them in for the treatments they want on the day they want.

Any suggestions??

how about sending a text message the night before? my tech used to do this with all her forgetfull clients. if they still dont turn up- charge them . we are here to make a living just like everyone else. make it quite clear thet missed appointments without notice will be charged. after all its your time and petrol that is still being wasted xx

I had a client who did this, cancel 10 minutes before her appointment, and she too cost me money. The final straw was when I turned up and she wasn't even there. I just sacked her! I sent her a text and said that her unreliability was costing me money and she would have to find another tech. Six weeks later she begged me to do her nails, so I said that on the condition she gave me a minimum of 24 hours notice or I would charge her for it ... and she never mucked me about again!

I had the same problem with my friend. It was only a small treatment, prob cost more to get there and back and she kept on cancelling. On one day she moved her appointment round 3 times! then while i was driving to her i got a text saying she was still in town and didnt think she'd get back in time and asked if i could do it on sunday. So i politely text her saying... sorry but i cant do this sunday. I hope this doesnt offend you but i can't keep doing your treatments if your going to keep cancelling them. I have lost possible clients because i keep your appointments, this is my business and i cant run it like this. If you want me to do your treatment please call or text me on the day that u want and i will fit you in. I hope you understand.... I havent heard from her since, its been 2 weeks. In my opinion, even though i've lost a friend she wasnt that good a friend if she didnt respect me and my business.

I always call or text my clients the day before their appointment to confirm times etc.

I dont know how I would be able to charge people who did cancel. Does anyone actually do this? surrely people would just refuse to pay?

Let them know (and explain) you have a cancellation policy.
If a client starts costing you money, there's no point doing them.

Thanks guys

It is annoying but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't being too hard. I think the idea of texting is a good one and so I will def start doing this. I also think I will put a cancellation policy on my leaflets so at least they are pre-warned.

loadsa good advice

for those clients who are notoriously unreliable you could text them 24 hours in advance, as suggested, and maybe briefly outline your cancellation policy/charges in the text, so you know for sure that they understand your time will not be wasted!

You could also start asking for a deposit from clients that have let you down in the past.

hope everything works out for you....

I had a new client booked in for 3pm today. She called at 3.15pm to say she couldn't make it today as she was called to a meeting but asked to be booked in for next week. I refused to rebook her because she didn't have the courtesy to call in advance, especially at such a busy time.

I have a few regulars who are either forgetful or things come up at last minute and they end up cancelling when it is then too late to book someone else in. For these clients I now take a deposite for their next booking and if they cancel within 48hrs of their appointment, they lose their deposit. It works fine for me.

A lot of clients forget that nail technicians are running a business and their time too is money. They don't tend to be so forgetful with beauty or hair appointments.

i'm afraid i have to disagree with you, i'm a beauty therapist and i had 2 clients not show up today so it's not just nail tech's that get put out.

I had a lot of clients cancelling at the last minute or just not showing up and I was losing a lot of money because of this. I had always been worried that if I charged people for late cancellations and no-shows then I would lose a lot of clients. A couple of weeks ago I finally got fed up and put up a notice in a nice frame on my desk stating the following:
"Due to an excessive amount of missed apointments, all bookings must be confirmed 24 hours in advance. If they are not confirmed then they may be automatically cancelled. Cancellations made within 5 hours of the apointment time as well as no-shows will be subject to payment of 50% of the service booked."
I was careful to warn everyone about my new policy before putting it into effect. So what happened.....? Problem solved!! People are now careful to call in and cancel or re-book well before their apointment time. I've since had 2 people not show up but in both cases it was due to medical emergencies and both called in as soon as they could to apologize and offered to pay the 50%.