Dealing with no shows?

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lizziebabe

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Good morning people....I run a very small hair salon and am becoming frustrated with the amount of no shows every month,yesterday I had someone not turn up for a set of foils and lost out on £90 and sat around for 3 and a half hours....how do you guys deal with such things? How do you enforce charges? The thing that gets me is they don't answer the phone when I call and then have the cheek to just walk in the next time they want an appointment as if nothing happened and think "sorry I forgot" is an acceptable excuse....any input would be great....thanks in advance
 
Take a deposit,, £10 or whatever, in my old salon most people had no problem doing this and would pay through paypal or bank transfer
 
It's a hard one because some clients genuinely do need to cancel last minute, but you've also got a business to run. What I would do is give notice (print off a leaflet and put on your website/fb page) that "Due to persistent no shows I am bringing in a cancellation fee of 50% if less than 24 hours notice is given. This will help to keep down the cost of treatments for all my valued customers." Then when someone doesn't turn up you don't book them in unless they agree to pay this extra amount. You will get clients trying all the dog-ate-my-homework excuses but even if you lose one or two of them, it's better for your business in the long run. I would say though, definitely waive it for genuine cases (death in the family etc).
 
I haven't had this in ages but literally have just had a cancellation, 15 minutes before her appointment. Grrrrr! It was a full leg, underarm and Brazilian too so a long appointment.

With me, when this happens, it's always the new clients that do it. I've never had a existing client do this.

So I say that to book another appointment - they either need to pay a 50% deposit to secure the new appointment, or they can call on the day they want and take a chance that an appointment is available and take whatever time I've got that suits me, not them.
 
Thanks for all your input....the lady in question from yesterday actually came in earlier saying she thought it was today....then miraculously found her appointment card with yesterdays date on it she then seemed annoyed that I didn't have another 3 hour slot waiting for her and the 50% fee for missing her appointment didn't go down to well either ....tough....ive had enough of it....people with genuine reasons are always the ones who ring to cancel I find and although it can be last minute I don't mind so much as long as they contact me....what bugged me more yesterday was I had 2 last minute people want cut and styledrys but I couldn't do them as I was expecting these highlights...most annoying indeed
 
Thanks for all your input....the lady in question from yesterday actually came in earlier saying she thought it was today....then miraculously found her appointment card with yesterdays date on it she then seemed annoyed that I didn't have another 3 hour slot waiting for her and the 50% fee for missing her appointment didn't go down to well either ....tough....ive had enough of it....people with genuine reasons are always the ones who ring to cancel I find and although it can be last minute I don't mind so much as long as they contact me....what bugged me more yesterday was I had 2 last minute people want cut and styledrys but I couldn't do them as I was expecting these highlights...most annoying indeed
Did your client pay the 50% and rebook? Have always wondered if they would or just go elsewhere to save paying the no show fee? I literally just add on £5 for each hour and that's only if they have done it before but most times I just let it go.
 
If you use an in salon booking system, Have you tried a text reminder? I have found from past experience that this massively minimises the no shows, then you can implement the other ideas mentioned on the thread if they still do it xxx
 
If you use an in salon booking system, Have you tried a text reminder? I have found from past experience that this massively minimises the no shows, then you can implement the other ideas mentioned on the thread if they still do it xxx
hi...yes i do text message reminders but usually they don't reply...i have one today who i have been trying to get hold of because she messaged me saying she has to be at work for a certain time (she wants a color and highlights on long hair done in two hours) i suspect she wont bother turning up so i have scrapped her appointment in case i get people wanting to come in....i think the deposit scheme is the way to go as trying to enforce charges dont seem to work because people tend to just not come back....the lady from tuesday has actually done it before to me so i wouldn't bother even offering her another slot.
Its very rude and frustrating especially Easter coming up
 
A word of caution: There is a scam at the moment where a new client will book in but give the impression they have been there before. They book in and give a mobile number but this is actually a international number. When it is a no show, they want you to reconfirm appointments when they haven't turned up. DO NOT CALL THEM from what i'm aware, the number accumulates and siphons money from keeping you on the line.

To combat this with genuine callers, ask them to call back an hour later or along those lines, ask for a deposit with a card number, this will deter the scammers, and finally if your still unsure ask them to pop in for a consultation, for your own peace of mind. xoxo
 

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