Missed Appointments

[willows18]

I was just wondering what you guys do about missed appointments.

I work from home and have 3 young children, 1 at school, 2 at nursery so have to work around pick up and drop off times. I have recently had a couple of missed appointments where people just don't phone or turn up.

I usually wait until 15 mins after the appointment and then give them a call and end up getting a response like "oh sorry I meant to phone you etc".

This makes me so cross because all they have to do is pick up the phone.

Last night I was due to do an appointment at 6pm and she didn't turn up, so phoned and was told that she'd gone to the hairdressers and would be about half hour late. I really felt like saying that I had another appointment so wouldn't be able to fit her in, but ended up doing it and worked till 7.45pm.

I don't really know how to get over the missed appointments thing, because I'm sure people don't do it to salons, and think because I'm pretty flexible that it doesn't matter. I wondered whether any of you charge a fee for a missed appointment or what you did?

Sorry that's my whinge for the day!!!!!

Kirsty

 

[naturalnails]

Hi Kirsty (that's my daughters name LOL)

We regularly have conversations on here about this very thing.

Some charge cancellation fees or take deposits, but I think it is very difficult to enforce a cancellation fee on someone who never comes.

I do have this happen to me - one fairly recently when a girl called wanting her nails done that day as it was her birthday - I couldnt give her an appointment so she took the next free one I had which was about 10 days later - she never turned up and when I called her she said she had wanted them done on her birthday so had gone somewhere who could fit her in.

I make a note of the ones who dont turn up and if they ever call again then I cannot fit them in.

For those who are late - I will not make myself late for the next appointment so sometimes I may not have time to do their varnishing etc.

It is very difficult to have a happy medium - especially if you are setting up - you dont want to allienate clients before you start.

I think you have to on occasion accept that people do forget - someone once said that she called every appointment the day before to remind them of their appointment - this may work for you.

If it becomes a regular occurrence with people then you need to start charging no shows, if they rebook. Make sure there is a clause in your brochure that you have a cancellation policy and then you can enforce it when appropriate.

 

[Little Angel]

hi

i have pm you the bottom of my record card with my cancellation policy. It is hard to enforce unless they come back, but for a regular or new client once they have read it they dont seem to be messing us about. You have to be firm i am afraid, and i do assure you that clients do mess salons about the same as mobiles. This is a recent policy in my salon and so far so good, it seems to have given the clients who do the regular no show a gentle hint that it is not acceptable.

 

[talented talons]

Its so annoying when people do this to you so i really do sympathise. I also have a three year old so work my appointments around her nursery times. I actually drew up a client sheet for them to fill in and sign. At the bottom it does state that if they don't give me 24 hours notice of cancellation then i will charge them a fee. As i no this is hard to enforce i keep a note of people who do this so charge them next time. If they dod it twice then i can never fit them in, same as what was said by a fellow geek previously.

So far no one has so perhaps i've been lucky so far. You do have to be so strong as at the end of the day it is your business you have to think about.