Grrrr clients who cancel at a moments notice!!!

mrandmrsm

Okay, I'm a new business owner, just a sole trader - mobile beauty therapist.

I am soooooooooooo fed up of clients cancelling at a moments notice and loosing me money!

Is there anything I can do to ensure clients keep their appointments otherwise I can actually charge them for the missed appointment - most bookings done via email and phone?

I put a cancellation policy on my site stating that appointments cancelled within 48 hours are charged but can I actually action this???

Thanks for any advice

sjbrun

You prob could chase them for it however it will give you a bad reputation which you dont really want if your new.

To be honest the 'customers' that are cancelling are probably a bit unsure if they want your service as most who actually want it dont cancel.

Are they your friends or are they unknown customers?

The probably best way of doing it is if they cancel 3 times then just dont deal with them again.

If you new the last thing you want to do is go in heavy handed as your reputation is everything esp is a highly competitive beauty therapest - I know loads doing it.

bengalknights

Have you considered overbooking like a lot of restaurants and hotels do? that way if theres cancellations your covered but if not then you just have to work longer and give apologies or discount.

pitkin2020

You can request payment for cancellation as they are entering a contract verbally but are you making the cancellation policy clear at the time of booking, not just stated on your website? The question then is, is it worth pursuing? As you are a new business probably not remember 10 customers who received good service are only likely to tell 1 person. 1 person who received bad service are likely to tell 10 people!! This early in the game the bad rep will do you more harm than the payments you will have to chase for cancelled bookings.

You could look at taking a booking fee in advance, which if they cancel they would lose if they continue it comes off the final bill. You would either need to look at a card payment terminal or set something like a paypal payment up. Paypal IMO isn't that professional for anything other than cheap e-commerce sites or ebay and a card terminal isn't going to be all that cheap. You will have to way up the pros and cons VS the cost.

I certainly wouldn't look at over booking not for the business you are in, people are genuine expect you to offer the service at the time you have said you would. You start turning up or making them wait an hour or two its not a great impression and having to discounts out won't help the bottom line. When you become so in demand its a different matter!!

Good luck its a hard act to juggle between keeping everyone happy and the bank balance happy.

fawd1

well, if you're taking bookings fom a website, you could always go the paypal route and ask for a 50% deposit when the appointment is made. if they keep the appointment, you charge them the remaining 50%, if they cancel within 48 hours, you keep the 50% and if they cancel beforehand, you give it back. Bit of a faff, but could work? It also means that you'll probably get a lot less cancellations, as they will have something to lose.

jexygirl

We are inn /pub with restaurant and rooms - we have a policy of "if you cancel within 48 hours of the booking AND WE CANNOT RELET THE ROOM, you will be charged full price - this is stated on email bookings and also on a card "read out" to telephone bookings. So basically, if you have turned down appts. because you were booked, then yes you can charge, however, when we take a booking it is only taken with credit card details, and tho we take nothing from the card as deposit or whatever, we have full details, so can charge remotely without customer present. If you dont take cards, or even details, or dont have a card facility, I am not sure how you would then charge for cancelled appt, whilst I understand and know how frustrating it can be, logistically for us, it isn't quite the nightmare you face.
jex

Savvy_Sue

Nothing very helpful to add on the 'how do you get 'em to pay' front, but are you finding out why they are cancelling? Is it that they're not sure they want what they booked, or is it a better offer cropping up, or is it 'life' getting in the way of art?

Acc72

I (or rather my wife) has similar experience to you.

Some people just forget - you should try texting people the day before, just to confirm the appointment (although some people still happen to "forget").

Unfortunately, this happens quite a lot - my cynical view is that it is a symptom of society in general. People do not see it as being important to keep appointments these days.

The best you can do is to re-book them and if they let you down again then effectively double book them in your diary so if somebody else wants the same appointment (eg, Saturday afternoon) then book them in and if the other client turns up then they can wait, otherwise if they are a no-show again then you haven lost income from that time slot.

In reality, chasing people for a cancellation fee is futile - they will not pay up, and neither will they book with you again ! (the best you can do is to take it on the chin and hope to get future income from them).

However, on the run up to Christmas I would say that all appointments will only be confirmed upon receipt of a non-refundable deposit (£5 or £10).

You may be frustrated now, but imagine being fully booked on Christmas Eve and a few clients do not show, when you could have fitted other people in.

good luck!

Savvy_Sue

Acc72 wrote: »

Some people just forget - you should try texting people the day before, just to confirm the appointment (although some people still happen to "forget").

I do think that's quite a good idea, if people are happy to give you their phone numbers: you can explain that it's 'in case I run into any problems'.

Our optician and our dentist both leave messages the day before, and although I haven't usually forgotten, it's good to have the nudge.

lr1277

If the client has to give 48 hrs notice for a fee free cancellation, would it not be better to remind them 72 hrs beforehand? So they can cancel or rebook. If I was a client I would appreciate that.

nedmundo

It is annoying. We confirm all my patients the day before and occasionally they still DNA. Technically, on making the appointment, they are forming a contract and you are entitled to charge accordingly. As pointed out above though, it's not worth the bad feeling and damage to your reputation, let alone the hassle of pursuing it.

I make sure I've always got bits and pieces I can be getting on with, such as correspondance or bookwork, whichI can do in such an eventuality.