Your client cancelling their appointment 10 minutes before they are due to see you, or even worse not turning up at all with no contact to let you know is a huge stress on you and a strain on your business.
Running hair and beauty salons ourselves, we know the impact just a handful of no-shows can have.
What can you do about this problem?
Firstly, do not accept no-shows as being normal, there are many things you can do and put into place to reduce the number of clients that either cancel last minute or do not show at all.
- Send appointment reminders by SMS, a short SMS to your clients 2 days before their appointment is a gentle reminder of the day and time. Quite often those that had completely forgotten will contact you following this message being sent and move to another day/time if they need to instead of cancelling on the day.
- Add a note at the bottom of your email confirmation advising your clients of your cancellation policy. Politely make them aware of the consequences if they do not show.
- Plan to have your Front of House carry out a courtesy call if your clients have not replied Yes to confirm via SMS or email. This can take just minutes to do when completed daily.
- Implement deposits, since Covid-19 deposits within the hair and beauty industry have taken a positive turn, with many salons now having a firm and consistent deposit policy in place for both online and in salon appointments.
Top 5 Tips on Implementing Online Deposits
- Keep your deposit payments simple for your team and your clients to understand. The most common deposit payment is 50% deposit on all services paid at the time of booking. Some salons try and implement a smaller value in the hope they do not upset the client or a different value on each service, however, often this causes a lot of confusion. When you explain the reason behind the deposit your clients understand and are happy to pay in this way.
- Display your deposit policy on your website, in the salon and on any communication that you send to your clients, more so on emails as you have the space to do so.
- Get your team behind deposits. Your team can be your biggest challenge when it comes to change, if your team do not agree with deposits or do not feel confident in implementing this system, then it will not work. Education is key, make sure they understand the reasons behind the deposit system and how it can benefit them long term. Run workshops with your team to help them with any confrontation they may get from clients. Give them the tools and role play examples of clients questioning a deposit payment when they have been coming to you for years without paying one.
- When a client cancels last minute or no-shows:
- What are the consequences?
- How do you let your client know that they have no-showed?
If a client does not turn up for their appointment, make sure you reach out to them at the time of their appointment. Remove the confrontation if you need to and send an automated SMS to your client letting them know that you were expecting them and to contact the salon as soon as possible.
If the client has paid a deposit, find out why they did not show, there are so many genuine reasons that we advise this section to be monitored on a case-by-case basis. Family/friends rushing to the hospital or changing their plans for an emergency really cannot be helped. However, if the client just forgot or you hear nothing from them then keeping that deposit payment is justifiable.
- If you have a long-standing clientele, you could give notice with a sign at reception area. “From 1st August please be aware that all appointments taken will require a 50% deposit to secure, please speak to a member of the team for more information”
As always SalonIQ is here to help you implement any of the email or SMS communication to your clients.
We also have guides available online that may help in setting up or editing your appointment reminders or no shows messages.
Unlimited education – remember we offer unlimited Zoom education with one of our very experienced educators. To book a session please click here !!!!!! We run busy diaries just like you do, if you do need to cancel please let us know at your earliest convenience so we can offer it to another Salon Owner.
Please email help@saloniq.com or call 01892 280 123 opt.1
