No-shows & cancellations: how to prevent & handle them in your beauty business

Session nail stylist, salon owner & educator, Marie-Louise Coster, shares advice for client no-shows and cancellations…

Every beauty business, at some point, has a client that doesn’t turn up for their appointment. You will have blocked out time and potentially turned other clients away, but are left with an empty appointment slot and no pay. It’s frustrating and deflating. Every beauty business is also likely to have a client who books an appointment in advance, but cancels the day before, again leaving you with empty time and no pay at short notice.

These situations can eat away at your income if you are not careful. So what can you do about it? Well, it’s crucial to have a cancellation policy, which is clear, direct and easily accessible online and in your business premises.

Here is my template for a cancellation policy:

Here at *insert business name*, we understand that life happens and sometimes schedules change, meaning you are unable to attend your appointment. However, we are sure you can appreciate how difficult it can be to fill late cancellations and missed appointments. Therefore, we ask for as much notice as possible to reschedule or cancel your appointment with us.

If your appointment is cancelled within 24 hours of the service time, or you fail to show up, you will be charged in full for your treatment(s). 

Thank you for your co-operation and understanding.

Alternatively, you may choose to opt for a sliding scale, incorporating more notice time. For example:

If your appointment is cancelled within 48 hours of the service time, you will be charged 50% of the total cost of your treatment(s). If your appointment is cancelled within 24 hours of the service time, you will be charged in full for your treatment(s).

Now, I can hear you wondering how to handle no-shows and cancellations from loyal regulars, which happen as a result of unforeseen circumstances such as medical emergencies, transport or childcare issues. Of course, there are occasions when you may need to be more lenient with your cancellation policy. But you should be careful about when you don’t enforce your policy, and how other clients will take that if they are charged and discover that others haven’t been.

A cancellation policy acts as a deterrent and hopefully, very rarely needs to be enforced.

I think the best way to avoid these situations is by making your cancellation policy well-known and taking deposits. If you use an online booking system, there is the opportunity to capture clients’ card details. It is especially important to take deposits from new customers, because they are more likely not to turn up than regular clients who you have a relationship with.

In your policy, detail that every client must pay a set deposit amount, or that their full appointment cost must be paid a certain number of days in advance of the appointment, otherwise it will be released. Also, remember to use the word ‘deposit’ in your communications: not ‘booking fee’. Legally, deposits are non-refundable, whereas booking fees are more ambiguous and largely refundable.

Lastly, what should you do when a client is booked in to have two or three treatments in a day, but tells you that they now only want one? Technically, that is a cancellation and leaves you with time that you will struggle to fill. In this instance, the same rules apply and the client should be charged a fee for the lost appointment time.

Remember, your business is your livelihood and needs to be treated as such. A dentist wouldn’t hesitate to charge you for not turning up; like any other business, you have rules that clients must adhere to. Be assertive and confident about enforcing them.

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Facebook: Marie-Louise Coster Nail Artist, All About Mi