Strategies to Help Reduce No-Shows at a SalonMay 21, 2020Let’s face it: clients failing to show up on the day of their appointments can mean bad business for salons in the long run. Client no-shows at your salon can dampen the success of a flourishing salon business by incurring costs that could easily be avoided otherwise. Last-minute cancellations not only mean a loss of sales for the salon, but it also means that you’ve lost the chance of securing a well-paying client. When clients book an appointment for hair coloring, cutting or any other service at a salon, the stylist cancels on other potential customers. Due to this, potential clients are deprived of services and salons are deprived of profits. However, these mishaps are not entirely unavoidable. True; the onus of responsibility primarily lies on the client so you can’t really force them to show up. But salons can adopt certain strategies to minimize their costs. Before you chalk down solutions for this problem, it’s smarter to assess the gravity of the problem first. Calculating the losses incurred on one day because of a number of cancellations will help gauge how bad the damage can be. Let’s do some quick math first. Count the Cost of Each Cancellation and Calculate Total Losses Even though most salons charge a cancellation fee, it still doesn’t cover the total cost of one missed appointment. Clients that show up on the day of their appointment don’t just make it easy to bring due profits from the services that are already booked. Your client may choose to give a new service or a promotional offer a try on the spot, bringing you additional revenue from the extra sale. Thus missed appointments can potentially double the damage to your business. If an estimated cost of a cancelled appointment costs your salon $40, and you have 10 cancellations per week on average, the weekly losses amount up to $400. Multiply this figure by 4 weeks and you’ll get an estimate for lost sales per month. In this case, it equals to $1,600. This means that missed appointments are costing your business $19,200 worth of sales every year! This is certainly a red flag if you want to sustain your business in the long run. For your business to prosper, it needs to follow this basic business rule: minimize your costs and maximize your profits. Here’s how you can do that. Reminders for Clients It’s quite likely that a client totally forgets about their appointment and misses it unknowingly. In order to reduce such instances, you can send reminders to the clients when the date of their appointment is near. This can be done through: Appointment Cards:These record all past and future appointment dates and timings. Text Messages:Salons can always send out text reminders to clients a day before their appointment is booked for. Emails:If you have a diverse clientele and they’re tech-savvy, email reminders can also work! Phone Calls:Salons that go an extra mile to send a soft reminder for upcoming appointments via a call always secures customers. The method you choose to send out reminders to your clients depends on which category the client belongs to. Your strategies should be tailored to suit your clients—always! Clients that are on a clock won’t get time to check their messages or e-mails all the time, such as stay-at-home moms. So it’s better to call them up to gently remind them about their scheduled appointment. For professionals and businesswomen, it’s more polite to leave a message or an e-mail instead of calling them; for all you know, they could be in the middle of a meeting. There are also high chances that they may be flying out or they may be in a different time zone altogether, so your call might not even go through. It’s better, thus, to leave a message for them to check at a later time. Appointment cards, on the other hand, work equally well with all kinds of clients. Improve Your Relationship with Your Clients Needless to say, a happy and healthy relationship is reminder enough for any client to pay your salon a visit. If a customer is satisfied with your services and feels valued by your business, they’ll look forward to every appointment. A good way to improve your relationship with your client is to enhance one-on-one interaction between the client and the stylist. This relationship is heavily dependent on how the stylist treats them and makes them feel valued. A simple, “Can’t wait to see you next week!” or “Be on time, I’ll be waiting for you!” can make a big difference. Once you make your clients feel special and acknowledged, you’ll see a huge reduction in the number of cancellations. Revise Your Cancellation Policy Having a clear cancellation policy doesn’t reflect badly on your customer service. Unlike a common misconception among salon businesses, a well-defined policy actually looks impressive and professional. It goes to show that the salon prioritizes transparency and has informed everything to stakeholders up front. This way, there won’t be any hidden charges or unexpected bills that the clients aren’t already aware of. Policies and rules are part of the business and shouldn’t be confused with bad customer care. However, it’s important to word the policy in a reasonable manner that doesn’t sound rude. Send out reminders 48 hours before the appointment is due so that clients can finalize their bookings. Allow clients to request for cancellations or rescheduling 24 hours prior to their appointment. Failure to ask for any adjustments a day earlier can then be penalized with a cancellation fee, if necessary. Ask For a Deposit at the Time of Booking When there’s money at stake, people rarely forget or cancel their appointments. Make it a standard rule to ask for a deposit at the time of booking. This could be 50% of the service charges or any percentage of the bill, depending on the salon or client. The deposit amount can be minimized for regular clients who have a good record of showing up for their appointments on time. However, for those who tend to forget or cancel appointments last-minute, it’s important to remind them that the deposit will be non-refundable. Chances are, with a deposit amount at stake, clients will quit the habit of cancelling appointments without prior notice. Stay Flexible With Regular Clients Even though it’s quite frustrating to not have clients show up on time or at all on a day that was supposed to be fully-booked, remember to be polite to your clients all the same. Perhaps you had a cancellation from a regular client who was dealing with an emergency that didn’t allow them to show up. Cut some slack to those who rarely ever miss their appointments. Clients will notice if you understand and accommodate their concerns. It moves your relationship with them rank up from professional to personal. Want to reduce salon no-shows to a minimum? Your salon business needs the guidance and expertise of Salon Income Booster. We help increase hair and beauty salons income through salon retail merchandise and marketing strategies that reduce last-minute cancellations. Our experts provide end-to-end solutions to all salons struggling to retain clients in this highly-competitive industry. If you’re looking to give your business some boost, we’re here to help!