Minimize No-Shows at Your Spa or Salon

It baffles my mind that my colorist, facialist, manicurist and hairstylist are all plagued with no-

"No Show", "No Call" Clients Are Expensive. Email Reminders Can Help.

show / no call customers. For what these girls charge, a no show appointment could cost them hundreds of dollars in losses. I asked them what reasons clients give for not showing or calling on their appointment day? They told me most clients say they 'clean forgot' about the appointment because they made it too far in advance.

It's a shame that clients' are not better organized, as these beauty professionals could have booked another paying customer, instead their chair sat empty, and so did their wallet.

Alas, I think there is a new trend emerging that may help. Lately I have been receiving "Appointment Reminders" and "Appointment Confirmations" via email for appointments. One of the Spa's I booked with sent their appointment confirmation through an email interface by Intuit called Demandforce.

This is what my e-mail appointment confirmation it looked like:
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APPOINTMENT CONFIRMATION

Dear Rebecca,

Bella Day Spa is looking forward to seeing you on:

Appointment Details

Date: Wednesday, June 12, 2013 Time: 6:00 PM

Take a moment to review the appointment details and CONFIRM your appointment. Please note, we require 48 hours advance notice if you need to cancel or reschedule this appointment.

Call us at (516) 555-5555 to make any changes to your reservation, or for directions or parking information.

CONFIRM

We look forward to seeing you at your upcoming appointment.

Truly Yours,

Bella Day Spa
(516) 555-5555
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By "confirming" my appointment, the appointment was automatically added to my Outlook, Google, Yahoo or icalendar! And Demandforce is now in Passbook! Passbook is one of the cool new features from Apple for the iPhone iOS 6 that gives consumers an easy way to organize movie tickets, gift cards, coupons, boarding passes and more.

I know that my hair salon has started sending this "E-minders" out too using another interface. I think this is a great way to improve the chances of the client arriving to their appointment. It should also help them to remember to cancel if they can not make it.