Sunny days are beautiful: we take in life as it comes and there is more opportunity for impulsiveness. Those spontaneous plans are lovely of course, but they may have an effect on the number of no-shows in your salon. Appointments are consciously or unconsciously forgotten during the nice weather as the park and beach beckon. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways you can greatly reduce the number of no-shows. Here are 6 quick tips that will help you deal effectively with those frustrating no-shows.

Tip 1: Confirm and remind your customer

Make sure your customer can’t easily forget the appointment. Immediately after the appointment has been made, send a confirmation. If you also send a reminder by email 24 hours before the appointment, the chance of you having an empty space in your salon will be greatly reduced. If you are dealing with a client who has often forgotten appointments, you can give them an extra reminder via SMS.

Tip 2: Make your email personal

Try to make the message as personal as possible so that customers feel connected to your salon. This will make your email and the customer’s appointment less likely to be forgotten. Here are three fun and easy ways to make your message more personal: - Write your email in your own personal communication style. Do you take an informal approach with your customers? For example, do you use the customer’s first name? - Thank them for their appointment and mention that you are looking forward to their arrival. - Add a photo of yourself or the team name.

Example of an appointment confirmation:

Tip 3: Make the customer aware

Unfortunately, many customers still think that if they do not turn up their spot will be filled by a walk-in. Make your customers aware that you have made time for them in your calendar and it affects you when they do not turn up. You don’t need to immediately threaten them with fines but should rather adopt a playful manner. For example, add a photo to your email from the team that is ready for them, the coffee that awaits them or the treatment that has already been prepared.

Tip 4: Changing the time / Cancelling

Offer the customer the opportunity to cancel or move the appointment time. Clearly state in both the confirmation and reminder how this works.Try to make your customers aware that they can still make someone else happy with a place in your salon.

Tip 5: Online payment

Oblige customers to pay your services in full or in part online. This way, you have very little or no financial risk. With Salonized, it’s easy for your clients to pay online. You can also decide to pay a portion of the treatments. This lowers the threshold for customers cost being too high and significantly reduces the risk of a no-show.

Tip 6: Analyse your no-shows

If you have a clear picture of your customer’s behaviour, you can then decide how and when to use the tips above. You can quickly register a no-show in Salonized via the no-show button. The number of no-shows is immediately visible on the customer card. You can also see which customers do not show up on a regular basis through the filter function, so you can quickly map your risk group. It is also a good idea to ask the customer the reason for the no-show. Finally, it is useful to know during which period no-shows occur most often as then you can more easily respond to this.

Wondering how to apply the tips above to your salon and how Salonized can help you? Please feel free to contact us via the chat icon at the bottom right.

We’d love to hear how you deal with no-shows! Do you have any tips that can be added to this list? If so, please leave them in the comments, as they will also be of interest to other salons :)