John, a local nutritionist used to cringe when he checked his voicemail, and the day he initially contacted me was no different. For when John checked his voicemail that Tuesday morning around 8:30 he found 4 messages, all from clients wanting to change, reschedule or cancel their appointments…
One had to reschedule that afternoon’s 3pm appointment. Another didn’t know if they could make their 12:30 on time, could she come at 1:00 and stay till 2?. The third needed to reschedule Wednesdays 2pm, and the last one couldn’t make their 9am appointment this morning because of a mixup with his wife over school drop-off.
In other words, John’s day (and his day’s income) was a mess even before it started. Trying to accomodate his clients, he played around with his schedule, trying to make everyone happy, costing him most of the first hour of his day. When he called his 1:30 to ask her if she could come 1/2 hour later, she decided to cancel the appt. this week instead.
This cost John over $300 that day, alone.
When John told me about what was happening, we worked to devise a new strategy and policy for client cancellations.
After some discussion here’s what we came up with:
- Any appointments cancelled less than 24 hours before would be charged for a missed appointment. (real emergencies would be honored)
- Latecomers sessions would end at their scheduled time.
- Clients would commit to a certain amount of sessions per month. All appointments would be charged. If one was missed, they could make it up within 30 days.
John no longer cringes when he checks his voicemail. His income has increased, clients are taking their appointments more seriously, and they’re getting better results because of it.
What’s your cancellation policy?
-Susan Martin, NYC Business Coach and policy setter.
