No-shows: a simple policy that works

Most owners know they should do something about no-shows and stall anyway, because every version of the policy sounds like it will cost them a client. So here is a finished one: what to charge, when to send, what to say. Take it as written, change the numbers to suit your prices, and stop thinking about it.

Deposit or card on file

A deposit is money taken up front and applied to the bill. It is the stronger of the two, because the client has already parted with something. Use it for long services, big sets, and anything that blocks a technician for hours — a bridal party, a full day. It also feels heavier, so it costs you a few bookings from people who were only browsing.

A card on file holds the card without charging it, and charges only if the client does not show. Almost nobody objects any more — hotels and dentists have been doing it for years — and it protects the slot without asking a stranger for money to make an appointment. For most shops most of the time, card on file is the right default and deposits are the exception.

What percentage to set

• 25% of the service is the number that works for most shops: enough to matter, small enough that nobody argues. On a $60 service that is $15.
• 50%, or the full price, for anything over two hours, for appointments that take most of a technician day, and for groups.
• A flat $20 to $25 if your price list is narrow and percentages are more trouble than they are worth.
• Nothing at all for your regulars. Turn it on for new clients and for people with a history of missing, and most of your book never sees it.

One more number: charge the fee, not the whole service. Taking full price for a visit that did not happen turns a lost hour into a lost client and a review you will be reading for years.

Two reminders: 24 hours and 2 hours

The 24-hour reminder exists so the client can cancel in time for you to refill the slot, so it has to carry a cancel link and not just a time. The 2-hour reminder is the one that actually prevents the no-show, because it lands after the day has gone sideways and before she has given up on getting there. Two is plenty. Three is nagging, and people start ignoring all of them.

Send both by text. Emailed appointment reminders are read hours late, if they are read at all.

Refill the slot, do not just charge for it

A fee gets you twenty dollars. Refilling the hour gets you sixty and keeps a chair working. The moment a cancellation lands, the people who wanted that day should hear that it is free — automatically, while your hands are still busy. That is the real reason to keep a waitlist: not politeness, but a queue of motivated people you can offer the slot to in seconds. In a good week the fee stops being the point.

When to waive it

Waive it the first time, without being asked, for anyone who has been in before. Say so warmly — do not worry about it this once, we will see you next week — and note it on her record. Waive it for anything serious: illness, a child, a funeral, weather. Charge it for the second miss in three months, and charge it for a new client who answered neither reminder, because that is the pattern the policy exists for.

And look at the record first. A client who has come thirty times and missed once is not the client who has booked three times and shown up once — and in the middle of a shift you cannot tell them apart from memory.

The wording for your booking page

Short, spoken the way a person speaks, and visible before the client picks a time — not buried in terms nobody opens:

To hold your spot we keep a card on file. Change or cancel up to 24 hours before and there is no charge. If we do not hear from you, we charge 25% of the service.

Put the same two lines in the confirmation text and in the 24-hour reminder. The policy that gets paid without a fight is the one the client has already read three times before it applies.

Rules on holding cards, charging them and issuing refunds vary by province and by what your payment provider allows. This is general guidance, not legal advice — check your own terms before you set a policy.

How we do it: deposits or card on file per service, a percentage or flat fee you set, reminders at 24 and 2 hours with one-tap cancel, and a waitlist that offers the freed slot the moment a cancellation comes in. The client history sits on the same screen as the fee, so waiving it is a decision instead of a guess.