No-Shows in the New Year

[Tom Cole]

Zen Reinhardt wrote:
> 
> Yep -- first appointment of the New Year and the customer was a no-show.
> Now I'm curious -- what do people do about the no-shows?  (Or should I ask,
> what Resolutions have some of you made concerning the handling of
> no-shows?)
> 

Zen,

My last no-show was a medical emergency and, typically, the calendar was
the last thing in their consciousness. Whether the reason is a good one
or not, I don't get as angry about it as I used to since coming to the
realization that 1) they most likely did nothing intentional to waste my
time and 2) I make misteaks, two. 

Usually, after waiting 15-20 minutes and leaving a message on their
answering machine ("Sorry I missed you. Please call to reschedule"), I
leave it up to them to call, apologize, reschedule, offer to pay my
missed appointment fee or not. I try not to get punitive about it, not
just out of a sense of good business but life is just too short to get
upset about something like that. There are plenty of other things I can
do with my time. 

Medical and dental secretaries I know call all their next day
appointments the day before and if I had a secretary, I might do the
same.  I, personally, wouldn't want to spend that much time on the phone
to head off the occasional space case. There are bound to be no-shows no
matter what you do so you might just as well be prepared to deal with
them. At the same time, you will develop ways to discover potential
missed appointments up front.

For example, I try to ascertain when I'm making the appointment whether
they are actually writing anything down when I'm saying "Tuesday at
1pm". Sometimes I'll follow with, "May I give you my phone number in
case you need to reschedule?" and sometimes I get, "Yeah, let me get a
pencil". If they are going to be coming from work, I get their work
phone #. If it sounds like they might not remember (sometimes they
volunteer that they're a little flaky), I'll offer to call that morning
and write into my calendar "call at 8:45" or whatever is a good time.

Missed communication can be a problem contributing to a no-show. I
repeat the date, day of the week and time at least a couple of times to
clear up a misheard date and to give them a chance to realize that I'm
actually going to arrive then and they might want to write it on a
calendar somewhere. Also, while I'm at it, I spend some time getting
explicit directions so that I'm not tapping my fingers on the dash in
front of the wrong house ("Oh, well, we're on '...Lane', not
'...Drive'"). Sometimes people are dislexic and say right when they mean
left so I will check directions on the map if I'm unsure.

While I don't expect a customer to be a no-show, it's wise to have
alternatives available when the inevitable happens.

Best of luck in starting your own business.

Tom
-- 
Thomas A. Cole RPT
Santa Cruz, CA