A no-show is simply a client/patient/partner not showing up to an appointment. You may think that it’s little more than an inconvenience, an annoyance, but it’s actually extremely damaging. Too many of these no-shows can impact the long-term viability of your business.
Not only will we demonstrate why no-shows are damaging, but we’ll show you how to solve them through appointment reminders.
No-Shows by the Numbers
The easiest way to explain to a businessperson why something is bad for them is to look at the no-shows in numbers.
Let’s say you charge $25 per hour. This is perfectly normal for any business. And now let’s say you lose 10 hours every month from no-shows. This represents $250 per month. Over a year you’re already losing a four-figure amount. To be factual, 10 hours is actually quite conservative, particularly for businesses that hold appointments with clients on a daily basis.
A Lack of Efficiency in the Workplace
Every meeting should accomplish something. There are many different types of meetings, and they include:
- Proposals
- Planning
- Meet and greets.
Now if any of these meetings don’t happen, you’re left in a situation where your work is being unnecessarily delayed. You’re stuck sitting, waiting for something to happen. You’ll have to reorganize the appointment and a no-show may happen again. This can set plans back by months. No business can function long-term in this manner.
Trustworthiness
All businesses should have good relationships with their clients. It’s nearly impossible to do this when the person isn’t showing up, constantly, to meetings. If you can’t trust that person, you’re not going to be able to work with them without creating friction. It’s a natural human response and we can’t turn it off. Our opinions are colored by things like no-shows.
What You Can Do About It
Automated reminders for appointments are the ideal solution to reduce no-shows. The number one reason why meetings don’t happen is forgetfulness. It’s not a slight against you. It’s that the person is forgetful. They forget to enter it into their calendar and they apologize profusely every time you ask about why they didn’t come.
These reminder systems will send out a text or email a few days in advance to remind them of the upcoming appointment.
Often, it’s all that’s needed to get them to show up. You don’t have to do anything else.
But there are a lot of benefits to using these systems within your business which include:
- Reducing no-shows
- Improving efficiency because your staff no longer have to take on this task
- Allowing you to deploy resources elsewhere. If a client cancels, you’ll know about it beforehand.
This allows you to dedicate your time to something else instead.
Conclusion
We believe that an automated reminder system enables you to reduce no-shows, and at the same time providing a useful tool for clients. It doesn’t cost a lot of money to implement and you can benefit from a system tailored to your needs. It’s the long-term investment that repays itself many times over!