6 Steps to Reduce No-Shows at Clinics, Salons, Gyms and Property Viewings

To reduce no-shows, remind customers more than once, let them cancel or change the time by replying, and take a deposit on the bookings that cost you most when they are missed. Then offer any freed slot to another customer and follow up with anyone who did not arrive.

These six steps apply to any business that works by appointment, including clinics, salons, spas, gyms and property sales galleries.

No-show rates by industry

A low rate can still be expensive, because each no-show is paid staff time and a room, chair, class place or agent's hour that nobody else can use.

Cancellations add to the loss. Salons in the same benchmark lost 8% of appointments to cancellations and 3% to no-shows, and medical aesthetics businesses lost 16% and 5%. A cancellation made late leaves little time to fill the slot.

Step 1: Work out what no-shows cost you

Count every booking for four weeks, and sort the ones that were lost into no-shows and late cancellations. Your no-show rate is the number of customers who did not arrive and gave no notice, divided by your total bookings.

Then work out the yearly cost:

A business with 6 no-shows a week, an average booking of RM150 and 50 working weeks has RM45,000 of unused capacity a year. Some of those slots would have stayed empty anyway, so count the times you turned another customer away.

Step 2: Find out why customers miss

Ask customers who missed a booking why it happened, and record their answers. At a diet clinic in Johor Bahru, forgetting or remembering the wrong date was the most common reason, given by 35.3% of the patients contacted.

Look for patterns in your own bookings as well. A review of 105 healthcare studies found that long gaps between booking and appointment, and a history of past no-shows, were among the most commonly reported predictors.

Step 3: Send more than one reminder

Reminders are the best-tested way to reduce no-shows.

Across healthcare, a review of 21 studies found 67% of patients attended after a digital reminder, compared with 54% of those who received none. Attendance rose further with several reminders: 78% against 52%, compared with 62% against 55% for a single reminder.

Across medical departments, a 2023 review of behavioural approaches concluded that reminders by text, phone or post reduced no-shows.

In Malaysia, the Johor Bahru clinic's no-show rate fell from 40.7% to 22.2% after it introduced automated SMS reminders.

Automated reminders suit everyday bookings, and a phone call suits the ones you can least afford to lose. In a randomised trial of about 9,800 patients, the no-show rate was 23.1% with no reminder, 17.3% with an automated reminder and 13.6% with a call from staff. A Cochrane review found text reminders had a similar effect to phone calls and cost less, so text is a sensible default.

Send the first reminder the day before, which leaves time to fill the slot if the customer cannot come. Send a second a couple of hours before.

Appointment reminder message templates

Send reminders on the channel the customer used to book. For clinics, leave out the treatment name if it could be sensitive.

The day before

Hi {name}, this is a reminder of your booking at {business} on {day}, {date} at {time}. Reply 1 to confirm or 2 to change the time.

Hai {name}, ini peringatan tempahan anda di {business} pada {day}, {date} pukul {time}. Balas 1 untuk sahkan atau 2 untuk tukar masa.

A couple of hours before

See you today at {time} at {business}. If anything has changed, just reply to this message.

Jumpa anda hari ini pukul {time} di {business}. Jika ada perubahan, balas sahaja mesej ini.

For property viewings and first visits to a gym, add a map link and where to park, because customers who are new to the location have more reason to give up on the way.

Booking reminders and marketing messages should be kept apart, as our PDPA guide explains.

Tell customers the time is reserved for them

Telling customers what a missed booking costs can change what they do. At a London hospital trust, a text stating the cost of a missed appointment lowered the missed rate from 11.1% to 8.4%. A later trial in Denmark saw no drop in no-shows from a similar message, but more patients cancelled in advance, up from 2.45% to 3.42%.

An early cancellation is still useful, because you can offer the time to someone else. A friendly line does the job:

We have set this time aside for you. If you can't make it, let us know so we can offer it to another customer.

When a customer does not reply

Treat no reply as unconfirmed, and make that visible to your team. Call customers with long bookings, first visits, property viewings or a past no-show.

Step 4: Take a deposit on the bookings that cost most

A deposit gives customers a reason to arrive, or to tell you early that they cannot. Take it when the booking is made, so the customer has already committed. Penalties after the event are weaker: a study of a €34 fine for missed hospital appointments found it did not appear to reduce non-attendance.

Compare your no-show rate and your number of new bookings before and after you start, so you can see the effect on both.

Deposits suit bookings like these:

Salons: long colour or chemical services, and first-time customers

Spas and wellness studios: long treatments, couples' bookings and packages

Gyms and fitness studios: personal training sessions and classes with limited places, where a late cancellation can use up a class credit

Clinics: long aesthetic treatments and procedures, and never urgent care

Any business: customers with a past no-show, and bookings made far in advance

Property viewings are the exception. A buyer is at an early stage and is unlikely to pay to look at a home, so a confirmation message and a phone call from the agent the day before do this job.

What to include in your no-show policy

Share these points before the customer pays:

• How much the deposit is, and whether it comes off the final bill
• How long the customer has to pay before the slot is released
• How much notice they must give to change the time or get the deposit back
• What happens if they do not arrive
• Who can make an exception, such as for illness or an emergency

If customers pay by bank transfer, decide who checks each payment and how quickly they confirm it. A no-show fee charged after the visit is harder to collect, which is why a deposit taken at booking is usually the better option.

Step 5: Have a plan for the empty slot

The earlier a customer tells you, the more chance you have of filling the time.

Make cancelling easy. Let customers cancel or change the time with one reply.

Keep a waitlist. Note who asked for a time you could not give them, and offer it to them first. This suits full gym classes and popular viewing slots as well as appointments.

Message customers who are due. Someone due for a repeat visit may welcome an opening. Our customer retention guide covers how to keep track of them.

Reply quickly. A slot opening tomorrow needs an answer today, as our guide to speed to lead explains.

Step 6: Follow up after a no-show

Send a short message the same day, so the customer has an easy way to rebook.

Hi {name}, we missed you today. Would you like us to find you a new time? Reply with a day that suits you.

Hai {name}, kami tidak sempat berjumpa anda hari ini. Mahu kami carikan masa baharu? Balas dengan hari yang sesuai.

For a property viewing, offer another date or a video walk-through if the buyer can no longer travel.

Note each no-show on the customer's record, so you can ask for a deposit next time if it keeps happening.

How to tell if it is working

Check these numbers each month, and change one thing at a time so you can see what made the difference:

• No-show rate
• Late cancellations
• Cancelled slots you filled again
• Slots that stayed empty
• Customers who rebooked after a no-show

Empty slots are the number to watch most closely, because a no-show that becomes a cancellation only earns you money once the time is filled again.

How Watson handles these steps

You can do all six steps yourself with a diary, a phone and a simple spreadsheet. Someone then has to send every reminder, read every reply, check every deposit and message every customer who did not arrive, every day.

Watson does that work in the conversations you already have with your customers:

Reminders. Watson sends reminders, by default 24 hours and 2 hours before the booking, on the channel the customer used. Customers can confirm or ask to change the time by replying.

Deposits. Where you switch booking deposits on, Watson sends your payment details, holds the slot for the time you set and releases it if the deposit is not paid. Your team confirms each bank transfer.

Empty slots. When a time opens up, Watson can offer it to customers on your waitlist.

Follow-up. When a booking is marked as a no-show, Watson can message the customer about rebooking.