Four no shows in one week finally made me put a card on file for lash appointments

Nina Park· Lash and brow studio idea; renting a chair at someone else's salon for now· Idea stage, Beauty & Personal Care·3w

I rent a chair and do lashes and brows, and last week I had four no shows. A full set is two hours. That is eight hours I sat in a salon I pay rent on, scrolling, while the people who wanted those slots got told I was booked.

I have always been soft about this. Two of the four texted a reason afterwards and both reasons were real. But real reasons still cost me $150 a slot and I am the only one absorbing it.

So as of Monday my booking page takes a card at the time of booking, twenty four hour cancellation, fifty percent of the service if you no show. The wording took me longer than the setup did, because I wanted it to sound like a business and not like an accusation.

What I actually want to know from people who have done this a while:

does it cost you clients, and which ones
do you actually charge the card, or do you keep waiving it and end up back where you started
how do you handle the regular of two years who no shows once

I can already feel myself planning to waive it every time, which defeats the entire point.

3 replies

Keisha Brown· Registered·3w

You will lose the ones who were going to no show anyway, and honestly that is the feature. When I was still behind the chair at my old shop the week we turned on a deposit was the quietest week of the year and the month after was the best one I had.

The two year regular is a different case and you are allowed to treat it differently, once. I waive the first one for someone with history, say plainly that I am waiving it, and the policy holds from there. Saying it out loud is the important half, because a silent waiver just teaches people the policy is decorative.

Lena Kaminski· Open·2w

Mobile dog grooming, so different animal, literally, but the no show math is the same and worse because I also drive there. I take a deposit on booking, non refundable inside twenty four hours, and I have charged it maybe six times in four months.

What changed things more than the fee was a text reminder three days out that asks people to reply yes. The three day window is long enough that they can move it instead of vanishing, and the reply makes it feel like a commitment to a person. My no shows dropped to almost nothing once I added that, and I barely ever have to have the awkward conversation.

Nina Park· Idea stage·2w

The reply yes part is the bit I was missing. My current reminder goes out the night before, which is far too late for anyone to do anything about it, and it does not ask for anything back so nobody answers it.

I set up a three day reminder this morning and moved the night before one to a short see you tomorrow. And thank you for the number, six times in four months is much less terrifying than the version in my head where I am arguing with someone every week.

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