How to Deal with Last Minute Covid Related Cancellations

As a beauty professional, you’ll find most of your clients are honest and reliable - when they book an appointment, they turn up and they do so on time. Our current climate relies on this honesty with clients - to self isolate when sick and avoid appointments when suspecting covid-19. However, there remain those clients who use covid-19 as a “get out of jail free” card in relation to cancelling their appointments last minute and avoiding cancellation fees.

There is a fine line to consider in the current climate, enforcing cancellation fees in all circumstances can mean customers will risk attending treatments despite coronavirus, likewise, waving cancellation fees can lead to “coronavirus” becoming an overused and dishonest excuse.

So how can you avoid these last minute cancellations?

1. Non-refundable booking fees

Perhaps the easiest way to make sure that your clients aren’t cancelling appointments is to introduce non-refundable booking fees. A portion or the full sum of the treatment will ensure that your clients receive a space inside your calendar, and will show they’re serious about attending a treatment. It’s useful to remain flexible when taking booking fees - and be happy to rearrange the appointment.

2. Cancellation Fees

If your system allows it, you may request a cancellation fee from your customer that may be a percentage of the value of their treatment if they don’t cancel within a reasonable time period (24/48hours). Cancellation fees can also be requested after the cancellation if your system does not allow prior charges upon cancellation - by informing your client that they will not be able to rebook another treatment, without paying the cancellation fees - naturally, this may be hard to enforce.

3. Cancellation Policies

Incredibly important, are clear terms and conditions that set out your policy for cancellations to your client. It is a good idea to inform your client that you won’t take cancellation policies for covid-19 related issues, however, if they cancel an appointment due to sickness, they will not be able to rebook an appointment for two weeks - this will discourage clients from using the global pandemic as an excuse if they’re not really sick.

4. Dealing with Serial Offenders

If you have had clients who have cancelled last minute in the past, only allow them to book in for on the day appointments to fill up your slots or take the full cost of the full non-refundable booking fee from them. While it happens that clients can have emergencies, it is encouraged for you to protect yourself when seeing red flags in a client - and if they cancel another appointment, then you can respectfully refuse to book them in again.

5. Be honest with your clients

One of the most effective ways to ensure that your clients don’t cancel appointments last minute is to show them how crippling it is to your business. Appeal to their empathetic side on social media in a post, so they act accordingly to your business needs, and take into consideration the effect that their cancellation will have.

6. Send reminders

Sending reminders 48 hours prior to treatment, gives a customer enough time to reevaluate whether the treatment is still wanted, and to check if they haven’t double-booked themselves. A little extra time to remind your client of their upcoming treatment, what they need to know and how they can prepare can reduce no shows considerably.