Do You Struggle with No Shows?
For any salon owner a ‘no show’ can be really debilitating. After all, that hour slot that you thought was filled and is now empty will now never be turned into cash. It is lost, forever.
But how can you make sure that this doesn’t happen to you? Luckily a great book, “Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion” gives us two small, but important, techniques that could help.
Technique 1.
When the booking is made, probably at the counter, you’ll write an appointment card and give it to the client with the date and time of the appointment right? It happens all the time. What the authors of the book suggest is that you get the client to write out the card themselves. The reason being is that if they write the card themselves they’ll be far more likely to keep the appointment. Amazing but true!
Technique 2.
If the booking is made on the telephone, or indeed in person at the desk. Ensure that the following is said
“Most people, who find that they suddenly can’t make the appointment, will call us at their first opportunity to let us know. Should you find yourself in that position, you will ring us won’t you?”
This works on two levels. Firstly people want to be in the majority (on the whole) and the sentence ‘Most people’ helps them to join that group.
On the other level getting them to agree to the statement gives them a moral obligation to respond. An obligation that most will keep.
But, just in case you find yourself with no shows what can you do to fill the gap? One salon owner I was working with kept a list of potential people who could come at a moment’s notice. Should she have a no show she’d get the list out and start calling them, stopping once the vacancy was filled.
However, there is a slightly less cumbersome way of achieving the same aims. Maintain the same list BUT make it a list of mobile (cell phone) numbers. Then, when the vacancy arises text a message like:
“Stop press! Due to cancellation, treatment available at <<your Salon>> from 3-4pm. Massive 50% discount. First to text back gets the appointment. Reply NOW!”
I know which approach is the easiest, quickest, cheapest and most effective!
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