Nails Magazine

JAN 2014

Magazine for the professional nail industry.

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BUSINESS} Preventing No-Shows and Late Arrivals No-shows and late clients are an inescapable fact of life in the salon. But the policies and procedures you put into place can go a long way in making them a rare occurrence. BY ANNE SCHLEGEL Recently I made the decision to move my salon, Nailed It, to a larger location in order to accommodate our growing clientele. One evening during the move, as I was crawling around on the floor, covered in construction dust, trying to find a way to secure a power strip to the bottom of a glass nail table, the phone rang. When my employee glanced at the caller ID she sang out, "You're in trouble," because it was my hairstylist on the line, calling to find out why I was a half-hour late for my appointment. Sometimes it happens to the best of us, and it's a problem that every salon occasionally has to deal with: clients who book appointments and then show up terribly late or, even worse, don't show up at all. Unfortunately, clients who miss appointments without calling to cancel are wasting your time as well as preventing you from filling your day with appointments that produce revenue, and while it's impossible to completely stop no-shows from happening, with a little planning you can reduce them greatly and minimize the effect they have on your bottom line. It's always best to think proactively and stop a problem before it starts. To do that, you should have a clear policy in place for handling problem clients before you need to use it. Make sure your policy is posted on your web page and that your clients have read and understand it. Then, stick to it! It may be difficult to turn away a client who 124 | NAILS MAGAZINE | shows up late, but if you don't enforce your policy it becomes meaningless. If you say on your website that you'll refuse service to anyone who is more than 15 minutes late, then do it. Allen Mierisch, owner of Imaginations Hair Salon in Racine, Wis., says, "I let my clients know that my schedule is usually completely full up to three weeks in advance. So if they're late, and I have to turn them away because I don't have enough time to complete their service, it's going to be a while before I can get them rescheduled." Typically you only have to enforce the policy once for the client to realize you mean business and start showing up on time. It's also important to understand that you teach your clients how to behave. If you don't respect their time, you can't expect them to place any value on yours. When you're always running late, either because you're doing services on clients who showed up late or you're overbooking your schedule, then you're telling them it's OK for them to be late as well since you probably won't be ready anyway. Additionally, you should always make sure you have the correct contact information on file so that you can confirm their appointments in advance, or follow up if they don't show up for their booking. Even regular clients sometimes change their phone numbers, so ask if it needs to be updated when they rebook their next appointment. Then, be sure to give them JANUARY 2014 an appointment card, even if they say they don't need one. "I don't care if I see them entering the appointment into their phone, I give them a card anyway," Mierisch says. "Even if it gets tossed in their purse, chances are they'll see it between appointments and it will help them remember their commitment." GET CONFIRMATION Once you have your policies in place, almost everyone agrees that the next step to preventing no-shows is to have an appointment confirmation procedure worked out. What's not so easy to decide is the best way to get those reminders out, who to confirm with, and when. "I only call to confirm appointments with new clients, and I don't actually ask them to confirm," says Mierisch. "I ask if they still plan on coming to the salon for their appointment because if not, I have someone on a waiting list who is willing to take their spot." Even if you don't have an appointment waiting in the wings for an available slot, giving a person the opportunity to bow out of their commitment without feeling like they're disappointing you may get you a more honest answer. Whether you only confirm with new clients or send out reminders with each and every booking, it's important to remain consistent. Mierisch says, "If you do confirmation calls for every appointment then your clients are going to learn to depend on them, and if you forget to make a call, don't expect >>>

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