Salon bookings – The Do’s and Don’ts

By Phoebe Bawden

Are you one of the many salons suffering over client cancellations and no shows left, right and centre? Are your clients feeling the financial pinch, tightening up their purse strings and using illness as an excuse? So many of the salon owners I coach are fed up with it too! Together we are conquering this issue with a rock solid, black-and-white booking and cancellation policy.

Booking and cancellation policies are the number one way to protect your salon from lost business and revenue due to BS no shows and late cancellers. Hence, the importance of a built-in fee and clear guidelines for providing you enough notice to be able to fill that booking space, should this scenario happen.

Let me run you through the do’s and don’ts of salon booking policies…

Protect yourself!

A booking policy with fee will help to protect your business. A last-minute cancellation or no-show client can be absolutely crippling to a small or medium business. Can you imagine the longterm impact of having numerous clients cancel in the period of a week or even a month, and how much income you would lose over the course of a year?

Let me add it up for you, if your average client spend was for instance $150, and you had four last minute cancellations that would be a loss of $600 in a week, eight last minute cancellations or no shows in a month? $1,200. Then take that, multiply it by 52 weeks of the year? EEEEK. Say goodbye to that $60,000 new car.

And that doesn’t include potential service upgrades and product sales if those clients actually attended their appointments.

Beauty is, of course, predominantly a servicebased industry, so plain and simply, no service equals no income. No income equals not being able to pay your bills. And not being able to pay your bills equals no business at all. It’s a scary thought, but this is the harsh reality of the situation. This is why we need to be covering at least the cost of labour when we are asking for a booking fee; one of the best safeguards for your business.

Choose your words wisely!

I am specific to use the word ‘Booking Fee’ rather than ‘Cancellation Fee’, e.g. “If you cancel last minute you will forfeit your booking fee”, opposed to “If you cancel last minute you will have to pay a cancellation fee”, see the difference?

I find booking fee has a more positive connotation than cancellation fee – Let’s face it, we don’t want to be manifesting anything negative like a

And on that, please refrain from using “Deposit” and again, use “Booking Fee”, as deposits are technically refundable, as booking fees are not.

The ultimate deterrent for your clients is the thought of losing $50 or $100 or more for an appointment that they didn’t confirm or didn’t attend. While it may ruffle some feathers by taking a booking fee, you are in fact, providing an incredibly important safety net for your business.

Consistency is crucial.

It is essential that you and your team stick to your guns and enforce the rules. Sure, asking for money can often be an uncomfortable subject for people to broach, but you need to remember it’s not personal, it is plainly and simply a smart business decision.

Education is key here; staff need to be educated on the importance of these rules and what effect it has on your business, and the flow on from that being the effects it could potentially have on their jobs. Transparency can often help when your staff aren’t following salon procedures, be open with them, let them know, if these policies are not adhered to there may not be money to pay for product to service the clients, that less money means less staff and most of all no business means no job.

And if you really need to (because they still don’t love it) create a script, print it off and stick it to your reception desk, and ask your staff to read it to the client exactly.

Transparency, babe!

Share your policies directly, post them, shout them from the rooftop if you have to! Have your policies available EVERYWHERE across your website and your socials as well as your booking confirmations.

Run out of characters to text? No worries - use a short link to a landing page if you are character limited in your marketing messages (I can help you with this if you’re lost!)

You need to post your policies everywhere, even within your physical salon, QR codes are a dream for this too. These policies need to made clear to your clientele to eliminate any misunderstanding. Doing an update on your policy? Again, post that everywhere! There can be no room for misinterpretation when you have covered all your bases, as it will be clear as day when answering to a disgruntled client.

E is for Everybody!

Undoubtably it’s easier to ask a new client for their booking fee, but it is crucial that existing clients are asked too. It needs to be fair, a blanket policy that keeps everyone accountable. Having different rules for new and existing is a sure-fire way to confuse the F out of your staff and have room for error.

Most point-of-sale systems these days include a booking fee option and if yours doesn’t, have a chat to your POS support team, or consider changing over.

All new clients and existing rule-breaker clients should be charged their booking fee at the time of booking, whether that is face to face, over the phone or online.

For existing clients who have a clean record i.e. always turns up for their appointment, always gives plenty of notice when rescheduling appointments and is pretty much your dream client then calling them 7-10 days before their appointment to obtain their booking fee should suffice, but remember – it’s a blanket policy keeping it fair for everyone!

So, how much?

What is the right amount to charge for booking fees? In reality it needs to be an amount that someone would think twice about losing. We need to cover labour costs at the very least. For example, if your cancellation fee is $20 for a 2-hour massage and facial that really isn’t going to cover much. Charge accordingly.

A general guide to charging accordingly would be around the equivalent 50% of the clients’ bill at the end of their service or charge based on the amount of time that client would potentially take.

You may find that because your client has less of a payment at the time of their appointment, that actually they end up spending a bit more while they are actually with you.

The persistent naughty clients!

We all have that one client who continuously defies all rules, last minute cancels, and forever no-shows. These guys seemingly don’t understand what it takes to run a small business and it feels like constant disrespect right? Solution? Full payment upfront!

Put it in your policies, a section about serial naughty clients, that they will be required to pay the full amount BEFORE their treatment.

The alternative to these problematic clients? Divorce them!! No one needs that type of negativity in their lives.

Gift Voucher no-shows.

There is nothing more frustrating than when you have a gift voucher client that constantly reschedules, or they don’t show up at all. NIGHTMARE!

A booking fee is so important here, its where your policies come in strong if you have them in place. Cap their rescheduling number, limit the times they can change their appointment time to 2-3 at the very most, and no shows without legitimate reason forfeit their voucher.

These rules need not only to be placed in your cancellations policies but also in your Gift Voucher policies – clear and concise rules.

Don’t leave it ‘til the last minute!

It is essential in your booking policies to include an amount of time in which all of your clients are able to cancel without penalty. Always ask for as much notice as possible when rescheduling with an absolute minimum of 48-hours’ notice to cancel.

Some of our clients are implementing a 72-hour notice policy, allowing them additional time to replace that cancelled client.

And all of our clients are text-confirming their salon clients 3-4 days before their appointment, as this allows a reasonable amount of time for the client to make contact outside their notice period. There is no point texting someone 12-hours prior to their appointment when your policy states 48-hours required! Think about it…

Use your discretion.

It is inevitable that some clients will cancel or reschedule their appointments, we understand and empathise with someone who is injured or is sick or something that is completely out of their control where it is simply impossible for them to attend their appointment.

Always use your discretion, are you asking the following?

• Is this person being genuine?

• Was there an opportunity for that client to have contacted us earlier?

• Was the situation unavoidable?

• Was it out of character for that client to cancel or is it habitual for them?

• Are they a great client that regularly shows up?

We know that sometimes it happens, we are human, and sometimes we just have “one of those days”. Use your judgment to determine whether this was something that couldn’t be helped, and your staff should always consult either the owner or manager if considering waiving a fee in these circumstances.

The Salon Bible

A salon policy and procedures manual (as we call a ‘Salon/Clinic’ Bible) for staff is paramount for the success of your business and reducing the blurred lines and grey areas for your staff.

If you don’t have one in place, DO IT NOW! Do you need templates and contracts for your salon or clinic? We offer an amazing tool where everything is done for you, visit caitlynmenzel. com and search for our Salon Bible. Available at: www.caitlynmenzel.com/product/the-salon-bible/

I hope this has helped to map a few things out for you

Coach Pheebs

PS - Feel free to connect with me at phoebe@caitlynmenzel.com or Instagram. com/PhoebeCMCoaching …my books are open to new coaching clients.