It’s 3:00pm on Friday evening and as you and your staff look at the register of attending clients versus booked clients, the number of no-show clients becomes quite discouraging. You sit and wonder if maybe you should pour more into advertising or have that celebrity be the next feature for your ad. Well, no-show clients can be quite a dent in the business progress and morale of you and your workers.
But what if the solution is much simpler and cheaper than rolling out an ad, what if you could get the results you wanted by simply sending out text reminders? The main reason that clients cited for not showing up for appointments is simply that they forgot. With automated text reminders, you can give clients that gentle nudge to keep tabs on their appointment or to cancel early enough for you to book in someone else.
The effects of no-show clients are not only on the social morale of your employees but also on your company’s revenue. For example, a study carried out by Biomed central estimated the average cost of no-shows to stand at 196$ per day. Although this study is focused on the medical industry, the effects are almost similar across the board. Using text reminders for appointments can help reduce this and offer many more advantages such as:
Ease of access and convenience:
The reason your mailing list may not be working for you is that most times, mail ends up in junk or your client is too swamped to take time and read from your mail. Phone calls may also not be very convenient as you may miss a client during official work hours and voicemail responses are also not assured. Text reminders for appointments on the other hand are more likely to be seen and responded to. That little ting as your message flashes on their screen is sure to hotwire their memories to remember to respond to or attend their appointment.
There is a reduced number of no-shows:
The average number of no-shows for appointments stands at 30% of all bookings made. That can create huge dents in revenue as mentioned earlier. Notifications through text reminders for appointments closer to the day of appointments can reduce this. Sometimes people just forget and reminding them can close the attendance gaps for appointments.
Effective use of available resources:
Your employees may often find themselves underused because of missed appointments. The same goes to your available rooms and equipment. With clear communication from your clients, you can be able to know how to best allocate the resources you have and re-organize your time more effectively. You can also be able to know whether or not clients are to be charged for missed appointments if existing contracts have such clauses.
Improved client relations:
Most clients feel bad or shameful for missing appointments simply because they forgot and choose to go silent or change service providers to avoid subsequent confrontations. Having text reminders for appointments will help your clients maintain a reliable constant string of communication with you and therefore continue seeking your services.
Reduce your waiting list:
Once a client confirms their inability to attend a meeting or an appointment, you can move up those on the waiting list to take up the freed space. Your company is therefore more organized in the way it allocates resources and the appointment administration time is also reduced.
Conclusion:
It is easy to take it personally and be disappointed when a client does not show up, especially in your startup days or if it was a client you were looking forward to meeting. All this can be avoided with the use of efficient text reminders for appointments. Your employees and your resources will be happy as the organization levels increase and the revenues keep coming back as they should.
