Cancellations & No Shows – An Owners Biggest Loss.
Being in the beauty industry for over 3 years, well, you deal with a lot of disappointment from clients. It is something that is never discussed out loud, and owners refuse to face the truth about clients cancelling or not showing up. In every business, from any industry, this something that we all have had to deal with and are still dealing with.
In 2020, in my beauty business, I had over 50 cancellations and no shows for the year and hadn’t even realized the extent to those until 2021’s financial year. Once I did realize how many cancellations I received, I had already lost all that money…
However, thinking back, I lost more than income, I lost hope on most days.
For every client that didn’t show up, the thoughts “is it me?” came to mind. I would become too emotionally drained, that when I had a client arrive, I couldn’t give them all my attention the way I should, it effected my entire day.
From emotionally drained, I would become angry, thinking of the clients I could’ve helped, thinking of the time I spent booking in the client, preparing my room for that client, using products that would help prep for the client – a loss of income has now become an expense.
So how did I personally overcome this loss in my business? I owned it!
I lowered the amount of no shows or late cancellation by applying policies in my business. I began to ask my clients for a fee/deposit prior to their appointment, to confirm their appointment. If they wake up the day of their appointment and just didn’t feel like coming, well, it will become a financial loss for them.
I took myself out the equation when a client didn’t show or cancelled at the last minute. I no longer thought “is it me?” and began to understand that this is something that will always occur. We must empower and own the daily occurrences of our business.
If you are currently dealing with clients not showing up on calls, meetings or appointments, you can either become negative, let it take over your emotions as a business owner, or you can own it, control it and learn from it.
