What if you have to cancel?

[Chris Masin]

I thought I would start this topic off after being brought up in a different thread. I think it is a great question (Thanks Jill/Sagetherapist )

What do you do when YOU are the one who has to cancel with little notice to the client/s?


I have never had to cancel clients for any reason other than for a pure emergency. Accident - death/s in family - health issues.
I feel if it is out of your control - it should be accepted and understood.
If not - you shouldn't be cancelling with short notice.

I accept the same if it is the client
Out of their control - no charge.
Within their control - will be charged.

 

[Summer]

This exactly why I don't have a no show/must pay policy. I would ask someone to prepay in the future if they no-showed more than once. I always ask for as much notice as possible, and I never let somebody no show without a phone call from me. My personal habit is to call when anyone is 15 mins late. This rarely happens, but I like to exert that little bit of pressure for them to return my call and reschedule (give them the opportunity to tell me whether it was just a fluke, whatever). I think when you just let it ride, its as if you allow them to walk all over you and disrespect your time. I try to say something nicely, but firmly like: "Hi Marion, it's Jill from GBs. We had you scheduled today for a 1:00 hour long massage, and we haven't heard from you yet. It's now 1:20. Please give me a quick call today (xxx-xxxx), and we can try to reschedule. I'm hoping you are allright, and there wasn't some sort of emergency. Look forward to talking with you!" If they were on my standing, I usually put that pressure down, "If we need to cancel your standing appointments or rework them, please let me know. We reserve that time weekly just for you, but have others requesting appointment times on Tuesday too. We'd love to see you whenever you're ready to come in, but if not on the standing arrangement, your next appointments will be regular price."

I have wished many times to charge somebody for no-showing me, but then something will come along like today, when I have a charlie horse in my neck. I can't even turn my head to drive! Thank goodness its only one 90 minute appt this evening & I was able to give them plenty of notice. (it's actually levator scap/rhomboids, but presents as a stiff neck - hurts like crap until I can get my freaked out muscles rebalanced & crack my neck to relieve the spasm.)

Thanks for bringing the thread up. I'd love to hear what others think & do. I think I'm kind of a softy, but glad that most of my clients are established & rarely if ever cancel their spots on my book. They are golden!

Jill/sagetherapist

 

[Lee333]

The only times I have had to reschedule I was able to give the client at least 48 hours notice. I've only worked a couple of appointments that I would have preferred to cancel because of a headache, muscle soreness or some other physical complaint.

Thanks for starting this thread because I've always wondered how I would handle needling to cancel with very little notice. The thought has entered my mind of getting into a car accident on the way to the clinic or some other dilemma where I wouldn't be able to phone my client until well after the appointment should have started. I feel I would likely offer their next session at a significant discount, or on me (free), depends on the situation I guess.

 

[Pompal 09.]

If I have to cancel, I do it with as much notice as possible. But what can you do when you wake up and you find you have a full-blown cold! I try to see if any of my co-workers can take the appointment(s). My clients have always been very understanding. Besides if I'm calling off sick no one wants me to come in anyway!

We do have a no show/no call policy. The client must call at least 6 hours in advance or as in as much advance that is possible (a client scheduled at 9 am cannot get ahold of me at 3 in the morning!). We usually reserve this policy for repeat offenders so it's often not a problem. I try to be very understanding when someone has to cancel on me and I find that you get what you give, if that makes sense!

Steph!

 

[man darin]

I intentionally took hardly any bookings over the last week - have a bit of a holiday break since it's a good time to catch up with other people, so I only had about 1 appointment a day booked. One evening a stray dog came into the house, (I didn't think it was stray as it was a well looked after clipped white dog, but it was probably visiting nearby and wandered away) it freaked the cat out, I got the dog out, the cat followed, the dog went "yap yap yap" on the front lawn at the cat for ages, I went to move the cat inside so the dog would give up and the cat wrapped itself round my arm, and dug 2 claws into the palm of my hand as he sprung off - blood EVERYWHERE. This was about 10pm. I wasn't going to ring up my first time appointment at 11am the next day at that hour, so rang her cell phone at 9am - anyway, a man answers the phone, when he asks what I am ringing up for and I say she has an appointment at 11am (I didn't mention massage, just appointment) he tells me she doesn't have an appointment and I have the wrong number. I had to go into the office and check the original message, same phone number, called again and she answered the phone - turned out husband didn't know about the appointment. I put off about 4 massages for 4 days while my hand healed and everyone was understanding.

 

[Chorus (City 4-2 Chelsea)]

I went to move the cat inside so the dog would give up and the cat wrapped itself round my arm, and dug 2 claws into the palm of my hand as he sprung off - blood EVERYWHERE.

I put off about 4 massages for 4 days while my hand healed and everyone was understanding.

Hope your hand is doing better and I'm glad your clients were so understanding. Sometimes there's nothing to be done, you just have to cancel.

Steph!

 

[Psycho?Kitty]

Great replies everyone.

Melb - I hope your hand is doing better. Certainly an uncontrollable circumstance. Wonderful to know your clients were understanding.

Nice to know we aren't expected to be perfect all the time. We are people too.

 

[blast]

hand is fine now - best thing for puncture wounds from cat claws I've found is medicated pimple clearing gel - it seems to clear up anything Seems to kill all the nastiest that cat claws contain. It was only a bit over 2 days that it was too sore to even think about working with it. The first couple of massages I did with a glove on, luckily they were pregnancy massages, so no essential oils and no forearm work. It was just down to a flakey bit on my hand by the time the rescheduled lomi lomi happened

I'm just glad it happened during a week I was intentionally almost having off.

 

[cheryl d]

I've had to cancel on short notice and ..... get this, I had a brown recluse bite on my thumb and two days later got a wasp sting on my forefinger, what an interesting week!

When I cancel, I always reschedule and give their rescheduled appt. at a 1/2 off discount (if its done at a short notice) when I had my own practice and never lost a client from rescheduling.

 

[Vegas Jimmy]

This is a great post... when i first started at my job. I had just finished school and everything was going good. i had only worked 2 or 3 days and then it was a weekend. to make a long story short. got sick on sunday afternoon and was in the hospital Monday midmorning. so it was kinda a day to day progress for my first week of work. i felt so bad! luckily I work with wonderful people and they took care of every thing for me and all my clients understood... come to find out one of my clients was also in 4 doors down from me.. what a coincident...... but most clients are very understanding to that kind of stuff.

Sarah

 

[Jane]

I've never had a problem with any clients if I've had to cancel on them. I call them as soon as I know I won't make their appt and explain the circumstances, apologize profusely and then reschedule their appt right then and there. My clients are well aware that I wouldn't cancel unless I absolutely have to and I can say that they have all been extremely considerate and caring when I call them in that kind of situation.

I don't offer any discounts and I do have a no show/late cancellation policy in place. With that said, if one of my clients calls me last minute because they are sick or an emergency has happened I don't charge them for the appt. The policy is in place to protect me from clients who are disrespectful of my time.

 

[althea]

I guess I'm in sort of a unique situation here, but I have to cancel appointments all the time. I'm a doula, as well as an LMP,and my business partner and I basically live our lives on call. If someone goes into labor, we have to go.

We manage this by having really open communication with our clients. We always mention that we have a baby due when clients make their appointments, and that we may have to reschedule. I doubt I have a single regular client who has not been cancelled at least once. We just let everyone know that doula work is a big part of our practice, and everyone seems to understand. They actually feel proprietory about our babies, asking how everything went afterwards, if its a boy or a girl, etc.

If being cancelled at short notice bothers them, I am always happy to refer them to another therapist.

 

[Asha]

I reschedule appointments....................very rarely. And yes, a few times I have to admit, have been because I wanted to personally do something other than work. This is usually at least a week in advance, and I don't offer an explanation, and no one asks for one, or cares........the only last minute cancelling I have had to do is because of illness and a death in the family, and people are very understanding, I do offer a BIG profuse, apology and explanation.
I am more likely to call clients to adjust appt. times a little bit to make the day go smoother, or to squeeze another appt. in........for the most part, I am familiar with people's schedules and already know that they are usually able to do this, before I call.

I keep the phone numbers of frequent-regular clients stored in my cell phone, in case I have to call about running late from horrible traffic or an accident or emergency that happens while I'm away from home. That's only happened once in 5 years, but I'm glad I have the numbers with me.

Noel

 

[ican2bpicky]

:evil:
My massage therapist called this morning and cancelledmy afternoon appointment today because he got the flu... so far understandable, I can reschedule...

I called the clinic number he left in the voice message... the 'reception' told me to reschedule online and only NEW clients can be booked with the phone.... I got mad... I told her I called because I received that message... this was supposed to be my 2nd visit there...... maybe no more now.

Maybe she is another therpaist and is not supposed to take appointments for another therapist... but still... in some clinics the staff does not work as a team...

Online booking is supposed to help make booking easier, I don't think it replaces phone booking....

toffee (I'm mad because I did not receive my treatment today!)

 

[Luna]

... the 'reception' told me to reschedule online and only NEW clients can be booked with the phone

That sounds strange. There are some people who don't have computers! Maybe it would be better if you called and talked to your therapist and let her/him know what happened.

 

[pat z]

That sounds strange. There are some people who don't have computers! Maybe it would be better if you called and talked to your therapist and let her/him know what happened.

They like people to book online... fine (advaneforum.xxxe: latest schedule), but that doesn't mean I have to. Bad customer service. I was on my way to work, and I don't have an ethernet connection nearby for my finger to plug into.

Eventually, she rescheduled my appointment for me... after I told her I perfered to talk to a human being today!

toffee

 

[nipples kostalakis]

Great thread!

I do have a no show/cancellation policy. I usually give everyone at least one freebie where I don't charge them even if they "just forgot". And, of course, if it's a regular client who has done it before but it was a long time ago, they don't get charged. I think I'm very reasonable with my no show/late cancellation policy.

I have only had to cancel once at the last minute and that was due to illness. Luckily, that day I had just one client, so everyone else got more than 24 hours notice. I was out for more than a week. The only client I lost was the one who got the short notice. When I called and left the message that I was back in action and ready to reschedule, I did offer him a discount. Never heard from him again. Perhaps he found someone else and is happy there.

Twice I've actually been a no-show due to a scheduling mix-up on my part. I rescheduled those clients at NO COST to them. With profuse apologies of course. They both remain clients to this day.

One time I had a therapist no-show due to a scheduling mix-up and he gave me my next appointment at no charge. Another time a therapist cancelled last minute because she was in the hospital. She offered a discount at the next appointment but I declined. I know this therapist and know that she would not have cancelled had she not absolutely HAD to.

 

[fhotoace]

Funny - it happened today to me!

We've had a very stormy day today - winds up to 92 mph and torrential rains! I was in my office working on my second [new] client when we lost electricity! The whole downtown area was without power - businesses closed down.

I still had two appointments scheduled for a little later with regulars, but felt the need to call to reschedule since the worst was still to come. I left the office to call them ASAP (from my car) and had to leave messages for both. I have successfully rescheduled both, with my apologies.

In May of this year, while finishing up with a client, the fire alarm went off and the building had to be evacuated! There was a fire in the top level of the building. I rescheduled the remaining two appointments, explaining the reason and again, apologizing for any inconvenience.

if one of my clients calls me last minute because they are sick or an emergency has happened I don't charge them for the appt. The policy is in place to protect me from clients who are disrespectful of my time.

I feel the way you do, Intuitouch, and have the same reaction from my clients - they are understanding and have no problem rescheduling. I do not offer a discount on their next appointment, unless they were already on their way and I was unable to reach them, and then I will reduce the fee. I do have a cancellation/no show policy which I post conspicuously.

I try never to cancel an appointment, but there are circumstances that are out of our control (as above).

 

[ssssss]

We have a cancelation policy for repeat offenders, and if we have repeat no call/no show, we require a credit card to hold the appointment.

As for if we have to cancel...we absolutely give a discount if we have to cancel an appointment, and are unable to schedule the client with another therapist for the same day. I have been in practice for almost 7 years now. I was on my own for the first 2 1/2 years, and only 2 times did I have to reschedule at the last minute. In both times I gave them their next appointment free of charge for their inconvenience. In the past several years of have other LMTs working for me, I have had to cancel more and more because of their "issues". Sooooo... in an effort to curb this, I am now making the therapist responsible to pay my office the amount their client was discounted for their cancelation. (It's only $25, but it is the point that counts)

I am grateful for my clients choosing my office over another. I NEVER TAKE THEM FOR GRANTED! I respect the fact that they save their money up for their massages, and look forward to their appointment. To disregard this is poor customer service. Obviously emergencies come up. But as far as cancelling because I have something that would be more "fun", is disrespectful to the client, and in my personal opinion, irresponsible. I take my business very seriously, and I run it as a respectable business should be. If you are not as busy as you wish you were, and you frequently reschedule your appointments, maybe this is something to keep in mind.

 

[cookie25]

The policy is in place to protect me from clients who are disrespectful of my time.

I absolutely adore this statement! I have a cancellation/no show policy too but dont remember looking at it quite like this. Thank you!
If I have to cancel and reschedule due to an emergency or illness, I let my clients know as soon as it is possible. The absolute only time I offer a discount is if I do a "no show". Thankfully, that was only once and it was a scheduling error on my part. I wrote it on the schedule but just didnt "see" it. I gave the customer a g/c for a 30min massage.
For those clients scheduled weeks in advance, I give them plenty of notice if I am heading out of town or just need a break.