Appointments & no-shows

A missed appointment costs twice: the time that stays empty, and the time somebody else would have used. The first useful step is therefore not a reminder text but a sorting exercise — which cancellations did the business cause, and which did it not? The second kind never fully goes away. The first is craft.

Four places produce cancellations reliably. Too long a lead time, because the further away an appointment is, the more life happens between booking and date. An unclear confirmation — "let's say Thursday then" is a statement of intent, not a booking. A reminder at the wrong time or on the wrong channel, reaching the customer when nothing can be changed any more. And a calendar with no buffers, where a single overrun tips the rest of the day.

The buffer is the most underrated lever here. A fully booked day is the best one on paper and the hardest one in practice, because waiting time does not rise evenly with utilisation but disproportionately — the last ten per cent of capacity are the most expensive. Spreading buffer evenly between all appointments is the worst option; it belongs where the variation comes from.

Online booking is not a feature you switch on but a decision to write your own process down once: which services are bookable, how long they really take, how short-notice a booking may be, and what applies when someone cancels. The articles in this section take those questions apart one at a time — with numbers where numbers exist, and with a decision where they do not.