Confirming Appointments—Part II

Whether by text, phone, or email—confirm your appointments!

The following is a mixture of what was in an operations manual for my aestheticians and office manager in Chicago and what I’m recommending here and now. It has more detailed information to go along with the original post, Confirming Appointments—Part I (see link below). To avoid confusion, other than in the first example, the script is from me personally vs. someone from your salon who may be doing the confirmation calls.

---

All appointments are confirmed the day prior to. Please do this earlier in the day rather than later. Why? If someone cancels on your confirmation call, you have the whole day to try to rebook that appointment. The script can go something like this:

• “Hi [client], this is [you] from Carolyn Ash Skin Care. I’m calling to confirm your facial appointment with [aesthetician or me, depending on who is making the call] tomorrow, [Friday] at [2pm]. If you need to call the office, we’re at [773.528.xxxx].”

If I made the calls myself, I would simply say:

• “Hello, it’s Carolyn Ash calling to confirm your appointment with me tomorrow, [Tuesday], at [10:30am]. I’ll look forward to seeing you [or perhaps meeting you] tomorrow.”

Also, if this is a repeat client, I would drop my last name.

I do not ask the client to call me back to confirm on my confirmation call. I find that annoying and unnecessary. My dentist does that and, well, it’s annoying! I don’t recommend asking your clients to do more than show up for their appointment. There is one instance, below, where I actually do require a call back, otherwise I don’t recommend it.

There are certain clients who need a reminder call one week before their appointment as well as the day before. These clients are those who tend to forget and/or are chronic cancelers—especially those who continually cancel at the last minute. This week-before-reminder call is primarily for clients who come in quarterly, every 3-4 months. However, make note of any client you feel needs this extra call. Simply email or call one week before (ie: call on a Tuesday, one week before their Tuesday appointment) and say:

• “Hi, I’m calling to remind you about your facial appointment with me [next Tuesday] at [X-time]. If anything has changed, please give me a call, otherwise I’ll see you next week.”

If I send an email, it looks something like this:

• Hi [client], I wanted to remind you about your facial with me next [Tuesday], [July 22nd], at [4pm]. I’ll look forward to seeing you then! 

Be sure to mark your appointment book for these one week calls. Just write on your book one week before a client’s appointment something like “Call [client] to remind of 1 week appointment.” Whatever you write, do write yourself these notes every time for every client.

The confirmation call is a courtesy call. If you have a client who has no-showed a confirmed appointment and who is still a client, when you do the confirmation call ask them to call you back to confirm they will be at the appointment. As annoying as this may be, you need to know for sure they are coming.

Time is money, as cut and dry as that sounds. You are running a business and if have just one client who no-shows an appointment or cancels without enough time for you to rebook the appointment, that is essentially money down the drain. That is why I am a stickler for confirming appointments—all appointments. You will in a way train your clients to respect your time, just as you respect their time. You do this by being on time, booking your appointments with enough time in between, and therefore not running over. By doing these simple things you will build a healthy relationship with your clients for the long-term.

Because I have always implemented the day-before confirmation call, I have on occasion had a client call me who hadn’t heard from me yet. Perhaps my day took off early and I wasn’t able to make my confirm calls until later in the afternoon. Clients are so used to my day-before call that they want to make sure we are still on for their facial the next day. I think this is a good thing!

A note about automated appointment programs. I think in most cases these automated email services are valuable. However I’ve had a few experiences where it was too much of a good thing. In one example, I used one of these automated online services to make an appointment for a service. She and I worked out the appointment time just a few days before I was going in to see her, therefore I did perhaps get more contact in a shorter time frame. 

• First I got an email confirmation of the appointment. I think that’s great—so the client will have the time and day in a (saved) email.
• The next day I got a text confirming the (next day) appointment.
• That same day I got another email to confirm the appointment.

I felt with all of these confirmations that I might actually forget about the service I had scheduled! Why? Because I was a little annoyed at all the reminders I was receiving from different devices and put it all in the back of my mind. Generally, however, I think online scheduling services can be quite handy.

I may be “old-fashioned” by today’s standards, but I actually like having as much personal contact with my clients as possible. I like making the confirmation calls myself—on the phone—even if I end up leaving a voicemail. I rarely text my confirmations. I do have a few clients who prefer that, so I do this for them. But everyone else gets a personal call to go along with my personal service. It’s not that automated systems diminish your service in the least. I suppose it just comes down to preference. Do what you prefer. And what I prefer is what I’d like done to me—having a personal call from my service provider.

Also see:

• Confirming Appointments—Part I

—perhaps