#6 of 6 Important Questions: Why?

If you haven’t read the opening article to this 6-part series, please see 6 Important Questions to ask yourself before opening a business. The last installment in this 6-part series is: Why?

• Why do you want to own your own business?
• Why are you an aesthetician?
• Why not work for a company and be an employee?
• Why do you think this will work/succeed?

To me, these are almost all rhetorical questions. If you don’t know the answers, my next question is why not? Before you venture into something as risky as owning your own business, I recommend having a down and dirty chat with yourself (many times) to figure out the answers to these and all of the other questions in this 6-part series. Without the answers, you may find yourself out in the middle of the ocean without any oars. You certainly can succeed in business without knowing the answers to these questions, but again—my question is why not ask them? Why wouldn’t you—before you start your business—try and find out as many answers to as many questions as you can think of? 

I hope this series of articles has been helpful. I hope the questions posed and your personal answers to them helped to put things in perspective for you. I actually hope they scared you a little bit and made you stop for a moment and really dig deep to find the answers. The next step for you is to go out into the world and ask your own questions. Ask as many questions as you can as often as you can. If you aren’t asking, you aren’t getting answers. And you want all the answers you can find—even the answer to your prayers in the form of a busy and successful business.

To recap, here are the links to the precious articles in this series. Read them, reread them, and come up with more questions on your own. 

• 6 Important Questions to ask yourself before opening a business
• #1 of 6 Important Questions: Who?
• #2 of 6 Important Questions: What?
• #3 of 6 Important Questions: Where?
• #4 of 6 Important Questions: When?
• #5 of 6 Important Questions: How?

I wish you all the best of luck and good fortune. Owning a business can be a gratifying, satisfying adventure. I know it has been for me—21 years and counting.

Some thoughts about No-Shows

Everyone has a different concept of time. I think for those of us in the by-appointment business, we perhaps are more acutely aware of being on time and keeping appointments than other people. I know this is at least true for me. I try to always be on time and I would never take lightly not showing up for a scheduled appointment. However not everyone is in the same camp.

Having a cancellation policy is very important (see links below). Within this policy, there are also stipulations on any confirmed appointments that someone does not show up for: a no-show. Since I have already gone over the types of excuses and reasons that I do and don’t accept with client last-minute changes and no-shows, I’ll leave it up to you to read the above articles and won’t repeat myself about those specific issues here.

To me, a no-show is a no-no. Since I confirm all appointments the day before, there really is no excuse to not show up to an appointment. And sometimes there is a good reason a client doesn’t come to her appointment. But short of a car accident or some other emergency that rendered her unable to pick up the phone and let me know she can’t make it, I take no showed appointments with a very rigid stance: I always charge for a no-show. Period.

I suppose if I didn’t confirm my appointments I would feel I had less ground to stand on when charging for a no-show. Yet another good reason to confirm. If I have reminded the client with a courtesy day-before phone call and she still did not show up, this is not a client I want for my business.

Getting a credit card number when booking a first-time client will be a sure fire way you can charge her if she decides not to honor your time. It has only happened once or twice in my career, but once in a while I will not get a CC number when booking a new client and the day of her appointment that she has decided not to come to, I have no way of charging her. But I do make a note in my appointment book (and on my iPhone contacts: JudyNOSHOWSmith) so if she does call again, she will have to (up front) pay for the missed appointment before I would be willing to schedule another appointment with her.

Yes, it’s true, I’m not messing around here. Time is money and my time is worth a lot: $115/hour as a matter of fact. And if a client doesn’t have the manners to at least call at the last minute to let me know she isn’t coming (even with a flimsy excuse), she isn’t someone I want in my business, and she should be charged for the time she has carved out in my schedule. I certainly would pay a service provider if I had to cancel at the last minute or somehow completely forgot about the appointment. And I expect the same from my clients.

Some clients are not up for being charged for a service they did not receive, even if they no-showed their appointment. In some cases you simply cannot charge them, but I won’t ever book that client in to see me—ever. I will say, with my good clients, they always offer to pay in these cases. And I actually will let these conscientious clients have a one-time pass on a last minute cancel. I want to keep these types of people as clients. But—with a no-showed, confirmed appointment—I still will charge, even a good client, without a reasonable excuse.

For the short list of what to do with a no-showed appointment:

• always get a credit card number when booking first-time clients
• let each client know your policy so you can then charge for missed appointments (no-shows) without the client being surprised or uninformed
• always mark in your appointment book and on their chart that they no showed on such and such a date

Here is an example of a very concise cancellation policy that truly should curtail any no-shows or even last minute cancellations. If your client knows this information ahead of time (make sure she does), then your client knows she will be charged if she doesn’t follow your guidelines and policies (click on the image to enlarge):

This is a great cancellation policy

As I’ve said in previous posts, you need to verbally explain your cancellation policy to each new client over the phone so you know they are aware they will be charged if something goes amiss. I think charging someone without fully informing them of your policies is not good business. If all of your appointments are made online, have an agreement page with your policies on them and before an appointment can be made, the client has to check a box to agree with these policies.

I always mark down the no-show on the client’s chart. I put the date, just as I would had she been there, and then mark that the appointment was confirmed and then no-showed. If she is a first-time client, therefore there is no client chart, I may make a chart so I can have the no-show noted in case she decides to make another go at a facial with me. My experience is that when a first-time client doesn’t come to the initial appointment and is charged, I never hear from her again.

Charging for no-shows isn’t fun. I would much rather give a facial then get paid for sitting around waiting for a client who never shows up. But I was at my office ready and waiting for her to come through the door, and because she didn’t, another paying client didn’t have a chance to come in. So it all works out in the end.

I will say, almost 100% of the time, a person who has no-showed an appointment never calls me again—even if I haven’t charged for the no-show. As I said, I don’t want no-show type clients in my business, so I just chalk these very rare occasions up to the cost of doing business.

For more details, see:

• Website ideas: My Cancellation Policy
• More on My Cancellation Policy

More on Standing Appointments

As you have read in Standing Facial Appointments (link below), having these pre-made appointments is intrinsic to the health and future of your business. If you have a small clientele, you may not have many standings, but it’s really a matter of client preference vs. size of the business that dictates whether or not you’ll have standing clients.

One downside to standing appointments is if a client needs to move her facial up or back a week. This can really throw her whole standing schedule off. What I usually recommend in these cases is this: If she is coming in every 4 weeks and needs to change one appointment up or back a week then, for those 2 facials, have her come in at 3 weeks and 5 weeks (equaling two 4 week intervals). This way you won’t have to redo her entire standing schedule, and she will simply be getting a facial at 3 weeks out and 5 weeks vs. every 4 weeks for those 2 months. Doing the 3/5 week appointments for this one time period keeps you from having to erase months of standing appointments, which isn’t the end of the world but it is an inconvenience.

If one of my standing clients needs to move one of her appointments and doesn’t want to do the 3 week/5 week schedule, I will gladly do her entire standing schedule over again once. But only the one time. If she needs to redo her appointments a second time and again isn’t willing to go 3/5 weeks, I will take her off a standing basis; she simply doesn’t fit in to what a standing client is. She will have to make her appointments as any other non-standing client does. And that is OK. I have many clients who book with me 6 months out, but on different days and at different times. Standings, which are somewhat rigid, don’t work for everyone even if they want regular appointments.

The simplest solution for a client needing to change an appointment in any given week is if she can come in the same week she is already scheduled, but at a different time and/or on a different day. This way it doesn’t mess up your standing schedule and your client can keep with her 4 week facial intervals.

I generally book standing appointments 6 months out. At around the 4 month mark, I contact the client, usually by email or when I see them in a facial, and give them a list of the next 6 months of standing appointments—the exact days of the months their appointments will be on. Doing this keeps the client on track and gives you a heads up if she needs to rearrange her schedule (and therefore yours). And of course this will alert your client if for a future appointment you have a conflict.

If client A (we’ll call her Susie Smith) is coming in on Fridays at 5pm every 4 weeks, I’ll write on one Friday of the month of my standing schedule, “5pm Susie Smith—4wks.” Whoever the other standing appointments are that come in on the same week client A does, I’ll put them in the standing calendar on that same week.

Some clients want standings who come in every 6 or 8 weeks. They, too, go on my standing appointments calendar. “Wednesday, 2pm Client B—8wks.” Then, if I have another standing client who wants to come in every 8 weeks, I will try to get her into the every 8 weeks on the same Wednesday my other client comes in at 2pm. And if I can’t exactly coordinate everyone how I’d like them to come in, at least with my standing calendar I am aware of the days, time slots, and frequency I have available.

Regardless of their intervals, for every standing client (Susie Smith will again be our example), I will email the following at around the 4 month mark (2 months before her standings, 6 months worth, are over):

Hi Susie,

Here are your next 6 months of standing appointments. As you can see, the November and December facials are on holidays, so we’ll need to change those. Just let me know what works best for you (and if any of the other dates don’t work), and I’ll get you scheduled in.

Fridays @ 5pm

July 10

August 7

Sept 4

Oct 2

Oct 30

Nov 27*

Dec 25*

November 27th (2015) is the day after Thanksgiving, a day I usually do not schedule appointments. Also her December 25th appointment needs to be moved, which is Christmas Day. Having the next 6 months worth of dates gives both you and your client the opportunity to see where things might need to change. In the case of this specific example, perhaps Susie can come in on November 26, Wednesday, therefore not throwing off that month’s standing time. And the same with her December appointment. However, many people go on vacation during the winter holidays, so your November and December standings may get thrown off.

In some cases your client may just have to skip a facial—possibly two—if you can’t get your schedules to jibe. But in other cases she will come in the week before or after, making her appointment schedule during those times every 3wks and/or every 5 weeks until the standing schedule is resumed. This is just as I was describing earlier when a standing client needs to move an appointment. You can go to a 3/5 week time frame for those 2 months worth of appointments.

One last thought: Even though your standing client has her appointments in writing (either by email or on a card you’ve given her), you still need to confirm each appointment the day before just like with all of your appointments.

If you aren’t currently offering standing appointments for your regular clients, start now! Simply ask each client if she wants to go on a standing basis. Some will, some won’t. Letting your clients know this service is available and getting a standing schedule up and running is good for you (you’ll know your schedule ahead of time) and it’s good for your business. 

For more information, see:

• Standing Facial Appointments
• Confirming Appointments—Part I
• Confirming Appointments—Part II