Usually I take cancellations and no shows with a grain of salt and put it down to just being part of my business. This week however after 3 cancellations and one no show, I let it get to me and I’m feeling frustrated. So on behalf of all massage therapists and small business owners, personal trainers, doctors, and anyone else who takes client bookings I have decided to sit down and let the world know how it really is for us.
Now things happen in life and sometimes we legitimately can’t make appointments that we have made. One of my cancellations gave me 3 days notice. Excellent! it gives me plenty of time to fill that spot and that doesn’t bother us at all. But when an appointment gets cancelled the night before it makes it a whole lot harder to fill and generally will go empty. In a large practice where there is generally a wait list it’s not such a big deal, but for us little guys it all adds up. This week I lost $300 from expected income. Imagine if you lost that from your weekly wage? Most of us have mortgages to pay or at least rent just like everyone else. Then on top of that we have the rent on our premises and all the overheads that go with it. So in fact that sort of hit to us is like halving the wage of your average income earner. We all have families to support and mouths to feed, some more than others. Bills to pay, vehicles to run etc etc just general everyday living like most of our clients.
The question I ask is would you miss an appointment with a specialist that you have been waiting months to see? Would you simply forget about the appointment? My answer would be no. Think of the little guys to be just as important as that specialist. Getting your monthly massage is important. Ok it’s not life threatening, but it takes a really big thing to make me miss mine and I have one every fortnight. As I said earlier we understand that stuff happens and sometimes you really can’t get out of that important work stuff. All I’m asking is that you try to attend appointments that you make with anybody, massage therapists, Doctors, your personal trainer. Try to remember that your cancellation may not be the only cancellation for the week and the domino effect puts massive strains on small businesses like ours. I want to be here for the next 5 years keeping you at your best. I don’t want to get grumpy and frustrated with my work, I love my work too much. All small business need your help and together we can keep on keeping on.
Nikki