Paying a deposit at the hairdressers?

I wonder if anyone challenges those who don't attend?

It seems it's not only the customers who don't attend. I'm still waiting for a dishwasher repair man who was going to 'call in on the way home' last night.

BlueBelle, were you referring to teetimes post with the 10 times no show. I think any individual who doesn't attend 10 appointments would find all the staff busy when she phoned up to book.!

If any of you went to work and there wasn't much for you to do would you be happy if your employer deducted a couple of hours pay for inactivity. Hairdressers etc. wouldn't appreciate it either.

We are in a difficult position, we want to be nice , we want to give excellent service (if we didn't we probably wouldn't be in business long) but we have to be financially viable too.

Why is someone allowed to no show 10 times I would have stopped making appointments after three no shows
I m glad no one here does that I wouldn't be paying ahead at my hairdressers

Well charma I'm with you. It's always the same people who mess you about.
Those of us that work to an appointment system with regular clients know when someone has a genuine reason for a no show and wouldn't penalise them. I've only once got rid of a client by charging her for 2 missed appointments. She'd been a pain in the neck for a couple of years.
If a client is a no show then it's too late to ring someone who may be waiting for an appointment.
When I had a salon with 5 therapist and me I could have paid for another member of staff some weeks with the last minute cancellations or no shows we had.
It happens a lot.
I missed an appointment with my hairdresser a couple of months ago, total mind wipe out. I paid her, she has bills to pay.

I can understand a deposit for new customers or unreliable customers, but not for longstanding regular customers. I can only ever remember once missing an appointment,

When I go to the hairdresser for an appointment I book the next appointment. I may well change it, nearer the time, but would always try to give a weeks notice.

My GP practice does tell people to go elsewhere after 3 no shows, there is a big notice in the surgery in a prominent place, I've only ever witnessed one person complaining, her husband had been removed from the list and told to go elsewhere.

My daughter runs a beauty salon and I help with reception. I don't think the general public realise how these missed appointments affect a business. My daughter just this morning had a client ring up at the time she had made her appointment for to say she had over-slept so would not be keeping her appointment. Another lady booked for treatments which would take 2 hours. She had two reminders but did not show and did not phone to explain. People don't understand that a huge 2 hour gap can cost a business a lot of money. An appointment system is not like a walk-in, if someone does not show you do not have a another client ready to fill the gap hence lost income. There are many of the general public who do not even have the courtesy to phone and say they cannot keep their appointments....... we are getting fed up with a lot of their attitudes, I think people would change their tune if it was their business and livelihood that was at stake.

I visit a dental hygienist 3 monthly and her charge is £45 for 30 minutes. £20 must be paid up front when the appointment is made, even if (unlikely) I was returning later the same day for treatment. It works well.

I wish that my GP surgery would work on 3 strikes and you are out. It would not be cost effective for a surgery to take money in advance in case somebody did DNA. Somebody would have to take the cash, records would have to be kept and the money banked. What would they do if somebody said that they could not afford to pay? Last month there were 156 DNAs and I find that appalling.

I usually book my next appointment whilst I'm paying for my last one.
My hairdresser sends a text a day or two before the next one is due and asks for a simple Yes or No; or a phone call to rearrange. This avoids unforeseen missed appointments and the need to ask for a deposit. It's a system which I like, and he's used it for a few years now - so I guess he finds it's successful.

Like vq I have had to cancel appointments at short notice due to health problems - including a mammogram, blood tests, and dental appointments. You can't attend these things if you can't get off the toilet, or if you're doubled up with back pain and can hardly move. And these are not things you can plan for .

Yes, I used a debit card although DH told me I should have used a credit card as it offers more protection.

By debit card maybe vq

How do you make an appointment over the phone if you have to pay a deposit? I sometimes have to cancel appoints at short notice due to health conditions. I would resent losing a deposit when it's due to my health.

Tsk, I'll have to look up the spelling now!

Diarrhoea and vomiting.

Ana - What's D&V? Quick tell me, I might have it already.

48 hours minimum seems rather unreasonable! What if you wake up on the day of your appointment with D&V, or have an accident on the way?

nottooold I think it would make better business sense for the salon owner to tell the no-show person to clear off and annoy the competition down the road, rather than possibly alienate all the other customers who keep their appointments by instituting a deposit scheme.
If the salon is doing well, they don't need customers who actually cost them money to have on their books.

I've been to the salon today and asked about this. Apparently, if a customer gives 48 hours minimum notice of cancellation or change of appointment then the deposit will not be forfeit. It is only for 'no shows'. She says she has a customer who has 'not shown' ten times without explanation even though she sends reminder texts to all customers. Incidentally, this is a small local salon, not a big city establishment and they must be doing quite well as I heard today that they are planning a major refurbishment over the Christmas break.

My dentist charges for a no show or failure to give 24 hours notice of a cancellation - its about £40.

I used to work to appointments.
It was annoying when people cancelled at short notice or missed appointments altogether, but sometimes it was actually quite useful as we could use the time for emergencies or for people who needed things doing quickly.
We did ask people to pay a £10 deposit for long appointments (an hour or more) which no one seemed to think unreasonable.
We only charged for missed appointments for serial offenders (3 missed appointments) as people usually had a good reason and hadn't done it on purpose. The effect was usually that they went elsewhere but that was often a 'result'

I think, provided a client can cancel an appointment within a reasonable period, it is understandable why the business is doing this. Hairdressers have to earn money like anybody else and if people just don't bother to turn up it must be very annoying. £25 seems a bit excessive though. The idea of "blacklisting" a serial offender seems like a better way of dealing with it.

I think, in theory, the same (a "fine") should apply to those who - for no good reason - don't turn up for hospital and doctor appointments on more than one occasion. It would be quite difficult - and possibly more costly - to impose such a charge but it may send out a message that such behaviour is unacceptable. The danger would be that people with mental health and addiction problems would be the most likely to fall foul of such a rule if it were applied across the board.

For people whose trade involves customers making appointments, late cancellations and people missing appointments are one of the perils of the job - and every job has its problem side.

I am with the hairdresser who black booked habitual non-attenders but more than that is a no-no.

I am afraid I agree with the hairdresser. Missed appointments mean she loses custom. It takes two hours to do my hair and if I didn't turn up it would be a quarter of her working day wasted.
A relative is a practice manager at a GP practice and they say missed appointments are a big problem, some people book several just in case and then don't turn up. I think a booking fee, even for a GP, is reasonable.

Same with GP and hospital appointments - no shows mean lost work.

We have not had any replies from people whose work is by appointments. It would be interesting to see what their opinion is.

How many missed appointments make a difference to the viability of a business? One a day? Two a day? Five a day? Ten a day?

It depends how long each is for and what the cost of providing that service is - and what the difference is between costs and takings. If it is a little local hairdressers, their charges might not be very mush above their costs, so missing, say, two lots of charges out of twenty in a day would mean losing ten percent of that day's takings. If their margins are ten percent, (no idea whether that is common) that means a day with no income at all!

A prestigious West End salon could have much higher margins and be more able to absorb the fall - but they are also in a much better position to demand and get attendance at all appointments, so they are not so likely to be badly affected.

Would anyone be pleased if their boss said they would not be paid for one hour of their work today because there would be no customers there then?