How to Prevent No-Shows: Dentists

In many dentist surgeries, it isn't just your clinical revenue figures that no-shows hurt - it's all of the other patients that depend on your service. In many areas of the country dental services are stretched to breaking point, and when a patient fails to keep an appointment there is often someone, somewhere, that was turned down for an appointment and now must wait with a toothache unnecessarily. Today we check out some of the methods best suited to dentists for preventing no-shows, including scheduled SMS messages, signage and employee training.

Have a dedicated cancellation contact point

This could be an option on your call distributor, or even a reply service to scheduled SMS reminders. Make it easy for patients to call and tell you they can’t make it, or they might not bother.

Send reminders … in several forms!

For patients with a single no-show against their name in your booking system, you could simple schedule SMS reminders. For patients with 2 no-shows against their name, consider sending a letter and an SMS closer to the date. For patients with 3 against their name, you should call, send a letter and SMS your reminder. These few dollars in stamps, phone calls and employee times will save many more dollars in missed appointments. However, their most valuable return is in showing your patients that no-shows matter to you, and that you need to know when they can’t keep an appointment.

Use signage to remind customers

Pop up signs reminding people that you have a dedicated cancellation line, that there is no penalty for cancelling within a set period, and that they'll be doing other patients a favor.

Shorten any automated reminder messages

If you have an automated reminder, make it snappy - otherwise many patients think it's telemarketing and hang up.

Consider overbooking

It may be worth overbooking your schedule by around half the usual rate of no-shows in order to preserve income.

Create standby appointments

Maintain a list of patients that can come in at a moment's notice - clear and rebuild this weekly. When you have a no-show, simply call in a new patient. One sister strategy to this is to make your SMS appointment reminders compulsory-reply; if your patient doesn't reply to an SMS reminder by 15 minutes before the appointment is due, tell them it will be rebooked.

How to Prevent No-Shows: Hotels, Motels and Accommodation Providers

There are variations of the "no show" in every industry. The client who has "a ton of work that I need done," but never ends up calling. The lady who says "Great! I'll just grab my husband's credit card" and is never to be seen again. And even more damaging are clients that actually make firm bookings at hotels, motels and other accommodation providers and then don't turn up. Many hotels deal with this problem by taking credit card information in advance, but this isn't always the best customer service policy for those who have a genuine difficulty that meant they couldn’t cancel within the allotted time. Today we check out some solutions, such as scheduling text messages and other policy changes, that help prevent no-shows for hotels and motels.

1. Create a no-show policy with the help of a lawyer
   Before you can deal with no-shows in a professional manner, you need to create a policy for dealing with them. Do so in conjunction with a lawyer - when softer methods such as scheduling text messages and other reminders fail, you need to know what recourse you can legally take.
2. Take a deposit for busy periods.
3. When you are taking a booking over the phone, or a booking is being made through the website, always make sure that the booker understands the penalty for not cancelling by phone prior to the arrival time. Over the phone, ask the caller to acknowledge the information. On the internet, create a window with multiple checkpoints (not just a link and a checkbox) to ensure they know what the policy is.
4. Set up a multi-step reminder system which includes methods like scheduling personal reminders via text message, doing callbacks, and requiring email confirmations.
5. Check your booking sheets daily, looking for duplicate reservations, date discrepancies and any bookings that are from two seemingly different people but with similar names.
6. If possible, have a single person within your hotel or motel take all the reservations, to ensure that no crossover of information occurs.
7. Do mystery shopping on your own accommodation service regularly to make sure people are giving out the correct cancellation information.

All of these small business tools will help you get and keep the clients you need and deserve!