How To Write A Great Massage Cancellation Policy

No-shows and last-minute cancellations are a problem for most service businesses, including massage therapists. While the causes of these short-notice or no-notice cancellations vary, each one comes at a cost to your business. 

When a client doesn’t keep their appointment and doesn’t provide you with enough notice to fill that slot in your schedule, you lose time and money. 

That’s why it is important that you have a massage cancellation policy in place to reduce client cancellations and no-shows. With a bullet-proof cancellation policy, you’ll have fewer empty spots on your schedule and spend your time more efficiently. You’ll also earn more revenue, and be able to serve more clients.

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‍‍‍Key Elements Of An Effective Massage Cancellation Policy

Use the following steps to develop a cancellation policy for your massage therapy practice or to improve the effectiveness of the one you have:

Step 1: Set Expectations

The first step in creating a cancellation policy is to decide what you need from the policy. For most massage therapy practices, eliminating no-shows will be the number one goal of their policy. However, short-notice cancellations, last-minute requests to shorten a session, and late arrivals can also disrupt your schedule and reduce your revenue.

When developing your policy, consider:

• What specifically do you want to cover in the policy? Is it just going to be no-shows and late cancellations? Or will you also cover late minute rescheduling requests and requests to shorten an appointment?
• The time frame in which clients must provide. For most massage therapists, 24 hours seems to be the norm, but if you need 48 or even 72 hours notice, that’s okay too - this is your cancellation policy.
• Under what circumstances will you waive the cancellation policy? This does not have to be explicitly written in your policy, but you’ll want to have an idea of when you’ll have some flexibility in your policy - this could be for a long-term client, an illness, or a family emergency. So think about the situations you’ll be flexible for ahead of time so you’re not caught off guard.
• How do you want your clients to tell you they need to cancel/reschedule? This could be email, phone, or cancelling/rescheduling online.

Step 2: Choose Consequence

Your massage cancellation policy won’t have much effect if there are no consequences for clients who leave you hanging. But you don’t want to drive your clients away with excessive penalties. 

Some massage therapists charge no-show clients the full fee for their missed appointment. If you are uncomfortable charging for a full session when the client does not receive treatment, you might decide to charge a flat fee, such as $25 or $50, for no-shows and late cancellations. Decide on a fee that makes you feel fairly compensated for the time you’ve now lost.

Also, choose how to handle the consequences for repeat offenders. Will you require clients who are frequent no-shows to pay for their sessions in advance? Will clients who cancel often only be allowed to reserve less popular appointment slots? You may even decide to not take on any new appointments from clients who have repeatedly no-showed or cancelled.

Choose consequences that discourage “bad” behavior and fairly compensate you for the loss a short-notice or no-notice cancellation causes. Remember - although you’re outlining consequences in the policy, you will always be in a position to be flexible and waive any fees. It’s better to be in the driver’s seat with the option to waive fees than it is to have any uncertainty in your policy. 

Step 3: Communicate Your Policy

Before you impose no-show fees on your clients you should obtain their consent. Besides, you can’t change your clients’ behavior with a policy they don’t know exists. So, make sure your policy is communicated every time your client books an appointment. And, communicate across other touchpoints as well.   

Ways to communicate your policy:

• On your intake form
• On your website
• In your appointment reminder texts and emails
• Over the phone when a client calls to schedule an appointment
• In your office voicemail recording

The key piece here is including the cancellation policy as part of your intake form. You’ll want to have the client sign the policy because (1) making a pledge like this makes people less likely to break it and (2) you may want to refer back to the signed agreement when having to enforce your cancellation policy.

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How To Handle Conflict When It Comes To Cancellation Policy

Enforcing a cancellation policy is never easy. But when you do, it’s important to remember that a client pays you to reserve an hour (or more) of your time. If they fail to show up for that time, that is their responsibility.

The easiest way to enforce the policy is if you require clients to have a credit card on file with you when they reserve their appointment. Once you’ve charged their card, you can email the client an invoice for the no-show fee along with an explanation about why the no-show fee is in place. You may even consider including a copy of their signed cancellation policy.

To avoid credit card chargebacks, your cancellation policy should explicitly state that your clients will be billed or their on-record credit card if they don’t adhere to your cancellation policy. This signed agreement is what you’ll need if someone ever does dispute payment with their bank - the bank will ask you for evidence that the charge is valid.

Additional measures you can use in conjunction with your cancellation policy

‍There are other approaches you can use in concert with your massage cancellation policy to reduce the impact that no shows and cancellations have on your business:

• Reward clients who keep their appointments with priority scheduling, and free product samples.
• Text your clients with appointment reminders. You can also request a reply to ensure they’ve actually seen the reminder.
• Follow up with clients who miss their appointments and find out why. Is there a common theme that you can potentially prevent?
• Consider selling discounted prepaid packages. If a client buys a package of five massage sessions and misses one appointment, you just count the missed session as used.
• Ask repeat offenders to prepay for their appointments.

How Can ClinicSense Help Enforce Your Cancellation Policy?

ClinicSense offers a No-Show Guard to help protect you in case of cancellations or no-shows that go against your cancellation policy. The No-Show Guard offers 3 optional levels of protection:

• Level 1: Require a credit card number to book online
• Level 2: Require a small deposit to book online
• Level 3: Require pre-payment in full
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Eliminate cancellation stress and streamline your booking process! Try ClinicSense free: