How do you handle "no show" clients?

N

Nick.944

New member
I'm just a weekend warrior so if this happens its not the end of the world but still irks me a little. Last month a guy never showed and I call a few days later and he told me the car was in at the dealer for unscheduled service and forgot about the appointment. No big deal.



So in hopes to avoid what happened last month I sent an email and text to remind another client about his appointment for today come 8am this morning the guy is a no show. I certainly don't want to continue wasting days but feel that having future clients put down deposits is a little rude on my end. Is there another way you guys make sure this doesn't happen? Thanks
 
aside from deposits? charge a fee for charging/cancelling under 24 hour notice (though you'll have some people who'll never ever call you again after missing it then; do you really want flaky customers?)
 
It's a fact of doing business, you have to live with it, basically. Everyone from car dealership service centers to dentists deal with this problem. The best approach you can take is to call every single client the day before the detail and remind them, that will give you the best protection from the "simply forgetful". Even then, there are some that don't show. You could try charging a cancelation fee, but good luck collecting it, from a customer's point of view, detailers are a dime a dozen.



In my personal experience, the reason for it happening is usually either because the client legitimately forgot about the appointment, or they skipped out on it because they no longer had the money to pay for it. When I call the client who's missed an appointment, if they just forgot they'll almost always rebook right away and apologize. If they don't have the money, they'll simply say "something" came up and they'll call back to rebook. I've NEVER had a client call back who told me that.



Anyways, I can absolutely understand your frustration, I hate it when that happens and it irks me like nothing else. But, again, it's a fact of doing business and there isn't too much you can do about it.
 
I just had my first no-show on Wednesday last week.



I waited about 30 minutes then called him and left the following message(not verbatim but close):



Hey John, this is Jean-Claude at Detailed Designs. We had an appointment for 9:00 and wanted to check in with you to see if you were going to be able to make it? I hope nothing's wrong and there are no emergencies with you. Feel free to call me back when you are able. Thanks and we'll speak soon."



He called 3 hours later. He was in California due to a death in the family. He said he would love to reschedule and apologized for not letting me know but had a lot on his plate. Had I "gave him a piece of my mind" in the message I would have made a fool of myself, lost a client and probably made a bad reputation for myself. Cooler heads always prevail.



Be kind to folks. Life happens.
 
Jean-Claude said:
He called 3 hours later. He was in California due to a death in the family. He said he would love to reschedule and apologized for not letting me know but had a lot on his plate. Had I "gave him a piece of my mind" in the message I would have made a fool of myself, lost a client and probably made a bad reputation for myself. Cooler heads always prevail.



Be kind to folks. Life happens.
Click to expand...

Your client's excuse is absolutely understandable, yes. It's also very understandable that he wasn't able to give you a heads up in advance. While these types of situations are rare, yes, they do happen.



And I will also agree, NEVER leave any nasty messages on voice mail, or get verbal with folks over the phone. If someone shafted you, even after you call them and talk to them (heck, even if they say "yeah, I'm just not interested anymore, you're too expensive"), always be cordial and pleasant to deal with. Yelling at someone and giving them a piece of your mind gets you no where, because in the end, the client still isn't bringing their vehicle to you.
 
I think an e-mail and phone call a day in advance is a great reminder set of tools.

Remember you can't re-sell that time slot; so you, like other businesses, need to do all they can to prevent the no shows. My pest control, dentist and doctors all call the day before as a reminder.
 
As WAS correctly mentioned, it's part of doing business.

Dentists, lawyers, doctors etc....they experience it too.

If you hv a shop doing lots of car, then it's not much of a big deal.

But if you are doing it at home, and tight for money...then it could be a big deal.



The no-show customer will give lots of excuses. That's expected.

The golden question is, how powerful is the INDUCEMENT created by that detailing session?

If I told you that tommorow 7am, you need to pick up a new Ferrari 430 Scuderia and it'll be loaned to you 1month with free fuel.....WOW! you might KILL :p:panyone who's going to stop you!! (just joking!). You'll set the alarm for 5am, probably can't sleep the night before and reach the location way ahead of schedule:) That's inducement and motivation.



My way to avoid this kinda no-show situation:



1. READ the customer, and be selective

Never simply accept ANY car owner.

Look for enthusiast car owners as they tend to be more enthusiastically serious about detailing.

I very rarely would entertain a "normal" car owner who knows nuts about detailing, as many of these are the lackadaisical ones, IMO, who regularly result in "no-shows" as they don't treat it seriously.

This is MY business, and I have the right to select the types of customers that I want to service.



2. Explain job scope and situation to customer.

Outline that it's a time-consuming process, and you cant be doing few cars at a time. You shd kindly request for his firm confirmation. I don't think anyone will be happy to pay any deposit.

Nothing much you can do.



3. Be prepared for No-Show.

Never be elated UNTIL you see the car reaching your door step.

Even when the car is on the way, an accident could happen. Psychologically, prep your mindset into taking it easy.

If it doesn't come, it's not the end of the world. If it comes, you'll simply do your very best on that vehicle.
 
I haven't had a no-show problem yet. For next season, I am going to be charging a non refundable deposit fee on the larger detail packages.
 
I've only had that happen once or twice, but all times were for reasons out of there control and they always rescheduled so it was no biggie. You have to respect what is happening to your clients in that moment and what has taken them out of the picture and try to be understand.



I would not suggest charging a fee or trying to secure a deposit, that just tells them something fishy is up and it may make you look bad, just a thought.



Josh
 
I also debate charging fee, some people are late because they are simple lazy like IME business owners who only work for self and dont have check in to someone else or time card. That has been always my experience - and these werre 8am/9am appointment. Always have to spend more time on something so they end up getting charged an extra man hour because of that. But it not fair to me that they are late like I am single person free standing carwash..
 
I've had this happen once and it wasn't a super expensive detail. I told the guy I'd charge him $180 to prep his expedition for a trade in as long as he brought me his new car. This was a good selling point because he sounded super excited and we got to talking about his next car he's buying and stuff like that. Well the day came that he was supposed to bring me his expedition, but he was late and so I called him and he said his wife took the truck to port orchard for the day.. (kinda weird so I just brushed it off and haven't talked to him since) Another time I had a guy set up for a top of the line detail and his appointment was set up for 9AM I told the guy it would take a solid two days. Well he didn't show till 12 o'clock and he wanted his car done by 2 the next day.. well I decided instead of getting pissed off with him I'd just work throughout the night and got it done, well i made a customer and I made money.
 
not sure if calling a day before is a good idea, most of my customers are busy persons , they work like me with a schedule in front of them.

i may go with email reminder instead of phone.

i had this happen once and is not pleasant. is part of business , you have to deal with.

if i had a client who repeat "no show" is not my client ! period !

Cosmin
 
phone calls are no problem, text are no problem since everyone has a cell phone anymore, and emails are a good thing! I do one of the three for every client for every detail.



client misses an appointment = day off to go surf in my mind!!! I'll just book another day that week to make up for it, and enjoy the random day off! so in a sense, my thursday just became my saturday, or my friday off just kick started the weekend!!!!
 
I had a customer not call me in advance twice in a row about his regularly scheduled washes (every other Saturday), in fact, the only reason I knew he wouldn't be there was because I called him in the morning of both Saturdays to let him know what time I'd be there. Both times I got his voice mail with messages he was out of town and would return calls when he got back. Next Saturday after those two he would have had his car done, I didn't call or show and he never called to see why I wasn't there. A few weeks later, he texts me asking if this coming Saturday was his and I texted him back "I didn't know you still had a Saturday, you haven't been home or called me to reschedule". He texted me back to say he'd been out of town (no idea why he couldn't just call me) and I let him know he should have given me a heads up because when I find out on short notice I am out the money I would have made and I can't set anyone else up. He texted me back to say I should remember who the customer is and he doesn't have to let me know if he won't be there. Texted him back at that point to let him know he needed to find someone else to take care of his car.



Looking for a reason anyway, only took him on as a customer as a favor to another one who is his best friend. He's a bit out of my area for washes as it was and then when a major 4 year construction project started that I'd have to pass through on the way to his house started, a 20 minute drive nearly doubled. Plus he has black vehicles that are parked outside 24/7 and for some reason his wife feels the need to start mowing their full acre yard when I show up. :wall



Other than that, no major no call/no show issues. Main problem lately is people wanting to set details up then taking forever to get back to me. By the time they do, the slot they wanted is already filled. Guarantee they wouldn't like it much if I didn't get back to them quickly.
 
Scottwax said:
for some reason his wife feels the need to start mowing their full acre yard when I show up. :wall
Click to expand...



hahhaha , i hate those mower guys showing up when i do correction or detail on driveway, and when they stop , the neighbour has time for it too.
 
Not that I am alone with this observation....



My clients tend to be super excited about the services I offer. Sans an emergency situations, which no one could foresee, calling a day before seems kind of silly. They can't wait for their appointment. They always have a huge grin on their faces when they show up!



What guys like us offer is like a candy store for car enthusiasts. They can't wait for their car to be treated!



I know others experience the same thing.
 
true JC, I just had a cancelation for tomorrow...guy is going out of the country. But when he gets back, its game on for a two day correction detail on his JB BMW!!! I cant wait for that one!
 
Scottwax said:
He texted me back to say I should remember who the customer is and he doesn't have to let me know if he won't be there.
Click to expand...

IMO, everyone out there should work for themselves for at least 6 months of their lives. If everyone did that, absurd comments like these would never come up.
 
As a customer, there's no way I'd ever pay a deposit for car detailing. From the minute I did so, I'd be wondering if I had just been ripped off.



I do think the call the day before is a great idea. It not only sends the customer a reminder, but lets them know you have them on the schedule and you're prepared.
 
Thanks guys looks like I'm going to stick with friendly reminders over deposits and late fees. Looking back when I used to pay someone else to detail my car I would view any type of deposit as a turn off and pass on that one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top