Late cancellations are inevitable from time to time.
Here’s my step by step guide.
Walk through my cancellation policy
My step-by-step guide on why you need a cancellation policy, how to manage cancellations and how you can implement a system I use with my clients.
I have found that having a clear client-therapist agreement goes a long way towards minimising late cancellations.
I send this out when booking a discovery call, and for new clients I have a Terms and Conditions form for them to tick, read and sign when we start working together.
I ask for 5 working days’ notice, and this does not include bank holidays or weekends.
My policy is to charge 50% of the fee unless I am able to fill the session from my waiting list.
This is how this looks in practice.
First and foremost, I want to know the reason for the cancellation.
If it is a complete emergency then I contact my client to say that I hope everything is okay, and I thank them for letting me know.
Otherwise, this is what I do:
- I write a carefully worded email to my client thanking them for letting me know.
- In the email I remind them that I have a late cancellation policy which is outlined in my client-therapist agreement and attach it to the email for their reference.
- I suggest we take the session by video call or phone if they can’t make it into clinic.
- I also offer them my availability for the rest of the week and if they can rearrange within the same day or the same week, then that’s the problem solved!
- If they still have to cancel, I explain that I have to charge half the fee to cover the time that could have been used by someone else.
- If I have someone waiting to take the appointment then I write and explain that I usually charge a fee but this time I don’t need to as I have someone on my waiting list.
As I send invoices in advance for homeopathy consultations, even with a late cancellation I am rarely out of pocket.
If by any chance they have not paid in advance I send an invoice for the late cancellation fee.
If the invoice is not paid within a week, I send it again.
It still hasn’t been paid? Then I telephone.
The number of times I have had to take it to telephone is one.
The number of times I have had to resend the invoice is only one or two.
Mostly what I have is people who offer to pay.
Guess what I say when they offer to pay?
I say, ‘Thank you. I really appreciate that.’
The key thing
I think the reason that this system works is because I share it everywhere!
It’s on my client-therapist agreement, my website, my booking system, my auto-respond and it is also provided on my Terms and Conditions form for new clients to sign when they first come to see me.
I hope you find this useful.
