BookPin reduced my no-show rate by 30% — here's what I did
Ruby Scott
👑 VIP
👑 VIP
Aesthetic Clinic · Peterborough · 2mo ago
I want to talk about deposits because I see a lot of people in beauty business groups acting like it's somehow rude to ask for one. It's not. It's a completely standard part of running a professional service business and if you're not taking them you're absorbing all the financial risk of someone else's bad behaviour.
I introduced a £15 deposit about 3 months ago through Shedul. Before that I was losing money every single month to last-minute cancellations and no-shows. In my worst month I lost over £15 in wasted appointment slots — that's time I could have given to clients who actually wanted to be there.
Here's exactly how I set it up: 25% deposit, non-refundable if cancelled with less than 48 hours notice. I put this in plain English on my booking page and in my confirmation message. No legal jargon, no passive-aggressive tone. Just clear, professional, grown-up policy.
Three people cancelled their bookings when I announced it. Those three people were also the ones who'd no-showed me previously. Genuinely not a loss. Everyone else either already expected it or said it made them feel more confident that I was a serious professional.
I introduced a £15 deposit about 3 months ago through Shedul. Before that I was losing money every single month to last-minute cancellations and no-shows. In my worst month I lost over £15 in wasted appointment slots — that's time I could have given to clients who actually wanted to be there.
Here's exactly how I set it up: 25% deposit, non-refundable if cancelled with less than 48 hours notice. I put this in plain English on my booking page and in my confirmation message. No legal jargon, no passive-aggressive tone. Just clear, professional, grown-up policy.
Three people cancelled their bookings when I announced it. Those three people were also the ones who'd no-showed me previously. Genuinely not a loss. Everyone else either already expected it or said it made them feel more confident that I was a serious professional.
💬 2 Replies
👁 1.5K Views
💬 2 Replies
Join the conversation! You need to be logged in to reply.
I made the same switch and I'd add one thing: tell your clients it's for their benefit, not yours. Frame it as 'you can now book at any time of day without having to wait for me to respond'. That framing works really well and it's also genuinely true.
#1
This is really relatable. I went through almost the exact same process 3 months ago. The biggest thing for me was realising that the clients who pushed back hardest on deposits were the ones who'd let me down before. Once I saw it that way the decision became very easy.
#2