I tracked every no-show for 6 months — here's what I found
Abigail Watson
🏪 VIP Seller
🥇 Gold Seller
Other · Preston · 1mo ago
I want to be honest about this because I wasted money making the wrong choice first. I started with Phorest when I opened my mobile therapist in Newcastle 3 years ago. It looked great on the surface but the client-facing booking page was clunky and I had eight people drop off mid-booking every week. Switched to Appointy two years ago and haven't looked back. Here's what the switch actually involved and what I think matters most when choosing a system.
First thing: don't just look at the price. Look at the booking flow from a client's point of view. I had a client tell me my old booking page made her feel like she was filling in a tax return. That stung but she was right. Appointy took me about half a day to set up properly, and within the first week I noticed clients were actually completing their bookings rather than dropping off halfway through.
Second: SMS reminders are non-negotiable. Email reminders get ignored. My no-show rate went from roughly 30% down to almost nothing once I turned on the automated text reminder 48 hours before each appointment. Worth every penny of the monthly cost.
Third: deposits. I introduced a £10 deposit about two years after switching and honestly I should have done it from day one. The people who complained were the people who would have wasted my time anyway. My regulars didn't blink.
First thing: don't just look at the price. Look at the booking flow from a client's point of view. I had a client tell me my old booking page made her feel like she was filling in a tax return. That stung but she was right. Appointy took me about half a day to set up properly, and within the first week I noticed clients were actually completing their bookings rather than dropping off halfway through.
Second: SMS reminders are non-negotiable. Email reminders get ignored. My no-show rate went from roughly 30% down to almost nothing once I turned on the automated text reminder 48 hours before each appointment. Worth every penny of the monthly cost.
Third: deposits. I introduced a £10 deposit about two years after switching and honestly I should have done it from day one. The people who complained were the people who would have wasted my time anyway. My regulars didn't blink.
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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
The deposit psychology point is spot on. I've said this for years — a £50 deposit doesn't stop genuine clients, it stops time-wasters. Anyone who values the appointment enough to actually show up doesn't think twice about a deposit.
#2
The point about filtering your client base with deposits is something I wish someone had told me when I started. It sounds harsh but your business actually runs better with fewer, more committed clients than with a packed diary full of flaky ones.
#3
I had the same fear about telling clients I was switching to online booking only. Turns out most people actually prefer it — they can book at midnight if they want to without feeling like they're bothering you. The ones who complained were the ones I could afford to lose.
#4
I've been in this industry for 4 years and the switch to online booking was the best operational decision I ever made, full stop. Not even close. The time saving is enormous and the professionalism it adds to your brand is something clients notice and comment on.
#5