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If you’re a small business dealing with clients in the service industry you’ve probably seen your fair share of empty chairs. No-shows happen more often than you’d like and are quite costly. So how do you make sure your client is actually in your chair, at your table, or in your gym at the agreed time?

One way of dealing with this is to give clients a slap on the wrist by charging ‘no-show fees’. And even though that sometimes works, in the end, a punished client is not a happy client.

Reminders work

So what does work? Extensive research has shown that the best way to make sure your clients appear when they should, is reminding them beforehand. A study under 251 participants stated that one of the main reasons for missing an appointment was forgetfulness (26%).

So how do you tackle to this goldfish syndrome? The forgetful participants stated that they would like to receive a single reminder less than 2 weeks prior to the appointment.

The most effective way to send reminders: texting

There are several ways to remind clients of an appointment. Phone calls can cost you great amounts of time and money. Emails often don’t get opened or get lost in spam folders. The most effective way to remind clients, is texting.

“The open rate of a text message is 98%. And to make it even better: 90% of text messages gets read in the first three minutes of being received.”

A study conducted in healthcare has shown that sending text message reminders decreased no-shows with 14,6%. The open rate of a text message is 98%. And to make it even better: 90% of text messages gets read in the first three minutes of being received. That’s why texting is a great way to remind your clients of their appointment. It not only jogs their memory, but it’s also a personal means of communication that improves customer loyalty.

Automatically send reminders to your clients

The Scheduled App allows you to schedule text message reminders to your clients, so you can type your message, plan it, and it will be sent automatically at the moment you picked. You can also send group messages, repeat messages, import your calendar and more.

No more empty chairs? Download the Scheduled App from the AppStore or in Google Play.

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Jojanneke Vonk