When clients don’t show up for their appointments, it hurts your business. You probably already know that it results in lost revenue, but it can also be detrimental in other ways. It can disrupt your schedule, reduce efficiency, and lead to frustration and stress. The last thing you want is to have your table and room prepared only to find that your client never shows up.

If no-shows are a pain point your massage business is facing, let’s take a look at three easy ways to reduce them and increase profitability!

1. Pre-booking appointments

The simplest way to reduce no-shows is to get clients to commit to future appointments. Instead of verbally agreeing to meet at the same time next week, add their appointment to your schedule and send them an email or text notification about their booking. As their appointment approaches, send a quick reminder. This won’t just help you reduce no-shows but also reinforce your professionalism with your clients and strengthen your relationships.

To take this tip a step further, you can get customers to commit to seeing you regularly. Instead of pre-booking an appointment every time, you can set a recurring appointment in your schedule. Whether a client wants to see you every week or every month, the regularity will help them get in the habit of attending appointments. You just need to check in at the end of their massage session and ask them if they can make their next booking.

Bonus tip: If you want to reduce no-shows and reward your most loyal clients, you might establish a membership program. This is a great way for people to create a routine with you and get massages more regularly at a discounted rate!

With MassageBook, memberships are easy to implement. Simply decide the cost and what services are included in the membership. If you’re not sure what to offer, start by taking a look at your regular client roster and seeing what types of services they prefer!

2. Prepay with online booking

For some clients, pre-booking isn’t enough to deter them from not showing up. In that case, you may find that requiring prepayment helps prevent them from being no-shows. If you’re using MassageBook, you can make prepayment a requirement. The client pays at the time of booking, and you’ll post your cancellation notice clearly and upfront. If they don’t cancel in the appropriate window, you’ll collect payment no matter what.

If you’re uneasy about this being a big deal to the client, that’s a good thing. People are much less likely to miss an appointment when they’ve already paid, which is great for you and them. After all, missing an appointment with you will keep them from feeling the relief and recuperation they so desperately desire. And, if they no-show despite prepaying, it won’t hurt your business so much, as you’ll still collect payment.

3. Automate email marketing

We mentioned this earlier, but reminding people about their upcoming massage appointments is another great step to reduce no-shows. Surveys of healthcare leaders found that 88% of their organizations used appointment reminders. These leaders also reported that the reminders resulted in lower no-show rates, higher revenue, fewer unfilled appointments, and the ability to see more patients.

With MassageBook, you can send automated emails to remind clients about their upcoming massage appointments. In addition to sending confirmation emails immediately after booking, you might also schedule email and text reminders to be sent up to 48 hours before the appointment. If a client receives their notification and needs to cancel or reschedule, they can easily contact you to make those changes over the phone or online.

Aside from using emails for appointment reminders, you can also send newsletters to notify clients about any upcoming promotions, new offerings, or changes to your business. For example, if you’re about to start a gift certificate sale, send an email to let clients know—they’ll be excited to share your massage practice with their peers!

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Although no-shows can harm your massage business, these steps will help you reduce your no-show rate and increase your practice’s profitability. Don’t forget to implement robust massage software that supports your efforts and makes it easier to make these changes to your practice!