Hi @TBSDG!
From my perspective, that seems totally fair. I’ve noticed a lot of upscale restaurants are starting to use a similar approach where they take credit card information at the reservation booking point (just experienced that last night for a reservation this coming weekend). They then either apply the reservation credit to the dinner or refund it if the reservation happens. Either way, I think individuals who are scheduling appointments with your showroom are likely accustom to these types of scenarios for restaurants too, so it shouldn’t cause too much frustration!
I guess the question I’d pose to you is what do you know about the people no-showing or cancelling last minute? Do they normally follow up after the fact with a reason why or reschedule?
One of the fun things us long-time advanced community professionals do is try to understand behaviors, triggers, and if we can influence outcomes in digital spaces such as this. In your scenario, I’d want to understand if these individuals ever had any intention of following through with visiting your showroom or if it was just a passing/light interest. I wonder if perhaps some sort of quick screening call (or even email exchange) followed by the booking event would help you schedule time with truly interested and engaged customers and sort of put a barrier in front of the ones likely to disrespect your time. You know your business best, but perhaps framing it as a “We’d love to find out what specific pieces, styles, etc. you’re interested in so we can best prepare for your visit.”
Hope this helps a bit!
Hey there @TBSDG -- this is a great conversation that you started, here. I agree with everything Jillian said!
To build on what she said -- if you choose to implement some sort of screening process in order to weed-out those cancellations/no-shows that potentially never intended to show up (which is so frustrating, and like you said, disrespectful and unfair to you) -- you might consider using Workflows to aid in that process.
Example:
- set up a “send email to invitee” workflow
- set the email workflow to fire off “immediately upon booking”
- in this email (separate from any booking confirmation that is sent), include info like
- what the client should expect at the meeting
- questions for the client to answer about what they are hoping to experience
- verbiage like Jillian suggested above
- informing the client that a response to the email within X time is required in order to keep the meeting
- then, if the client does not respond by X time, you can cancel the booking, freeing up that time slot for a new potential client to book into
I also want to offer a hearty “no issues, here!” to the point of implementing a cancellation fee. Many medical offices, spas, restaurants and other businesses do this with very good reason. I have been given info about cancellation fees in the past when booking hair appointments, manicure appointments and dinner reservations. My hair stylist actually requires that all new (first time) clients pay 20% of whatever service they are booking because that is the demographic most likely to no-show -- someone brand new, with no preexisting relationship. She does not hold that requirement of returning clients. I think you would be well within reason to do this, and I do not personally believe the type of client that would generally book with you would be put off by it at all!
I think Jillian’s advice is sound, here: look into what you know about the people that are booking only to no-show. What data can you gather to find commonalities, there? What tools within Calendly and outside of Calendly can you utilize/implement to make it better? In addition to workflows, you might consider using our payment collection integrations with PayPal/Stripe to take a refundable booking fee (rather than implementing a cancellation fee). This would allow you to collect $X upon booking and include verbiage on the booking page that tells the client they will be refunded this amount upon time of meeting, or that it will be applied to what they purchase etc.
I hope this helps!
