How to Reduce No-Shows and Cancellations

When you work for yourself, a no-show or last-minute cancellation can mean an entire day of earnings gone - in other words, a disaster.

But your clients are human, and things happen, like accidents, injuries, and sometimes just forgetfulness.

Here’s how to keep the number of missed appointments to a minimum, protect your income, and some ideas for what you can do to make the most of cancellation days!

Booking Fees/Deposits

Always take a deposit! This is pretty standard as it ensures that your client is serious about what they want. It’s very normal for people to change their minds, decide they don’t have the money, or just not feel like it on the day - the point of the deposit is to dissuade them from making these last minute decisions.

The deposit is your safety net in case of a cancellation, so make sure it’s more than a token amount, and make it clear whether the deposit is taken off the cost of the tattoo, or is its own fee.

Cancellation Policy

Make sure you have a clear cancellation policy, so no matter what restrictions you put in place, your customers have no excuse not to know!

Ideally this should be somewhere easily accessible, like your website, and written in clear language to avoid confusion. It should detail the different time periods they have within which to cancel - for example, cancelling the appointment weeks in advance might just mean they lose their deposit, while an on-the-day cancellation or no-show might mean they’ve lost their chance to be tattooed by you for good.

Consider how long it’ll take you to fill an appointment that’s been cancelled, and what you’d consider a reasonable penalty for customers who seem to be messing you around. This will likely depend on your popularity level.

Reminders

Sending reminders of your upcoming tattoo appointment is a great way to prevent your more forgetful clients from becoming no-shows! If you’re booking the appointment in person, you can write down the date and time of the appointment on a business card that they can keep with them as a visual reminder.

A week before the appointment, send a text or email reminding your customer that they’re coming to see you, and consider another one in the day or two before the session.

Wait/Cancellation List

One way to help fill those last minute cancellations and no-shows is with a waiting list. Instagram broadcast channels are a great way to do this, or you can set up a text or email service alerting your clients that you have availability. To avoid your list becoming too long, you can keep it secret and only let your favourite customers in on it!

Learning to say NO

Look, there are lots of good reasons why your clients might cancel, not show up or arrive late to your appointment. And a lot of not so good reasons. It’s up to you how kind you want to be - there’s nothing wrong with giving someone the benefit of the doubt if you feel they’re genuine.

But for those people who are clearly messing you around? Just say no. Your skill, time and mental health deserve more consideration.

Have a Backup Plan

It’s the day of the appointment, and your client is nowhere to be found. Take a deep breath, bank that deposit, and then get working.

This is the perfect time to get going on your designs for the next few days and maybe even clear an evening for yourself! Even if they cancelled ahead, you should use this opportunity to head down to the studio for work, or to help your colleagues.

While you’re there, why not make some social media content? Since we all need to be social media experts now - and making those Reels and TikToks can take forever - the environment of a studio might inspire some interesting ideas. You could even use a scheduling tool to take care of the next week’s worth of social posts: you’re welcome, future you.

If you have a tattoo convention coming up, you could spend some time thinking about how best to promote yourself and your table with fun things like stickers, posters and prints!

And if all else fails, just draw.