Charging for missed appointments

[coastalcarcarenc]

Has anyone ever thought of the idea? How come Dentist, Doctor's etc get to charge a massive fee for not showing up to an appointment but automotive shops can't? At least a $20 charge for not showing up? Emergencies are understandable but most of them aren't. What's your thoughts?

[TheTrustedMechanic]

Most doctors'/dentists' offices in my area do not charge for missed appointments unless its a habit and you don't call first.  But calling to reschedule even the day of usually does not result in a charge.  Likewise, you make a haircut appointment and don't make it, do you have to pay for the one you missed before you can make another one?  It's frustrating but it happens and we have to live with it. 

 

With that said, I had one customer who claimed she only trusted me, wouldn't go anywhere else and had to have me work on her car.  She was lazy and a flake.  She claimed medical issues but even when I would call her the day before and she was enthusiastic and adamant that she would be there and then I'd call her hours before her appointment she would still either be 30-60 minutes late or not show up at all.  Finally I got fed up with it, I had tried everything else so I finally told her she would have to prepay for her appointment before I would schedule it.  I told her if she didn't make it within 15 minutes of the appointment time, she would forfeit the labor portion and have to pay again before I would reschedule.  She agreed once and made it 20 minutes late. I let it go and did the work.  The next time it was the same thing, you have to pay for the appointment up front and if you are more than 15 minutes late, you lose the labor portion.  She was almost an hour late and then argued that she couldn't make it on time.  I stuck to my guns and held her to the agreement she had made.  I refunded nothing and she didn't have me do the work.  This was the last time I saw her but she did call a couple times years later.  I hated to do it, but I was tired of losing 2 or 3 hours because she would not show up for her appointments.  Since she did have multiple medical conditions (none that prevented her from getting around when SHE wanted to) I turned the tables on her and asked if she was ever late for a doctors' appointment and before she answered I asked her, if you're late do they still take you and put off all their other patients who arrived on time and kept their appointments?  She was like, "Yeah, but," and I cut her off before she could make up a lie.

 

Get used to people not showing up, it's frustrating but it is a part of running a business where you work on a schedule.  When people call me to cancel, I am always friendly and nice and I respond with, "I am sad that I won't get to serve you, but thank you for calling to cancel.  Now I know that you won't be in, I can use that time to serve someone else and I am sure they would thank you too."  It reinforces that their actions affect not only me but other people as well and that their thoughtfulness in showing me the respect of cancelling is appreciated.

[JustTheBest]

Hi coastalcarcarenc! Good question - but in my opinion, I think it's something we (the industry) sort of created ourselves. 

The short answer is most car owners view their repair shop as a commodity. On the other hand, doctors, dentist, etc. are professionals they have an association or relationship with. 
Pretty hard to tell a customer they're going to be charged if they don't show up for (what they feel) is the same service they can get anywhere. 

Why? Well maybe you can answer this?
Why is it that current stats show that when a repair shop gets a new customer, there's ONLY a 27% CHANCE THAT CUSTOMER IS GOING TO RETURN FOR A SECOND VISIT. 

So what did YOUR SHOP do to follow up? Stay in touch? Let the customer KNOW YOU CARE?

Hope this helps!
 

Matthew
"The Car Count Fixer"

P.S.: New Training : Virtually Unknown Secret That Will Add At Least $126,750 To Your Repair Shop While You 10X Customer Reviews and New Customer Referrals WITHOUT Ever Spending Another Dime on That Money Sucking Advertising!

[alfredauto]

After a while you get to know who's probably not going to show up and just plan accordingly. I have a couple dozen customers who are pretty absent minded I don't make a fuss its really not their fault they can't get their shit together I just put them down and when they call to reschedule I just say don't worry about it no problem. They are good customers btw very loyal they just can't keep their appts. 

[alfredauto]

After a while you get to know who's probably not going to show up and just plan accordingly. I have a couple dozen customers who are pretty absent minded I don't make a fuss its really not their fault they can't get their shit together I just put them down and when they call to reschedule I just say don't worry about it no problem. They are good customers btw very loyal they just can't keep their appts. 

[coastalcarcarenc]

THANKS FOR THE FEEDBACK EVERYONE

[Dnzauto]

I had few of those kind of customers in the past.... If they call to cancel/reschedule, I always accommodate and tell them I appreciate them letting me know. The ones that are 'no show', I make a note in the system....if they are regular and use my shop exclusively , I would let it slide....if they are from online, I just reschedule them few days ahead and dont expect them to show up and plan accordingly, if they show up and i am busy, then i tell them it will be done the next day ...I dont think doctors etc charge for missed appointments in my area, and I dont think a regular customer would return if I tried to bill them for a missed appointment.... But my issue right now is, the very good customers returning my cars back with fully emptied gas tanks . I am going to place a black tape below the 1/4 line to try to eliminate that, lol

[NCTransmission]

If you have so many missed or blown off appointments, maybe there is a story there OTHER than penalizing those customers who don't show up.  Was the phone attendant not quite polite or accommodating enough?  Did a follow up email or text go through to verify?  

Yes, it sucks when a customer fails to show up for appointments, I'll be honest with the advertising campaign I am running right now it's about a 25% hit rate on the appointments made because it's a FREE diag.  They have nothing in it to win or lose, and with no perceived value, there is no need to be professional towards us.