85% of winners at this year’s Aesthetics Awards are Pabau customers – more details here
Secure bookings and protect against lost revenue with a clear cancellation policy
Here’s how it can benefit your practice:
Fill your calendar with reliable, high-intent bookings… instead of timewasters.
Reduce last-minute cancellations and no-shows and protect your business from lost revenue
Confidentiality accept online bookings, knowing you’ll be fully compensated in all circumstances.
Project a professional image so that clients take booking appointments seriously.
The cost of no-shows shouldn’t be underestimated — they can cause thousands of dollars worth of lost revenue each year.
In Pabau, you can choose from a variety of policy types, from flexible, fair, moderate, and strict, so you can customize it to suit your practice. You can even create your own custom policy, if you wish!
There’s no point in having a fully booked calendar… if half of them are going to cancel.
Having a cancellation policy can help optimize time management and improve scheduling. In other words, it frees up your calendar for clients who genuinely want appointments – and will show up!
Clients are more likely to keep their appointments when there are clear consequences for canceling and not showing up. Having a clear, documented policy in place helps with this.
Even better, because the policy is built into Pabau’s online booking tool, it’s right there in front of clients as they book.
There is no longer any need to rely on emails or other communication methods — everyone has the facts in front of them.
Setting up a cancellation policy shows that you respect everyone’s time and run a well-organized practice.
It helps clients understand that you take appointments seriously, which will make them more likely to take your business seriously.
With a cancellation policy, clients are more likely to keep their appointments.
Of course, life happens!
Your practice team can choose whether to apply the policy when there are genuine cancellation reasons, such as emergencies and other extenuating circumstances.
This way, you can choose which situations do or don’t apply to your cancellation policy – simply adjust it based on the circumstances.
In other words, there’s a wiggle room where you need it!
A lack of documentation = a lack of consistency.
Having a documented policy in place means there are no grey areas – staff are clear on how it should be applied and your clients know the score, too.
This also means you can avoid those awkward back-and-forth conversations with difficult clients – simply point them to your policy.
It’s fully customizable, so you can design a policy for your business needs
You can combine it with the deposits feature in Pabau for a two-pronged approach
The policy can also be applied to package sessions. So, if a client no-shows or cancels last minute, you can deduct their package session as if they’ve used it
You can use any account balance the client has added if they don’t follow the cancellation policy
It’s flexible, so if you don’t want to apply it, you don’t have to
The cancellation policy feature in Pabau allows businesses to specify that if an appointment is canceled or rescheduled within a specified time frame, it will incur a charge. In a nutshell, it’s a way of protecting your business from time wasters and – more importantly – lost revenue.
There are a number of policy ‘tiers’ you can choose between in Pabau. Plus, you can also choose the time when they can cancel and not be charged – for example, 24 hours before their appointment, 48 hours before their appointment. etc. It’s up to you.
The specific terms can be customized to suit your practice requirements.
You can set up your cancellation policy on the Pabau Setup page under ’Policies’ in the Financials section. Here, you can define the time frame for cancellations, any applicable fees, and other related terms.
We allow you to create a cancellation policy that suits your business.
You can choose from a range of cancellation policies in Pabau, including everything from not charging a client when they cancel (the Zero charge policy) to a Strict policy where you charge 100% of their fee if they cancel.
In between, there’s a flexible, fair, and moderate policy. You can also choose a custom cancellation policy if you wish as well.
If a client cancels outside the allowed time frame (whether it’s 8, 24, 48, or 72 hours in advance), they will be charged a cancellation fee according to your policy. This helps protect your practice from losing revenue due to last-minute cancellations.
We’ve previously had a tiered policy based on the time of cancellation. For example, a client would receive a 100% charge if they canceled within an hour of the appointment start date, a 50% if they canceled within two hours of the appointment start date, and so on.
In Pabau 2, we’ve simplified this and have one universal policy for all.
Clients are informed about the policy through appointment confirmations and reminders sent via email or SMS. You can also include the policy details on your clinic’s website, online bookings and in any client communication materials.
Yes, Pabau provides the flexibility to override the policy on a case-by-case basis. You can waive fees depending on the reason for cancellation.
Yes, clients can cancel or reschedule their appointments online through the client portal, subject to the terms of your cancellation policy.
Both deposits and cancellation policies have their benefits, and choosing between them depends on your practice needs. Deposits secure a commitment from clients and help reduce no-shows, while a clear cancellation policy sets expectations and protects your time.
Often, combining both can be the best approach, providing security for your business and flexibility for your clients.
There’s an important point to highlight regarding deposits and cancellation policies.
If you’re already using deposits in Pabau and you have a policy selected, this will override anything related to the cancellation policy. So, if you had set up the system to take a 25% deposit but had a strict cancelation policy activated (which would take 100% of the fee), it would be the 25% deposit policy that would work. Just something to be aware of!
Resources
Industries
