One time we had a client run into a major snag on the highway that caused her to be 30 minutes late for her hair appointment. When she came in, she was near tears.
What happened wasn’t her fault and she had no way to know what is happening on our end when she wasn’t here. She always arrives on time and has never had to do anything but set her appointment and show up. She searched for a phone number or some way to tell us what was happening and it stressed her out when she couldn’t find it.
I’m sharing her story because I think it could be helpful for someone else if they’re ever in this situation.
We make a habit of visualizing our day and preparing for our clients long before they arrive. Mental rehearsal helps us stay on track and be at our best. We are highly aware of our schedule and run like clockwork because we’ve promised to run on time for our clients. It helps us out a ton, too, and keeps us from being stressed and drained at the end of our day.
If you sat in here and watched, you would see the stylists head to the front and, within minutes, their client will walk in. We’ve told everyone that the best time to arrive for their appointment is three minutes before the scheduled time because that allows us to be there for you when you walk in. We’re at our best for you when we can predict your arrival.
We do this for lots of reasons, the top two: We don’t have a receptionist and walking into a place by yourself when you know there will be several other people there is not everyone’s favorite. We cater to those who are drained by social interaction which is why we’ve designed it so that you only interact with your stylist when you come.
This client’s stylist was standing in the front waiting for her three minutes before her appointment. When the minutes ticked past her appointment time, the stylist checked her “last-minute cancellation’ list to see if her client’s name was on it. It wasn’t, so she continued to wait.
We have a generous grace period for late arrivals. If your appointment is over an hour, it’s 15 minutes before it’s marked as a no-show. That allows for the normal stuff that makes people run late. Anything past that means that their day has gone off the rails and they need to get it back on track. Unless they’ve used the “last-minute cancellation” feature, clients are marked as a “no-show” at the16th minute. It’s how we keep someone’s bad day from spreading to us and all of the clients after them.
It never feels good when that happens because the client is already stressed. The client who was 30 minutes late that day was feeling all of the emotions and, when she learned that she would have to reschedule, asked: “Could she not wait for me?” It just shows that she had no idea that her stylist stood in the front waiting for 20 minutes before she moved on with her schedule.
When clients book time with us, we put nothing between them and their time. We don’t work on other things until our clients get here. We are ready and have nothing else to do but be available to them.
Our grace period allows enough space for normal snags, and we feel confident moving on with our day when our client is not here.
The client completely understood and felt better when she realized that her stylist was not upset with her. You can tell a lot about a person’s character by how they handle disappointment.
We don’t get upset here. We don’t need to. No-shows and last minute cancellations do have a negative impact on us, but we know that life happens. So we put limits on how often it makes “life” happen to us.
The only reason a person would get upset is if there was nothing in place to keep it from happening again and again. Getting upset is an emotional defense mechanism to discourage the things we don’t want. We have other defense mechanisms in place and we don’t have to use our emotions to manipulate the behavior of others. This is how we’re able to maintain a culture of kindness.
If you’re ever in a situation where your day has gone off the rails and you know you won’t make it within the grace period, then initiate a last-minute cancellation. It’s better than a “no-show”. We allow three no-shows before you’re not allowed on our schedule again. We allow five last-minute cancellations. It’s not a matter of fault or blame. We view it as having incompatible schedules. Sometimes a person’s schedule can be so chaotic that maintaining consistency and predictability with their appointments is not possible for them.
If we were a walk-in salon, we could handle late arrivals.
A walk-in salon has people arriving at random times all day long. Inconsistent scheduling and timing is part of the business model. If someone arrived late to a scheduled appointment at a walk-in salon, it would be no different than being a walk-in with no appointment. If the client was turned away for being late, it would feel more personal because they can, in many cases, accomdate that client. Even if it was by putting them with another open stylist.
We’re not a walk-in salon and we rely on our clients keeping their appointments with us. When the client doesn’t come to an appointment they booked, it hurts the stylist’s ability to make an income. Our stylists are not interchangable like in a walk-in salon. They are highly skilled and well-educated professionals who have their own career trajectories. Clients cannot simply go to another stylist if they missed their appointment with their own stylist.
The standards are different in an appointment-only business model. The stylists are treated at unique professionals and are shown a great deal of respect by the owner and their clients. One model is not better than the other. One just might work better for some clients and some stylists than the other.
It’s good to have choices because the needs and preferences of people change as their life and careers progress. What doesn’t work for you at one point may be perfect at another.
What to do if you're running too late
