How to handle customers who don’t show up
Confirm by hand before the day, review your cancellations and agree clear terms with customers.
Real-world problems
Customers who do not turn up cost time and money. 4appointments does not have a no-show status, a counter or a blocklist, and it does not take deposits, so the work is done with the tools it does have: manual confirmation, the management link, the bookings list and reports. Here is a practical routine.
Use the pending status as a filter. Every public booking arrives as pending and holds the slot. Before you confirm it, contact the customer by phone or message and check that they really intend to come. A request that nobody answers is cancelled quietly about an hour after its time ends, which also frees the slot.
Give customers an easy way out. The final screen shows a management link for cancelling or rescheduling, with no minimum notice. Ask customers to keep it, and say so when you share your booking link. Someone who can cancel in two taps is less likely to simply vanish. For bookings you create yourself, copy the link and send it by hand.
Contact them yourself on the day. The tool sends no reminders by email or text, so a short call or message from you the day before is the most effective step. Use the day or agenda view to see tomorrow’s bookings at a glance.
Review the pattern. Export the bookings list to CSV, XML or PDF and look for repeated names, and check the cancellation rate in the reports. A customer who keeps missing appointments can be asked to call you to book, and you can reject their pending requests from the panel. If you want a deposit for long or expensive services, arrange it outside the tool and confirm the booking only after you have received it, and write the cancellation terms wherever you share your link.
Points to remember
- ✓No no-show status, counter or blocklist exists: use the list, CSV export and reports
- ✓A manual check before confirming filters out unreliable requests
- ✓Any deposit is arranged outside the tool, and you confirm after receiving it
Common questions
Can I block a customer who often misses appointments?+
There is no blocklist. You can reject their pending requests in the panel and ask them to book by phone, but the public page cannot be closed to one person.
Can I keep a deposit when a customer does not come?+
That depends on your national rules and on what you agreed with the customer. 4appointments does not handle deposits, so put the terms in writing where you take the payment.
More guides for you
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