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Cutting no-shows in half with smarter reminders
The timing, channel and wording that got customers to show up more often.
Aisha Rahman
Customer Success,
On this page
Why reminders fail
Timing
Channel and wording
The result
Why reminders fail
Most reminders are sent once, a day before the appointment, in a message that is easy to ignore. We looked at 120,000 appointments across clinics, salons and studios to find what actually changes behavior.
Timing
Two reminders beat one. The best combination was a text three days before, with an easy way to reschedule, followed by a short text two hours before the visit.
Channel and wording
Text outperformed email for every age group
Messages that used the customer's first name were confirmed 18% more often
A one tap reschedule link turned many no-shows into rebookings instead
Making it easy to cancel sounds backwards. It is the single biggest reason our no-shows dropped.
The result
Businesses that adopted all three changes cut no-shows from 14% to 6% on average, and most of the cancelled slots were filled from the waitlist.
Written by Aisha Rahman
Customer Success at Hollis. Aisha studies how small changes to reminders and booking flows change what customers do.
