The no-show text that works

I groomed out of a van in Raleigh for six years, and for the first three I lost about two stops a week to people who forgot. Not rude people. Busy people, with a dog who was booked six weeks ago on a day that seemed far away at the time.

A no-show in a salon is an empty table. A no-show in a van is an empty table plus the drive there, plus the gap before your next window opens. I worked out once that each one cost me about $118 and fifty minutes. So I got serious about the reminder text, and I tested a lot of them.

What does not work

The reminder most apps send looks like this: “Reminder: you have an appointment tomorrow at 10:30 AM. Reply C to confirm.” It reads like a dentist. People swipe it away. About 61% of my clients replied to that one.

Threats do not work either. Putting the cancellation fee in the first line got me a few more replies and noticeably colder driveways.

The one that works

This is the text I ended up with, and it is close to the one Bramble sends by default:

Hi Dana, it’s Andre. I’ll be at your place tomorrow around 10:30 AM for Biscuit’s full groom. Is the side gate still the best way in? Reply YES and I’ll see you then.

Reply rate: 94%. Three things are doing the work.

1. It is from a person. Your name, the dog’s name, their name. Nobody ignores a text about their own dog.
2. It asks a real question. The gate, the parking, the code. A question gets an answer where a notice gets a swipe. You also learn the gate code changed before you are standing at the gate.
3. It says “around.” You are a van, not a train. A window of fifteen minutes either side is honest, and it keeps people home.

Send it twice, at the right times

One text two days before, at 6 PM, when people are planning the week. One on the morning itself: “15 minutes out.” The second one is not really a reminder. It is what gets someone out of the shower and the dog out of the yard.

If there is no reply to the first text by the next morning, call. One call recovers most of the rest, and a stop you know is dead by 9 AM can go to your waitlist by 9:05.

Keep the policy off the reminder

Keep your cancellation policy. Put it on the booking page, where people agree to it once, and leave it out of the reminder. The reminder has one job, which is to get a YES.

What it added up to

Sam Ruelas at Honeyside in Tucson went from nine no-shows a month to two after switching to texts like this one, which is about $826 a month that no longer drives away empty. My own number went from eight to one, and the one was a family whose dog had run off that morning. He came back. They rebooked.