If you make an appointment for service, time is being held for you in the schedule that you expect to be honored. That time is held for you as a firm commitment, based on the kind of service you have requested. Other clients will call and ask for time to be held for them as well, and the answer will be given “I am sorry, the schedule is fully booked (because of commitments made to clients) .” Not showing up for your appointment and not cancelling an appointment with 24 hours notice means that someone else gets cheated out of service. It also means the stylist ends up with a giant two hour hole in their schedule that is unproductive and won’t pay the bills to run the salon. The same is true when the client shows up on time and says “I just want a haircut today, forget the hi lights,” and the stylist is still left with a hole in the schedule. Stylists work very hard to stay on time and keep clients from waiting. Of course, in our busy world, we can’t control traffic nightmares, or severe illness, earthquakes, or death, but common courtesy and proper notification to cancel an appointment goes a long way toward making everyone’s world run better. No showing an appointment is very unfair in the working world. If your income were dependent upon people keeping their word and showing up when they agreed to, then you would clearly understand the unfairness of flaking out on a scheduled appointment at the very last minute. No one likes to be treated that way, even you.
In order to counteract the unfairness of those who no show appointments, even after confirmation calls have been completed in a timely fashion, some salons charge a cancellation fee. Some people will try to argue their way out of paying a cancellation fee. Stylists don’t enjoy charging cancellation fees, but what else is there to do? Doctors do it. Its all about accountability. Repeat offenders will end up being asked not to book appointments any more. All of this nonsense can be avoided if the client simply shows up on time as agreed. So please, apply the golden rule, and “Do unto others as you would have done to you.” That’s how it works folks. Plain and simple.