Katie Godfrey is the entrepreneur behind the KG brand, and single-handedly built her empire from a single salon bought aged 19 as a school leaver with no qualifications, to a chain of salons, a UK-wide beauty training academy, an eyelash product range and a salon coaching business.
In addition to maintaining the salon and pro businesses, Katie is a dedicated business mentor and looks after over 35 salons. This month, Katie asks “Are cancellations wrecking your business?”
Right now, our industry is being hit hard with no shows and cancellations. What are you doing within your business currently to try and prevent this as much as possible?
I discussed this topic on one of my latest podcast episodes on “The Life Of KG”, and we received such a large response I thought I would share some tips with our Salon Gold readers…
48-hour notice!
Most of us have a 24-hour cancellation policy. So first of all, you want to up this to 48 hours. This gives you an extra day to fill the space and get clients in for patch tests if needed. If you don’t have a policy in place at all, then you need to put one in place asap. You cannot complain about clients cancelling if you have nothing in place.
Policies are there for a reason!
Don’t have a policy in place if you are not going to stick with it. You have to be very clear in your wording and to your teams when a client will be let off a fee. To be honest it is easier to have a policy in place whatever the reason unless it’s a complete emergency. This way you are protected in most cases, but everyone also knows where they stand.
Many of us are people pleasers and feel awful taking any fees from a client that does cancel, or worried they will leave a bad review. You have to remember you are running a business, take yourself and your income seriously and others will take it seriously too.
Take deposits
This isn’t anything new, but many of you still aren’t doing this. You need to make sure you take deposits. With software providers this is normally a really easy process now and takes it out of your hands. If you steer people to book through your app or website, they could then have to pay a deposit to be able to book. If you make this a fee that covers your cancellation fee, then you are never going to be out of pocket again. Remember you can take payments over the phone too which then means every single appointment you can have covered. If anyone cancels you then have their fee plus hopefully a client in the space they cancelled, which means you’re better off if someone cancels.
I have a post on my Instagram page @kg_katiegodfrey showing the amount of money you can lose a day, month and year. It is a professional way to be able to share and show clients, so they understand more. Many people don’t understand the effect it has on businesses let alone small businesses. Educate people in a professional way and this will also help.
Feel free to contact me for any advice.
Katie Godfrey
www.kgbusinessmentor.com
Take a look inside the new House of Sassoon 
Salons Unlocked: CLAY salon 
Get set for 2024 success! 
