One problem we are having too much of recently is with people who are booking appointments and then not showing up for them (no-show). Sometimes repeatedly. Almost always this is done by someone who is not yet a client.
This is a problem because at our clinic, we try to respect your time and have a room waiting for you when you arrive. Then we try to see you AT your scheduled appointment time. We do not overbook the doctor so that we can provide a high quality of care to our clients/patients. But respecting time has to work both ways.
So when YOU call US to schedule and then don’t show up, not only have we lost that time that YOU requested, but we have also declined to see another person during that time period. This hurts the business because not only are we not seeing your pet and addressing the issues you wanted to see us about. But also we are turning away people who want to get in to see us, putting them off until later because you had an appointment scheduled with us.
What are we going to do about it?
Well, after some soul searching, I’ve decided that people who no-show more than twice will lose the privilege of scheduling an appointment here. You don’t get to be a client at this clinic. If the person is already a client, they may be able to schedule a drop-off/work-in appointment, but will not be able to reserve a specific time on the doctor’s schedule (to not show up for… again). Or they may lose the ability to schedule an appointment at all, depending on the circumstances. Honestly, people who consistently can’t honor an appointment probably just need to use a walk-in clinic so that they can show up whenever they like and it isn’t a big deal. But they don’t need to be clients here at an appointment-only clinic.
How to avoid being a “no-show”:
1) Simply taking 30 seconds to call/e-mail if you have something else come up, or if you can’t get your cat out from under the bed, (or whatever) is the courteous thing to do. Especially when the clinic you are trying to use is trying to be courteous to you by seeing you at a specific appointment time.
2) Giving as much notice as possible is also courteous. When you don’t show up, it hurts our business and prevents us from seeing others who do want to come in. Calling to let us know you don’t want/need the appointment slot anymore because you got in somewhere else sooner is fine! We’re glad your cat got seen, it allows us to fill that time with someone else’s cat, and is just the courteous thing to do.
3) We know things happen, so just keep us in the loop so that we can adjust our schedule to fit in someone else who needs us.
Sorry for the little rant, but this has begun to happen multiple times daily in the last few months and it is keeping us from helping others. Most of my clients are awesome, and I thank you for being amazing.