How your old salon cancellation policy may actually be hurting your business
We sat down with beauty business guru Stephanie Mitchell to talk boundaries and how to take the awkward out of enforcing your spa or salon cancellation policy.
Running a salon or spa comes with its fair share of uncomfortable conversations. Setting boundaries seems obvious…until it isn’t. It’s easy to talk a big game about where you draw the line. When it comes time to put your foot down, it’s not always so cut and dry.
In 2022, Mangomint’s Vice President of Sales, Marchelle Mooney, joined Stephanie Mitchell for an interview. They tackled one of the trickiest boundaries owners set with clients: the dreaded salon cancellation policy. Both shared tried-and-true advice from their years in salon management and marketing.
Their advice comes down to three Cs:
Culture
Communication
Commitment
We’ll walk through how each one helps your policy stick, plus what to decide before you take deposits.
Culture: Make your policy fit your vibe
A cancellation policy says a lot about your business. Most of all, it should sound like you.
Do you have to have a cancellation policy?
Not every salon or spa has a cancellation policy, and some very successful ones don’t. For context, 77% of beauty & wellness businesses using Mangomint had a cancellation policy set up.
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A cancellation policy can help you set expectations with clients and protect your income, along with your team’s.
“When I first started my career, I specialized [in] haircuts only,” says Marchelle, reflecting on her early days behind the chair. “But I remember watching the colorists who would have a color makeover on their day that would no-show. And that would just kill a four, four-and-a-half, or five-hour chunk of their day.”
Your culture should inform your cancellation policy
Your services and your space shape how clients see your business and how they behave there. That’s why your culture is your guiding light when you decide on a cancellation policy.
To start, your cancellation policy should reflect what a cancellation actually costs you.
Ask yourself: When a client doesn’t show up, how much time and money do you or your team stand to lose?
Here are some situations where a cancellation or no-show might hurt extra bad:
You offer time-intensive (and expensive), multi-process services that take a half- or whole-day.
You do extensions that require ordering expensive hair, which can take days or weeks to ship.
You have a long waitlist, so a no-show is a missed chance for someone else to take that slot.
“Your cancellation policy should reflect that,” says Marchelle.
Even one no-show or last-minute cancellation a week can cost you hours and pay.
Marchelle also sees a cancellation policy as a filter. It helps attract clients who will try their best to avoid these problems, for your sake and their own.
“For the business that doesn’t want to hold cards on file, they have to recognize that they’re inevitably going to have the customers that chose not to go to a salon that does have a strict cancellation policy,” says Marchelle about this filter. “So, this goes back to your ICP [ideal customer profile].Who is your ideal profile that you’re serving? And is that someone who respects cancellation policies and boundaries?”
That question sits at the heart of your culture. Beyond respecting your time and boundaries, do your ideal clients understand what your services are worth?
Communication: Get clients to agree to your policy
Like any good relationship, this one works best when both sides know where they stand.
Displaying your policy isn’t enough
Cancellation policies can sometimes get the side-eye from clients (it’s not just you!). So it’s understandable that many owners skip the conversation and post the policy instead. It ends up taped to every mirror or framed at the front desk as a warning to the would-be appointment-canceller.
The trouble is that a posted policy is passive. Clients aren’t required to read it, let alone agree to it. As Marchelle points out, your policy should requirethe client to acknowledge and accept it.
She says the key to reducing the frequency of cancellations is “communicating [the policy] and having it set up to where they have to acknowledge it at some point.” She continues, “The communication needs to be upfront…And it needs to be in a way where we can say, ‘This is what I sent you, this is what you agreed to.’ It has to be written. It has to be clear. It has to be concise.”
How to effectively communicate your cancellation policy
How you communicate your cancellation policy sets the tone for your relationship with each client. Neither of you should have to waste time or money arguing over a boundary that was never clearly agreed to.
Whichever way clients book, make sure each one agrees to your policy before the appointment is confirmed. Some booking methods make that much easier than others.
The phone call
On a busy day, just getting a new client’s info down over the phone is a challenge, let alone walking them through your cancellation policy.
You should still mention your policy on the call. A verbal explanation leaves you with nothing to point to later, though. To get their agreement in writing, use software that texts clients a booking link and has them accept your policy before they book.
Messaging
Many beauty professionals communicate with new and existing clients mostly by text or through DMs on apps like Instagram and WhatsApp. Messaging is convenient, and it also makes it easier to share your cancellation policy the same way every time.
“I’m a huge proponent of just having scripts, or what I call ‘snippets,’” says Marchelle. In the back and forth of a messaging-based booking process, these pre-written text snippets are great for confirming that your client has received and acknowledged your cancellation policy while still “having fun ways of interacting with the customer so it’s not just like this dry reading [of the policy].”
Whether you’re using Meta Business Suite or another app, have your cancellation policy saved in a snippet and ready to send over. And make sure that your policy includes language that requires the client to respond “Yes” or “I agree” to verify acknowledgment before booking their appointment.
Those receipts give you something to point to if you ever need to enforce your policy.
Salon and spa management software
A solo provider may get by with messaging alone. Salons and spas with a busy front desk and a larger team usually need a more efficient way to share important details with clients. When it comes to your cancellation policy, the right software can also help take the awkward out of the equation.
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With Mangomint, clients accept your cancellation policy as part of booking, online or over the phone. For phone bookings, Express Booking asks you for just a few details, like the client’s name and phone number. Mangomint texts the client a link, and they fill in the rest and (you guessed it!) accept your policy to complete the booking.
Mangomint keeps a record of the policy each client accepted, which you can use as evidence if a payment is disputed. Once you add your cancellation policy in settings, it’s also included in various automated emails and text messages.
Commitment: Enforce your salon cancellation policy
Committing to your policy is just as much about separating yourself from your business as it is about protecting your income.
Reflect your culture even when your policy has been violated
So, you’ve written a cancellation policy that reflects your culture and found an effective way to communicate it to your clients. Now comes the hard part: Sticking to it.
Enforcing your cancellation policy can be a challenge, especially if it isn’t well communicated, and even more so if you are a solopreneur or a new stylist. Just as your culture should be embodied in your cancellation policy, it should also guide how you enforce it.
A no-show is frustrating, and charging the fee can feel awkward. Handling it with grace can soften the blow and help protect the relationship.
Marchelle recommends enforcing your policy in a way that fits who you are. After a no-show, she liked to send a gentle note that mentioned the fee and checked in on what kept the client away.
“I personally always reached out again. That was just part of my culture,” she says. “I sent them a really nice note [saying,] ‘Hey, just want to make sure everything’s OK.’ Because we don’t know what’s going on, something terrible might have happened. So, I think it’s important to reiterate the policy and just send them a little note: ‘You will be charged for this. If I’m missing anything, please let me know.’”
You can tailor each message to the client and the situation. Still, a pre-written snippet does the hard part before you need it, which helps if writing in the moment makes you anxious. Keep it kind, and keep it clear about the fee.
The thing about deposits
Finally, let’s get into the weird world of deposits.
Deposits were less common than cancellation policies among customers using Mangomint: 40% had a deposit requirement set up.
Whether you love them or hate them, deposits are a kind of insurance policy for your business. They matter most for big-ticket services like hair extensions or color corrections, which take up a lot of time or carry high upfront costs.
With that being said, a deposit can be a double-edged sword if you don’t clearly establish what that upfront fee is for.
In the hair world, specifically, deposits are typically attributed toward the total cost of the service, which leaves the fate of that deposit up in the air.
Marchelle says it’s then up to the business owner to decide: “Are deposits refundable or not? Do deposits move with the appointment [date] or not? What is the deposit actually for? Is it for reserving time on the calendar, or is it a portion of the payment towards the service that they have not had rendered? These things all matter when you go to the bank because somebody disputes the $50 deposit.”
If a client disputes a deposit and nothing in writing says what it covered, you’ll have little to show the bank. That matters most when the deposit was meant to go toward a service that never happened. Mangomint’s guide to payment disputes recommends requiring clients to agree to your cancellation policy and clearly stating any charges for no-shows and cancellations.
“You really have to think: ‘What is the deposit for?’” Marchelle says. “If the deposit is a line item that is holding time on your calendar, they should just pay that [fee], and that should be that. If the deposit is for a consultation for an extension service, I don’t think that fee should roll into the extension service.”
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By differentiating the two costs, she highlights a crucial point: Putting a deposit toward the cost of a future appointment creates a liability that leaves the business open to losing that money should the client cancel or no-show.
Bottom line, set up your deposit rules the same way you set up your cancellation policy:
Spell out the terms in writing.
Have the client agree to those terms before booking.
Follow through when a client cancels or no-shows.
Final thoughts
At the end of the day, boundaries go both ways, so setting yours matters as much as respecting your clients’. Expect a few awkward moments along the way. Share a policy that fits your culture, and enforce it consistently from the start.
“When you’re building the right clientele and you’re attracting the right people, those are people that are going to respect your policies,” Marchelle says. “So just make sure your policies are in alignment with who you’re wanting to serve or who you are serving.”
Stephanie Mitchell is a marketing educator for hair and beauty professionals. She teaches beauty-preneurs how to attract their dream clients with Facebook and Instagram ads.
Want the whole conversation, including how to just plain say “No”? Watch Stephanie and Marchelle’s full 2022 interview on YouTube.
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Mangomint builds your cancellation policy into booking, online and through Express Booking, and keeps a record of what each client accepted. With Mangomint’s payment processing, you can also require a card on file or a deposit at booking.
Kayle Yanez is a Content Marketing Manager at Mangomint. He is a salon operations expert and software and technology specialist. Kayle holds a degree in Marketing and has partnered with some of the world's top haircare and skincare brands to help salon and spa owners grow their businesses through administrative training and education for over a decade.
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