The standard advice for dealing with no-shows goes something like this: Make your cancellation policy stricter. Charge fees. Require more notice. Add friction so people take their appointments seriously.
It makes intuitive sense. If there are consequences for not showing up, people will be more committed, and if canceling is a hassle, they’ll think twice before bailing.
However, this logic doesn’t align with what actually happens.
Businesses with strict, high-friction cancellation policies don’t have fewer no-shows. In many cases, they have more. Conversely, businesses that make rescheduling dead simple? They tend to have lower no-show rates.
This seems backward until you think about how people actually behave.
What happens when rescheduling is hard
Imagine you booked an appointment two weeks ago, but something comes up the day before, and you need to reschedule.
If rescheduling is easy, you click a link, pick a new time, and you’re done. The business keeps your booking, just on a different day. Everyone wins.
If rescheduling is hard, you have to call during business hours, wait on hold, explain your situation, and hope they can find a new slot. Or you send an email and wait for a response. Or you worry about a cancellation fee and decide to just deal with it later.
A lot of people, when faced with that friction, don’t reschedule. In some cases, they don’t call or email either. They just… don’t show up because ghosting becomes the path of least resistance.
Most clients aren’t trying to waste your time. They’re usually just busy and overwhelmed, and when something feels like a hassle, they put it off until it’s too late. The appointment comes and goes, and now it’s awkward, so they avoid dealing with it entirely.
Instead of preventing this behavior, strict cancellation policies often cause it.
The research backs this up
There’s solid data showing that the gap between booking and appointment is one of the biggest predictors of no-shows.
Appointments booked more than 15 days in advance have no-show rates around 30%. Same-day appointments have no-show rates around 2%.
The longer someone has to wait, the more likely their circumstances change, their priorities move around, and the appointment slips their mind. This is true even for people who fully intended to show up when they booked.
What reduces no-shows isn’t making cancellation harder. It’s making rescheduling so easy that people actually do it when their plans change.
When clients can click a link and grab a new time in 30 seconds, they use that option. When they have to jump through hoops, they disappear.
This isn’t about being lenient
To be clear, this doesn’t mean you can’t have a cancellation policy. You can still set expectations and charge for true no-shows (aka, the times where someone just doesn’t show up with no notice)
The distinction is between making it hard to reschedule and making it hard to ghost.
You want to make rescheduling so easy that it’s always the better option. A client who needs to move their appointment should be able to do it in seconds, without calling you, without waiting for a reply, or without feeling like they’re asking for a favor.
With Appointlet, you can choose to disallow reschedules or allow them at any time before the meeting. You can also choose a specific time frame (i.e., up to 2 hours before the appointment or up to 7 days before the appointment), or you can even set a custom time frame.
The goal is to keep them on your calendar, not to punish them when their plans change.
What this looks like in practice
If you want to reduce no-shows by reducing friction, here’s what that looks like:
- Put a reschedule link in every reminder. When you send an appointment reminder, include a one-click option to reschedule. Don’t make them reply to the email or call your office. Let them handle it themselves.
- Let clients see your real-time availability. If they need to pick a new time, they should be able to see what’s open right now and grab a slot instantly. No back-and-forth or waiting for confirmation.
- Don’t require a phone call to reschedule. Some businesses still require clients to call to make changes. This is a friction point that drives ghosting. If you’re protecting against last-minute cancellations, there are better ways to do it.
- Make the reschedule option more prominent than the cancel option. If someone is thinking about bailing, you want rescheduling to be the obvious choice. Don’t bury it.
- Follow up after a no-show with a no-judgment reschedule offer. When someone does miss an appointment, send a friendly message with a link to rebook. “Hey, we missed you! No worries—here’s a link to grab a new time.” You’d be surprised how many people take you up on it.
The tradeoff that isn’t really a tradeoff
Some business owners worry that making rescheduling too easy will lead to more last-minute changes. And yes, you might see a slight increase in reschedules.
But a rescheduled appointment is still a booked appointment. An empty slot is lost revenue.
If easier rescheduling means you get 10 more reschedules per month but 15 fewer no-shows, you come out ahead. You’ve traded empty slots for filled ones, just on different days.
We’ve seen hundreds of thousands of calendars since 2012, and the businesses that have the lowest no-show rates aren’t the ones with the strictest policies. They’re the ones that make it effortless for clients to stay on the books, even when plans change.
Offer the path of least resistance
Most advice about no-shows focuses on consequences. But consequences only work if people engage with them. When rescheduling is a hassle, clients often just don’t show up.
The counterintuitive fix is to go the other direction. Make rescheduling so easy that it’s always the better option. One-click links. Real-time availability. No phone calls required.
Want to make rescheduling effortless?
Appointlet lets clients reschedule themselves in seconds with a single link. No phone calls, no email chains, no ghosting.
