Sometimes life can get in the way of your clients attending their appointments and they may need to cancel or reschedule - this is where your reschedule and cancellation policy comes in.
Your policy is the period of time in which your client can make changes to their appointment without being charged. The best part is that it's fully customisable - you can set it between 1 and 48 hours to suit your needs.
Where can clients see my policies?
We'll display your salon policies throughout the client's booking process, as well as on their confirmation email and in-app to avoid any confusion.
What policy options do I have?
By default, your reschedule/cancellation policy is set to 3 hours. This means that if a pre-paid client wants to reschedule their appointment within 3 hours of its start time, they aren't able to. Equally, if they cancel the appointment they aren't eligible for a refund.
If they want to reschedule more than 3 hours before, they can manage the changes themselves. If they'd prefer to cancel, they will be refunded automatically.
What should my policy be?
You're in complete control of your policy, but we'd recommend a flexible policy such as 2 hours.
This way, your policies are attractive to customers, and if you do receive a last-minute cancellation or reschedule, you're still giving yourself time to receive another booking (either from Treatwell or walk-in) to fill the slot.
Things to consider
You should bear in mind that having a strict policy (for example, longer than 24 hours) will significantly decrease the number of bookings you receive.
Having a strict policy can also be more time-consuming for you, as it means that clients will need to contact you directly to make any changes to their appointments.
It's also likely with a strict policy that any clients who cancel their booking, and are not eligible for a refund, will contact you directly to dispute this.
Our trend data shows that only a very small percentage of clients cancel or reschedule their appointments within 2 hours, meaning the impact of a flexible policy is minimal.
How can I update my policy?
To update your policy, get in touch with our Customer Experience team and let them know the changes you'd like to make.