Massage Cancellation Policies

Setting your massage cancellation policies are a big part of self care and setting boundaries for your massage business that support you. You cancellation policy shows clients that you respect yourself enough to charge for the time they are missing and that your time is valuable.

Setting your massage cancellation policy means that you need to figure out what you need to feel good about your time when someone cancels. The most common cancellation policy requires that the client provide at least 24 hours advance notice of their cancellation or sometimes even 48 hours may be needed for a busy massage practice.

Clients need to understand that you are reserving this time for them and them alone. You may have 20 other clients that week who are looking for appointments and may want that time. You may have people waiting for appointments and they can't get in because the time slot is taken. When a client cancels or just doesn't show up at the last minute it is usually too late to get anyone else in. You lose this income. For a business to be financially sound, the income is a necessary part of doing business. It is the common to make people pay the full fee for the missed session. That is the amount of income that you are losing.

Massage therapists have a way of always giving into clients and not enforcing their massage cancellation policies. Some people charge the client only a small fee for the missed appointment - like a $25 fee (when the massage was $60-$85) is really not enough to teach clients that your time is valuable. Massage therapist also have many other reasons or excuses why they don't charge for the last minute cancellations or no shows.

• Giving clients 3 times and then they have to pay or can not come back even.
• Giving clients one time to not pay so they can be more informed and know better next time.
• Not asking for any fee at all.
• Not being able to collect the fee because it was a new client and they didn't leave their address to send the bill.

Allowing clients to get away with missed appointments or last minute cancellations is really a reflection of your beliefs about yourself and your self worth. Setting and enforcing a massage cancellation policy isn't always just black and white. It is usually a process of figuring out what works best for you by trying different policies out for yourself.

The way you create and enforce a cancellation policy also affects the whole massage profession. When people aren't held accountable for their appointments they begin to think that all massage therapists are like that. It creates a professional image that says that our work isn't important or that our time isn't important.

If you have difficulty in creating and enforcing a cancellation policy for your massage business, participating in supervision can help you to overcome your fear of charging for your time.

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