How Much Do No-Shows Cost Your Business? A Simple Calculator
No-shows rarely feel like a big number on any single day. Added up over a month, they can be one of the largest hidden costs in an appointment business. Here is a simple way to put a figure on it.
The formula
Monthly cost = missed appointments per month × average income per appointment.
For a fuller picture, also count the time your team spent preparing and waiting, and the extra income you could have earned if the slot had been refilled.
A worked example (illustration only)
Say a practice has 400 appointments a month. If 8% are missed, that is 32 empty slots. If each slot is worth R600, the monthly cost is 32 × R600 = R19,200, or R230,400 over a year.
These numbers are only an example. Use your own booking count, your own no-show rate and your own average fee.
Find your own numbers
- Count your appointments last month.
- Count how many were missed or cancelled too late to refill.
- Divide missed by total to get your no-show rate.
- Multiply the missed appointments by your average fee.
What changes with reminders
Reminders do not remove every no-show, but they reduce the ones caused by forgetting, and they give clients an easy way to cancel early. Even a small drop in your no-show rate is worth real money when your appointments are valuable. Compare the monthly saving with the price on our pricing section.
Beyond the money
Missed appointments also cost goodwill. Clients who wanted a slot may have been turned away, and your team spends time on gaps instead of people. See our nine steps to reduce no-shows for what to do next.
Keep reading
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