Recently, I walked out of my treatment room and into my lobby to find a young gal (approx. 20 years old) looking confused.

I asked, “Can I help you?” to which she replied, “I am here for Sharon.”

Sharon is a renter at my spa. She is a 25-year esthetician who is always booked solid. She runs her business like a business (rather than a hobby) and honestly, she is also an amazing mentor to me.

Since I was pretty sure her last client had just left, I gently tapped on Sharon’s treatment room door – something I normally wouldn’t do as we generally just slide notes when we need to communicate when one or the other of us is in our treatment rooms.

Sharon came out and the girl handed her an envelope saying quietly, “This is from Angela.” Then she scurried off.

It was a bit like an undercover operation so I jokingly said to Sharon, “that seemed quite mysterious, what is going on?”

Sharon’s response was so powerful that it caused me to pause, pay attention and take note. I encourage you to read on because chances are pretty good that you REALLY need to hear this…

Sharon said, “It’s a check from my client who just cancelled her appointment at the last minute so she sent her nanny to drop a check off for it.”

She went on to say, “I am a single mom and I can’t afford to have flakes in my business. I am well over having clients who don’t respect my time.  So, I simply send them a nice text explaining what my cancellation policy is and if they respect that they can book again and if they don’t they can find someone else who will put up with the disrespectful behavior. Of course there are exceptions to the rule but they are quite rare. This is my business, I take it very seriously and I don’t want the type of client who can’t commit to an appointment.”

WOW!

Can you imagine the change that would take place in our industry if we would all put on our business bravery hat and demand this kind of respect?

Can you imagine how this might help toward us being viewed as the serious professionals we truly are?

Don’t you think that this would create a shift within your business allowing you to attract the most loyal clients? Yes, it’s certainly true that some would disappear, but you have to know that it would create space for the new and more valuable ones to appear.

The ancient philosopher Aristotle said, “Nature abhors a vacuum.” What he meant by that was that in our world, every space must be filled with something. So, when you remove something that is not optimal, you make room for something that is optimal to fill that space instead – provided you don’t react in fear and immediately fill that space with another less than optimal client.

Remember, the Universe is always conspiring for our highest good and that’s what we’ll receive as long as we don’t block the way.

So, what have you been doing when a client cancels on you last minute? What can you do differently next time?