No-show
A no-show is a customer who books an appointment but does not arrive at the scheduled time and does not cancel in advance. In service businesses, no-shows directly translate to lost revenue because the slot cannot be resold on short notice.
In more detail
No-show rates in service businesses typically range from 5% to 20% depending on industry, with healthcare and beauty services near the high end. The two proven mitigations are automated reminder messages (SMS + email at 24h and 2h before the appointment) and deposits or no-show fees that give the customer skin in the game. Modern booking systems combine both — reminder cadence configurable per service, and Stripe-backed deposit or no-show fee enforcement.
Stub. Writers add a “Typical no-show rates by industry” data table sourced from published research, link to /for/dental-practices and /for/hair-salons, and reference Stripe deposit and reminder workflow with screenshots.