How to Create Cancellation Policy With Examples

Running a business is no cakewalk. Even though USA-based businesses have a better survival rate, 50% of U.S. businesses fail every five years. The reasons for the failure of businesses are plenty, including poor policies. 

Having a well-founded cancellation policy is a must for service businesses like business consultancy, plumbing, electrical, cleaning, repairing, and so on. Last-minute cancellations can cost your business a lot of time, effort, money, and other resources. Clients will be tempted to cancel appointments over and over again without a stringent cancellation policy in place. 

However, implementing a cancellation policy is easier said than done. While creating policies, one must also be mindful of the customers’ reactions. Nobody wants to rub their customers the wrong way!

If you have also been planning to implement a cancellation policy for your firm, you have come to the right place! This comprehensive article will take you through the various ways in which you can create a valid cancellation policy, some great cancellation policy examples, some exemplary cancellation policy templates, and more!    

Continue reading to know better.

How to Create an Effective Cancellation Policy?

Creating an effective cancellation policy includes many elements. Here is a list of all the elements and pointers one needs to keep in mind while formulating the policy:

1. Think of things you want to incorporate in your cancellation policy 

First things first, you need to gain clarity regarding what you want to include and what you want to steer away from. Here are some essential elements that you should mandatorily incorporate:

• Fix a time period: Setting a time frame is the most crucial bit of establishing a cancellation policy. How many hours prior are customers allowed to cancel an appointment without incurring a cancellation fee?

  24 hours to 48 hours notice period is the norm across all major industries. However, it is subject to your business and its needs. 

• Decide the amount of the cancellation fees: Decide the amount of money you will charge in case the customer is a no-show. The cancellation fee can be equivalent to half of the total booking fee, or you can fix a different and separate amount for it. 

• Mention the consequences of continuous no-shows: While a single appointment cancellation may not cause a hole in your pocket, multiple missed appointments negatively impact your business. 

Hence, if a particular client is a constant no-show, they should face the consequence. For instance, you can bar them from scheduling new appointments with you if they skip three or more appointments in a row.    

• Consider taking accountability for cancellations made from your end: The service provider must abide by the same rules as the customers. You must inform the clients  24 hours/48 hours before the appointment. 

  Moreover, you should consider giving either a partial refund or a full refund depending upon whether you have made a reschedule or canceled the appointment. The same cancellation fee should apply to you.  

• Create a separate set of rules for any unavoidable emergency: You should have different rules for when unforeseen circumstances pop up. You can schedule adjustments in appointment dates or waive the cancellation penalty in special cases like natural disasters and government restrictions.

2. Include the policy in your admission forms 

Making your client know about your policies well in advance is a good strategic move! After going through the said rules and regulations, the clients can decide for themselves whether they want to avail of your services or not.  

Including the policy in your admission form is easy to make the clients agree to it. It will prevent cancellations from taking place. Since the client already knows that last-minute cancellations will cost them some money, they will avoid them as much as possible. 

Lastly, in case of any disagreement, you will have a hard copy of proof of the policy well in place. Thus, incorporating the policies in admission forms and displaying them on your company website is a great practice.

3. Send appointment reminders 

Once you have structured the policy, you can schedule appointment reminders. They are a great way of preventing cancellations. You can either send appointment reminder emails or drop the clients a message on their registered phone numbers. 

You can also bring it to their notice through articles on your website. If the client misses an appointment, the business and the client suffer in some way or another. Reminders help the two parties in avoiding no-shows. 

Reminders also serve as a big way of showing clients that you genuinely care about them, not having to incur unnecessary expenses. Thus, sending or putting up an appointment reminder is crucial to policy formation and execution. 

Example of Cancellation Policies

There is no better way to comprehend the implementation of a cancellation policy than with examples. Therefore, here are a few instances of how you can deal with cancellations without compromising on the booking experience of your clients:

1. Short cancellation policy 

(Mention the company name)

• A penalty fee of $10 will be levied if a client cancels an appointment in 48 hours or less. 
• No penalty fee will be charged if the client cancels the appointment within 48 hours. 

2. Detailed cancelation policy

(Mention the Company Name)

• Please note that making an appointment with us implies that we have reserved a slot in our hectic schedule solely for you. Given that you cancel an appointment at the last moment (mention the time period), you will be charged a penalty fee (mention the amount). 
• If you do not want to incur penalty fees, inform us prior (mention the hours) to the appointment. You can request a cancellation or reschedule your appointment at (email/phone number). 

Cancellation Policy Template

The cancellation policy template differs from one business to the other. Templates serve as the building block for the creation of an effective cancellation policy. Here are a few reference templates for different businesses:

1. Medical business

When you make an appointment with us, you are reserving a place in our schedule that won’t be accessible to any other patient. To be respectful towards other patients, kindly reach out to Dr. (name) on (phone number/email) to reschedule your appointment.  

In case it is inevitable to cancel, we expect you to inform us at least (state the time duration) before the appointment. Your early notice will help some other patients in getting a spot. 

2. Beauty Salons and other service-based businesses 

Your appointments mean the world to us. We know you do not have a hold over an unexpected event. However, we would appreciate prior notice (time duration) for rescheduling. Here is a glimpse into our company policy:

• If a client cancels an appointment at the last moment (number of hours), they will be charged a cancellation fee (mention the amount or the percentage of the appointment fees, etc.)
• If you turn up late for the scheduled appointment, you will be charged a rescheduling fee (mention the amount). 
• Appointments will only be held on a credit card. 
• Refunds will only be provided in case of an unforeseen emergency. 

If you are a field service business, you must have already realized the impact canceled appointments or projects can have on your business. But what if we let you know that you can reschedule hassle-free? 

If you want to optimize your business, even more, you can seek the help of FieldCamp. It is a field service scheduling software that helps you schedule appointments with ease. Handling every appointment request can be a major hassle to your workflow.     

FieldCamp is an intuitive app that assists you in scheduling appointments with just a few clicks. The software facilitates easy scheduling and dispatching of services, which means you can keep your existing clientele happy and broaden the scope for more clients. 

Not only does it schedule jobs on your behalf, it also assists in client management. Moreover, you can use the FieldCamp software even on the go. 

Scheduling also implies allocating jobs to the workforce. FieldCamp helps you assign tasks to the complete workforce from the ground level to the top tier pretty quickly. Assign the right task to the right person without spending hours and hours on it! 

Planner, staff activities tracker, job status tracker, and real-time tracker are other pertinent tools to which the software gives its affiliated businesses access.  

Conclusion 

Creating an effective cancellation policy for your business is a must. Cancellation policies prevent businesses from incurring losses. A compelling cancellation policy needs to be in place for your business to be aptly compensated. 

Last-minute cancellations can cost you a lot of time, energy, money, and wasted resources, especially if you run a field service business. Therefore, making clients aware of the protocol is the need of the hour. 

You can always use the help of field service scheduling software to automate your business. It will help you save time, increase profits, and manage multiple customers simultaneously. 

There is so much more than a field service scheduling software can do for you other than scheduling. You can digitize your everyday operations, keep a tab on field workers’ movement and work, create sought-after reports, and keep your customers posted, among other features and services. 

Therefore, as important as it is to implement a valid cancellation policy, it is also pertinent to use field service software for your field service business. 

Service businesses can substantially benefit from the services of field service scheduler software.

Some examples are the appliance repair, cleaning, garage door, plumbing, electricals, landscaping, snow removal, boat cleaning, handyman, maintenance, repair, dustbin cleaning, carpenter, fencer, HVAC, pest control, window cleaning, carpet cleansing, furniture assembly, and lawn care.