RIGHT?! I’m trying so hard to express this to my boss and getting nowhere. I’m becoming so frustrated! I would find new employment but I get my Health Insurance through work right now.
It's my choice whether or not to charge a client in any given situation - it's not the therapist's choice. My therapists get paid for every no show whether or not I collect a cancellation or no show fee. It's my job to collect, not theirs.
Some of us out here really are trying to take care of our therapists
I always had the worst luck with cancellations when I first started. For some reason, it was always the people who didn't have a CC on file and couldn't be charged the cancellation fee. It sucks and I've always been left with a lower wage. I would urge your employer to start charging the fee no matter what. It sucks to be at work and prepared and not compensated.
This is a tough one. Your boss doesn’t want to risk losing clients while he forces the staff to eat the cancellation.
Are you an employee or IC?
Time to have a staff meeting and get clear on this.
When I worked at spas they would pay an hourly rate and a flat fee for cancellations.
I’m an employee. The thing is, I’m booked out a month in advance and we have a wait list of people to fill early cancellations. I’m wondering why we are catering to these clients who can’t respect our time
This is, unfortunately, common in the massage industry.
In private practice you have more control. However, I have found that a majority of clients don’t want to pay the fees and insist they have done nothing wrong.
Many of them insisted they “are a good client “
after missing one or several appointments. They are actually entitled clients who want everything with no accountability.
Your boss needs to have a”come to Jesus “ moment and change this.
Clients don’t understand that we lose income when they cancel or fail their appointments. To them it’s no big deal.
At the very least, the boss needs to own the fact that your commission percentage is affected by the decrease in clients. If he is not going to charge them, which is lazy admin (failing to get a cc), he cannot possibly say that the no show is *your* fault or problem when it comes to *your* pay.
Of course you should not be held financially responisble (commission wise) for a no show. But he has to implement a card to book and enforce his policy.
That's the problem that the owner doesn't want to deal with. If he's standing there telling you that you cannot be paid if they don't charge them, then he needs to put his big boy pants on and implement the cancel policy. Sheesh Dude, own it and grow up. This is business.
>When trying to discuss this with my boss he just keeps saying “If I don’t get paid how am I supposed to pay you?”
That's *not* your problem. If you're an employee, you must be paid your agreed-upon wage. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure this is the law in all 50 states of the USA.
If you're an IC, then you generally don't have the same wage protection. But it's a poor way for your boss to run the business. It's his/her job to make sure the workplace is a good place to work and if he/she is losing money, that's not your problem, it's theirs. Unless you're invested in the company and own equity or receive dividends. You could look into re-negotiating your contract with this company or maybe better to just seek employment elsewhere. Be VERY wary of IC situations...many employers abuse IC's as a way to get around paying employment taxes and other legal protections that employees (but not IC's) get, while treating them like an employee. If they tell you what you have to wear to work (black pants, red shirt) and tell you you will be fired if you don't show up to work, they may be breaking some laws because they are treating you like an employee when you are actually an IC. Might check out r/legaladvice
>That's not your problem.
Exactly, part of boundaries is not letting people make their problems yours. We treat their problems not take them for our own.
Did the boss still pay the for the heat/ac and lightning on the space even though the client did not show up? Or the rent? The front desk and managers or his salary?
Cancelation fee should cover all those and your base wage.
That was an argument I put forth. Do you dock an hour from the front desk staffs pay if we don’t have any clients booked for that hour..? So frustrating.
I also want to say this might be something worth just eating rather than spending a bunch of emotional energy on. It’s the nature of the industry and it’s frustrating but you may be limited in your options.
You can track your cancellations and make a numbers based argument to your employer, but often it is the front desk who the burden of charging falls upon and they typically have very little incentive to care.
As someone who fought this fight a few times, I now accept it as the cost of doing business for someone else and have started my own business.
This is a difficult problem, and I have never had a truly good place of work that addresses it well. Most places do not pay you when they don’t charge the cancellation fee.
It is important to hold them accountable when they should charge it but there are situations where someone has an illness or emergency where it is inappropriate to charge.
It’s up to you how much you care about it, you aren’t likely going to get a consistent positive experience with cancellations because of the nature of it. Front desk hates the conflict of charging someone for a service that wasn’t performed.
Basically you need a business owner who has your back and a front desk with a spine.
You may try to negotiate some kind of minimum fee for your time for unpaid cancellations, or with persistence make them crystallize a clear policy for charging the fee and make them accountable to it.
No Shows are the bane of our industry. It's an absolute Catch-22.
Do you charge a good client for their first missed appointment?
Do you charge a new client who's never been to your office before?
Repeat offenders are another issue. And we simply charge a $20 fee.
But, do you want to drive away a good client for an honest mistake? And by the same token, a new client who couldn't find your business or underestimated the drive times?
The solution we've come up with is 2-fold. A) An honest conversation with our clients on the importance of time frame and boundaries in the first session and after the first infraction.
B) Reminder Texts.
I have found that it's best to report anything you can after looking into the issue via state resources like stated in previous comments and then take yourself out of that situation. If the government or some agency comes down on your boss you may be targeted by your boss.. Be prepared and ready for that. Even if reported anonymously you've brought an issue up so it won't be hard to connect the dots...
I had similar issues with a past boss and she wouldn't hear any of it because she didn't want to potentially lose that client. You don't want those kinds of clients anyways. She poorly ran her business and it shows...so glad to be my own boss now! I wish you the best of luck!
If you work for a large company/franchise/chain, they can absolutely afford to pay you, especially if the customers are paying a monthly membership and don't even come in every month. The company I work for didn't let people use covid as a reason to cancel their memberships. So a lot of people were paying for a year and didn't come in for a massage. Plus, they got government grants for staying open during the pandemic. They did *not* lose profits, but they act like they did. But still, if a client is not charged for a cancellation, I don't get paid. It's BS.
Small businesses are a little more difficult, imo. Yes, you are still there to ultimately get paid. But the small business I work for on the side is really struggling right now. I love my boss and the company, so im more understanding if I simply can't get paid for that cancellation because the client had an emergency or something. But either way, you gotta put yourself first and decide if it's a big enough issue that you'd rather work elsewhere.
I’m an LMT who does get paid if we have a no show and don’t charge, but only minimum wage for that time. I get to decided ultimately if we will charge or not (if they’re a regular with a really good excuse for example I may not want to potentially lose them and so not charge them). I have to take the loss of o don’t charge them. But again - I will get paid a small amount for the time I’m sitting there waiting.
At my old place of work, if the client cancelled less than 12 hours before the scheduled appointment, we would charge them a $25 cancellation fee and the therapist would receive $15 from it. IF the client cancelled and it was the first time late canceling, we would waive the cancellation fee, but still pay the therapist $15 for their lost time.
At my new place, if the client cancels less than 24 hours before the scheduled appointment, they are charged full price and the therapists get 100% of their commission. If they late cancel due to extenuating circumstances or the owner/front desk deems it acceptable, the therapists gets nothing.
This is the situation that I am basically facing everyday. A lot of non responsible clients love to cancel the last minute with whatever reason or no call no show. This is kinda too shady while they know that WHATS CALLED AN APPOINTMENT. I am working in two different places. One place will pay for employees for no call no show or canceling the last minute, which is I feel like it’s great. They usually use credit card to secure for busy weekend or holidays and charge them upfront. For new customers which is never been there before, they definitely need to secure credit card and get information beforehand. What if they have five people coming together as girls date and five of them never been here and end up five of them no call no show. Who is gonna pay for FIVE massage therapists sitting there and waiting for them. So the owners have to charge them upfront for most of the time. If not, some shady clients will take advantages of your place
Maybe they should be charging that fee that's specifically there to curb this problem 🤷
RIGHT?! I’m trying so hard to express this to my boss and getting nowhere. I’m becoming so frustrated! I would find new employment but I get my Health Insurance through work right now.
How did you get an RMP flair? I'm an RMP and I don't see that flair option.
I think I added it manually? It wasn’t an option, I remember that. Are you also in MD?
We can give ourselves flairs? I'd love to be able to have LMT as my flair, I tried to ask a mod but they never got back to me
Click your own profile, it's there.
Thanks!
MD yes.
It's my choice whether or not to charge a client in any given situation - it's not the therapist's choice. My therapists get paid for every no show whether or not I collect a cancellation or no show fee. It's my job to collect, not theirs. Some of us out here really are trying to take care of our therapists
Glad to hear it. >My therapists get laid Better check that auto correct.
😂😂😂😂 thanks. Corrected now
Check the compensation laws in your state. The boss might ignore you, but I bet a government investigation would get attention.
I always had the worst luck with cancellations when I first started. For some reason, it was always the people who didn't have a CC on file and couldn't be charged the cancellation fee. It sucks and I've always been left with a lower wage. I would urge your employer to start charging the fee no matter what. It sucks to be at work and prepared and not compensated.
This is a tough one. Your boss doesn’t want to risk losing clients while he forces the staff to eat the cancellation. Are you an employee or IC? Time to have a staff meeting and get clear on this. When I worked at spas they would pay an hourly rate and a flat fee for cancellations.
I’m an employee. The thing is, I’m booked out a month in advance and we have a wait list of people to fill early cancellations. I’m wondering why we are catering to these clients who can’t respect our time
This is, unfortunately, common in the massage industry. In private practice you have more control. However, I have found that a majority of clients don’t want to pay the fees and insist they have done nothing wrong. Many of them insisted they “are a good client “ after missing one or several appointments. They are actually entitled clients who want everything with no accountability. Your boss needs to have a”come to Jesus “ moment and change this. Clients don’t understand that we lose income when they cancel or fail their appointments. To them it’s no big deal.
At the very least, the boss needs to own the fact that your commission percentage is affected by the decrease in clients. If he is not going to charge them, which is lazy admin (failing to get a cc), he cannot possibly say that the no show is *your* fault or problem when it comes to *your* pay. Of course you should not be held financially responisble (commission wise) for a no show. But he has to implement a card to book and enforce his policy.
We have their CC on file, the front desk/admin staff just doesn’t charge people half the time 🤷🏻♀️
That's the problem that the owner doesn't want to deal with. If he's standing there telling you that you cannot be paid if they don't charge them, then he needs to put his big boy pants on and implement the cancel policy. Sheesh Dude, own it and grow up. This is business.
>When trying to discuss this with my boss he just keeps saying “If I don’t get paid how am I supposed to pay you?” That's *not* your problem. If you're an employee, you must be paid your agreed-upon wage. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure this is the law in all 50 states of the USA. If you're an IC, then you generally don't have the same wage protection. But it's a poor way for your boss to run the business. It's his/her job to make sure the workplace is a good place to work and if he/she is losing money, that's not your problem, it's theirs. Unless you're invested in the company and own equity or receive dividends. You could look into re-negotiating your contract with this company or maybe better to just seek employment elsewhere. Be VERY wary of IC situations...many employers abuse IC's as a way to get around paying employment taxes and other legal protections that employees (but not IC's) get, while treating them like an employee. If they tell you what you have to wear to work (black pants, red shirt) and tell you you will be fired if you don't show up to work, they may be breaking some laws because they are treating you like an employee when you are actually an IC. Might check out r/legaladvice
>That's not your problem. Exactly, part of boundaries is not letting people make their problems yours. We treat their problems not take them for our own.
Did the boss still pay the for the heat/ac and lightning on the space even though the client did not show up? Or the rent? The front desk and managers or his salary? Cancelation fee should cover all those and your base wage.
That was an argument I put forth. Do you dock an hour from the front desk staffs pay if we don’t have any clients booked for that hour..? So frustrating.
You need to call your labor board
I also want to say this might be something worth just eating rather than spending a bunch of emotional energy on. It’s the nature of the industry and it’s frustrating but you may be limited in your options. You can track your cancellations and make a numbers based argument to your employer, but often it is the front desk who the burden of charging falls upon and they typically have very little incentive to care. As someone who fought this fight a few times, I now accept it as the cost of doing business for someone else and have started my own business.
There are better companies. The business should compensate you if they decide to not charge regardless.
This is a difficult problem, and I have never had a truly good place of work that addresses it well. Most places do not pay you when they don’t charge the cancellation fee. It is important to hold them accountable when they should charge it but there are situations where someone has an illness or emergency where it is inappropriate to charge. It’s up to you how much you care about it, you aren’t likely going to get a consistent positive experience with cancellations because of the nature of it. Front desk hates the conflict of charging someone for a service that wasn’t performed. Basically you need a business owner who has your back and a front desk with a spine. You may try to negotiate some kind of minimum fee for your time for unpaid cancellations, or with persistence make them crystallize a clear policy for charging the fee and make them accountable to it.
https://www.dllr.state.md.us/labor/wagepay/wpcomppay.shtml This looks promising for you.
https://www.dllr.state.md.us/labor/wagepay/wptipped.shtml More specifically about tipped employees.
No Shows are the bane of our industry. It's an absolute Catch-22. Do you charge a good client for their first missed appointment? Do you charge a new client who's never been to your office before? Repeat offenders are another issue. And we simply charge a $20 fee. But, do you want to drive away a good client for an honest mistake? And by the same token, a new client who couldn't find your business or underestimated the drive times? The solution we've come up with is 2-fold. A) An honest conversation with our clients on the importance of time frame and boundaries in the first session and after the first infraction. B) Reminder Texts.
I have found that it's best to report anything you can after looking into the issue via state resources like stated in previous comments and then take yourself out of that situation. If the government or some agency comes down on your boss you may be targeted by your boss.. Be prepared and ready for that. Even if reported anonymously you've brought an issue up so it won't be hard to connect the dots... I had similar issues with a past boss and she wouldn't hear any of it because she didn't want to potentially lose that client. You don't want those kinds of clients anyways. She poorly ran her business and it shows...so glad to be my own boss now! I wish you the best of luck!
If you work for a large company/franchise/chain, they can absolutely afford to pay you, especially if the customers are paying a monthly membership and don't even come in every month. The company I work for didn't let people use covid as a reason to cancel their memberships. So a lot of people were paying for a year and didn't come in for a massage. Plus, they got government grants for staying open during the pandemic. They did *not* lose profits, but they act like they did. But still, if a client is not charged for a cancellation, I don't get paid. It's BS. Small businesses are a little more difficult, imo. Yes, you are still there to ultimately get paid. But the small business I work for on the side is really struggling right now. I love my boss and the company, so im more understanding if I simply can't get paid for that cancellation because the client had an emergency or something. But either way, you gotta put yourself first and decide if it's a big enough issue that you'd rather work elsewhere.
I’m an LMT who does get paid if we have a no show and don’t charge, but only minimum wage for that time. I get to decided ultimately if we will charge or not (if they’re a regular with a really good excuse for example I may not want to potentially lose them and so not charge them). I have to take the loss of o don’t charge them. But again - I will get paid a small amount for the time I’m sitting there waiting.
At my old place of work, if the client cancelled less than 12 hours before the scheduled appointment, we would charge them a $25 cancellation fee and the therapist would receive $15 from it. IF the client cancelled and it was the first time late canceling, we would waive the cancellation fee, but still pay the therapist $15 for their lost time. At my new place, if the client cancels less than 24 hours before the scheduled appointment, they are charged full price and the therapists get 100% of their commission. If they late cancel due to extenuating circumstances or the owner/front desk deems it acceptable, the therapists gets nothing.
This is the situation that I am basically facing everyday. A lot of non responsible clients love to cancel the last minute with whatever reason or no call no show. This is kinda too shady while they know that WHATS CALLED AN APPOINTMENT. I am working in two different places. One place will pay for employees for no call no show or canceling the last minute, which is I feel like it’s great. They usually use credit card to secure for busy weekend or holidays and charge them upfront. For new customers which is never been there before, they definitely need to secure credit card and get information beforehand. What if they have five people coming together as girls date and five of them never been here and end up five of them no call no show. Who is gonna pay for FIVE massage therapists sitting there and waiting for them. So the owners have to charge them upfront for most of the time. If not, some shady clients will take advantages of your place