No-show appointments are frustrating. You've put the time and effort into getting in front of the right contact, you've aced the prospecting call, and you've got a date in the diary. But the date and time roll around, and your prospect doesn't show. Why?
As leaders in telemarketing and lead generation, we employ a wide range of best practice techniques to reduce the number of no show appointments. Here are a few of our best tips so you can implement the right approach to reduce your risk of no-shows too.
Top Reasons Why No-Show Appointments Occur
In order to tackle the problem of no-show appointments, it’s first important to understand the main reasons why they occur. At GCL we firmly believe that the top reasons why a prospect may cancel their appointment are because of these three reasons;
- The prospect forgets that they have a meeting
- Something unexpected arises which means the meeting needs to be cancelled
- The prospect didn’t want to attend the meeting initially
By identifying the top reasons that prospects cancel, we can tailor our approach to ensure that the appointments we organise are not only valuable but stick– and here’s how;
Engage & Build a Relationship
When engaging with a lead for the first time, there are certain qualifications you need to do. Are they the correct person to be speaking with? Do they have the decision making power? Do they have a need for your product or services? To get off to a good start, begin with a cleansed list of contacts to call. This ensures that every potential conversation has already had a certain level of qualification before you even pick up the phone i.e. they're in the right department, of the right seniority, and work in your target companies and sectors.
Once you have got through to the right person, a non-scripted approach to the conversation will enable you to build a strong rapport with the prospect. This approach allows you to lead business-based communication, and it is this which ensures that the prospect is engaged and interested in a potential meeting. The emphasis of the conversation should be on how you can alleviate a pain point your prospect is experiencing. Convey how your product will help the prospect specifically, rather than just why you think it's amazing.
Add Value to the Appointment
The benefit of using a non-scripted approach to build a strong rapport with the prospect is that the telemarketer can then easily identify what interests the prospect and whether this meeting offers them something valuable. The role of a telemarketer is crucial because if they are too pushy they will inevitably organise appointments which results in no-shows. The telemarketer should highlight the benefit of the appointment for the prospect, and the value they should expect to get from it. Discuss what will be gone through on the call, an agenda in brief. This engages the prospect and they will play an active role in knowing what to bring to the meeting.
Prompt the Prospect
Once the appointment has been arranged, it’s vital that you confirm the appointment in writing. This prompts the prospect and gives them the opportunity to cancel should something arise. But like you, your prospects are busy. Send an appointment reminder, whether this is an automated email, or a phone call check-in, it will prompt your prospect that the meeting is coming up. Again, briefly outline how the appointment will benefit the prospect, to help you be certain that the lead is interested in having the appointment.
What to do if your prospect no shows
Whilst it's great to aim for a 0% no show rate, it's unrealistic to think it's never going to happen. There will be unforeseen emergencies that will prevent a lead attending, and so you should have a structure in place for how to deal with these.
Follow Up
Firstly, follow up with them. Understand why they didn't show up to the scheduled meeting. As we've said, there may have been an unforeseen emergency that couldn't have been avoided. You should always give a prospect the benefit of the doubt until you can understand the reasons behind the missed meeting.
Set a new date and time to meet
Organise a new time to meet and again, send a written confirmation of this new scheduled appointment. Perhaps if a prospect is particularly busy on the original day you chose, a different day of the week works better and means they will be more likely to be able to attend.
Be realistic in what your no-show rate will be
It happens, you can't remove all no shows completely, but you can reduce it. Record the number of no shows you get, and the reasons why they occurred. This will help you build up a picture of how you can reduce this number further, and whether an aspect of your appointment making process needs tweaking.
By building a relationship before a meeting, speaking with the decision-makers and sending reminders of upcoming meetings, you'll see a lower no-show rate. For more advice on setting b2b appointments that focus on best practice techniques to improve attendance rates, download our guide The B2B Appointment Setting Techniques Which Drive More Sales. 
