The slot someone gave back, filled by someone else.
A cancelled appointment is only lost if nobody takes it. In one to two weeks I set up the three things that keep your schedule intact: a card or deposit at booking, reminders that get an actual confirmation, and a waitlist that offers the released time to the patient most likely to say yes — before the hour is gone.
$1,500
Fixed price
1–2 weeks
To live
60 days
Before & after
What this fixes
This is you if
- A cancelled or no-showed slot usually stays empty, and the patient gets rebooked later.
- You have a cancellation policy, but the desk doesn't enjoy enforcing it, so it isn't applied the same way twice.
- Nobody keeps a list of patients who'd happily come in sooner.
- You know roughly what your no-show rate is, and it's a number you'd rather not say out loud.
This isn't the one if
- Your no-show rate is already under 10% and released slots get refilled. There's nothing here worth $1,500 to you.
- Your problem is that patients never come back at all, rather than that they cancel. That's Rebooking & Recall.
- Your problem is inquiries that go unanswered. That's Inquiry-to-Booking.
- You want the deposit policy used as a penalty. A punitive policy comes back as reviews, and I won't build it that way.
What works the day it's finished
Not a plan. The state your practice is in when I hand it over.
A card is on file at booking, and new or high-value slots take a deposit
You set the amount. It starts with new patients and your most expensive slots, so the desk never has to defend a blanket policy on day one.
Reminders go out on a cadence, and confirming takes two taps
A week out with the policy and a calendar link, three days out asking to confirm or move, the day before with the practical details. Confirm at three days and the day-before nudge is suppressed, so nobody gets over-messaged.
A released slot is offered to the right patient within minutes
An ordered waitlist per service and provider. The offer goes to one patient at a time with a 60-minute expiry, then cascades. First to accept gets the slot, and it books.
A no-show gets a text 15 minutes in, not a shrug
If the patient has simply run late you find out immediately. If they've gone, the slot is released to the waitlist while it can still be used.
You know what an empty hour costs, and you see the refills
Your room-hour value is calculated once from rent, overhead and billable hours, and it appears next to every no-show statistic. The weekly number is no-shows net of refills — what actually went missing.
A Tuesday afternoon, from cancellation to refill
Sample data, invented for this page — not a real patient and not a client's practice. The sequence and the timings are what the install actually does.
The last step values six refilled slots at $420 an hour. That rate is invented for the demonstration — yours is calculated from your own rent, overhead and billable hours in week one.
What I actually do
Most of this is configuration of modules your booking system already includes and you're already paying for. Every audit I've run found at least one of them switched off.
Week 0 — the baseline
Your no-show and late-cancel rate broken out by provider, by service and by how far ahead the booking was made. Your room-hour value, calculated. This is the "before" half of the before-and-after, and it can't be reconstructed later.
Week 1 — the build
Card on file and deposits switched on for the slots you choose. The reminder cadence built and tested against a real calendar. The waitlist ordered per service and provider, with the offer, the 60-minute expiry and the cascade. Policy wording you approve, and scripts the desk can say out loud without apologising.
Week 1–2 — soft launch, then cutover
It runs on one provider's schedule first. When the messages read right and the waitlist fires correctly, it goes practice-wide. Fifteen minutes of training for the desk, and a written rule for repeat no-shows so nobody has to argue at the counter.
Day 60 — the measurement
The same numbers as week 0, side by side, written up and sent to you: no-show and late-cancel rate, refill rate, time to fill, and what that was worth at your room-hour value. I run it and I send it — it isn't homework for your manager.
There's no AI anywhere in this one
Every message here is a template you approve, sent on a rule. Nothing is generated, so nothing can say something you didn't sanction to a patient. If you've been wary of letting software talk to your patients, this is the install to start with.
What I need from you
Small, but not zero. If these aren't possible, the install won't hold.
Access to your booking system and your card processor
Whatever you already use. I don't add a new processor just to take deposits.
Two decisions only you can make
The deposit amount, and what happens with a patient who no-shows repeatedly. I'll bring you what other practices do and the trade-offs. You choose.
Fifteen minutes of your front desk's time, and their buy-in
The software can send every message perfectly and still fail if the desk apologises for the policy. That part is a script and a habit, not code, and it's the piece I can't install for you.
Patients who've agreed to receive texts
We check consent in week 0 and fix how it's captured at booking if it's thin. Texting people who never agreed isn't a shortcut I'll take.
Price, and where it stops
$1,500 $2,500
Founding price · first three practices
In exchange, your 60-day report is published anonymously as a case study, and we spend half an hour on what worked. After three, it's $2,500.
Fixed price. One location, one booking system.
- 1 location, 1 booking system, up to 6 provider schedules
- 4 messages per appointment: 7-day, 3-day confirm, day-before, 15-minute grace
- 1 waitlist per service and provider, with a 60-minute offer expiry
- 1 deposit policy and 1 repeat no-show rule, in wording you approve
- 15 minutes of training, up to 8 staff
- 1 report at day 60, written and sent
Not included
- A second location or a second booking system. Those are quoted separately.
- Your booking system's own fees, or texting costs.
- A public "join the waitlist" page. That's a later addition.
- Anything about pricing, packages or what you charge.
If you've bought a Found Money Audit in the last 60 days, your $497 comes off this.
What I promise, and what I don't
I promise the measurement: no-shows and late cancels, and the share of released slots that get refilled, measured before we start and again 60 days after it's live, and reported to you whichever way they moved. I don't promise a dollar figure. How far a number moves depends on your patients, your prices and how the routine is held day to day — and I'd rather show you a real result than guarantee an invented one.
See a sample 60-day report → — invented numbers, real format, including the section on what didn't move.
Is it a fit?
Three questions. They decide whether this install can actually work in your practice, and an honest "no" saves us both a month.
What do you book with?
Do you take a card or a deposit when an appointment is booked, and do you have a written cancellation policy?
Will your front desk deliver a deposit policy the same way every time, once they have the words?
This should work.
Your booking system has the modules this uses, and the part I can't install — the desk holding the policy — is something you think your team can do.
Ask for a start dateTell me about your practice and what you book with. I'll reply with the next start week and an invoice.
You may already have this.
A card or deposit at booking plus a policy you apply is most of the job. Before spending $1,500, check one number: of the appointments released in the last 90 days, how many got filled? If that number is healthy, your money is better spent somewhere else, and I'd rather tell you that now.
Find where it's actually goingLet's talk first.
You've told me the desk won't hold a policy, and that's the half of this install I can't build. I won't sell you software to paper over it. Sometimes it's a staffing conversation, sometimes the policy is the wrong shape. Fifteen minutes will tell us which.
Book a free 15-minute callThis one needs a booking system.
Reminders, a waitlist and card-on-file all live inside practice software. On paper or in a spreadsheet there's nothing to configure, and choosing that system is a bigger decision than this install. Start with a conversation.
Book a free 15-minute callProbably, but I'd want to look.
This install is mostly configuration of your booking system's own modules. On the four systems I know well, they're all there. On yours I'd want fifteen minutes to confirm before either of us commits.
Book a free 15-minute callNot sure this is the right place to start? The free diagnostic takes 90 seconds, or the Found Money Audit goes through your own numbers with you and says which of these is worth doing first.