You said people used to book an slot and show up at time. What happened? Did anything change in the meanwhile?
Well some people didn't show up on time. And due to that we had a argument between 2 of the clients.
Didn't end well.
Solution to come up with:
Now I am asking you guys to come up with a solution to the problem.
I have thought to 2 ways already but not that efficient:.
1. If people book a slot, then I can warn them before hand(to avoid any arguments) that if they don't come by the slot time booked, then I will cancel their booking and their name would go to the end of the list.
2 . Give them a call just before the appointment time, and ask if they will show up at that time. But again, if they find traffic then they might just delay it, and argue after showing up late.
Feel free to post on how would you solve the problem, and I will be happy to send you a small tip. I want to save people the time and myself from arguing with people who show up late.
I would like to know how much time does one appointment take as my family doctor takes about 10-15 minutes per patient and attends to minimum 20 patients in 4 hours. If this is the case with you:
For the first solution, I would suggest the following change:
People who have booked the slot but have arrived late due to some reason can either choose to change their slot at a time that is not booked already or as you have suggested to add the name to the end of the list.
Also, usually my doctors attend to patients who have arrived without appointments first if the person who has booked the slot hasn't arrived. The time also is utilized and the patients have not to wait for hours in the dispensary.
For the second solution, , I would suggest the following change:It's better to have an alert system wherein the patient can book an appointment online and get a confirmation message along with the condition placed that he/she should arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the appointment time else the slot will be changed/cancelled. You can send an automated alert to the patient who has booked an appointment and the person would need to reply to that message to confirm the same. This would save your time as well and the message should read "If there is any delay in the arrival (15 minutes to 30 minutes delay), your appointment would be scheduled to a later time..." This would avoid any kind of fights as the person is already aware of the message. If he/she does not reply to the message and arrives late, still there wouldn't be any issue as while booking the appointment, they will be aware of the condition.
All slots get booked as there is a big rush , so not really a possibility.
This is indeed a hard problem because some actually do not care at all, but others like me can get stuck in insane traffic.
However i think charging a fine for not showing up would in my view a good idea, and i think those having a traffic issue should call when they think they would arrive more than 5 to 10 minutes later after the appointment.
It worked for me and most people who allways appear at will, changed their behaviour by either call before they do not show up or actually do show up.
In my work i entered the same rules 20 euro for showing up late (over 10 minutes late) and not call before entering or giving a good excuse.
Some seem to not care at all and i charge them a full consult after 3 times not showing up or not letting me know or giving a good excuse.
When they disappear as customer i kinda not care anymore, they simply refuse to cooperate and thats not what you want.
Charging a fees is something I want to avoid, as won't be received well.