The empty chair problem
You planned your day around a full book. Then a client cancels by text at the last minute, too late to fill the hour. Or a client simply does not show. No call, no warning. And your waitlist is a sticky note, a spreadsheet, or a name in someone's memory, so by the time anyone calls the next person, the slot is gone.
The studies put hard numbers on the leak, and they differ by trade. Physiotherapy practices miss 15 to 31 percent of visits on a given day in the studies, and health care overall averages about 23 percent missed. Dental sits lower, at about 7 in 100 appointments. In salons the bigger half is cancellations: platform benchmark data counts about 8 percent of bookings cancelled and 3 percent never shown. Say your average visit is worth $95, as an example, and three slots a week go empty. That is $285 a week, about $1,235 a month, close to $14,800 a year, from hours you had already sold once. You cannot bill a chair. You can only fill it.
How it works
1. You share your book, your way
Send your appointments from your calendar or a simple spreadsheet. First names and times only. We never need to know why anyone is coming in. Your waitlist counts in whatever shape you keep it now, a notebook, a sticky note, or a spreadsheet is fine, and we tidy it at setup.
2. Two gentle reminders
Every client gets a short text 24 hours before the visit, and one 2 hours before. Clients can confirm, or cancel early with one reply, while the slot can still be saved.
3. We offer the slot to your waitlist at once
In the order you choose. The first person who says yes gets it, gets a confirmation, and the offers stop there. If someone answers just too late, they get a short, kind note, and stay on your waitlist for the next opening. No phone tag for your front desk.
4. A one page report every week
Slots that opened, slots rescued, the value recovered, and what you owe. You are charged only on the slots that filled.
Pricing
Pay per rescue
$29
per rescued appointment
A slot that was cancelled, or about to sit empty, that a waitlist client accepted and booked. If nobody takes the slot, you pay nothing for it.
Flat, if you prefer one bill
$149
per month, unlimited rescues
Same service, same weekly report, no per slot counting. Some owners prefer one flat bill, and that is fine with us.
Salon pricing: in salons, the per rescue fee is the lower of $29 or a quarter of the visit price, so a rescue on a smaller ticket never costs out of proportion.
Two full weeks free to start. Reminders and backfill run on your real book, and at the end of the two weeks you get the report and decide with real numbers in front of you. No setup fee. No contract. Cancel any time with one email. Invoices go out weekly for per rescue plans, monthly for flat plans. We can price it this way because a filled slot is worth far more than $29 to you, and it is worth zero to us unless we fill it.
Your clients' privacy, in plain words
- What we hold is small, on purpose. A first name, a phone number, and the appointment time. Nothing else. We never need to know why a client is coming in: no treatment, no diagnosis, no notes, ever. There is no field for them anywhere in the system.
- For clinics, that small record still counts. A name and an appointment time at your clinic point to a real person's care, so we treat the record as health information and protect it that way, under a written agreement with your clinic. Your clinic stays in charge of its clients' information, and we use the record only to run your reminders and your waitlist.
- Reminder texts go only to your own clients who gave your business their number for appointment messages. Every text names your business, and every text honours a STOP reply at once. We never use your clients' information for marketing, ours or anyone's.
- Your lists stay yours. We never sell, share, or reuse your client list for anyone else. On request we delete everything we hold for you and confirm the deletion in writing.
Questions owners ask
Do I need new software?
No. Send your book as a calendar export or a spreadsheet. If you already use booking software, we work from its export. Nothing to install and nothing new for your team to learn.
Who sends the messages?
We do. Every reminder and waitlist offer is sent for you, under your business name. You never touch the tooling. You send us your book and your waitlist, we run the reminders and the backfill, and you read the weekly report.
Will my clients find the texts annoying?
Each visit gets two short texts: one a day before, and one on the day, two hours ahead. Each is only a few lines, names your business, and takes one tap to answer. The first reminder goes out a full day ahead, while the slot can still be saved, and that is why it is there.
What if two people say yes to the same slot?
The offer goes out in order, one window at a time, and the slot closes the moment the first person confirms. Nobody is double booked.
What if nobody on my waitlist can take it?
Then the slot stays open and you pay nothing. Your weekly report still shows the reminders sent, the slots that opened, the slots rescued, and the value recovered. The reminders do quiet work of their own, too: industry studies find that text reminders reduce no shows.
What counts as rescued, exactly?
A booked slot that gets cancelled, or a client who cancels from the reminder, and a waitlist client who accepts and books that same slot. Your weekly report lists each one by date and time, so you can check it against your own book.
Can I start small?
Yes. You can start the trial with one practitioner or one room. If the report makes you money, widen it.
Start your free two weeks
Picture a Friday, with round numbers just to show how it works. Your report lands. Say two slots opened this week and both were rescued: at $100 a visit, $200 of visits stayed on your books, and your cost was $58 on the per rescue plan, two rescues at $29. Your front desk made no extra calls, and two waitlist clients got seen days sooner than they expected. Your own two week trial shows you the real version, with your own numbers.
Send us one week of your book and your waitlist, and we will set up the reminders and the backfill before your next working day.
Start free, pay only on rescued slotsQuestions first? Email support@kollaztoolz.com. We reply within 1 business day.