MISSED LESSON POLCY // No Call No Show Policy

These policies align the company and our clients so that we are all on the same page and working together to get those lessons done, which is how we all get what we want.

Our Client Cancellation Policy:

A client may cancel a lesson 24 hours before the start time and not get billed for training.

  • Unless it’s a dire emergency like them being in the hospital, a death in the family, their dog is hurt, etc.

If a client cancels within the 24 hour mark of their start time, we must charge them a fee for cancelling. The fee is $49.

No Call No Show Policy:

If we show up to a clients home and they aren’t there, we will charge them $100 for not calling and not showing up.

  • Unless it’s a dire emergency and we find out after the fact. Example: The client being in the hospital, a death in the family, their dog is hurt, etc.

Rainy Day Policy

In order to Deliver Wow to our clients here is our rainy day policy…

- If it’s raining and the lesson was supposed to be outdoors, we will switch the content of the training lesson to be indoors.

- If they cancel because it rained or is raining and the cancel anyways, we must charge them.

WHY WE CHARGE PEOPLE For CANCELING AND NO Call No Shows

1) We typically can’t reschedule people the day of.

2) We miss a whole lesson of the week.

3) We have to add a lesson to the back end of the program which extends their training time.

4) It delays the start time of another family getting into training

THE DOCUMENTATION WORKFLOW

  1. Reschedule the appointment while you are dialoguing with them - UNLESS the reason for the cancellation is dire and is not the socially proper time to reschedule, in which case you need to:

    • Change the color of the appointment to Blueberry in your calendar, and add the reason for cancelling into the title of the event.

    • Add in the title of the next event, “Plan 1” to remind yourself to reschedule later,

  2. Tell them what we would have been working on that day and have them watch the video in the portal and start with their dog.

  3. Inform Lead Trainer of the client’s cancellation, the reason and what you’ve done.

  4. Document the details of the cancellation in the client’s notes: when, why, how soon before the appointment, when the next one was set, etc.

  5. Tell office admin to send them an invoice to charge their card.

  6. Call a new client or a current client to fill their spot. If we are booking up over a week in advance, call a NEW client.

What To Do With Client Spots (In order of importance)

  1. Reach out to new clients and try to move them up. We book out FAR in advance, so moving new clients up is the TOP priority of Dog Pros. This is part of the Delivering WOW experience.

  2. Reach out to current clients and try to move them up.

  3. Work on assigned tasks and projects.

  4. Meet a fellow Dog Pro at one of their appointments to record video of them training for content on social media.

  5. Catch up on admin work.

  6. Lastly, because this should be done during scheduled times BEFORE training or AFTER training, get inventory, gas, etc.

Our Client-Facing Policies…

To protect the valuable time of our Dog Pro’s, below is how we explain our cancellation policy to prospects & clients:

- If you cancel or reschedule your appointment 24 hours BEFORE, then we will gladly accommodate you and appreciate you respecting our time as professionals.

- If you cancel or reschedule less than 24 hours before your appointment, then we'll need to charge you $49, then rebook the appointment for a later time.  

- The second occurrence however will result in a termination of the sales process if you aren’t yet a client, or a forfeiture of a lesson in your overall program if you are currently a client.

Note: If a client shows up 15 minutes late or more to an appointment, that is considered a No Call-No Show.  If they call an hour a head and tell you that they are “running late,” then this is also still considered a same-day reschedule.  However, if the trainer can still do that day’s lesson with the 30-40 minutes left, then by all means, do the lesson.  If not, then move on to the next lesson and walk through the script below.

Operant Conditioning Applied to Our Prospects & Clients

As a company who loves dogs and our clients, we hate to do any of this, but we are all professionals and have no other recourse than to protect our time in a world of busyness, distraction and shifting priorities - so like training the dogs with positive and negative consequences, we must assign unpleasant feelings with unwanted behaviors so that everyone is on the same page.

Our Trainer-Facing PolicIES & Scripts

As far as our clients are concerned, the above stated policy IS our actual policy.  However, to be generous and keep things simple, we will typically waive the fee the first time around - but to be sure, their 2nd same-day cancellations ARE strictly enforced without exceptions (because we have already been generous, and now need to assign a consequence to their unwanted behavior.)

Text Scripts

Script for Their 1st Same-Day Cancellation (Unless It’s a Dire Situation)

“We have a $49 cancellation fee if the lesson isn’t cancelled 24 hours before out scheduled time. If you still want to reschedule, we can do and we’ll send you an invoice for the cancellation fee. Or we can do the scheduled lesson. Let me know what you’d like to do!”

Script for Their 1st No-Call/No-Show

“Sorry we missed each other today. I had us down for (date & time). Just to let you know, we have a $49 no-show fee. Since we showed up today and you weren’t home, we’ll have to send you an invoice for the No Call No Show fee. Our next scheduled appointment is DATE & TIME. I’ll see you then! If you need anything in the meantime, let me know.”

Script for When We Have to Charge Them The Second TIme (Upon a 2nd Occurrence)

“I’m sorry about (whatever their excuse is this time).  When should we reschedule this appointment?” ….Then set the appointment

“Ok great. So I have you down for (date & time). Now, unfortunately, since we already waived the $49 fee from the same-day cancellation from last time, I can’t waive it this time and you’ll see an additional $49 fee on your card that we used to secure your first appointment with us, ok?”

“Ok, now, moving forward: If this happens again, instead of paying a fee, it’ll be a forfeiture of a lesson in your overall program, ok?

* Exceptions to These *

1) If it’s a dire situation, like a death or tragedy etc, then just say we are sorry and call them later to reschedule.

What About Dog Pro Reschedules?

In the case where the DOG PRO must reschedule an appointment due to emergencies, or sickness, the Dog Pro will first ask his supervisor if there is someone available to do that appointing instead of postponing it.

If a Dog Pro is found not following any of these protocols, then it will result in immediate disciplinary action. We hold our clients to high standards and we expect the same from our trainers.

Scripts for When A DOG PRO Misses An Appointment or Is Running Late

When a Trainer Is Running Late

 “Hey NAME, I am running late.  I’m X minutes behind.  I’m sorry for being late but I wanted to give you a heads up!”

Miscommunication About A Lesson Time

“I’m sorry that our times got mixed up.  Gosh.  I don’t know what to say.  I guess we just need to reschedule.  When are you available next?