This trade looks nothing like the building ones: few quotes, many appointments, and clients who come back — or quietly do not. So your two problems are different: no-shows and clients who fade away.
One activity per service, if it tells you something
If you only do hair, a single activity in your own name is enough. Create several only if you want to compare, for example:
- Cut and styling
- Colour and technical
- Treatments and beauty
A few months in, the Statistics page will tell you which one takes the most time. The answer is rarely the one you expect, and it changes how you fill a diary.
The technical record is your real advantage
What a client remembers is that you remembered.
After each visit, write a note on the appointment: the formula used, the processing time, the result, what they said they wanted next time. Keep this note private — it is your working memory, not a document for the client.
Four months later you open the record before they sit down and you know exactly what to repeat and what to avoid. No loyalty scheme costs less than that.
See notes.
Cutting down missed appointments
An empty chair is a straight loss. You cannot make it back.
For each appointment, set a reminder the day before, frequency Once, recipient Client. They get an email with the date and time.
It does not remove no-shows, but it removes the forgotten ones — and those are most of them.
Also use the No-show status rather than Cancelled when someone does not turn up. The distinction looks trivial; a few months later it is what tells you whether to start taking a deposit, and from whom.
See reminders and appointments.
Bringing back the ones who stopped coming
This is the seam almost nobody works. A client does not leave angry. They let three months go by, then six, and then they have found someone nearer home.
Two habits are enough:
- At the end of every appointment, set a reminder at that client's usual interval — six weeks for colour, three months for a cut. Recipient User, so you decide how to get back in touch.
- Keep the statuses current. A client who has not been in for six months goes to Inactive client. Once a quarter, filter on that status under Contacts: you are looking at the exact list of people to call.
That is ten minutes a quarter, and it is the best return on time in the whole app.
The portal, for services that need preparing
For a haircut it is pointless. For a wedding, a full restyle, or a multi-session treatment plan it changes things: the client gets a secure link and finds the plan, the dates, and whatever you shared with them. They can reply with their own notes and references.
See the client portal.
What ProContact does not do
To save you time: it is not a till and not an online booking system. Your clients do not book their own slot, and there is no payment handling or stock.
It is a client file and a follow-up system. If what you need is a public booking diary, this is the wrong tool.
In short
| Situation | What you do in ProContact |
|---|---|
| End of a service | Private note with the formula and result |
| Appointment booked | Reminder the day before, recipient Client |
| Client does not turn up | Status No-show, not Cancelled |
| End of appointment | Reminder at their usual interval, recipient User |
| Once a quarter | Filter on Inactive client and call them |
Ready to start? See the 10-minute setup.
This guide builds on ProContact for tradespeople, which covers the four problems every trade shares.