Two Tips to Increase your Appointment Show Rate

Show rate is the best metric at our academy. We’ve consistently been in the high 70’s%, typically between 75%-78% for years. Here are TWO simple & effective tips to increase the Show Rate at your academy.

#1 UNDERSTAND THE GOALS OF THE APPOINTMENT REMINDER MESSAGES:

The personalized video is my absolute favorite strategy to get people excited about coming in. That being said, both videos & texts WORK if you keep these two goals in mind.

1. The 1st goal is simple, get people EXCITED about coming in for their class! 
   
   
2. An equally important, and often overlooked, 2nd goal, is to make the prospect realize that they will be meeting with an actual human being who is cool enough & personal enough that they don’t deserve to get stood up without notice.

*So, the more “human” you can be in EVERY step of the lead gathering & appointment setting process, the higher your show rate will be. (This carries over into signing up new members too!)

My favorite text to help “humanize” your interaction & ultimately, gets incredible results is the “Morning of..” automated text. 

• I find that if you come right out & say, are you going to be there tonight? You can get ghosted.. 👻
• So I like to throw a curveball & hit them with 2 short texts: 
• “Hey! It’s Amy from URSA Academy. I’ll be the one meeting with you today at your first jiu jitsu class. “
• “I’m getting a few things ready for you for tonight & I’m grabbing you a free t-shirt. What size shirt do you wear?”

• Or, if you give away a uniform to people who try the classes, try this: 
• “… I’m getting a few things ready for you for tonight & I’m setting aside a gi(uniform) for your daughter. I was planning on grabbing a couple to make sure we get a good fit, but I was curious, how tall is she?”

If they are coming in for their appointment, they will answer. If they are not coming, they tend to reply & let you know so you can reschedule.

*It is possible that they will ghost you on this text, and then it could go either way, they may show, or not.. But this sort of text gets a much higher response rate than the standard reminder texts. 

#2 FOLLOW UP, FOLLOW UP, FOLLOW UP… & FOCUS ON “LIFETIME SHOW RATE”

• The REAL key to a good show rate percentage is the RESCHEDULE. 
• 40%-60% is a very standard “First Day Show Rate” for most of the martial arts industry on the first day appointment. 
• LIFETIME Show rate is where we can get MORE people to show up for their appointments, even if they’ve missed their first one. 
• “First Day Show Rate” is a reflection on THEM, the prospect.. 
• but the LIFETIME show rate is on YOU, your team’s persistance, & your follow - up systems.
• Don’t let anyone fall through the cracks. Remember, these prospects all raised their hand to ask for a free class & they even booked one!
• Provide excellent customer service ALWAYS by calling to reschedule their appointment until they either show up for one or they tell you that they no longer want one.

*Best Practices:  Get Excited & Help THEM to get excited. Be a human; use unique texts that sound like a cool person talking to a friend, & lastly, never quit on somebody who raised their hand.