The no-show appointment is one of the great wastes in modern American economics, in that it’s almost always a maddening accident on the part of the client and always a senseless drain on the business.
Millions of dollars are squandered each year for something that amounts to a simple slip of memory 40% of the time, and is easily avoidable in almost all other cases. Perhaps now they won’t be.
Notifly, produced by Screenpush, won’t be the first paid reminder system marketed to appointment-based businesses, but at two cents per reminder, it is a good deal cheaper than its competitors, and offers a compelling argument and straightforward design to businesses looking to eliminate the frustration and financial burden of no-shows.
“The technology behind Notifly is advanced, but the logic is simple,” says CEO Josh Otten, “save money, improve efficiency. The Notifly service is affordable and pays for itself almost immediately. And the results will improve everything about how a business functions.”
Notifly works by sending automated reminders via text message — which is the preferred means for contacting 43% of people, according to one CHIC study — to clients ahead of scheduled appointments. A color-coded schedule tracks the status of reminders, which come with a simple one-touch response feature, and office managers can plan accordingly, without having to rely on overbooking, which gums up the flow of business, or no-show penalties, which deters customers. Because 85% of text messages are read in a timely manner, Notifly takes advantage of the most effective means of communication to ensure clients know about their appointments and, as early results have shown, keep them.
Notifly has shown proven reductions of as much as 65% in no-show rates. For some businesses, that could mean a few hundred dollars a year. For others, like hospitals, the potential savings reach the multiple hundreds of thousands, as demonstrated by studies performed in Ireland and Australia. Either way, it pays for itself, as Otten explains, and for a client, it means a dependable, non-invasive way of juggling the appointments amid a busy regular life. For everyone, it seems to make a lot of sense.
