As your CAM practice grows, you’ll find your schedule filling in further and further out in the calendar. While this is generally good news, keep any eye out for the following side effects of long-term scheduling in alternative health practices:

No-Shows
Start scheduling past 3 months, and you’ll almost certainly see patients forget their appointments. The best way to deal with this is phone call reminders. Review the following week’s schedule, and make reminder calls to all scheduled patients.

Cancellations
Even with a great reminder process in place, you’ll find your clients will occasionally have made other plans. In this case, make your reminder calls earlier so you have time to fill the gaps that appear in the schedule.

Internal Changes
In a busy alternative health practice, all the practitioners in your office will need to start scheduling their holidays in advance. “Spontaneous” vacations and time off become very expensive in a busy practice, and make for unhappy patients. If you find you’re constantly bumping patients or rescheduling to accommodate internal changes, more advance planning may be the solution.

I still believe that advance booking is critical. Scheduling the next appointment for your patients while they’re in the office is the best practice for any holistic professional, but keep an eye out for these effects of advance scheduling. And don’t hesitate to remind patients of how long they may have to wait if they miss the appointment. If they see the value of the appointment slot, they’re more likely to make an effort to be there.