Reminder Systems for Reducing No-shows in General Practices

Personal services businesses such as doctor´s offices operate based on an appointment schedule to maximize the utilization of the personnel and equipment. Some businesses deal with a no-show rate of customers that cuts into profits when it is not possible to charge the customer for the full impact of missed appointment. We develop a model to understand the investment and ongoing expense that the firm should put into such systems when customers act strategically. We also consider how reminder systems interact with overbooking policies.