I am so mad. I had a wedding cake consultation scheduled for this evening and she never showed up. I even confirmed the meeting with her yesterday. So, I left work early today and baked a small sample cake for the tasting. This makes the second time in two weeks this has happend and I'm getting really frustrated. Am I the only one this has happened to? Should I contact her and ask her what happened? What does everyone else do when it comes to cake consultations?

I would start charging. I haven't had to yet, since I know the people, but if I don't I will charge for a tasting. People up here in NY do it.
Sorry this happened to you. I hate planning around someones sched and then they don't show.

That is really inconsiderate of them! I'm sorry...I noticed on Duff's website that he takes a credit card number over the phone, to charge them if they end up being a "no-show".. So apparently even the big guys get stood up too. I feel for you!

That is so frustrating. I am sorry that happened. I've thought about setting a date to have a group of clients come to a tasting. That way if one client doesn't come you still have others there to taste so it's not a complete waste of time and product.

It is part of the business. Usually they do show up.
Some forget and some don't realize what it takes for us to prepare for a consult.
mpc

Did you call her? I'd give them 15-20 minutes for a very late arrival, then I'd be on the phone for sure.

I schedule a big consultation day monthly, where 15-17 couples come to meet me for a private 30 minute tasting/consultation. (The day is LOOOONNNNGGGG, from 10am to about dinner-time, but I potentially get 17 bookings for the year and only lose a day for meeting with everyone. Plus, it's much nicer to bake fresh samples of everything and not have to freeze/thaw anything! )

Here's a fantastic thread from last year all about how people conduct their tastings:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-14134-consultations.html

That's terrible that it happened. I've only had about 2 or 3 no-shows (and I also do catering, so when they no-show on me, I not only have the sample cake, but also the food items I've prepared .... ah well, my family has a nice dinner then!)

To give them the benefit of the doubt, something may have come up that required their attention elsewhere. On my no-shows, I've sent an email the next day with "Sorry we couldn't get together last night. Please let me know when you want to reschedule." That's all I put in the email. Just a friendly reminder that "Hey, chic! we had an appt last night! Where were you?!" One bride emailed back that the wedding had been canceled and she just forgot to call me. (ooops!)

I know a wedding planner who has a TERRIBLE show rate with her clients. I know, because frequently she asks me to come to her place to meet with the bride at the same time. I've started just asking her to have them call me to schedule their own time at my place. I tell my hubby that I don't know what the difference is ... we are dealing with the same clientele yet mine show up and hers don't. Knowing this planner pretty well, my guess is that she is somewhat (for lack of a better term) more unprofessional than I am. Somehow, she is sending the message that it's not a big deal, whereas I must be sending the message that this is serious business.

I honest have no idea what is making the difference between my brides showing up and her brides not showing up. If you just have this happen a couple of times, then it's probably just the beast of the business. If it starts happening quite a bit, you may want to review how you are setting up the appt to make sure they understand this is a real business to you.

Antonia, I like your one-day sampling idea. I may work on a plan to incorporate that!

I've not yet had no shows, but I've had people cancel the morning of.
Well I guess I did have one no show as the bride called 25 minutes before her appointment time to say her fiance was at work (like she didn't know he was working that day?????) so I told her I had a time later on, about 1.5 hrs from then, she agreed to come. Well again before that appointment, phone rings, same story! She wanted to come later on again, but I told her I was completely booked! Then she wanted to come during an evening, and I just said no sorry, can't see you for another month! Never heard from her again!!

It's a pain I know....I too do consultation days where I meet with several people. My last date was a bust as 3 people cancelled the day before/day of the consultation! I ended up meeting with only 2 clients, neither of which booked

I would definitely contact the client stating you want to reschedule and you hope everything is alright.

I'm for you!

I had that happen to me multiple times in the first month I opened up shop. From now on I decided I'm only doing freebie samples when *I* feel like doing them! Usually I tell a bride/groom that "I'm going to be in production ___ day, and if you would like to get in on a free tasting, you can stop by on ____ otherwise, I charge a $$ tasting fee when I am not in production."

Right now I'm shut down for the winter, but I've pretty well decided that I'm going to start charging for the tastings or in other words the "show up deadbeat or lose your $$$".. I'm not a bakery with a storefront and I'm not allowed to stockpile samples in the freezer for whomever to just show up. Each tasting cake has to be made for that tasting, and yes, it's a cost of doing business, but it factors out to around $40 in materials to get ready for the tasting by the time all is said and done. I don't have the operating capital yet to just suck that cost up. Of course, that's not figuring out what my time is worth.

The other thing is, I'm a LOT more forgiving if they call a day or more ahead to cancel/reschedule to the point that I would deliver the samples within reason locally (what am I going to do with them???). But, these brides that either call at noon the day of the tasting or don't call at all I don't have patience for .

So far, I haven't had a wedding consultation no show on me, but I had 2 consults scheduled a few weeks ago. 1 was for a baby shower cake and one for a wedding. The baby shower was supposed to be there at 9:30am and never showed. I called and the person who answered said that the girl was out but she didn't say anything about having an appointment. The thing that gets me about this one was the girl called me the evening before to confirm the directions and meeting time. I have not heard from her since. The wedding consult for the same day was cancelled a couple hours before the scheduled time due to the coordinator had a death in the family and could not attend. I have not been able to get back in touch with this bride to reschedule either. Oh well, their loss.

Yea, I would take their CC number. Then have fun. I think they should pay for wasting one's time- even if there was an emergency. JMO.

I totally understand that death is something we can't avoid for a reason to reschedule, but you would think the coordinator would tell the couple "I had a death in the family and can't attend this evening, but BB and DG will be there at the agreed upon time"... Yes, they have the wedding coordinator to hold their hand through the entire process, however, it's a special situation that should take understanding by the coordinator and the couple that you are still a business person too and business can still go on without them being there for the tasting.

Ugh... I need to get set up to take CC's...

I have never had it happen. But I still wouldn't charge for a consultation. I just think it's inconsiderate of them.

I would do like antonia.........(she's brilliant with this whole cake and cookies thing anyhow).....schedule once a month..........and maybe once a week during the busiest time for wedding cake bookings!

I feel your pain. This Thursday night I got stood up myself. I talked to her (bride) a couple of times the day before and no problems. This has happened several times or so last year and it really upsets me. I could of been at home with my son. People can be so rude!
Andrea