Appointment Adherence
Appointment adherence is the share of scheduled appointments that clients actually keep. Formula: kept appointments ÷ scheduled appointments × 100 (same-day cancellations and no-shows count as missed). Example: 132 kept of 150 scheduled gives 88% adherence.
The middle of the funnel
Retention funnels have three stages: rebooked (intention captured) → kept (adherence) → on-cadence (return). Adherence is the stage businesses skip in measurement and feel in revenue: an 80% rebooking rate with 70% adherence is a 56% kept-promise rate wearing an 80% costume. Measure all three, and locate leaks precisely, checkout problems show up in rebooking, reminder and experience problems show up in adherence, cadence problems show up in return.
Adjacent metrics
No-shows are adherence failures demanding same-day recovery; repeated ones become churn predictors. Return adherence is the downstream sibling, kept appointments that also land inside the useful window. A kept appointment three months past its window adheres but does not retain.
Frequently asked questions
What is appointment adherence?
The share of scheduled appointments clients actually keep: kept appointments divided by scheduled ones, times 100, counting no-shows and same-day cancellations as missed.
How does appointment adherence relate to retention?
It is the middle funnel stage between rebooking (intention) and on-cadence return (retention). High rebooking with low adherence means the leak is in reminders, friction, or experience, not checkout.