A clear and practical guide for UK service businesses that want fewer no shows, better attendance and a smoother customer experience

If you run a service-based business in the UK, you already know how damaging no shows can be. Missed appointments cost time, money and consistency. They cause unpredictable revenue and leave empty gaps in your diary that you cannot fill last minute.

The good news is that most no shows are preventable when your reminders are automated correctly.

The question I hear from UK business owners every week is:

"How do I send automatic reminders so I stop losing bookings to no shows?"

In this blog, we will cover:

• Why reminders matter

• The most popular reminder tools UK SMEs currently use

• Their pricing and limitations

• The fully automated solution used by the fastest growing UK businesses

• Why HighLevel via MarketerM8 is the best way to reduce no shows reliably

Why reminders matter if you run a UK service business

Most people who miss appointments are not doing it on purpose. They simply:

• Forget

• Miss your confirmation email

• Book too far ahead

• Get distracted

• Lose track of the date

• Never receive a reminder

If you want fewer no shows, sending reminders is essential.
If you want near zero no shows, automating reminders is essential.

The popular reminder setup in the UK: Calendly plus Mailchimp

Right now, the most common setup UK SMEs use is:

👉 Calendly for bookings
👉 Mailchimp for confirmation emails

It is a familiar combination, but it has major limitations.

Calendly pricing (UK equivalent)

Most UK SMEs use Calendly for bookings because it is simple and familiar, but the real cost becomes clear once you look at UK seat based pricing.

Calendly Standard: £8 per seat per month

Calendly Teams: £13 per seat per month

This means if you have a team of 3 people using the booking system, you are already paying:

• £24 per month for Standard

• £39 per month for Teams

And that is before you add:

• SMS reminders

• Follow up sequences

• CRM features

• Email marketing

• Pipelines

• Automation workflows

Calendly will send a basic confirmation email and one reminder, but anything beyond that requires extra tools.

Mailchimp pricing (UK)

The commonly used Standard plan sits around £25.26 per month, based on your contact count.

Mailchimp can send additional email reminders, but:

• It does not include SMS

• Contacts cost more as your list grows

• Automations are limited unless you upgrade

• You have to integrate it manually with your booking tool

The main limitations for UK SMEs

Using Calendly and Mailchimp together means:

• Email only reminders unless you pay for extra SMS tools

• Per user charges

• Per contact pricing

• No unified CRM

• No pipeline

• No full timeline of messages

• Multiple systems that do not talk to each other

It works for very small setups, but it does not solve the full no show problem.

The better solution for UK businesses: HighLevel via MarketerM8

HighLevel handles the entire journey from booking to reminder to follow up automatically in one platform. It sends both email and SMS reminders without needing add ons.

Here is what HighLevel can automate for you when someone makes a booking:

• Instant email confirmation

• Instant SMS confirmation

• 24 hour reminder

• 2 hour reminder

• 15 minute reminder

• Post appointment follow up

• No show recovery sequences

Unlimited calendars for all UK service types

HighLevel includes unlimited calendars, which is a game changer for UK businesses that offer multiple services.

You can create a unique calendar for:

• Different services

• Different team members

• Different locations

• Different rentals

• Different consultation types

At MarketerM8 we use HighLevel to run all of this:

• 20 minute discovery calls

• 1 hour strategy calls

• 15 minute client check in calls

• 1 hour client sessions

• A recurring Tuesday 12 noon calendar slot for our live HighLevel workshops

Each calendar has its own confirmation messages, its own reminder sequence and its own follow up, all running automatically.

HighLevel syncs with your real world calendar

Regardless of how many HighLevel calendars your business needs, each one can sync with:

• Google Calendar

• Outlook Calendar

• Apple Calendar (iCloud)

This keeps your diary accurate in real time and prevents double booking.

If a customer books a slot that collides with an existing personal or work event, HighLevel will block it automatically.
If you block time out in your personal calendar, HighLevel recognises it instantly.

For UK businesses with busy diaries, this is essential.

HighLevel pricing via MarketerM8

Through MarketerM8, you get the most cost effective version of HighLevel in the UK:

• £97 per month

• Unlimited users

• Unlimited contacts

• Unlimited calendars

• Full email and SMS automation

• Booking system included

• CRM and pipelines included

Usage based credits:

• Email: £8 per 10,000 emails

• SMS: 6p per 160 characters

These rates are exclusive to the MarketerM8 Agency Plan.

Why HighLevel reduces no shows better than UK alternatives

HighLevel reduces no shows because:

• Reminders go out via both email and SMS

• Customers cannot forget

• Everything is triggered automatically

• All calendars sync with Google, Outlook and Apple

• Your team sees every booking and message in the CRM

• You can tailor reminders for each service type

• Every message is logged in the customer record

• Post appointment follow up runs automatically

Instead of trying to make multiple tools work together, you get one system that handles everything.

What a typical HighLevel reminder workflow looks like

1. Customer books via a HighLevel calendar.

2. Email confirmation is sent instantly.

3. SMS confirmation is sent instantly.

4. 24 hour reminder goes out automatically.

5. 2 hour reminder goes out by SMS.

6. 15 minute reminder is sent.

7. Customer attends.

8. Post appointment follow up is sent.

9. Everything is logged in the CRM automatically.

10. If the customer does not attend, a no show sequence begins.

It works behind the scenes, every day, without any manual effort.

Final thoughts

If you want to reduce no shows in a UK business, manual reminders are not enough.
Customers are busy and inboxes are crowded. You need a reliable system that handles the entire reminder flow across email and SMS.

Calendly and Mailchimp work together, but they are two separate tools with two separate costs and no SMS built in.

HighLevel via MarketerM8 gives you:

• Unlimited calendars

• Unlimited users

• Unlimited contacts

• Automatic email and SMS reminders

• Google, Outlook and Apple Calendar sync

• One complete CRM

• Cost effective usage credits

This is the most complete and reliable way for UK businesses to reduce no shows and keep their diaries full.

Your next steps: three clear options

1. Book a discovery call with the MarketerM8 team

If you want reminders that work every time with proper UK specific setup, automation and support, book a discovery call.
👉 https://www.marketerm8.com/book-a-call

2. Go directly to HighLevel and buy the software yourself

You can purchase HighLevel for £97 per month and build your calendars and reminder sequences manually. It works but expect a learning curve.

👉 https://www.gohighlevel.com/?fp_ref=ghl700311

3. Do nothing and keep juggling tools that do not talk to each other

This usually leads to missed reminders, confused customers, higher no show rates and unnecessary admin. Software should simplify your business, not make it harder.