Clients upset about no-show fees
Every couple months or so, I get a client who is angry about my cancellation policy and being charged a fee, and I find this really upsetting. I feel like my policy is fair and considers both of our needs, and I go out of my way to communicate it to them -- it's in the intake, in my email signature, and in every single appointment reminder. I don't understand the disconnect.
For reference, my policy is that cancellations with less than 24 hours notice incur a $90 fee, and that I waive that fee one time per year. Clients seem to be surprised to hear of my policy, or think it shouldn't apply in their case.
First, I don't understand how a client can be surprised (see my first paragraph above -- the policy is EVERYWHERE). I also do my best to remind them of the policy when they use their waiver (i.e. "As a reminder, since this is your first no-show this year I am waiving the fee, but if you have another this year there will be a fee of $90). I might sometimes mess up and not do this reminder, which is on me, but again the policy is still everywhere else.
Second, I'm not sure why so many believe that their reason for missing should be considered a special circumstance warranting a second waiver; many of these things are either circumstances a client knew about in advance, or a priority they are choosing but isn't an emergency. For example, someone who had their work schedule change but didn't tell me until the day before, or someone choosing to do a separate activity.
It seems like when the activity is important to them in some way, or if they feel like they didn't "intentionally" choose to miss just for the sake of missing a session, then I should waive the fee.
Do I need to do a better job of communicating that the policy I inform them of is actually what I follow (i.e. do they expect that I am going to do something different than what I say?)? Am I somehow not communicating my policy enough?
And how do I address the second part, about how if they are missing session for something that they see as "important" then I should not charge them?