Customer no-shows costing Irish garages thousands in lost revenue each year

New data gathered from Klipboard has found that there were over 200,000 missed customer bookings during a five-month period for nearly 2,800 garages across Ireland and the UK.

Between January and May 2026, those 2,800 garages recorded over 1.8 million customer bookings. Of those, 12 per cent ended in a no-show.

For a typical independent garage completing 100 jobs a month, that translates to roughly 12 empty bays each month.

At an average invoice value of €300, that equates to €3,600 in lost revenue each month, or €43,200 a year, before counting the cost of non-returnable items.

Klipboard said text reminders have little impact on the rate of missed appointments, but taking deposits and offering ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ to spread costs to the customer, does cut no-shows and reduce lost revenue.

Garages in the data that actively used text reminders had similar no-show rates to those that didn’t. Some of the heaviest text senders in the dataset – garages sending over 1,000 messages a year – still recorded no-show rates above 15 per cent.

Lochan Sim, VP payments at Klipboard, said: “While reminder messages are important, the data shows that doesn’t secure commitment. People forget about their appointments all the time. Sometimes they find a better price down the road and don’t let you know. Or maybe they realise that their bank balance won’t cover the bill until after payday.”

The nearly 2,800 UK and Irish garages were selected from those using Klipboard’s Autowork Online garage management software.

To solve these problems, Klipboard has launched new features in Autowork Online that allow garages to take up-front deposits, and gives customers the option of deferring their payments through Klarna (the ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ service).

Deposits and Buy Now Pay Later are already built into Autowork Online through Klipboard’s payment solution, Klipboard Money. Klipboard is currently offering free setup and training to existing customers.