Customer no-show reduction in web-based appointment service: investigations of non-attendance behaviors
Ye Hua, Tong Che, Cheng Yang, Miao Hu
Abstract
Web-based appointment services can improve the efficiency of the relative services, but always suffer from customers’ non-attendance behaviors. Previous research ignores the opportunistic feature of no-shows that is essential to understand customers’ non-attendance behaviors. Further, the effect of formal cancelation policies is yet understudied. To solve these problems, a research model based on transaction cost theory is proposed and tested in the context of the web-based outpatient registration service. Results of the research show that the occurrence of no-shows can be reduced when asset specificity factors increase and uncertainty factors decrease. The awareness of cancelation policies can lead to more cancelations but can also weaken the effects of asset specificity factors. Besides, no-shows can be decreased when cancelation policies are more restrictive.