How to cut no-shows at a pottery class
A no-show at a pottery class costs more than an empty chair. The clay is bought, the wheel sits idle and the seat could have gone to somebody on your waiting list.
Take money at booking
This is the single biggest lever, and everything else is a rounding error next to it. A free booking costs nothing to abandon. Even a small deposit changes the decision.
Remind them twice, and make cancelling easy
One reminder the day before and one on the morning. It sounds counterintuitive, but make cancelling easy in both — a person who cancels at 9am is a seat you can still fill, while a person who silently does not turn up is not.
Text reminders outperform email substantially for this, because they get read.
Write a cancellation policy you will actually enforce
A policy nobody applies is worse than none, because it teaches people the rules do not matter. Pick terms you are comfortable holding to on a bad day — full refund with 48 hours notice, studio credit inside 24, nothing after that is a common and defensible shape.
Offer credit instead of cash for late cancellations
It keeps the money in the studio and keeps the relationship. Most people accept credit far more readily than they accept losing the payment entirely, and a good share of that credit gets spent on a more expensive class later.
Watch who repeats it
A first no-show is life. A third is a pattern. Knowing which is which lets you have a quiet word, or ask for full payment up front, instead of writing off the seat every time.