Phorest

Very Happy

Comments: I am very happy to have signed up to Phorest. The members of the Phorest Team I have dealt with over the phone have been extremely helpful and respectful of my needs with my business and I think the Software itself is fantastic. Would definitely recommend.

Pros:

I own a small salon with myself as the only staff member so I use Phorest in the capacity that I require. It is super easy to navigate...has many many features that work around your business and it seems that everything to grow and support your business is covered by clicks of a button. The fact that you can so easily personalise your settings/marketing tools in the Phorest program to me is very much a standout feature.

Cons:

I really like this software and it's features.

The best software ever!

Comments: Always brilliant, always efficient and never disappointed.
The system really is way ahead of any others on the market. It offers everything a business in the beauty industry would need and more.

Pros:

The ease of it and the reporting is excellent. It is a simple, yet really efficient system, and does everything I need for my business. I like the fact that the brand is honest, and doesn't rip people off to get a decent system, yet offers payment programmes to enable a business to be able to afford the best system within the industry. Everything about it is brilliant.

Cons:

Nothing really. Cant say I have got any cons. Anything I have suggested or requested on user voice has been implemented. The only thing I have ever found disappointing, was the tone of whoever was responding on user voice. They seemed more technical than customer focused, and came across rude and actually a bit obnoxious in their replies, which is very unlike the Phorest communication you normally give.

Unprofessional Company with hidden charges and poor data management

Comments: I have had this software for over 5 years and they are only interested in how they can make more money out of their clients. They charge inflated prices for simple things and hide the charges so you aren't aware of them. They introduce new features which sound great but in reality don't work and then charge you a higher subscription for their software for the new features when don't work. For example they introduced a feature called client reconnect which is supposed to text clients when they are overdue their appointment but it just doesn't work, yet they charge an extra £40/month for it. Also if you have multiple sites, none of their reports or stock inventory work across multiple locations so you have to go into each location to run reports or get stock information which is very time consuming. It also doesn't link into any other software or marketing software so you have to do work arounds and manual exports if you want to use your client data in facebook or email marketing. The email and text marketing within Phorest is expensive and poor quality compared to industry specific software so another downside to Phorest. There are many much superior softwares available that are cheaper, easier to run and integrate easier into other business softwares. Having stuck with Phorest for over 5 years now I wish I had made a move to better software years ago.

Pros:

The appointment diary is simple and visual but basic. There is an online reputation manager which helps you manage your online reviews but now I have seen what other systems can do I think it is basic and its only available when you are on their most expensive package.

Cons:

The company has hidden charges which they deduct at source so you can't see them or audit them. They consistently over charge and apply higher charges to bills than your original contract and insist on payment by direct debit so its not easy to detect them. They manipulate your data without knowledge or consent, for example they opted many of my clients out of being able to receive marketing information without my knowledge, I only discovered by accident and it turned out to have been an issue in their software which they denied to begin with but then had to admit it was their fault. I have no idea if they corrected the fault just with my account or whether other customers who have been affected but are still in the dark. A few years ago they made a major to how their online booking system worked, but didn't inform any of their clients so all our online bookings on our website went down and again it took a few weeks for them to admit the mistake was theirs, but it still cost me thousands with my website developer to re-design my website to overcome their change which is incredibly poor change management and poor knowledge of their customers and how they use the software.

It's very "blonde" Friendly

Pros:

It is a very straight forward to use and most definitely better/easier than any other system I used over the years. The team are so friendly /helpful.. you can be very tired at the end of a 10-12 hour day and maybe your cash up isn't going to plan. I've called the support team with such silly questions, if I can't figure out something from pure tiredness and I'm always treated with such politeness/and I'm not felt in any way that I have annoyed anyone. I also love all the reports, available to me. Just to be able to see how some staff are doing or product sales or overall takings..

Cons:

I'd love to see more of an easier approach to showing if the client was new or old when they check in, and also if they have had a patch test with us or not, especially for hd brows and waxing. (I'm saying that maybe there is something that's as clear as day but I've just never been shown how to do this)

Bowled over by this system after 23 yrs of pencil & paper bookings. Glad I made the leap to Phorest

Comments: Professionalism and accuracy along with lots of feature just starting to enjoy.

Pros:

The speed I can make bookings and changes. Clear, straight forward screens, easily understandable and visible. Great marketing features which I know will bring big changes to our salon. Great staff reports showing clear results of sales, targets and utilisation - a real help for one-to-ones. Appointment reminders and email marketing are a great feature which I am enjoing learning to use. Can wait for all the positive changes Phorest will bring our salon.

Cons:

One or two niggly things on the screen but all about personal preference. I'd like a time scale on both sides of the page, and the hours to be shown in bold with the quarter past half past and quarter to in normal size. When I make a few selections of treatments for a client and she changes her mind the timings don't automatically bunch together - for example if the client selected an hour treatment followed by a half hour treatment the system would say book 3pm for the first and 4 pm for the second, but if the client then changed her mind with the first treatment and changed it to a half hour treatment the system keeps 3pm for the first appointment but leaves the second appointment at 4pm whereas it should automatically shift it up to 3.30pm. The only other thing we'd like is a page down button on the key board - out laptop isn't touch screen and the mouse is only a pad - it is difficult to slid up and down the page while holding a phone in one hand!