The difference between a booking system and a salon management system
Felicity Harris
👑 VIP
👑 VIP
Tattoo Studio · Bristol · 3mo ago
Can we talk about the actual cost of running a brow studio without a proper booking system? Because I think a lot of people are making the calculation wrong.
They see the monthly fee — let's say £5 per month — and think that's an expense. But they don't add up what they're already spending:
- Time doing manual admin (at least three hours a week for most people I speak to)
- Money lost to no-shows with no deposit protection
- Clients you miss because they couldn't get through on the phone
- Late-night WhatsApp messages you answer because you feel you have to
When I sat down and actually counted this up for my brow studio in Edinburgh, I was losing the equivalent of £5 a week to inefficiency. The booking system paid for itself in the first fortnight.
I've been using Phorest now for 6 months and the ROI is obvious. My diary is fuller, my admin time is down to about three hours a week from what used to be a lot more, and I haven't had a no-show in over a month because the deposit system filters out the chancers before they waste my time.
They see the monthly fee — let's say £5 per month — and think that's an expense. But they don't add up what they're already spending:
- Time doing manual admin (at least three hours a week for most people I speak to)
- Money lost to no-shows with no deposit protection
- Clients you miss because they couldn't get through on the phone
- Late-night WhatsApp messages you answer because you feel you have to
When I sat down and actually counted this up for my brow studio in Edinburgh, I was losing the equivalent of £5 a week to inefficiency. The booking system paid for itself in the first fortnight.
I've been using Phorest now for 6 months and the ROI is obvious. My diary is fuller, my admin time is down to about three hours a week from what used to be a lot more, and I haven't had a no-show in over a month because the deposit system filters out the chancers before they waste my time.
💬 2 Replies
👁 438 Views
💬 2 Replies
Join the conversation! You need to be logged in to reply.
Totally agree about Fresha's transaction fee adding up. I did the maths for my price point and the 'free' plan was actually costing me more than a paid subscription to Vagaro by the time I factored in the percentage on every booking. Read the small print before assuming free is cheaper.
#1
Totally agree about Fresha's transaction fee adding up. I did the maths for my price point and the 'free' plan was actually costing me more than a paid subscription to Phorest by the time I factored in the percentage on every booking. Read the small print before assuming free is cheaper.
#2