The Story of Phorest

Nearly 20 years ago, our founder and CEO, Ronan Perceval was working as a receptionist in a busy salon in Dublin, when he had a career-defining realisation. He had worked prior customer service jobs, but he soon discovered that nothing compared to the atmosphere of being in a salon.

“I saw right away that–wow- a salon is a truly special place. There is this amazing energy flowing through it. People arrive looking forward to spending a few hours there, and by the time they are finished, they feel even better than when they came in. There is a total emotional transformation; they are glowing, confident. And this kind of positivity is absolutely contagious. I knew that I wanted to be a part of that forever.”

Ronan Perceval, Founder & CEO of Phorest Salon Software

At Phorest, we don’t have a job. We have a purpose. It’s to help salon, spa and clinic owners like you succeed.

Not long after working the reception desk, Ronan noticed the owner was struggling with the same primary issues. Firstly, the salon was consistently dealing with at least one or two no-shows a week. Over time, this was adding up to a fairly significant loss in revenue. Ronan couldn’t let this go… He knew there had to be a better way. 

Ronan enlisted the help of a friend, (Phorest’s co-founder, Jamie Mysercough) who worked with him to write a bit of software that could send the salon clients a simple text message through the internet (which in those days was dial-up) to remind them of their upcoming appointments. Within a month, they were able to reduce no-shows by 70%.

But they didn’t stop there. The salon had another problem: getting clients back in, spending money after the Christmas rush had died down. So they came up with the idea to use the text message software they built to send their clients a message about a special offer for January, offering a free retail product with every appointment booked. Within days of the messages going out, they had filled up their books well into February. Other local salons began to take notice of this new style of promotion and began calling Ronan at his reception post asking where they could get access to it. 

With that, the foundation of Phorest Salon Software was laid. 

Today Phorest Salon Software is used by over 155,000 hair, beauty and clinic professionals worldwide, across over 9,000 businesses and counting.

Phorest frees teams up to focus on their passion and business success. More creativity. Less admin. Known globally for providing the best salon marketing tools, Phorest now touches every point of the salon experience, from custom salon apps, online bookings and stock control through to ecommerce and payments.

Our Mission: 

We empower and inspire salon, spa and clinic owners to grow fantastic businesses while attracting and delighting loyal clients and talented staff.

Phorest is more than just a technology company

We are proud to be a life force for our industry. Our system helps businesses to manage, market and grow, not just through innovation in technology, but through mentoring, education and unrivalled support.  

Phorest believes in the human touch at the heart of the salon community. That’s why we’re the only salon software provider to connect every business with their own dedicated business advisor — a committed partner for helping salon owners achieve their dreams.

We love to give back

We are passionate about giving back to the salon industry and to the environment.

We have four areas where we drive our initiatives: The Salon Industry, The Phorest Workplace, through Volunteering and via Fundraising.

Here you can learn about just a few ways we are playing our part in serving the global community.