As you know, here at Phorest, we take GDPR very seriously and making sure Phorest Salon Software was compliant with the new data legislation has been a priority for a good while already. In saying that, we are delighted to announce that our new Digital Consultation Forms are now available!
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A Paperless Solution: The Phorest Digital Consultation Forms
This feature allows you to build your own bespoke consultation forms which can then be filled in by your clients on an iPad or Android tablet in the salon when they arrive. You will also have a library of template forms to choose from if you’re not interested in building your own – there’s plenty to choose from!
You can now go completely paperless, with all of your filled-in forms stored instantly on the client card within Phorest Salon Software. A full history is available on the forms, including any staff notes that can be added after the said consultation. To top it off, your clients can digitally sign the form, and that signature will now be stored on the client card in case you ever need it in future!
Key Features
With Phorest’s Digital Consultation Forms, you will have/be:
- GDPR compliant
- A privacy notice attached to every consultation form
- Service-specific consultation forms
- A fully paperless solution
- Access to a library of pre-built consultation forms
- The option to create your own custom consultation forms
- Client data stored safely and securely
- Digital signatures
- Forms linked to client cards for simple searching
Important Information
Every salon using Phorest Salon Software can be GDPR compliant! However, the Digital Consultation Forms also helps with parts of GDPR that affect Health Data, a special category of personal data deemed as sensitive by GDPR.
That being said, coming soon, all salons using Phorest will have access to a tablet, and mobile-friendly check-in form (non-editable, and will include contact details, where they heard about you & marketing consent) whereby you hand an iPad or similar device to a client and they fill in some key details. This form will contain the proper GDPR-compliant consent that is required to get opt-ins for you to continue doing your marketing. In fact, every salon using Phorest Salon Software is getting a “We Care About Our Clients’ Data” window seal before May 25th to show you are thinking not just about your clients’ health and wellbeing, but also about their data. Another way to showcase you are ahead of the curve.
The Digital Consultation Forms is an additional feature to the standard GDPR features built into Phorest. This feature lets you digitise your paper consultation forms, and comes with 20 digital forms installed that are GDPR compliant. Whether you are a hair, beauty or aesthetic business, we advise you use service-specific consultation forms.
Are You A Phorest Salon Software Client?
The closer in time we get to the day the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into effect in the EU (May 25th, 2018), the higher the chances are that you will be facing a much more concerned and ‘private’ customer. Seize the opportunity and use GDPR to build trust with your customers.
GDPR & Security
Part of GDPR compliance is being able to show an access trail to all of your data. Therefore it is essential that you have pins enabled in your Phorest Salon Software. From 25th May 2018 it will be mandatory.
If you haven’t already, please set up a unique pin number for each staff member and enable pins.
Marketing & Consent
As part of the legitimate interest principle, you can market to your existing client base without seeking further consent, but we would not recommend you market to a client who has not been in the salon in the past 18 months or more.
You can click here to see in detail how this feature works.
Aside from Email and SMS Marketing Consent, you will also need to obtain your clients’ permission to use photos you have taken of them. We have now added this functionality to your Phorest Go app in the Before & After photos section.
To see how it works, click here.
Data Retention
For any new clients that you add to your software, you will see a new pop up that will prompt you to ask for permission to market to them. This will happen in both your Phorest Salon Software on a desktop computer and in your Phorest Go app. Be sure to talk to your staff to make them aware of the changes. We’ve also added a Data Retention setting in Phorest. You can now set how long you hold on to client data before removing it (i.e. if a client hasn’t visited you for an extended period of time). Please check with your Insurance company as to how long client data should be kept.
Here is a handy guide on how to set your Data Retention preferences.
Not A Phorest Salon Software Client?
It’s not too late to get more information on GDPR or to talk with an advisor about a GDPR compliant salon software solution; visit www.salongdpr.com today!
Got feedback? Let us know either in the comments below or tweet us @ThePhorestWord! (Pssst! We’re on Instagram too!)
Thanks for reading! #LetsGrow