Upper Hand

Creating Margin

Comments: Overall I am highly satistfied.

Pros:

The main reason I switched to upperhand was to cut down on the time I was spending with scheduling and coaches’ payroll and I have been extremely satisfied. I am spending much less time on that and more time on actually growing the business

Cons:

There are some calendar features I would like to see implemented such as “drag and drop” and a direct link from the calendar session to the client profile. There are also changes I feel are important to the client experience. Many clients get confused between parent and participant profiles. That’s the number one headache I have and the biggest complaint I get from clients is confusion beteeen profiles.

So convenient!

Comments: The entire process has been easy from the initial request for information, to setting up our programs and events. Would definitely recommend their software!

Pros:

Being a non-profit that is focused on many aspects, this software helps me in each one. The many programs we run, employee tracking, and in the near future, facility management. You aren't really limited to what you can do with this software. If it isn’t something they currently do, they are open to any and all ideas to make it even more user friendly. Whatever makes it easier for us!

Cons:

The only downside is some of the small things that we aren’t able to customize ourselves, as far as special questions in the account creation process. Since they are always updating and coming up with ideas, I’m sure it will happen soon.

Frustrating

Pros:

I like the concept of what they are trying to do. I really believe there's a need for it and was sold from the beginning from the sales and marketing team who told me everything or software could do. Also their customer service is very good, they have a support team that gets back to you quickly which is always great, but I think they are overwhelmed.

Cons:

I'm really not one to complain, but this experience has been very frustrating. Like trying to hang onto a greased pig. Especially trying to get to the root of the problem-- it's really difficult to do and feels like you have to fight to get real answers. For every camp or clinic we post, there seems to be some bug that customers can't figure out. And I can't help but feel that the upper hand team is blaming that on the customer or on us rather than taking steps to eliminate recurring confusion. I feel like to the upper hand team, any issues are no big deal as their development team is working to fix them.. but those issues end up being hours and hours for me having to bring those customers back around and get them manually signed up. Additionally, when I was sold on the program, they showed me functionality that would be useful in facets more than just camp sign-ups. Lesson sign-ups, memberships, crm And some others. Just having those would have made the software pay for itself by canceling other software's. However, once we started, we found that those other functionalities did not have the features we needed to be able to use them. I think the software has tons of potential and could be very useful, but I think it needs another one or two years of development with close customer feedback. I don't think it's worth it to pay for it as it is now, I think there are better options. Just my two cents, happy to discuss my experience

Easy for customers, but lacks some bells and whistles

Comments: Upper Hand doesn't have as many features as our old software, which makes it a little harder to use when you're used to having tons of control. But the plus side is that it does a few things very, very well. Overall our customers are having a much easier time using this software, and it's straightforward if you're doing straightforward things with it.

Pros:

The software is pretty easy for customers to use, and we have a lot more customers doing their own account management vs. asking me to do it like they did with our last CRM. It looks great, and creating events is very easy.

Cons:

It's hard to tell what your customers owe. Different things are managed in different places - to cancel a lesson you have to go to the contacts tab, to mess with a membership you have to go to the membership tab (can't do it from the contacts page), to see what people owe you have to go to reports. It's hard to shift money around if a customer buys one thing and then decides they wanted something else instead. Also, it sends way too many emails, including a receipt that makes customers think they've been double charged because of the way it's worded.

Great for Lessons

Pros:

UpperHand has made it very easy for our clients to book lessons and apply credits from bulk packages. Also made it easier for instructors to see who scheduled lessons with them. Instead of waiting for an email form our training director.

Cons:

Still have to do a work around if an instructor needs to be listed for multiple sessions the same day but is flagged as a conflict.