Zen Planner Reviews

Very Helpful Customer Service!!!

Comments: Zen Planner software has enabled our company to introduce a program to our customers in a seamless fashion. Their customer service was vital in helping us with this process.

Pros:

The software is very slick and versatile!

Cons:

There was a lot to learn that I wasn't familiar with.

Perfect for managing a martial arts studio

Comments: I was really impressed on how well they understand how martial art schools work. The software takes into account everything you need to keep your school running - from scheduling out classes students reserve for, to taking payments and setting up merchant accounts, to desk check-in software, to students having their own portal to track their membership and status. Customer support was very helpful during the onboarding.

Pros:

You can tell this software was designed for martial artists. One of my favorite things you can do is designate belt rankings to students, and design your system in a way that when a student is ready to test for the next belt, whether its the amount of time they've been training with the studio, to achieving certain skills required, Zen Planner notifies you and helps you plan belt testing. I loved that they recognize how important it is for martial art schools to know where students rank. I was able to plan out all my belts, what skills are required and minimum of time with the school they need to have to test. Most gym software don't recognize all the small nuances that martial art schools need to track where their students stand.

Cons:

The apps for desk login can be a little buggie sometimes and require an update or reset the iPad to get the software to work.

Used it for three years - feature rich but hard to use

Comments: We switched from Mindbody to Zenplanner and used it for three years. Zenplanner is chock full of features (other than membership discounts, as mentioned above), but it's so full of features that it becomes clunky and hard to use. I could do just about anything from my admin account, but my fellow coaches who spent less time in it had a harder time working with it. Customers also struggled a lot. We have now switched to Upper Hand, and while it has fewer features and the reports aren't as good, our customers are actually booking their own classes instead of making me do it.

Pros:

I was the primary account administrator, and I could fix just about anything retroactively. Once you really know your way around, it's got almost everything you could think to want. There are a lot of customization options for emails you can send your customers, and it was easy to check which emails an individual had opened. The reports were great. Best reporting I've seen, and it's pretty much the only thing I'll miss. Support was good - very responsive, with multiple ways to contact them. I also appreciated the discounts they gave businesses at the start of the COVID shutdowns.

Cons:

The software was very difficult for customers to use, so much that about half of our parents (and a couple of our coaches) just wanted me to do everything for them. Doing so on my end was time-consuming. Zenplanner offers some options to integrate with our existing website, but it didn't work in every circumstance. What customers could do from our primary domain was pretty limited, and it wasn't easy to switch back and forth between our site and the ZP site. Zenplanner does not offer automatically-applied membership discounts, so we had to have customers use offer codes. Membership discounts (such as on retail or private lessons) are pretty standard in fitness businesses and not having that option was a major pain. There was no way to easily see which coaches had availability at which times.

Amazing

Pros:

I love how simple this software made it to do everything our yoga studio needed. It was also user friendly for our students. We love it overall.

Cons:

I do wish there was a cheaper option for small studios just getting started.

Finally Found the Right System

Comments: This software has made this much more simple and allowed us to enhance our customers experience in our facility!

Pros:

-Set up was detailed step by step process and had video reviews that our staff could go back to -Customer service is the best that we have seen -Hotline always has a person you can talk to (have answered every question we have had and has taught us how to solve the problem should it ever come up again) - Hotline is available 7am-7pm -Email (you can send a detailed email and have it answered within one business day) - Our on-boarding assistant fallowed up with us after a month to make sure everything was running - Has easy quick reporting - Great schedule (imbeds into website so you do not have to leave company page) -Great point of sale (imbeds into website so you do not have to leave company page) - Mobil app is simple for customers and makes scheduling simple

Cons:

online mobil site cannot work with out cookies which most smart phones automatically disable so we needed to send out an email with instructions on how to enable them

Poor Tech Support during COVID-19 Crisis

Comments: Up until the COVID-19 crisis, we were big fans of ZP. However, since the crisis began their Tech Support team has been dismissive and unhelpful. This comes at a particularly bad time for us because we are building a new website and our web designer needed to have a phone conversation with a "live" staff member. ZP has refused to do so, which leaves us in a very had position because our designer could easily make technical errors that will cost us a lot of money to fix in the future. When we consider that, prior to the COVID-19 crisis, we had almost always been able to get through to ZP’s Tech Support within 2 days, we can only assume that the company is now experiencing significant internal difficulties. We don't have an answer to that question because ZP has not offered any explanation as to why its Tech Support has plummeted. For this reason, we are currently considering switching to a ZP competitor. Finally, like many in the fitness industry, ZP might be going through a tough time right now. If they had simply been candid with us, we might have been willing to overlook this situation as an aberration. As it stands, however, they don't seem to care that they've left us in a bad situation and their is no ed in sight.

Pros:

Zen Planner is intuitive and easy to navigate. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, it's Tech Support staff were professional, knowledgeable, friendly and available by phone from Monday to Friday. We were generally able to get through to Tech Support within 2 days.

Cons:

Before COVID-19, we probably called ZP's Tech Support once or twice a week. beginning on or about March 16, 2020 it became impossible to reach Tech Support. We're currently encountering the following Tech Support experience challenges from ZP: (1) We have a question or problem and call ZP Tech Support. We wait on hold for 10 or 15 minutes. A recorded message instructs us to leave a voice message and ZP will call us back. (2) ZP does not call us back. (3) We email ZP with our request, but ZP’s email response is never fast enough to be of use. Then, when we finally get an email answer, it is often unresponsive.

Customer support is outstanding

Comments: I'd give it a B- on a grading scale. The customer support is outstanding but any time you want to go beyond just keeping track of how many students you have, things become way too complicated.

Pros:

Customer support really is top notch. The on boarding team is fantastic and truly went out of their way to ensure we had every available resource for success. Any little quirky issue or question we have is answered quickly and professionally by the customer support team. They are fantastic.

Cons:

The basics are great but it seems to go from "ok to use" to "I have absolutely no idea what to do here" the minute any complication arises. There does not need to be a "staff user" and a "kiosk mode" on the Ipads, it confuses everyone and wastes a lot of time. Converting reports to pdf feature should be a breeze, but doesn't convert the entire report and is useless. It should have a much easier pos system as well. No real way for instructors to leave notes for students, why not? Never use the mass email or text because its just too complicated-these things can be fixed if they gave it some attention.

Keeps me organized

Comments: I'm not the most organized person and doing all admin, billing as well a coaching my clients, Zen Planner helps to keep the back end of my business organized and running smoothly. The automations are great if they're set up correctly. Their customer support is amazing!! Not much waiting time and my issues are always resolved. When I started, they're pricing was pretty competitive. Although, they've gotten much pricier over the past year.

Pros:

Having automated billing, emails and scheduling. Being able to pull billing reports at a moment's notice to see where my finances are is a plus.

Cons:

Having so many options for reports and automations. It can be very confusing at times and sometimes having two steps to accomplish a task isn't clear.

very happy i made the switch!

Comments: Great! client account alerts are super helpful to make sure we are getting paid any money owed

Pros:

It makes it simple to manage the most important tasks at my gym without over complicating things.

Cons:

a few auto emails could improve/be added

Excellent product with futures that are practical, easy to use, and visually appealing

Comments: Endless , independence and function. Being a small business owner it allows me to run and automate many things such as financial reports, workouts, attendance. Reservation, automations of emails for customer retention , sales funnel , customer support, technically forward thingkong woth use of apps for iPad and iPhone to allow me to function on the run , away from the office, in the field, and manage coaches.

Pros:

I love zenplanner. They started out with few features and no apps but they promised to improve regularly and they deliver. In the short 4 years I have been using they have incorporated a staff app for the iPhone, a users app to reserve, keep track of workouts , PRs, billing and much more. an app for the front desk to use as checking in, reserving, adding new clients at ease. On each of these products they improve and incorporated new needed features faster than any software I have ever used. Their customer service is truly second to none. Helping you not only in the set up stage but anytime you need help and they work to resolve your problem immediately. The software not only is packed full of great functions for financial, workout writing and publishing, emailing automation, reports of attendance, finances , and mass email intervention but it does it with a sleek appearance that is not only visually appealing but with an easy of use that it's simple and powerful.

Cons:

Software is still growing and some features , not many anymore, can be improved. This is truly the worse thing I can think off as I have tried many many others do never been so satisfied and impressed with them delivering a great product and on a regular bases truly adding features to improve it without making it more complicated for the user.

Good Overall Studio Management Software

Comments: The migration process was rocky. About 30% of the database has inaccuracies. They need to improve and automate this process. Tech support is excellent. Customer support was slow to resolve a billing issue I had. They refused to speak to me on the phone and did not return emails. But everything finally got straightened out with persistence on my part, and an effort to make up for the issue on their part. Overall, customer support is generally very good. The software works well, is not buggy. Overall, I really like the software except for the way purchasing works.

Pros:

Reporting is excellent, the best I've seen. I like the fact you can create your own reports. After learning how to use the system we have been able to create any reports we need. That is definitely not the case for Mindbody or Wellness Living. The Kiosk application is nice to have and our clients like it, but needs some improvement. The Front Desk and Kiosk Applications are easy to learn which is helpful as we have 10 teachers at the center.

Cons:

The POS system does not work like all other online systems (choose what you want, put in user info, payment info then press complete or check out and credit card is charged), and works differently in their different interfaces. The Front Desk software does not allow for discounts (that is being addresses in a future release). The Dashboard processes the sale, then you have to process the payment separately in a different step. In the beginning we lost sales because our staff was confused. Many of my teachers are still unsure whether a sale goes through or not. When the Front Desk application can accept accept discounts and credit card swipes it will greatly improve the POS process. The client kiosk does not include a form for entering info for new clients and signing a waiver. For some strange reason that is on the staff side of the application. We keep it on the staff application but it means after a client signs the waiver they could get to a screen that offers a free class, which we do not actually offer. I have a hard time understanding why that is baked into their software, it is not considered a best practice. We have found work arounds for these issues but would like to see an updated and more robust kiosk application. The automated emails are very good and it integrates with Mail Chimp. You can also implement a retention process with tasks assigned to different people.

Very disappointing

Pros:

Have been with Zen Planner since 2015, it is very user friendly. Costumer service was not bad up until something started to go wrong.

Cons:

Unfortunately they have some flaws that for some reason sometimes they multiple charge my students or don't charge at all. It will happen once in a while and when that happen, their customer service become very slow and dismissive, they will send you to the processor and the processor will send you back to them. For instance, now, I have been asking to talk to a supervisor for days and they simply don't call and when I call to reach someone no one is ever available. It is very unfortunate because as I said the system is very user friendly, but they are not trust worth. Following up: Zen Planner gave me notice of cancellation after I refused to remove this review. Based on the problems I have had with them, I already had in mind and was searching for a more reliable system. Unfortunately I was forced to do it rushed, I have been trusting all my billing transactions and contacts to Zen Planner, and this transfer process does take a long time. one of the supervisors dealt with this situation very unprofessionally, focusing on make me remove my review rather then fix the real issue, treatned a few times and finally just gave me notice. I have never seen this before... I can't stress enough that you can't trust such important information for your business in such hands.

Bad service

Comments: After using their product for a couple of years and when covid forced our company to shutdown, they kept charging our business our monthly rate. After calling them to see if they would be kind enough to refund our payments they wouldn’t oblige nor would they freeze our account so I had to cancel our membership which was a big headache. I had to write a cancellation notice as well as call the different financial companies that had led our credit card transactions, etc. It’s u fortunate that after being a loyal client as well as referring a few of my colleagues to their business they would be compassionate enough to help our their clients with a small gesture.

Pros:

Data entry, membership retention, payment plan

Cons:

Couldn’t refund client right away after credit card payment mistake. Had to call a different company that dealt with the credit card transaction.

Awesome and they continue to work to add new and wanted fuctionality

Comments: One stop shop for managing my business. Automation. And the ability to do a lot with little or no staff.

Pros:

Easy to use, easy to manage. It has a great modern look and they don't try to bundle everything in one app. They have different apps for sing in, staff use, and member. I love the reports, and the face check in. Easy to find athletes by their face. Great for when you have new staff. It truly is a great bundle for workout tracking, integration with current website, and integration with marketing emails. All things other companies charge extra for. I would and have recommended this software to other gym and martial art owners.

Cons:

The apps are great for managing but missing some fuctionality such as being able to schedule privates on the app. They where missing staff clicks in, retail sales but they have recently added those. Hard to find much I dislike and what I do they don't seem to be standing still, adding new function all the time.

Tried the others, using Zen Planner

Comments: Extremely positive.

Pros:

Extremely user friendly. I could figure out how it worked quite easily and i am not a tech Wiz which I found to be quite pleasing.

Cons:

the common problems that happens with all of the software like it. when the whole system goes down. It is not unique to ZP it has happened with others as well.

It's significantly lacking in options for subscription membership software.

Pros:

I went through their entire onboarding process and with each session discovered more and more things that did not work. At best they have nice color schemes to pick from... No one's selecting their software for the color schemes, so that is essentially the biggest pro there is to Zenplanner.

Cons:

Extremely limited in use. You can't have more than one 'drop-in' on an account, you can't take a deposit for an appointment without becoming a member, you can't attach a waiver to an appointment despite the variety of appointments that may exist from a gym to a yoga studio to all the other 'fitness' businesses they boast being able to manage. You can't have a group membership, therefore every single person--children included have to go through a ridiculous process of that is in no way streamlined. It can't differentiate in membership options. The list goes on and on. Basically, they hired a good marketing company and told their sales team to 'make the sale' no matter what... The needs we stated for our business was simple and we were assured that Zenplanner could perform them. Going through the onboarding process was like repeatedly being told "no it can't do that" and "oh sorry, no it can't do that either". We ended up canceling before we even started and then they refused to refund the inital payment AND to the real treat: CHARGED ME FOR AN ADDITIONAL MONTH despite the fact that I had clearly been unhappy with the product. The point being they could care less about your satisfaction and so once you sign up--they've got you...

Solid software, great support.

Comments: Zen Planner takes care of our membership tracking, payments, scheduling. It can be a powerful tool if you know how to use it.

Pros:

We've used Zen Planner in our gym for six years, and it's been pretty uneventful overall - which is what you want with such software. It does its job with a minimum of drama. Any issues we've had have been dealt with in a timely fashion. We do not use the workout programming feature (we went with SugarWOD for that), so I can't comment on that particular feature.

Cons:

Zen Planner is good about making constant improvements, but there have been some things over the years that are a bit clunky and not necessarily intuitive to use. It's likely a function of building incremental improvements into existing software rather than starting with a clean slate.

Best Customer Service

Comments: While there have been a few limitations to booking appointments as well as classes, Zen Planner still makes it possible to juggle and offer both seemlessly. Clients can manage their schedules and payments online which allows me to focus on other important matters.

Pros:

This software is easy to learn, implement and user friendly. Super easy integration and the customer service is outstanding! They are regularly updating and upgrading features and respond positively to feature requests and feedback. Easily have the best software on the market in my industry and I'm not sure why more people do not choose Zen Planner.

Cons:

Some minor limitations such as color typology features on the mobile app have been limited and app functions such as calendar syncing and calendar default settings restricted.

Great Experience!

Comments: I absolutely love Zen Planner Help Desk. They are the most patient and helpful people EVER. Never have I called and hung up without a solution to my issue. I wish I could have them for my daily life!

Pros:

It's simplicity. It's not overly complicated and buttons are easy to find.

Cons:

Reports and the filters within it can be confusing; sometimes I'm not sure what terminology or keyword I need to use to produce a report I need - or if I'm supposed to use a whole number in a text box or spell it out...

Customer Support

Comments: Customer support is why I'm writing this review. Everyone I have talked with has been so respectful, patient, professional and knowledgeable. Plus, quick to resolve any issue I was having.

Pros:

The customer support that comes with the software is so essential. While there are many features, the customer support team helps to navigate through it all. One can tell this team is efficiently trained because they do not skip a beat when it comes to walking you through the system.

Cons:

So many features can be overwhelming. The webinar offerings are a good idea to tackle that obstacle.

Focus on what you do....and let Zenn Planner allow you to do so

Comments: Great

Pros:

Like minded integration that makes prospecting, enrolling and managing client understandable and user friendly for staff and end users.

Cons:

I have nothing negative to report on this product

Quick and Efficient

Comments: Zen Planner is allowing our gym facility to keep track of attendance, memberships, member retention, etc. In addition, it also provides a great way to track member workouts and with the integrating SugarWOD, it will make this process even better.

Pros:

The software has so many components to it that it can be intimidating at first, but each component has an explanation of how to use it. This makes for an easy learning experience.

Cons:

The mass email component is difficult to navigate.

Needs a better app

Pros:

Support team is great, and really helps in the on boarding process. They are very fast in response time and give many options for helping solve situations.

Cons:

Scheduling ahead of the current week is a little confusing. The calendar keeps jumping back to the current week whenever a new appointment is added ahead. Also cannot add appointments within the day. A little confusing and not the most efficient. The app is terrible. No ability to schedule clients (at least as far as I have been able to do) and is pretty overall useless to me.

ZenPlanner

Comments: Zp helped me create and manage clients and billing them monthly. I've been using it since about 2008, so 10 years or so. It has gotten better over time and I've only had trouble with once or twice. It's a solid system

Pros:

When it first came out it was ahead of everyone else. It still has a lot of features but it needs a facelift

Cons:

The scheduling system needs to be reworked and overall it needs a facelift. There are many excellent alternatives to ZP out there that can do everything ZP can and then some with a much more user-friendly interface

Frustrating, super buggy, unfulfilled potential with good customer service

Pros:

The customer service reps are very nice and helpful. Unfortunately you will get to know them on a first name basis.

Cons:

This is the buggiest software I have ever used. There is always something going on making what you can potentially do a hassle. It actually increases what you have to do relative to not being able to use the functionality and having to constantly call in to customer support. Not to mention having to put out fires with your members when the bugginess effects them.