Zen Planner Reviews

The software is very slick and versatile!

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

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.

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.

We had challenges with paysafe integration, and [SENSITIVE CONTENT] stepped in to fix, I am running a busy studio plus teaching/coaching and she was a dream to work with ( I was not), such an asset to Zen,

color schemes, and the time it took to imput information that was just not a skillset i had, I learned and I am glad it took time

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.

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.

-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

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

Honestly, their customer support! However, I don't have to call often as the on boarding team set me up wonderfully to begin with. But the support articles answer almost all my questions so I don't have to call. I am a small studio and don't have a front desk staff but ZP does it all for me (well, allows my clients to do it all for me). It is super easy to use on all fronts.

I have't run into anything that I don't like. I use ZP on my laptop in a web browser and I've found it confusing to try the staff app on my phone or tablet. This old dog struggles with learning new tricks :) So we can't blame ZP for that.

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.

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.

when setting apointments customers can do it online and it sends out confirmations and reminds of appointments so they have no excuse to not miss an appointment

could be cheaper per month. sometimes is slow but does the job

I really didn't like anything about it. It was overly complicated, redundant and the same glitches existed for years.

It was hard to maintain an idea of what our client base actually was. Some clients were counted twice. We had to check 3 different areas to make sure our billing was going through.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The customer service and ease of use, especially that everything you would essentially need is included with ZenPlanner, unlike MindBody or Triib. It's also cheaper because of PaySimple's merchant integration and I don't think most fitness businesses need the add ons that MindBody has and that you would pay for. I think being a good business owner, setting clearly defined roles and tasks for employees, and making sure they do them will lead to more sales than a email/text bot from MindBody.

I think the client facing side of signing up for memberships could be a little easier, for instance: you can't have a ACH only membership option, you do need an iPad or computer of which to then use ZenPlanner's Front Desk for, but I do know ZenPlanner is teaming up with PaySimple to possibly release a device to use instead of an iPad or computer.

Zen Planner seamlessly integrates everything we need as a gym. Although there are still key features we would like, what is there works well and allows us to keep all customer data and interactions in one place, which makes our life easier. Perhaps most importantly, best customer service on the planet. No matter how small an issue, they respond immediately. And when we recently had an ENORMOUS problem, that was totally our fault, our rep worked on it over the weekend for us. He saved our sanity, and thousands of dollars. I can't imagine that kind of service anywhere else.

My only real gripes are things that don't exist and need to. I would like my members to be able to purchase retail items and check-in using their app. Both of these features exist in the staff app, but not the member app. Also, I would like an option to NOT have a gender field at registration. I find the gender binary pointless and it's offensive to our trans and nonconforming clients.

I left for about four years because I felt like the software was missing some integral parts for my business.

Now I was needing something different and looked at Zen Planner again. The​ changes they have made over the past four years has been amazing.

This is not a company that sits idle and is content with the status quo

The system is a little complex but I believe it's more to do with the novelty of it and all of its features.

Cost for sure, ease of use, the user experience for client is also very simple.

I can't say there are any other "cons" - If i'm being nit picky they could give a bit more time towards automatic PDF invoices. Some of their invoicing procedures don't have a simple suer experience.

I have been using Zen for 10 years. The program is so easy to use & I am always finding new things to do with it.

When creating reports for attendance or payment history for a client, I would love to have our business name show at the header.

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.

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.

Reporting capabilities are immense allowing us to evaluate our business’ performance metrics and understand exactly what to focus on improving.

Customer service is the best out of any service our business uses.

It is very hard to learn how to use on your own. But, if you take the initiative to ask for help and training, the staff will teach you and save you hundreds of frustrating hours.

I have used this program at 3 crossfit facilities and have enjoyed it for viewing WODs, signing up for classes, and storing workout information and PRs. I enjoy the leaderboard feature and the support you can give your gym mates.

I wish you could add features like workout videos for various exercises that are scheduled. I find some gyms do not utilize all of the features correctly, and that can make the app rather pointless. If you are not using this app to sign up for classes, log workouts, not using the leader board feature, you really aren't getting your money's worth.

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.

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.

This software makes it easy to track membership history, but the BEST thing about Zen Planner is their customer service. They're friendly, they answer fast and they ALWAYS know how to fix an issue.

Zen Planner is quite an advanced system, so it is easy to get lost. Luckily, the customer service is always there to save you (except for holidays and off-hours of course). The app sometimes crashes. It could use an update.

The more I learn about this software (partly due to their fantastic customer help team) the more I love it and the more it gives me back time! I still think I have barely scratched the service In its capabalities and I'm excited to learn more.

There is a bit of a learning curve but thats the same for all software. The basics at first is all you will need.

What I liked most about this software was the amount of things that it can do to not only help manage the numbers but keep the clients engaged and happy. I am also always amazed by the competence of the customer support team who I have called several times with questions I thought would be complicated but were not to them! I really appreciate this software and I really think my customers do again. I would recommend to anybody in the martial arts industry!

I couldn't think of anything in particular that I didn't like but if I had to say something it would be that I wish it would be more engaging with my actual website. The thing is that it probably can, I just don't know how to yet.

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.

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.