Zen Planner vs MyStudio: Which is a better fit?

Ross A.: Hi, I'm Ross. I'm the owner. I'm giving Zen Planner a one out of five. For more reviews like this, click below. Okay. I was using a program called Studio Organizer, which was an offline option. I wanted to switch over to using something that was going to integrate with our emailing lists, our billing, and just make everything work better. Zen Planner had promised to do all of those things, and I checked out a bunch of the different options. At the time they looked like they were going to be the best fit because they were about half the price of everything else. Okay. I initially chose Zen Planner because on paper, everything looked like it was going to be a good fit. They were offering the automations. They were offering to make my billing a lot easier. They looked like the class attendance and management functions were all going to be there. Their reports were there. It looked like it was going to do everything I wanted it to do. Okay. When we first started using Zen Planner, the transition was very easy. They were very helpful in the beginning on setting up and importing the data over. Training was a little bit lackluster as far as using some of the different features of it, and the documentation was not quite all there. It took over a year before they told me that instead of going from email support for everything, that they did actually have a phone number we could call in. None of that was communicated in. So there was a very large learning curve and hurdle to get over as far as how to set everything up. Okay. Like I said, originally on paper, they sounded like they were really good. However, once I got into using the software, there was very little support. There was lots of bugs. We had a bug that persisted for more than six months that they wouldn't even acknowledge. When I went to switch over to using another software platform because they just weren't performing, they held my data hostage. I could get the records out one at a time individually, and it took over five minutes per record. In order for them to do a dump and just give me a list of everything, they wanted to charge me an exorbitant fee. They would not answer the emails. They were very snarky in their comments back. Anybody who's thinking about using this software, do not do it. On paper, it looks great. They say that they offer all these functions and features. They do, sort of, but if you actually want it to work, look for a different product because nothing quite works right. It'll sort of work, but it's not there. And then when you call them on that and you ask them about it, "Well, we'll get to that. We'll fix it." And then the fix it just never comes. Overall, if I could give them a negative review, I would.

Speaker 1: Hi, my name is Cd from Las Vegas, Nevada. I own a local martial arts school here in the Henderson area, and one of the things that we do is we run martial arts programs for kids ages four and up. Now, this is a big thing for us, using the MyStudio app to integrate with our customer base. We like to use this for everything from our new students on how they join our memberships, all the way through our current students who get a chance to build and add features. As the app continues to grow and continues to flourish, we get to add features for our customers as well. So we give the app a five out of five for being able to be useful for our customers and for helping us run our business. One of the things about our martial arts school is that we run a business platform and then, of course, we would run our class features, and the biggest thing about MyStudio is that MyStudio allowed us to integrate both of them in order for us to run our business a lot more efficiently and smoothly. A lot of times when we first started running the programs, we would have spreadsheets over here and places over here and things that we had to check off constantly. MyStudio allowed us to integrate that into just a one platform use, and then of course use that for things like communication, videos, and so on to help our customers not only use our product, but learn more about us through videos and communications as well. I think the most important reason we chose MyStudio was the ease of use. When we were looking at different platforms for how to improve our martial arts school, there are so many different ones that are out there, and they all just had their own different features, but MyStudio was just simple and easy. Everything was all in the same place. It was all on a dashboard. It could be communicated with from the dashboard. We could sign up people from the dashboard. Everything happens right in the same place. We didn't have to integrate other apps in order to have a successful use of the MyStudio business app. So they've also added features as we go, things that help us as a business owner actually communicate directly from mobile phones as opposed to just from the desktop feature as well. So everything that MyStudio has done, from the time we started until now, has been make the app easy to use for not only our customers, but for the business owners ourselves. In the beginning, MyStudio just gave a basic outline for how to get started. As it's advanced, I know that they've added more features. For us, it was simple. We sent over our basic information, they helped us create the app, and then the app got launched on the App Store. Today, I know what you do is you work with a team of individuals who actually help you started in order to your app up and running and make it efficient for you and to save time if you're transferring from different programs. I think the most important thing you need to do if you're going to be looking at CRM platforms is to make sure that you're looking directly at the ease of use and how well they are helping you operate your school. MyStudio happens to be just a simple platform that allows you to do all the things that you need to help operate your school. There are a lot of different flashier programs out there, and they are awesome as well, but if you are a school owner who's looking for simple way to integrate not only your business but your classroom information, then this is a great app to just make it simple and easy for you to get started.