[Guide] Best CRM software for Martial Arts GYms
CRM Software for martial arts schools
In 2018, I started looking for CRM software to manage our martial arts school. It was time for an upgrade after 4 years of relying on Google Forms for student signup and chasing e-transfer payments monthly. Options were limited so I selected what seemed to be the most established choice in the criteria, Zen Planner. The implementation team was friendly and helpful, and whenever I called customer service for support, they always had the answers. My experience as owner and director of a steadily growing martial arts school was generally smooth. There were months and even years when everything appeared to work as expected.
zen planner review
However, things have changed. in 2024, glitches and bugs are a constant and affect my daily ability to run the business. Everything from updating the schedule to booking classes has become a hassle. It seems that while Zen Planner attempts to play catch up with modern functionality and interface, it is becoming more bloated and error-prone, affecting long-term customers along the way. Each new feature added wrecks havoc on the existing platform—for instance, the new membership widget. Instead of updating the old membership registration form, they have built a cumbersome new process that requires you to rebuild each membership. It's the opposite of modern and UX-friendly. Another example is the email editor. The new editor may have more functionality but is even more bloated than the old text editor and is completely separate from all existing automation and templates on the platform, which have not been updated along with it.
Zen planner bugs
In 2024, we encountered the two most crippling and serious bugs in the Zen Planner software to date:
Zen Planner Billing BugS
Three specific functions consistently lead to incorrect customer billing:
1. Membership Holds - a feature designed to allow you to freeze a membership and defer billing dates for the duration the member is away. Bug: Billing dates will no longer match membership dates if hold durations are edited or more than one hold is placed during a membership term.
2. Membership upgrades/downgrades - a feature designed to allow changing the tier/terms of a membership mid-contract. BugThe system purports to calculate and apply a prorated amount towards the new membership, which is often arbitrary and incorrect.
3. The "prorate first bill" function - a feature that prorates a member’s first bill so all future bills process on a set date of the month (such as the 1st or 15th). Bug: While the function works OK independently, any adjustments to membership such as a hold/upgrade/downgrade wreak havoc and cause serious billing errors.
Since discovering these bugs, I've alerted Zen Planner countless times, providing screenshots and submitting feedback to the tech team. I've escalated these issues and met with team members virtually to share my concerns, but nothing has been corrected. I've been forced to adjust our school's policies around holds and membership changes while dedicating countless hours to fix system errors, make corrections manually, and notify members that their accounts had been affected.
It is concerning that Zen Planner is aware of the bugs in these functions but does not turn them off until they can be fixed (or at least inform users to look out for these errors). Instead, they keep suggesting manual fixes when you just happen to catch these errors whether in real time or two years later. It would be far better for these functions to be eliminated than for them to appear to work while also mischarging our customers. This approach demonstrates a lack of integrity and makes me question what else is going wrong that I may have yet to discover.
Zen Planner Registration Bug
Any martial arts gym owner will tell you, the two busiest seasons for enrollment: December-January & August-September. This is when parents worldwide are signing up kids for various after-school and weekend activities.
I was first alerted to the issue in December 2024 when several parents told us that every time they tried to submit the registration form it would hit a blank page. One mom was kind enough to send a video of the problem. I contacted Zen Planner on December 17 and two weeks later, the function is STILL down. This interruption is costing our business with lost revenue every single day.
Jira Ticket for Zen Planner Registration Bug December 2024
Zen planner vs. Gym desk
I strongly urge anyone considering Zen Planner to opt for another option. Switching to new software is now my top priority to keep our school running and our customers cared for. I've heard excellent things about Gym Desk and even took the time to have a zoom meeting discussing their CRM solution. The functionality is somewhat limited, but I prefer a clean experience over “functionality” that causes issues. The main challenge is getting 300+ students to update their payment information once again when we move to a new CRM, as well as transferring attendance history, which is especially important for us as a martial arts school. WHich brings me to my final warning.
Zen Planner Charges for data exports
Zen Planner will squeeze you for every last penny before you leave their platform. Examples of charges include fees to export signed liability waivers, fees to export membership and attendance history, and extra fees to export customer payment data if you use Zen Plnner’s payment system, GAINS which operates through Stripe but does not grant customer access to the Stripe dashboard.
Please comment below to share your experiences with CRM software for managing your martial arts studio. Let's keep this industry accountable for providing solutions that work as promised so we can maintain the trusted relationship we aim to build with our students. Legacy platforms like Zen Planner will either have to catch up to a competitive market or be left behind even by their most loyal customers.
