Zenoti — Attraction in Bellevue

(September 2024) An amicable parting of ways....

I've successfully ended my relationship with Zenoti thanks to Surya, the Manager of Customer Success. He's one of the few (I've mentioned others below) that have actually come through with their promises. If anyone is having trouble with their support team, I suggest reaching out to Surya or perhaps another Customer Success Manager.

(August 2024) A Warning to Anyone Considering Zenoti: My Frustrating Journey

As I near the end of my contract with Zenoti, I decided to reach out to ensure my contract wouldn’t be renewed and that I wouldn’t be billed after it ends. I started by contacting someone I thought could help, only to be bounced over to the support team. What followed was a textbook example of Zenoti’s infamously poor customer service.

The support team wanted to know why I was canceling, suggesting they needed to escalate it up the chain. By now, I wasn’t surprised by their lack of efficiency or concern. I explained that my file should contain everything they need to know about my reasons for leaving. But that wasn’t enough for them. They kept pushing, sending email after email, pleading with me to have a conversation. I stood my ground and refused, prompting them to escalate the matter to an Account Manager.

When the Account Manager finally reached out, I reiterated my reasons for leaving and asked him to confirm that I wouldn’t be billed again. He assured me that I wouldn’t be—but then added that he needed to run it by their legal department. That was over a week ago. I’ve been left in limbo, with no communication, and no closure.

It baffles me how anyone could be satisfied with Zenoti. The only explanation I can muster is that satisfied users must be long-time customers who’ve gotten the system to work for them and haven’t needed to change a thing. Or perhaps they’ve tried something even worse, making Zenoti seem like a good option by comparison. But I can’t fathom how anyone could look at this company and feel anything other than frustration.

I’ve been with better companies, like Mangomint, and I’m returning to them. The software we used previously has been evolving rapidly, adding new features that make them feel modern and forward-thinking. Although Zenoti offers a wide range of customizations, I now see these "features" as unnecessary frills rather than essential tools.

To anyone considering Zenoti: proceed with caution. I sincerely hope you don’t experience the same frustrations I did.

(March 2024)

After my review originally left below, I did get help from their Product Management team to help us go live. It's been refreshing to work with Saniya and Ayush on their product management team. However, their support team is still as awful as one can imagine. They have metrics that state that urgent responses are answered within 24 hours. What you will experience is that someone will respond to your request within that timeframe asking you to provide more information. Then you will hear nothing. They've satisfied their metrics of responding within 24 hours and you're left with an open issue until who knows when. This is a leadership issue at its core.

Want an unbiased and traceable way of knowing if a company responds to customer complaints? The company has an "F" rating on BBB.

(Original review below)

Despite claims of 24/7 customer service, this is by far the worst experience I've come across in using various salon platforms. Urgent request for help are answered, if at all, in DAYS. It's been almost 4 months and we're not Live. And, good luck getting a response from the person that sold you the Software. You're stuck in a 12-month contract - whether you're Live or not. Horrible.

Getting a standard response from Zenoti like the one below should be clear to everyone reading this as to how they treat their clients. It's impersonal and I doubt anything will be done to resolve...

Warning to ALL MedSpas - DO NOT SWITCH TO ZENOTI!

Our Canadian MedSpa Recently switched to Zenoti, hoping it would streamline our operations, but it has been a regrettable decision. The experience has been marked by delays, hidden costs, a terribly designed software, and a misrepresented scope of the project.

Misleading Promises: During our initial discussions, we were assured that the transition would be smooth and completed within 4-6 weeks. This timeline was far from reality. We began data templates on September 4, 2023, but three months later, we still faced significant issues. The promised "copy and paste" data migration was anything but straightforward, resulting in delays, lost wages of a full time staff member dedicated to this transfer, and confusion. They make it out to seem that they are a North American company when in reality all of their "24/7 support" is in India and only available in the middle of the night for North American clients. Their developers are also all in India causing translation problems.

User-Unfriendliness: Zenoti is far from user-friendly. Booking a simple appointment or making a change in settings involves an excessive number of steps. The software feels like something designed in the early 2000s and is often glitchy. It constantly deletes charts and photos without notice, which is a significant legal issue in the medical field. Missing charts can have severe legal implications, and this unreliability is unacceptable.

Inconsistent Support and Training: Training and support were insufficient and often incorrect. There was a period of two days where their POS was down for us and we could not take payment from our clients. We lost income for two whole days due to an error on their side. We spent countless hours correcting mistakes caused by misleading advice from Zenoti’s team.

Hidden Costs: Zenoti’s hidden costs were a significant burden. We were initially told forms would be migrated, but later informed we had to pay $50 per page or rebuild them ourselves, costing us hours of additional work. We were also required to purchase a Zenoti POS machine for $500, contrary to initial assurances that we could continue using our existing systems. Sending SMS Marketing texts to our clients turned out to be an extra $180 USD per month when we were told it would be included with our already extremely pricy plan of $500 USD. Everything seemed to be an extra cost.

Data Migration Issues: The data migration process was fraught with problems. Only about 60-70% of the necessary data could be transferred from our previous system (Jane) to Zenoti, and it required extensive manual input. It requires a full time employee with extensive knowledge of Microsoft Excel. The process was so time-consuming that it monopolized our team member's time, resulting in her spending upwards of 170 hours on Zenoti-related tasks.

Switching Back: After nine months of hell, we finally decided to switch back to our old software. It took Zenoti 3 months to give us our EMR data back, despite countless requests and reminders. The entire ordeal cost us approximately $40,000+ in wages and mistakes from their end. It's such a breath of fresh air to be able to call Jane (our original software) and have someone in Canada answer immediately and solve our problem within a few minutes.

In Conclusion: Our experience with Zenoti has been overwhelmingly negative. The transition was misrepresented, support was inadequate, and the hidden costs were exorbitant. We expected a seamless, efficient transition but ended up with a prolonged, costly ordeal that severely impacted our business operations. Now, after returning to our previous software, we are finally able to breathe again and our business is succeeding once more.

We strongly advise other businesses to consider these factors carefully before opting for Zenoti.

This review reflects our honest and frustrating experience with Zenoti, and we hope it helps other businesses make an...

Highly do not recommend, their software is "robust", however old programming and their claim to being able to book couples massage is by capacity of the room and will allow single sessions to double book 2 strangers in this room. I tested this vigorously. That is if you get the software assistance to have fully functional software at all. Almost 30 days later and endless hours of my own set up on my own research and placing code to even have my brick and mortar address correct, i had to ask, beg for everything that was done or needed, and plead for contact- emailing or a customer service contact number. They have a contract that ties you in for a year regardless of the outcome with a small termination clause that states breach of contract can terminate, I requested this. The contract does have hidden links please click on them and read thoroughly. Their codes seem old and clunky combined with newer AI which together get muddy. They don’t let you see the back end of any set up prior to signing aka no sandbox to play in. Which now seems like a manipulative set up and I feel stupid to be sold on it. 98% of people will not be able to do the back end of their business set up needs and if they can which I could w hours of google searching etc coupled with endless hours of trying to set things up. IF this can help someone at the least not get into a situation you will regret, this is that post. Do not believe the “Amazon of software” it’s very difficult to program, findings i experienced: the wait list wouldn’t search or allow me to put anyone on it- I couldn’t change a room once a apt was made, the web store continuously errored on my site (for online consumer booking) they swore couples massages where bookable in consumer mode- they did not work and would double book rooms with same times and multiple strangers/clients. i found another local businesses zenoti site that I unfortunately found for reference had the same errors and could not utilize the promised same room or couples consumer facing side bookings. (Therefore knowing that issue was not just me) This software was suppose to elevate my current successful business, instead created distrust and an incompetent software that would put my business at risk and believe if i went forward would have caused catastrophic results to my business and staff. They make you use Microsoft office and i didn't have a customer service number to call, just a on boarding chat forum that no one would be present from during my business hours. No response from them for days and days, and no phone number to call. I tried, to be kind and patient. I tried to give grace. This was a nightmare (which I never had finished) and I refused to have this representative of me and my business that I and my wellness providers mutually took a oath to help and not harm, we take our jobs and passions very seriously. We wish to be in partnership with others that ethically feel and practice the same. We did not put our clients or ourselves in possible future risk on what they said would be and sold so beautifully yet did not stand up to execute as stated. I asked to be released due to the lack of communication and non functioning product aka breach of contract. (I never went live obviously) Throughout this nightmare i ended up speaking with another business that had signed with zenoti software i found out their funds/earnings were not deposited into their account for months- making this software not only a terrible business decision but in additionally financially inept. (this business is no longer with zenoti anymore) BE CAREFUL. After taking time to read this and know i put endless hours into making this successful, more then less going above and beyond what a normal business could even afford to invest in time and learning, Ask yourself, would you trust this, risk your success to this? I highly suggest to run the opposite way and invest in a software that cares about your business...