How Tokyo Joes Boosted Retention with Zen Planner

From Belt Chaos to Clean Check-Ins: How Tokyo Joes Runs Smoother with Zen Planner

Teaching Jiu-Jitsu? That’s the fun part.

Managing 200 students, late payments, parent questions, and retention dips? Not so much.

At Tokyo Joes, the school was growing—but so was the chaos.

“I was staying until 10 or 11 at night just trying to keep up.”

They didn’t need a miracle. They needed a system that could take the pressure off the staff, keep students engaged, and stop operations from turning into a full-time fire drill.

Enter Zen Planner—and things finally started running the way they were supposed to.

Daily Ops, But Make It Easy

Before Zen Planner, it felt like the front desk never slept. Parents had questions. Instructors had questions. Everything—check-ins, updates, payments—ran through the staff in spreadsheets and sticky notes.

Now?

“You log in and right there on the screen — yesterday’s numbers, today’s earnings, who paid, who didn’t. It’s all there.”

✅ Zen Planner helped them streamline martial arts class scheduling and gave both staff and parents tools to stay in the loop—without extra admin work.

Flex Fees = Real Revenue

Billing used to be a hassle. Switching to Zen Planner’s martial arts billing system changed that.

One major revenue booster? Flex Fees. These customizable fees allow martial arts schools to add revenue-generating charges—like belt testing fees or late-payment surcharges—automatically during billing. No manual tracking. No awkward follow-ups.

“I noticed a lot more money in my account than usual and went back to look — the Flex Fees were working.”

Set it, forget it, and let your gym membership software drive more revenue. Learn more about Zen Planner Payments here.

Retention That Actually Sticks

Students weren’t quitting because of training—they were falling through the cracks. With automated member communication, that changed.

“The communication alone has helped more with retention than anything else…we adjusted the curriculum and saw retention jump from 26% to 48%.”

Zen Planner helps you automate trial sign-ups and track retention trends with lead follow-up automation and real-time data. Explore more scheduling and automation tools here.

No more lost students—just stronger retention and a thriving community.

Let the Data Talk

Manually tracking attendance, belt promotions, and class popularity on spreadsheets is exhausting—not to mention prone to errors. Tokyo Joes was no exception. Before Zen Planner, promotions and attendance reports required hours of digging through paper logs.

Now? With Zen Planner’s martial arts school management tools, everything is tracked automatically in the background. Owners and instructors can pull up real-time reports to see who’s ready for a promotion, which classes are thriving, and where attendance is dipping—all without lifting a pen.

“Stats don’t lie.”

See how Zen Planner powers martial arts schools here.

Insurance? Covered. Literally.

Most school owners dread dealing with insurance. Not anymore.

“The Zen Planner process was simple. It just popped up on my dashboard, and everything was right there. That’s the stuff we need — the unsexy but critical parts of running a business made easier.”

Ready to Run Your School Like Tokyo Joes?

Tokyo Joes didn’t grow by working harder—they grew by working smarter.

• Check-ins handled
• Billing streamlined
• Retention boosted
• Insurance sorted
• Insights driving real results

Whether you run a traditional karate dojo or a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy, Zen Planner is the Jiu-Jitsu gym software built to keep up.

Want to save time, keep students longer, and grow your school? Book a Demo.