Member Solutions

Software can be challenging and lacking functionality, but customer support is always helpful.

Pluspunten:

The task and alert system for tracking what needs to happen next to follow up with a lead or member is incredibly useful, as well as the associated "Contact log" that lets you see all of the correspondence you and other employees have recorded with a lead. Different businesses will find different levels of success with using it's various reports and features based on how they initially set up the software and what kind of check-in system they use.

Minpunten:

Sometimes does not communicate properly with MS billing side so that discrepancies appear once in a while. Small functionality bugs, like not being able to set a class or event to repeating forever, create annoyances and problems. Customer service can help with work arounds. Web Widgets are useful, but lead capture widget is very constrained to specific inputs.

Member Solutions will free you up to do what you love to do - teaching martial arts.

Opmerkingen: Member Solutions has serviced my business, The Baltimore Martial Arts Academy, since its inception in 1996. Over the years, I have been approached by other billing companies such as EFT, Martial Soft, Mind Body, Kicksight. and others. All of these other companies claimed they could save me money and offer better service for my business. This could not be further from the truth and was obvious to me even after a few minutes on the phone with them.
If you are just starting your business, I can promise you that you will have delinquent customers from time to time. If you are already in business, you would agree with me that a 10% delinquency rate is typical. Dealing with delinquencies is not fun and not something you want to spend your time doing. Let the professionals at Member Solutions handle this for you and pay the extra money ' it's worth every cent.
I once received a phone call directly from Joe Galea, an executive officer of Member Solutions and at the time an owner. He called to simply touch base and ask me what I thought about the service that I had been receiving from Member Solutions. We talked for almost 45 minutes and afterwards I felt like I made a friend. Once even Joe's mom called me for the same reason! This warmed my heart and made me feel truly valued not only as a customer but as a person, you can't put a price on that. My wife and I also met Joe in person at a Member Solutions event in Philadelphia. I can tell you that he is a genuine and a sincere person and he really does care about his clients.
Annette Benning, one of the client specialists at Member Solutions, is my constant life-saver. She calls me at least once every month just to ask me if there is anything that I need to discuss concerning my account. Whenever I have a question or an issue I call Annette directly and she is always available. In fact, Annette usually preemptively calls me before I even know I have an issue! You can ask my wife, Annette has saved my butt many times. She is awesome!
If you're considering handling billing on your own ' don't. If you considering another billing service ' don't. Member Solutions will free you up to do what you want to do and what you love to do, teaching and sharing martial arts with your students.

Once an innovator, but no more.

Opmerkingen: I've been a part of companies using Member Solutions since 2000. I've worked with the founders and their successors over the years, both as a billing service and a software user. I even beta tested previous iterations of their MMS software, and the subsequently acquired MyVolo. MyVolo is much more user friendly but there are still way too many clicks to navigate any function. When I opened my own business, they wanted me to use their system but I actively avoided it because there were better software options available and it's even more plentiful today. The largest complaint about Member Solutions is kind of a Catch-22. They promote their full-service billing option as a way to ensure collection of payments from clients occur on time, and they do all the work to make sure that happens. But, they become a collection agency on your behalf and no matter how you shape it, customers always gripe about the customer experience which then reflects poorly on the business. To the point that people post bad online reviews citing the poor communication experience with billing. I get it, from both sides, but the results aren't worth the expense (which is rather high as well).

Pluspunten:

Full service billing offers peace of mind that recurring payments will be collected

Minpunten:

Software and services are limited and dated. It was a good option when there were less options; compared to systems that are now available, it feels obsolete.

Super easy to use, and when it's not, just call someone! Everyone is great help!

Opmerkingen: I don't have to chase people who are problematic. If i have questions someone always answers. I never have to wait long to talk to someone. Everything that i implement in the software happens fast.

Pluspunten:

I like the ease of access. Everything is super straight forward, logical and makes sense. I really like the layout and how everything is set up for data entry. I also like it allows the option for statement billing. It's really flexible with the options it allows the client to enter. Everything is easy to see and easy to find.

Minpunten:

The only issue I've ever had was just where do I find this and I just call and talk to someone and they help me right away. If I were to improve anything, and this is just minor, but the font size is small on the navigation and me, and a few of our other instructors, all wear glasses and find it difficult to read at times.

I'm using all of their services to help grow my business

Opmerkingen: I’m Derrek Hofrichter. I’m the owner of East Valley Krav Maga. I opened my school up in 2011. I spent the first year or so handling billing internally. I thought I was saving money. It turns out I was wasting a lot of time and not actually saving money. And so I found Member Solutions, and I’ve been a client of theirs since then. They’ve helped me out in so many different ways. I really appreciate their professionalism and their customer service, and I trust them to have the interaction with my members and to take care of them.

Since using them for a while for the billing, I’ve now started to use myVolo front-desk software. That’s been a huge relief to have the front-desk software tied into the billing as well. It saves us so much hassle. And the duplication that we were doing before has now all been eliminated. It’s so much more efficient.

And most recently I’ve started using the Event Manager software as well. I like how simple it is, and it’s enabled me to actually run more seminars just because it’s easy to use, and it takes care of a lot of the work that I was trying to piece together with other systems before.

Thank you Member Solutions. I’m very happy to be a client and appreciate you helping me grow my business.

Non business-centric, shop elsewhere

Opmerkingen: Member Solutions knows they lack programming. When you call to discuss a software bug with them, they give you a work around patch up instead of correcting the problem. The patch ups then cause future issues.

Pluspunten:

There is not much to like about this program. I guess I would say the ease of looking up a customer is the only positive I can come up with.

Minpunten:

Too many to list, but here's a few: it does not help you collect money, nor does it steer toward income driven sales. It tries a credit card once and then won't retry unless you do each individual card. If a customer is set up for auto pay on credit card, their payment still defaults to cash when you attempt to pay if card was declined. No system for retrying all failed cards. Take an overpayment and it does not apply to next outstanding invoice, it just overpays a single invoice. Payments/Invoices are difficult to track because they are all labeled the same date regardless of when the customer pays. Reports are lacking. Members can sign up and have active accounts without having a gym membership! I do not recommend this software, it has many "bugs". Very poorly programmed.

WORST COMPANY EVER!

Opmerkingen: The experience with Member Solutions has been a colossal waste of time, money (we lost about $30,000 because of them), and energy. The customer service is horrendous. There is a disconnect between their two companies and whenever there was an issue each would blame the other. I could give countless examples of their incompetence. (PLEASE SEE CONS SECTION).

Pluspunten:

None, stay away from this company.

Minpunten:

-Terrible communication and customer-service. Tyler is on top of that list. He is rude and condescending and never tried to actually help. He would give us the run-around and sometimes outright refuse to help. -They charge your customers late fees on paying their bill but THEY KEEP THE MONEY FOR YOUR SERVICE. -They will not waive late fees unless manually told for each person. -When we would ask them to refund ridiculous late fees that WE DON'T CHARGE AND THEY KEEP, they would tell us they can refund the late fee but then WE WOULD BE CHARGED that fee. -Faulty software which made no logical sense and looks like it's from about 1998. -They don't contact people who are late on paying with their "full service billing." We have lost roughly $30,000 of uncollected dues because they just didn't contact people. -They wouldn't properly freeze or cancel accounts. -They would consistently double charge members. -They would consistently NOT CHARGE MEMBERS. Months of payments would just be skipped for no apparent reason.

MSI claimed a verbal inquiry to cancellation was a binding agreement under their harsh terms.

Opmerkingen: They touch your money which is pointless because the tech exists to get paid directly with other services. They will treat you like garbage if you mention cancelling. They will hold onto exorbitant amounts of your money if you attempt to cancel early. If you wind down your service to avoid this they will claim your verbal inquiry into quitting constitutes a signed agreement to quit under their ridiculous terms and then hold your money anyways.

Pluspunten:

The best part of their software is the help button so you can talk to an employee every time their cumbersome software does something other than what you wanted.

Minpunten:

For simple tasks like changing a customer payment method you will need to dig through many pages to select the same option multiple times. If you forget one step your changes won't happen and you will have unhappy customers.

downward spiral experience

Opmerkingen: Stay away, not as advertised. It's going to be a money pit for your business

Pluspunten:

In 2011 this was a Canadian run business and everything worked. The attractive calendar system and staff payroll system works.

Minpunten:

Over the past two years especially since September 2016 the reporting on the software has not been working. Importantly the physical reports which are important for any business owner to understand their actualized income as well as their deferred revenue. None of these reports work, and the support staff keeps apologizing but they do not have a timeline or solution to make it work. Plus items which clients are pre-purchased for disappear, or not remove from their inventory, which is a financial havoc in a poor customer service solution. My business has to give thousands of dollars and I am not exaggerating, in compensation to clients for sessions which have disappeared from the my Volo member Solutions. Stay away from the software's absolute garbage.

Great

Opmerkingen: They always go above and beyond to make sure my business needs are met. My Customers have never complained about them in over 10 years. The Staff is very knowledgeable and personable, and they always try to help find a solution to any issues or problems.

Pluspunten:

The Billing and Payment Processing is awesome. Member Solutions takes care of all of it so that I can focus on teaching classes.

Minpunten:

The MSI Portal is sometimes challenging to enter new Billing Agreements. The Form hasn't changed in 10 years, and processing the initial down payments sometimes takes too long.

I have been with Member Solutions for 15 years and my experience with them has been amazing.

Pluspunten:

I like the ease / user friendliness about the software. It is very easy to navigate around to check reports etc. Love the customer care reps that come with it as well. Everyone is very nice and super helpful at Member Solutions. Great team and software!! Member Solutions is always trying to improve and evolve with the times.

Minpunten:

I really like the software and have really nothing to criticize. But if I had to pick something then I would say that I would like the ability to freeze and unfreeze accounts, but calling in or writing a web note is not a problem so it is not of huge concern at al.

I could not run my business without Membership Manager from Member Solutions.

Opmerkingen: The software is easy to use. It does scheduling, emails, one-time payments, recurring payments and Member Solutions follows up with my delinquent account. I cannot say enough great things about this software and the company

Pluspunten:

The software is easy to use. I am not very technical when it comes to computers and the software makes it easy for me to schedule and take one-time and recurring payments. The best part is that they call my delinquent customers for me! I have not made a delinquency call in 6 years as they do it for me. I am now thinking about getting a merchant account through Member Solutions as well to take one-time payments.

Wonderful, we haven't had any problems with the program or staff

Pluspunten:

Searching and checking in for families is very easy. The staff is always a pleasure to speak with, very knowledgeable and patient when it comes to explaining things and answering questions for training and every day needs.

Minpunten:

We would love to have all of the information listed on one page instead of clicking into different categories. Financial reports should include ALL payments for the month, instead of not including future payments, and not including accounts that have gone from active to paid.

Terrible software riddled w/glitches, patch fixes cause new issues, loss of biz income, DO NOT BUY!

Opmerkingen: None. I would never recommend this program to anyone, it's terrible and I'm not sure why it is still on the market.

Minpunten:

Everything is a con in this software. Don't make the same error I did buy this junk. Currently, I'm shopping to migrate everything to a new software program.There is nothing positive to say about this program. I've lost money, clients, valuable time, customer leads, income, the list goes on. Absolutely awful.

Overall, MSI programming is good. I have tried using other services and I am still very happy.

Pluspunten:

MSI is extremely user friendly with logical programming and top-notch customer service. The administrative reports are also easy to navigate and full of essential details. I particularly like the new collection service (first data credit) that has been integrated a few years back.

Minpunten:

There is no independent frozen list in the report section, so it is extremely hard to accurately calculate monthly revenue totals.

I have used Member Solutions for over 18 years & have consistently had exemplary service.

Opmerkingen: I can access every detail of my students' financial situation within my school.

Pluspunten:

I love the amount of information I can easily access about every account I have ever had. I am able to see every aspect of each membership, from notes I have entered myself to those made my MSI employees.

Minpunten:

I would like to see the text of the auto dialed messages when MSI contacts my students or account holders.

I find it frustrating how many things cant be tailored or edited in a way that would better serve us

Pluspunten:

The customer service- they are always so quick to respond. The chat function makes life super easy! Reps are awesome.

Minpunten:

Invoicing has many limitations. Can't edit or go back once an invoice is created. Software seems to have random glitches with invoicing. It will show that it's processed and then the next day it will go back to being owing, etc.

Member Solutions is an excellent platform that's easy for our staff to learn and our members to use!

Opmerkingen: Simple reliable month billing. Good support, and a pleasant experience for our members.

Pluspunten:

I appreciate how easy it is to see the information I need access to the most. The search functions are intuitive and easy to learn, and entering new contracts is straightforward and easy to confirm.

Minpunten:

I have not been able to get much functionality out of the majority of the more complex financial reports.

Decent but needs more options

Pluspunten:

Ease of low maintenance with ppl being able to book and pay all at once. It is easy to log on most of the time

Minpunten:

You only have the option to cxl a class directly before the class or 24 hours prior. It is a HUGE disatifier

once I was used to the program it was great

Pluspunten:

the task reminders help me schedule my days and follow up with clients as well as potential clients

Minpunten:

some things should auto link into accounts and onto the contracts to make it easier to see progress from prospect to member

Quarterly Review - Feb 2013

Opmerkingen: I'm still having difficulty navigating through the software at times trying to resolve problems that I most likely created learning the system. I'm happy with the system, but still learning my way in the process.

Pluspunten:

Customer support (on-line chat but more specifically via telephone) has been outstanding. The software system is certainly fully functional for maintaining staff schedules and processing account payments.

Minpunten:

The software seems designed more for the large, big box fitness clubs, which could make it difficult for small boutique type clubs where staff requirements are more personalized and facilities are more constrained. For someone like me that was not familiar with fitness club software, I found the business software concept difficult to grasp. Initial training was limited to several 30-min webinars where the client spent more time watching the instructor operate the software instead of gaining hands-on experience. There was a level of frustration on the part of the instructor because I had difficulty understand the overall concept of terms and processes. Introductory training was rudimentary at best and did not help much in terms of learning how the total system was designed to be used. Jeff D in customer support has taught me more in during telephone support calls and guided me through the system to correct a number of problems I had. Can't say enough about his terrific help!

28 years in this industry and MSI is the best service I have ever used

Opmerkingen: I began teaching martial arts in 1988. Over the years I have used literally every single "ABC" organization for billing in this industry, and several outside the martial arts industry. Every single one left me with a bad taste in my mouth, but I assumed that there was no real option. In 2009 I was reorganized my business. On the advice of a brilliant mind in this industry, Michael Parrella, I gave MSI a call. Honestly, I would not have done it if it wasn't for who was recommending them. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I have used them ever since that day. To put this in perspective, as my business grew I began sighing between 60 and 75 contracts per month. I was a small, low tech school learning how to suddenly handle "success". MSI has always been there for me. And the service has been incredibly reliable. An easy to use web site and excellent support staff. Not just efficient but friendly. And finally, when I had a medical emergency in my family, MSI was there for me. I don't think , wait let me say I KNOW, no company would have been there for me that way. I can not adequately convey how happy I have been and strongly recommend MSI to anyone in our industry

Volo

Pluspunten:

The software is very easy to use. It has all the info needed to help me run my small business

Minpunten:

No real problems with the software. Every once in a while there are small problems but the staff always fixes it as soon as they can. There online chat people are great.

works well

Pluspunten:

easy tracking of client appointments, easy to tell when a client owes money. Easy for payroll and scheduling of multiple appointment types

Minpunten:

unable to upload documents to email out, unable to search via questions, hard to customise to our specific needs

It's been a tremendous experience with this company!! They're anazing

Pluspunten:

The customer service is outstanding!! All are the absolute best at what they do!! It's always a pleasure dealing with them and for all their help :))

Minpunten:

That we didn't switch back to them sooner!! We had used their software previously at another facility and loved it.