All Zen Planner Reviews
1-25 of 241 Reviews
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Todd
Religious Institutions, 11 - 50 employees
Used less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
Reviewed August 2021
Great Features - Not Intuitive
Mike
Verified reviewer
Health, Wellness and Fitness, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed May 2019
Cheaper, better, friendlier
I love their service and how much they've helped me. I would like the ACH only option for memberships though!
PROSThe customer service and ease of use, especially that everything you would essentially need is included with ZenPlanner, unlike MindBody or Triib. It's also cheaper because of PaySimple's merchant integration and I don't think most fitness businesses need the add ons that MindBody has and that you would pay for. I think being a good business owner, setting clearly defined roles and tasks for employees, and making sure they do them will lead to more sales than a email/text bot from MindBody.
CONSI think the client facing side of signing up for memberships could be a little easier, for instance: you can't have a ACH only membership option, you do need an iPad or computer of which to then use ZenPlanner's Front Desk for, but I do know ZenPlanner is teaming up with PaySimple to possibly release a device to use instead of an iPad or computer.
Vendor Response
Thanks Paul! We appreciate your feedback and kind words.
Replied May 2019
Brian
Higher Education, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2019
Great Fitness Specific Software
Love it. Never going to leave them.
PROSCost for sure, ease of use, the user experience for client is also very simple.
CONSI can't say there are any other "cons" - If i'm being nit picky they could give a bit more time towards automatic PDF invoices. Some of their invoicing procedures don't have a simple suer experience.
Reasons for switching to Zen Planner
Overpriced, they have change anything about the software in 10 years. Retail experience SUCKS.
Vendor Response
Thank you so much for the review Brian, we really appreciate it!
Replied November 2019
Liz
Sports, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed December 2020
Used it for three years - feature rich but hard to use
We switched from Mindbody to Zenplanner and used it for three years. Zenplanner is chock full of features (other than membership discounts, as mentioned above), but it's so full of features that it becomes clunky and hard to use. I could do just about anything from my admin account, but my fellow coaches who spent less time in it had a harder time working with it. Customers also struggled a lot. We have now switched to Upper Hand, and while it has fewer features and the reports aren't as good, our customers are actually booking their own classes instead of making me do it.
PROSI was the primary account administrator, and I could fix just about anything retroactively. Once you really know your way around, it's got almost everything you could think to want. There are a lot of customization options for emails you can send your customers, and it was easy to check which emails an individual had opened. The reports were great. Best reporting I've seen, and it's pretty much the only thing I'll miss. Support was good - very responsive, with multiple ways to contact them. I also appreciated the discounts they gave businesses at the start of the COVID shutdowns.
CONSThe software was very difficult for customers to use, so much that about half of our parents (and a couple of our coaches) just wanted me to do everything for them. Doing so on my end was time-consuming. Zenplanner offers some options to integrate with our existing website, but it didn't work in every circumstance. What customers could do from our primary domain was pretty limited, and it wasn't easy to switch back and forth between our site and the ZP site. Zenplanner does not offer automatically-applied membership discounts, so we had to have customers use offer codes. Membership discounts (such as on retail or private lessons) are pretty standard in fitness businesses and not having that option was a major pain. There was no way to easily see which coaches had availability at which times.
Reasons for switching to Zen Planner
Mindbody raised rates while reducing features. Mindbody was even harder for our customers to use.
Jayne
Health, Wellness and Fitness, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed May 2019
Great Software, Even Better Customer Support!
If I ever have an issue with the software, or a question on how to do something (like create a custom report) the customer support is always outstanding.
PROSI have been using Zen for 10 years. The program is so easy to use & I am always finding new things to do with it.
CONSWhen creating reports for attendance or payment history for a client, I would love to have our business name show at the header.
Reason for choosing Zen Planner
Zen integrated with our payment processing seamlessly.
Vendor Response
Thank you Jayne, we appreciate the kind words!
Replied June 2019
Chris
Health, Wellness and Fitness, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed May 2019
Constantly surprises and improves
The more I learn about this software (partly due to their fantastic customer help team) the more I love it and the more it gives me back time! I still think I have barely scratched the service In its capabalities and I'm excited to learn more.
CONSThere is a bit of a learning curve but thats the same for all software. The basics at first is all you will need.
Reason for choosing Zen Planner
Recommendation from a friend and I had used the other two previously with other gyms
Vendor Response
Thanks Chris, we think our support team is pretty fantastic too!
Replied June 2019
Ricky
Health, Wellness and Fitness, 1 employee
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed March 2020
Game changer
Just amazing! I truly have been very excited with this software and I enjoy interacting with it in a daily basis.
PROSWhat I liked most about this software was the amount of things that it can do to not only help manage the numbers but keep the clients engaged and happy. I am also always amazed by the competence of the customer support team who I have called several times with questions I thought would be complicated but were not to them! I really appreciate this software and I really think my customers do again. I would recommend to anybody in the martial arts industry!
CONSI couldn't think of anything in particular that I didn't like but if I had to say something it would be that I wish it would be more engaging with my actual website. The thing is that it probably can, I just don't know how to yet.
Reasons for switching to Zen Planner
Zen Planner just did so much more and they even train you on how to use the product before you could even launch which I found extremely helpful!
Vendor Response
Thank you Ricky!
Replied March 2020
Abraham
Health, Wellness and Fitness, 1 employee
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed November 2019
Next Generation
Choosing Zen Planner to partner with us in growing our business, was one of the best decision we have made to date. Their website design has contributed to 90% of our current clientele. They are a team of professionals representing their brand extremely well.
PROS1) Ease of use; 2) Customizability; 3) Professional; 4) Excellent customer support.
CONS1) Features to engage individual athletes.
Reason for choosing Zen Planner
Zen Planner was willing to accommodate us during our founding months, for which we were truly thankful for.
Vendor Response
Thank you for the kind words, Abraham! We are happy that our website is helping to grow your business and I will pass along your review to the website design team!
Replied November 2019
Beth
Health, Wellness and Fitness, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed July 2019
Good Overall Studio Management Software
The migration process was rocky. About 30% of the database has inaccuracies. They need to improve and automate this process. Tech support is excellent. Customer support was slow to resolve a billing issue I had. They refused to speak to me on the phone and did not return emails. But everything finally got straightened out with persistence on my part, and an effort to make up for the issue on their part. Overall, customer support is generally very good. The software works well, is not buggy. Overall, I really like the software except for the way purchasing works.
PROSReporting is excellent, the best I've seen. I like the fact you can create your own reports. After learning how to use the system we have been able to create any reports we need. That is definitely not the case for Mindbody or Wellness Living. The Kiosk application is nice to have and our clients like it, but needs some improvement. The Front Desk and Kiosk Applications are easy to learn which is helpful as we have 10 teachers at the center.
CONSThe POS system does not work like all other online systems (choose what you want, put in user info, payment info then press complete or check out and credit card is charged), and works differently in their different interfaces. The Front Desk software does not allow for discounts (that is being addresses in a future release). The Dashboard processes the sale, then you have to process the payment separately in a different step. In the beginning we lost sales because our staff was confused. Many of my teachers are still unsure whether a sale goes through or not. When the Front Desk application can accept accept discounts and credit card swipes it will greatly improve the POS process. The client kiosk does not include a form for entering info for new clients and signing a waiver. For some strange reason that is on the staff side of the application. We keep it on the staff application but it means after a client signs the waiver they could get to a screen that offers a free class, which we do not actually offer. I have a hard time understanding why that is baked into their software, it is not considered a best practice. We have found work arounds for these issues but would like to see an updated and more robust kiosk application. The automated emails are very good and it integrates with Mail Chimp. You can also implement a retention process with tasks assigned to different people.
Reason for choosing Zen Planner
Overall Zen Planner had all the functionality we were looking for. Also, another TriYoga studio in PA was using it and recommended it.
Reasons for switching to Zen Planner
I used Wellness Living for 1 year, after using MindBody for 10 years. Wellness Living is buggy, its reporting system its terrible AND they stopped answering their phones for customer support.
Vendor Response
Thanks for the feedback, Beth!
Replied July 2019
Jill
Health, Wellness and Fitness, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed October 2022
Not quite live - but almost!
Your onboarding process has been very good. [SENSITIVE CONTENT] is AMAZING!!!! I just can't say enough good things about her. The cost of credit cards and fees keeps me up at night. We are a non-profit center and the fees are high. I would love for everyone to just use cash or check - but that's impossible.
PROSReporting. It's easy. The front page overview of each member. I can quickly see the data I need. Love the alerts, notes and tasks. Very useful. Love the ability to email a template to a set of members with a click of the button. The configuration of the software is good. The help files are pretty good. I have found a few broken links - and some explanations seem to be a bit outdated. Love the dashboard. Love the ability to click in and get the relevant supporting data.
CONSI wish "students" was changed to "members". It confused the hec out of our staff (who are 98% volunteers). I would like to see the support tickets be answered with the original support request data. There is no place for me to see what ticket number was written for - so if the email thread contained the original text - it would be easier. The new "Z" in the bottom right hand corner is always in my way. I have to make an effort to not touch it. When you have a LOT of members (>350) it's a pain to always click people or students - and do show all. I'm panicked about using keytags for this many members- but we need to track all usage of our fitness center and classes.
Reason for choosing Zen Planner
It looked like it had the features we needed. Initial conversations were good. I felt as though we would get good support.
heather
Verified reviewer
Health, Wellness and Fitness, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
2
EASE OF USE
1
VALUE FOR MONEY
2
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
2
Reviewed January 2022
Would not reccomend
I regret switching to Zenplanner from Mindbody. Constant bugs in the app and website. Disruptive to employees and clients
PROSI can't think of anything I liked about it at this point.
CONSThe app for customers and employees was awful.
Reasons for switching to Zen Planner
Mindbody Was expensive
Stephen
Sports, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
1
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
2
FUNCTIONALITY
2
Reviewed October 2020
Go elsewhere
At first the software fit most criteria's that our business needed. They had great integration to our existing merchant. Great membership customization, billing, customizable charts, and belt promotion system.
CONSSoftware had a bland, early 2000's look to it UI. Very outdated. Our member's portal lacked tons a features and many of our members disliked having to go into their app to setup or alter anything. Signing up a new student or trial lesson through the tablet was a mess. It lacks customization and the overall UI would not work well with our tablets. We reverted back to having our student's sign up on paper and later be added manually to the system through an administrator. Completely eliminating our paperless needs. I can keep going on about their very weak waiver system, email templates, customer support and lack of any regular updates, however, the overall reason we had to let go of the software as a whole was that they no longer supported our existing merchant. At the start of it all they were fine with us keeping our existing merchant. They charged a small $20/monthly fee for "maintenance" which I guess we were fine with paying. However, after a year or so of using we received a noticed that they were completely removing the option of us keeping our existing merchant unless we wanted to pay more than double our existing overall monthly bill. Not only were we not satisfied with the software, we were being charged more than double to keep it. Overall we would not recommend this software. It seems as if the team behind it has lost heart for the program and isn't keeping up with the competition.
Justin
Health, Wellness and Fitness, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed July 2022
8+ year user
Excellent.
PROSThe service. I don't call in often but if I need help it's always there.
CONSChanging password info every 3 months is my biggest gripe.
Reason for choosing Zen Planner
Better overall usability.
Reasons for switching to Zen Planner
It was a much better fit and lower cost.
Alyssa
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed May 2017
Best Customer Service On The Planet
Sanity.
PROSZen Planner seamlessly integrates everything we need as a gym. Although there are still key features we would like, what is there works well and allows us to keep all customer data and interactions in one place, which makes our life easier. Perhaps most importantly, best customer service on the planet. No matter how small an issue, they respond immediately. And when we recently had an ENORMOUS problem, that was totally our fault, our rep worked on it over the weekend for us. He saved our sanity, and thousands of dollars. I can't imagine that kind of service anywhere else.
CONSMy only real gripes are things that don't exist and need to. I would like my members to be able to purchase retail items and check-in using their app. Both of these features exist in the staff app, but not the member app. Also, I would like an option to NOT have a gender field at registration. I find the gender binary pointless and it's offensive to our trans and nonconforming clients.
Michael
Sports, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed October 2022
My review 10-10-22
I think ZP does a great job with support. That to me is super important!
PROSBilling and scheduling is made easy through ZP which is my only function right now.
CONSThis is not a email system that is all encompassing so it makes it hard to set up a nurture program. Having it integrated with Mailchimp in a cleaner way would be great. It's not easy to manage.
Reasons for switching to Zen Planner
ZP is better.
Logan
Health, Wellness and Fitness, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed July 2021
Customer service is THE best
Once you learn how to use the system, it's easy to charge people and view membership history. There are so many financial tools available and that side can get a little confusing (like narrowing down your quarterly taxes is a bit of a hassle). I have yet to find a product with better customer support. They always answer promptly and always have a solution.
PROSThis software makes it easy to track membership history, but the BEST thing about Zen Planner is their customer service. They're friendly, they answer fast and they ALWAYS know how to fix an issue.
CONSZen Planner is quite an advanced system, so it is easy to get lost. Luckily, the customer service is always there to save you (except for holidays and off-hours of course). The app sometimes crashes. It could use an update.
Vendor Response
Thanks so much for leaving your review, Logan! We appreciate the feedback and having you in the Zen Planner community.
Replied July 2021
PENNY
Health, Wellness and Fitness, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2019
ABOUT ZENPLANNER
THEY HAVE THE BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE THAT CAN SOLVE BASICALLY ANY PROBLEM WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THE SOFTWARE. THEY ARE ALWAYS AVAILABLE WHEN YOU NEED THEM AND SO HELPFUL.
PROSTHAT IT MAKES MY JOB EASIER BY AUTOMATING PROCESSES
CONSDOESN'T HAVE ALL THE FEATURES I NEED. ALSO TOO HARD TO LEARN ALL THE FEATURES SO I'M NOT MAXIMIZING IT'S FEATURES. THERE ARE LIMITED ON BOARDING SESSIONS SO WHEN THEY STOPPED, SO DID MY LEARNING
Reason for choosing Zen Planner
MORE ECONOMICAL
Vendor Response
Thank you, Penny! We think our customer service team is pretty great as well!
Replied September 2019
Sarah
Health, Wellness and Fitness, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed August 2018
Great System
ZenPlanner has been very reliable and does what we want it to except for the odd issue. Sometimes I get so frustrated I want to switch providers but then realize that the other providers still aren't as good as ZP so I just have to stick it out. If they increased their speed at which they fixed bugs and/or simple features then I would be a very happy customer.
PROSIt's a great CRM for a small fitness facility. From reviews from competitors, it appears to be the best however I haven't personally tried the others. The Chat feature is great to be able to quickly message with employees when I have questions or concerns.
CONSThey are very slow to fix bugs and/or simple features. It's almost like they don't even have tech employees to fix these things.
Coach
Used free trial
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
Reviewed March 2015
Ok but not great
I can do a lot with this software. Apparently does everything that Front Desk offers in their middle tier of pricing - for half the cost. I manage staff payroll and reserving classes, too. I can do analytics and reports. They have always been very nice on the phone (if unable to help.) On the down side, it's buggy and painfully slow. Plus it doesn't work very well on mobile, either for clients, coaches, or the business owner. My athletes often say they can't reserve class on their phones. Everyone wants to do everything on their phones but ZP does not accommodate this! The workout tracking was painful to use - they keep adding features like this but I wish they would just make the ones they have work better. Their much vaunted software improvements were a disappointing thin skin over the same stuff. Despite my annoyance I have learned to work around the bugs and stuck with them for many years. I will probably continue to wait for software improvements. Not a ringing endorsement by any means, but the software is functional and the price is right.
Vendor Response
We appreciate your feedback. We are continually investing in our solution, and have recently launched several notable enhancements focused on mobility, usability and stability. Many of our customers are constantly on the go and need easy-to-use software on their phones and tablets. This is a major focus for us, and you'll see a number of new mobile-friendly features launched in the near future. Additionally, we continue to invest in our Workout Tracking functionality, and recently launched a new-and-improved member experience for viewing workouts, tracking the leaderboard and logging results, all designed specifically for mobile. We would love to get you into our beta testing program, where customers are invited to provide feedback on new functionality before it's launched. Please send an email to product@zenplanner.com for details on joining this beta. - Christina Von Stroh, Director of Product - Zen Planner
Replied April 2015
Cindy
Recreational Facilities and Services, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2022
[SENSITIVE CONTENT] at ZenPlanner is Top Notch
The customer service is stellar. Everyone I've spoken to is smart, friendly and efficient. [SENSITIVE CONTENT] did our transition to GAINS payment processing and I couldn't have asked for more warm, knowledgeable and efficient support. Her follow-up with me has been outstanding.
CONSIt's not great for use with membership under 18; we do a lot of programming for children and need a way to have both parents as primary email contacts, need a way to communicate both with parents and with the 13-18 year old group. Grading (movement between programs and belt levels) is difficult.
Cara
Health, Wellness and Fitness, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
2
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
2
Reviewed October 2019
I used to use Zen Planner
Overall, it was great to have a place to run transactions, and keep track of member accounts, however the issues we had with zenplanner holding our money required that we switch to a different system.
PROSI liked how wonderful, helpful and prompt the customer support was. I found them very easy to talk to and easy to get ahold of.
CONSI was calling customer support daily, I took over the business from someone else who left a very messy zenplanner for me to sort out. That could be the reason I was constantly calling, but another reason is that some of the features that I thought could have been easier to use were not. I ended up switching to a different system because we were having a lot of issues with the money, one time zenplanner held our money for 2 months, when we finally found out why, the process to reclaim that money was ridiculous.
Reason for choosing Zen Planner
I was not originally involved in the purchasing of Zenplanner
taylor
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed May 2017
Incredible!
Best Support Team!!! they seriously rock and has helped me trouble shoot all issues I've had over the phone or over quick emails. Anything i didn't know how to do they were super helpful and worked so hard to help me implement their software and making things very easy. Allows me to filter my classes, students and programs very easily. Beautiful Website integration (similar to mindbody but easier to use for customer) Keeps track of how much a client owes me and allows me to create a parole for my employees. I own a Holistic wellness center that does everything from Yoga and martial arts to acupuncture and energy work and zen planner allows us to manage everything smoothly while keeping track of all of our clients with ease. If your looking for a scheduling software i highly recommend this software. Has really taken a weight off my shoulders as a business owner and let me focus on more important thing.
CONSThe initial set up of the program is a little difficult, it was hard to navigate through at first but again, awesome support team that explained it very well. Only other con is that the website integration is a little difficult and not as pretty on mobile.
Harley
Health, Wellness and Fitness, 1 employee
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed April 2021
It has it's ups and downs.
Overall it is a great program, but is does have some room for improvement.
PROSZen Planner has a lot of good features. Billing, client tracking, scheduling, and integration into our website are all pretty smooth.
CONSAs a gym, we cannot select which members see what programming. Example, if we have 2 different programs available, all members can see both programmed workouts. We have had some inconsistency in emails being sent out. Sometimes emails to our members don't send in a timely manner through their system.
Elizabeth
Medical Practice, 51-200 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed March 2020
Library and a Benchmark
Our gym uses this App to track our work outs. A friend and I were using the custom result fields to track our daily 1 minute Bike Sprint. We found, though, that when we went to the library we couldn't track our results. I contacted Zen Planner and was helped quickly; initially, it appeared to be a simple issue but turned out that there were some "corrupted" files. After getting our gym owner involved, ZenPlanner was able to resolve the issue.
PROSEase of use; simple to find information
CONSI wish the same type of exercises would always come up together in the library. Occasionally when I go to the library to look up a specific exercise multiple of the same come up and I have to click in and out of them to see the results.
Vendor Response
Thank You Elizabeth!
Replied July 2020
Anonymous
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
2
EASE OF USE
2
VALUE FOR MONEY
2
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
2
Reviewed April 2018
Frustrating, super buggy, unfulfilled potential with good customer service
The customer service reps are very nice and helpful. Unfortunately you will get to know them on a first name basis.
CONSThis is the buggiest software I have ever used. There is always something going on making what you can potentially do a hassle. It actually increases what you have to do relative to not being able to use the functionality and having to constantly call in to customer support. Not to mention having to put out fires with your members when the bugginess effects them.