It’s been a long while since I had the honor to make such a huge announcement.
As we have promised, the most important feature everyone has been asking after — subscriptions — are now live, thanks to our amazing development team.
On top of offering custom, productized, and free services, now you can also sell subscriptions, where automatic payments and stabilized revenue reign.
But that’s not all: we’ve also switched to Stripe Connect, improved customer experience by expanding Client Portals with dashboards, as well as made some changes to Client Profiles to include even more information on your clients.
For more details on the technicalities, you can read our Release Notes. Or better yet, see Zendo in action by signing up for the free forever plan (no credit card required).
Why Subscriptions?
I admit, we didn’t have plans for subscriptions on our roadmap at first.
But then, after all the calls we had with potential users, who described their business models and everyday struggles in-depth, we realized that subscriptions are essential for many people. Stable and predictable revenue is the holy Grail of any business, leading to security, easier planning, and stronger relationships with clients.
Moreover, we’ve noticed more and more agencies working in the productized services business model that started offering plans with unlimited tasks. This also goes hand-in-hand with the subscription model, so it was another sign that this is the right direction for Zendo to take.
Our Solution
Because our mission is to create an all-in-one tool for selling services online, we couldn’t leave these businesses neglected.
Since there are hardly any universal yet affordable tools, many agencies have to settle for half-baked solutions and compromises. This means handling orders manually, which can lead to mistakes due to human error, and trying to connect many apps together. As a result, there are too many discussions happening at once across different platforms, there’s no single source of truth, and confusion takes over.
As for Client Portals, vendors create dedicated spaces in Trello or other similar solutions. But because there are no roles or permissions that restrict actions, clients may accidentally change or delete things of importance. Moreover, the team has to make sure everything is being kept up-to-date, so that the clients have access to the latest news. In the long run, the delay between what’s happening at the moment and what’s on the board will be inevitable.
Moreover, the whole setup takes a while to organize. There are so many moving and interconnected parts that adjusting one means adjusting everything else. When the deadlines are tight and everyone is busy with their own thing, management of these spaces will stop being a priority. Dealing with outdated files and exchanging back-and-forth emails or messages instead to get the needed information will become the norm.
It doesn’t mean that these apps are bad — they were just never intended to be used that way.
But that’s where Zendo comes in, offering everything a small to medium business may need, from easy invoicing to simple and quick payments and smooth communication. And now, we can add subscriptions to the ever-growing list of Zendo’s features.
We’re excited to see where the incoming months will take us, and we can’t wait to talk to all of you and hear your feedback. Let us know how you like the new Zendo and whether there’s anything else you need to make your business thrive. As a user-oriented SaaS product, we take your feedback to heart!
