We Rolled Out Some Exciting Things in 2019

2019 was a busy and big year for us at Mindbody.  I am excited to share an update on the recent changes we’ve made to the Mindbody platform to help your business connect the world to wellness.   

If you attended our BOLD Conference in 2019, then you may remember the opening to my presentation about extreme consumer expectations. Consumer loyalty is very difficult in today’s world. Consumers are used to convenience, efficiency, instant gratification and they hold the power to switch services at the drop of hat.   

Technology gives us the ability to meet these rising expectations and is changing the way you attract, connect with, and market to your clients. We’re working hard to continue to enhance our product to help you keep up with consumer expectations and grow your business.   

In 2019 we focused our product innovations on three main areas to help you: 

1. Seamlessly run and manage your business  
2. Make every customer experience exceptional 
3. Attract new customers and keep them coming back 

Here are some of the latest innovations we've developed to do just that. 

1. Seamlessly run and manage your business

Core software improvements – manage your key processes to amplify your revenue stream

We’ve made some valuable improvements and additions to our core software starting with alerts. Rather than running the same reports over and over again, these alerts notify your business of important revenue opportunities.  

As soon as you log into your software, you'll be alerted to the following scenarios: 

• Failed autopay alert: Our data showed that our customers ran the autopay details report 18 times every month, so we decided to do something about it. The "failed autopay" alert appears on your dashboard when a client autopay has been unsuccessful. This allows you to follow up with clients faster and manage their payment information with ease. 
• Expiring intro offers alert: This alert notifies you and your front desk staff when someone's intro offer is about to expire so you can make sure to upsell them to a membership or a pass. 

We’ve also streamlined our client search feature in our core software so you can search smarter, not harder.  

• Client Search: You and your staff can now quickly search and find clients using as many sources of information such as first and last name, phone, email, and addresses. These additional search terms allow you to identify the correct client especially if there are multiple clients with the same name. 

Class check-in app – simplify the sign-in process

With just the tap of a finger, your clients can check themselves into class from an iPad. The Class Check-in app has a new look that speeds up check-ins, is simple to use, and gives you more time to focus on your clients as they arrive at your studio. 

Throughout 2019, we enhanced the class check-in app with new features: 

•  Instructors’ staff profile photos appear beside the class they’re teaching in the schedule. 
• The client list screen for a class now automatically returns to the class list after a period of inactivity to reduce the likelihood of customers accidentally adding themselves to the wrong class. 
• New fonts and colours for improved accessibility and readability. 

Security and availability – we’re there when you need us

In 2019, we invested heavily in our infrastructure, stability, and security to improve the availability of our software. This is a daily focus and we are continuing to make improvements to make our platform perform faster while staying compliant and secure.  

We've updated our internal security testing program and rolled out a responsible disclosure program. The internal testing program means that all code written by Mindbody goes through more scrutiny from a security perspective than ever before, ensuring the privacy of our customers’ data. The responsible disclosure program allows white hat hackers to disclose issues to us so that we can resolve them swiftly. 

2. Make every customer experience exceptional

Mindbody App – drive new customers to your business

Our interests are aligned. We created the Mindbody app to help attract new customers into the wellness ecosystem to provide your business with more paying customers.

The app has two million active monthly users globally, ho book over six million classes and appointments per month—that’s almost nine thousand bookings per hour. On top of that, the average Mindbody app user spends $297 per month on wellness, fitness, and beauty services. This is significantly more than your average consumer. 

 On top of that, we also released some new features within the Mindbody app to help you and your customers get the most out the platform.  

• Activity dashboard: Mindbody app users can check out their fitness stats on the Activity Dashboard. Stats include total number of classes completed as well as biometric data for the last activity the user participated in. Syncing the app with a Fitbit device provides additional info like BPM charts, calories burned, and active minutes. 
• Open registration: Before, consumers had to create accounts in the app before browsing services and studios. Now, we've removed the registration wall, allowing a higher number of consumers to view inventory without the signup process.  
• Favourite businesses, classes, and staff: We all have favourites. App users can add, reorder, or remove favourite business, classes, and staff, making it easier than ever to book with the ones they love. 

Branded Web – enable effortless online purchases

Now, your clients can purchase autopay memberships and gift cards directly for your website to help you generate consistent revenue.  

• Gift card links: Offering gift cards online not only drives revenue for your business but they can create a better purchasing experience for your clients. With the branded web gift card link, your clients can quickly purchase gift cards from your website wherever they are. Any gift card link placed on your website will be mobile-friendly, putting your business in your client’s hands at all times. 
• Contract links: The branded web contracts link enables clients to quickly purchase memberships on desktop or mobile. Once the link is clicked, that membership pricing option is added to the client’s cart on your branded website. 

3. Attract new customers and keep them coming back

Marketing Suite – attract and retain clients

The featured tools in Marketing Suite will help you to attract new customers, increase frequency of visits, receive actionable feedback, win back lost customers, and generate word-of-mouth marketing—all while saving you time so you can focus on your business. 

With Marketing Suite, you can set up automated marketing campaigns to stay connected with every customer who walks through your door. We recently updated the functionality of our automations—they can now be sent using a combination of both emails and text messages. Your clients now have the option to pick which type of automation they prefer to receive—email, text, or both.  

When you create an automation to be sent to your clients, you can now simulate what the SMS message will look like on-screen. With our latest update, you can send the preview directly to your mobile device. Not only will you get a live preview, but you can also confirm that any links included in your message will send your customers to the right page. 

• Automated text campaigns: When a client hasn’t been into your business for a certain amount of time, send them a personalised text to win them back and turn them into a loyal client. This is an effective tool because most clients are more accessible via text because it is their preferred method of communication.  
• Offers in the email campaign builder: Let’s say you haven’t seen a client in over 30 days. Create a personalised offer that makes it easy for clients to purchase your services, within the body of the email.  

And it’s easy to know if these types of campaigns are working for your business by viewing the dashboard within Marketing Suite. The dashboard provides insights into the performance of your marketing campaigns and calculates the amount of revenue you’ve accrued. 

Just take a look at how Gymnazo, a fitness studio in San Luis Obispo, California, is using the Marketing Suite to set up automated campaigns to stay connected with their clients and improve retention.  

2019 was a big year and 2020 is shaping up to be even bigger. Our team is growing rapidly and in addition to our nine Research & Development locations around the US, we just opened up our first international development center in Pune, India.  These additional investments will help us not only improve our core platform functionality, usability and performance but also in cutting edge functionality like artificial intelligence and machine learning. We cannot wait to unveil what we have in store for 2020! Thank you for the opportunity to partner with you as we strive to connect the world to wellness. 

Check out a full list of all our product releases.

*Available in select countries.