Partnering for Good: Mindbody’s Tech and Your Wellness Experiences
September 17, 2024
Over the last couple of years, the world of wellness has proved that it’s unstoppable. The strength and resiliency that wellness business owners like you have shown while facing unprecedented upheaval has been awe-inspiring. Other things around us have also proven to be unstoppable: Evolving societal norms. Cultural movements. Technological progress.
In fact, the evolution of wellness has largely been fueled by the evolution of technology. Mindbody’s mission is to empower you with innovative solutions that help you bring your experiences to a world of people who need them like never before.
If we’re going to continue to be unstoppable, we need to find avenues for prosperity and growth by embracing change—thriving because of it, rather than despite it.
The good news: we’re here to help you do it.
A changed landscape
Consumers and businesses alike have adopted new strategies for success. The world went low-touch (or even no-touch), from restaurants to grocery stores to salons. Beauty and integrative health businesses fundamentally changed the way they operated, and fitness studios adapted right alongside them.
Thanks to many of you, consumers were able to pivot to virtual fitness, giving countless people access to the physical and mental wellness they desperately needed. But the shift to virtual also brought increased competition from major players like Mirror, Peloton, Hydrow, and even Apple.
This means that your competition is no longer just the HIIT studio across town; you're now competing with the HIIT studio across the country—and against any of those well-funded, fully-virtual players offering services just like yours that have entered the market looking to capitalize on the "wellness from home" movement.
The human experience is your edge
But there's a strength that your brick-and-mortar location has that those goliaths are fundamentally unable to replicate. At the end of the day, they all lack one key element: real human connection.
They simply can't hope to replace the community and authentic human experiences you create in your studios, salons, and spas. The heart of wellness will always be "the wellness experience," and you make this happen. You make these connections. You make people feel better, and help them live happier healthier lives.
Over the last two years, businesses like yours within the Mindbody community have provided 1.29 billion wellness experiences globally, enriching lives, uplifting spirits, and keeping wellness front and centre at times when we needed it most. Despite the hardships you faced personally and professionally, you showed up to make the lives of others better.
You are the difference—the magic that players like Peloton and Apple can never hope to replicate—and our job is to give you the tools to be successful.
The Mindbody difference
Technology isn't your enemy, whether it’s AI, virtual fitness, or any of the other advancements shaping wellness today. It’s simply a power that's only as good or bad as the use it’s put to. The same wind that flattens cities also turns the turbines that power a greener future. Mindbody is your partner, dedicated to empowering you with the technology that helps bring those real human connections to life.
You see, Mindbody’s competitors have traditionally been companies who make booking and scheduling software. This tells us a lot—not just about the industry we’ve led for the last 20 years, but about the way we ourselves used to see Mindbody as a company: how we defined what we did, and what was important to our customers.
But the future is here, and nobody has innovated as quickly or invested more to bring you the tools, thought leadership, and resources to help you thrive today, tomorrow, and beyond. So while competing software solutions may have patched in a clumsy Zoom integration to let their customers offer virtual classes, for example, none developed a scratch-built, fully-integrated streaming platform designed exclusively for wellness the way Mindbody did—and none are truly equipped to support you in this new era the way Mindbody can.
Wellness experience technology
We used to define ourselves by what we make; we're now defined by what we make possible. A focus on the experiences we help bring to life—your experiences—will be the story of our future.
A focus on the experiences we help bring to life—your experiences—will be the story of our future.
And so Mindbody isn’t just "fitness software" or “salon software” or even "wellness business management software.” We're wellness experience technology. It’s all about your experiences enhanced by our technology, giving you the tools and resources you need to more easily manage your day, grow your brand, and expand your community. Let's look at the 4 layers of wellness experience technology:
You're the center
At the heart of everything is the wellness experience—any of the thousands of individual experiences taking place on the Mindbody platform, every day, around the world. Everything we build exists in the service of the soul-nurturing experiences you create.
Layer one: our software
This is the essential functionality you need to run a successful wellness business. It’s the basic booking, CRM, and retail platform businesses need from day one, plus the Mindbody app that gives every one of our customers' exposure to new clients on a millions-strong consumer network. It also includes the mission-critical integrated marketing tools that businesses need to fill their classes and appointments and engage their communities.
Above all else, the Mindbody software needs to help you solve your day-to-day challenges and give you back time you can devote to your clients' wellness—or to your own. To that end, we're revitalising your Mindbody software experience, making it more intuitive, sleek, and powerful.
And we’re not just adding new features or putting a pretty skin over the old experience—we’re truly rethinking how we can help you and your staff be more efficient, make it easier to schedule classes and appointments, navigate through the software, manage your staff and client information, and sell your products and services.
The world is evolving. You’re evolving. So are we.
Layer two: key innovations
For businesses ready to reach the next level, or for those with hyper-specific business needs or business models, our wellness experience tech offers sleek, powerful additions that fully and seamlessly integrate with Mindbody.
For example, Messenger[ai] puts the power of AI in your hands, helping you engage with and win clients you would’ve otherwise lost—with no extra effort. And our new Lead Management tool helps you kick sticky notes to the curb with a centralised place to organise your sales funnel and nurture new leads into loyal clients.
You also have access to the industry’s largest marketplace of vetted, integrated partners offering solutions to common (and not-so-common) business needs for our customers.
Layer three: the business of wellness
Business owners need to reconcile their passion (e.g., yoga) with the realities of business management (e.g., ROI). We can help you do it by inviting you into a growing community of wellness enterprises around the globe.
This layer turns wellness practitioners into wellness professionals, going beyond software to offer the support, community, and thought leadership you need to truly thrive. You get industry-exclusive research on business best practices and consumer behaviour, access to a network of professional consultants, and connection to a thriving community of fellow wellness professionals inside the Mindbody One community.
The future of wellness starts here
We’re looking ahead instead of behind us. What worked for us in January of 2020 may not work for us in January of 2022. The world around us has changed, even if our own personal missions of bringing wellness into the world haven’t. We’re living in the new era for wellness, not waiting for a return to the old one.
Each of us has an exciting role to play in this new era if we can lean in, keep an open mind, and shift our mindset from one of survival to one of opportunity. If you’ve made it through everything the last couple of years have thrown your way, that means you’re no ordinary wellness business. Luckily, we’re no ordinary wellness software. Together, we are the future of wellness.