One of the best ways to spread the word about your services and community is to send quality e-newsletters and e-blasts. What is the difference? An e-newsletter is generally longer, contains multiple messages, is sent on a set interval, and is used to create community and sell services. An e-blast is shorter in length, sent as needed, and is used to alert clients of upcoming events, classes, specials, etc..

Did you know that 94% of internet users between the ages of 18-64 send or read email? Over 147 million people across the country use email every day!

An easy way to create compelling email marketing is by using Constant Contact, one of MINDBODY’s premier technology partners. As of May 1, 2011, all MINDBODY clients receive a free Constant Contact account.

What makes an effective email marketing piece?
1. Compelling content: ensure the content you are sharing is information your audience is interested in. Share your expertise, offer discounts/promotions, use facts and client testimonials, give guidance and direction, showcase members of your community, link to articles and blogs your audience would be interested in.
2. Brand them consistently: use your logo, consistent colors, do not make drastic changes.
3. Ensure there is a clear “Call to Action”: you can’t convert a reader into a buyer unless there’s a clear path!
4. Use visuals: include photos of people engaging in your services, include videos of clients giving testimonials or staff members talking about the classes/services they provide.

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Depending on how you use it, the MINDBODY waitlist feature can help or hurt your business model. I will run through a few scenarios of how waitlists benefit your business as well as some tips to know when setting/using this feature:

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Have you ever wondered what the difference between a barcode and magnetic stripe is, or why it should matter to you? Did you know that you have a choice between the two when ordering gift cards and membership cards through the MINDBODY ID Solutions Department? When deciding which option to go with, there are a few things you should know to make the best choice for you and your business. First, let’s first clarify an important detail to narrow down the possibilities—key tags, combo packs and direct mailers can only be printed with a barcode on them. Full-sized membership and gift cards can be printed with a barcode or a magnetic stripe (magstripe). For that reason, we will be referring only to gift and membership cards throughout this article. Both barcodes and magnetic stripes function to store data: barcodes store data optically in their varied width and spacing of parallel lines, while magnetic stripes store data magnetically, as their name would suggest. However, the difference between them that is most relevant to MINDBODY clients lies in how they are read and what equipment is needed to use them.  Barcodes are read by scanning them with a barcode scanner . Magstripes are read by swiping them through a magnetic card reader, such as the one you may use to read credit cards.  The main factors you will want to consider when choosing which to print on your gift and membership cards is ease of use, required hardware and overall pricing.

Let’s talk about ease of use. If you’re ordering membership cards, quickly scanning a barcode for every client that walks through the door will prove Continue Reading »

Demandforce is now integrated with MINDBODY’s salon and spa software to automate the outreach tools you use every day, like emails, text messaging, and social media, saving you time and helping you grow your business with guaranteed results. A unique feature included is the tracking and management of online reviews: Demandforce gathers reviews of your business, certifies them by matching reviews to actual visits, and pushes them to new sites to boost your exposure.

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Read below for more detailed suggestions on how to use auto emails to grow your business by working smarter, not harder. All MINDBODY auto emails can be edited by going to Toolbox > Setup > Auto Emails.

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MINDBODY works with a variety of businesses. Our software serves the needs of spas, yoga studios, CrossFit boxes, and life coaches, to name a few. We understand that the service each one of our clients provides is different and unique. A jiu jitsu instructor would never dream of giving his student a pedicure. However, there is a unifying theme to every business we work with: your job is to improve your customer’s quality of life. Whether you’re helping someone get in the best shape ever or look great for a fateful first date, your work is done best when it’s paired with a positive emotional experience, and the most effective way to meet that emotional need is to interact with your customers on an emotional level.

When you ask for customer feedback, you are sending out a message that says, “We want to know what your experience with us has been.” That message, however, can do so much more: a genuine, personal undertone can instill feelings of security and comfort. It’s the difference between a casual “Hey, how are you?” in passing, and having someone look you in the eye, smile in a way that makes you want to smile back, and ask you how you are. On the other hand, a mechanical feedback loop with minimal personal interaction sends a mixed message: “We want to know what your experience with us has been, but we’re not going to do it in a personal way because it’s not that high a priority.”

How you approach your customers for feedback tacitly communicates the kind of relationship you’d like to have with them, and it sets the stage for them to reciprocate in kind. If they feel that you really care about them as an individual, they’ll be more likely to become emotionally invested in helping you and your business. An emotionally invested customer is more likely to provide thoughtful, constructive feedback, instead of a rant or a useless “You suck.” All it takes is one creative client who cares enough to give you a ground-breaking idea.

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There are two services where schedule windows would apply: Classes and Events (Workshops, Retreats, Seminars, etc.) and Appointments. For both services you have “closes” (the time after which your customers can no longer register for the service online) and “opens” (which is the day when online scheduling opens for this service).

For classes, the opens are great to have if you tend to sell a high quantity of “Unlimited” series. If I am a client that has an unlimited class pass, I will schedule myself out for a year and if I show up or not, it won’t matter. Therefore, limiting the amount of days they can schedule ahead will be important if this is your scenario. The “close” time helps to prevent a last-minute sign-up. For example, say there is no one attending your lunchtime yoga class and you plan to cancel it, and then a customer signs in online 10 minutes prior to the start time. It could catch you or your instructors off-guard if you weren’t expecting it. Click on the image below to learn more about Schedule Windows for Classes & Events:

Toolbox> Setup> Class and Event Options

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Let me take you on a tour of our Customer Service Department at MINDBODY. I’ll show you some of the hippest workspaces you’ve ever seen, we’ll celebrate some birthdays, and I’ll introduce you to some of my favorite co-workers.

Customer Service is near and dear to our hearts because they work so closely with the people we love the most: You, our clients! Our customer service reps are super knowledgeable, understanding the ins and outs of the software and how it can best be leveraged for you and your business. They work on the Customer Service floor, which is a far cry from the cubicle drudgery you’ve seen on TV. It’s intentionally designed to be ergonomically correct, LEED certified, and warmly lit.  Collaborating teammates, birthday celebrations, and bouncing yoga balls keep the floor abuzz, day in and day out.

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The MINDBODY User Experience Research team has been hard at work on our latest project. In the last month we’ve visited 18 clients in California in order to observe our clients’ daily activities and ask questions. The purpose of this research is to get a clearer idea of how our clients use our software, and to find out what we can do to make their daily operations even better.

We returned to the office armed with hours of recorded conversations, notebooks full of observations, and photos of our clients and their businesses. Now we’re getting to work analyzing all of our data!

Here are posters we created with photos and observations of each client.

From this information, we created Personas. Personas represent our users based on similarities and trends in their behavior. We chart our clients’ traits based on a set of factors that are useful to our design process. We consolidate these results into a number of fictional characters based on our users. Our design team uses these Personas to help guide them when designing new features and making improvements to old ones.

The Personas we created based on client visits now adorn many of the walls in our office, so that we make sure to always keep our users in mind!

Marianne is a User Experience Researcher at MINDBODY. She has a background in software development and enjoys geeking out over great design. Recently she’s become addicted to making tasty green smoothies and hitting a spin class after work.

MINDBODY clients are loving their new key tags, gift cards and combo packs! Key tags offer clients the ease of a seamless check-in process; gift cards bring in new clients and help increase revenue (did you know: most people even spend more than the gifted amount!). Combo packs offer business owners and their clients multiple options. For more information on combo pack usage, see our February blog post.

Take a look below at some of our favorite designs from the month, as well as testimonials from a few of these business owners about their new ID Solutions items and the order experience!

“Our clients love having our logo with them on a high quality key tag! We always know what we are going to receive by being able to see a proof before receiving them” -Steve Van Diest,  Athletes Nation Continue Reading »