Better Buzz Yoga is an inclusive community staple in their North Denver neighborhood. But the owner, Jamie, was tired of endless studio software woes, slowdowns, and spending 15 hours a week on customer service calls. Discover how Walla gave her studio an agile platform, trustworthy reporting, and time back in her every day so she could focus on Better Buzz’s mission of humble, mighty movement.
Biggest operational hurdle and pain point before making the switch to Walla?
The biggest thing for me at Better Buzz Yoga was how much time I was wasting on little things and being unable to get in touch with responsive customer service. I spent an inordinate amount of time on the phone with Mindbody trying to get answers to questions—and every answer was always different. Or I wouldn't be able to get them at all.
For example, I would spend 40 minutes trying to find a resolution for a client in the software. There always seemed to be 17 different ways to do a task, and I needed clarity on how to do what I wanted. And I know there was a way to do it, but it always seemed so convoluted. I could never talk to the right person; I felt like I was being nickeled and dimed, and my subscription charges constantly increased. If I wanted to make the slightest change, I had to jump through all these hoops. At the end of the day, I don’t have the time or energy to keep trying to get my studio software to work.
I knew it was just time to make the switch. I was looking for software that felt more agile, straightforward, and responsive. A platform I could easily interact with, and that’s when I discovered Walla.
How was your migration experience from Mindbody to Walla?
It was handled really well. The onboarding team was fantastic, and I loved how hands-on every step of the process was—and how it all felt comprehensive. When we transitioned to Walla, we were waiting for the app to come out, so we ended up pushing our migration because I was adamant I wanted the whole client experience to be complete. But once the Walla app was ready, we made the switch, and as I said, I was super impressed with how thorough everything was. The checklist we had to follow was so dialed in, and messaging was prepared for us. That experience was helpful because we knew exactly who we were working with when it came to Walla and what our studio community would need in terms of support for the switch.
Having Logan at Walla go through every single client's data and being able to catch duplicates and issues was great. I was surprised by the number of clients caught with issues. There are so many little pieces. But overall, the transition to Walla was super smooth. We were actually traveling in New York when we did the data migration… It was much more seamless than I thought. I was nervous about it because switching software is a big deal. But overall, from the user side, it was really seamless.
Can you see the positive impact Walla has on your daily operations—and your staff?
One thing is reporting. I’ve never trusted Mindbody reporting. I’ve been working with Heather and Jeffrey on the Walla support side to better understand my studio data during my transition because before, my membership numbers were never correct. Now, I have more members than I ever did. I have always had them, but with Walla, I can see the numbers—and that’s really nice. I remember talking to Heather to confirm what I saw in Walla was correct, and she was like, “Nope, that’s totally accurate,” I thought to myself, “this is great”! I finally feel confident.
Your favorite feature or function in Walla?
One of the biggest things that stick out for me with Walla is when we are looking for something in the software. It’s just so clean and simple. It’s like, “how do you do this thing?” and we will be looking around, and it’s just so easy and obvious we miss it because we are so used to digging for what we need in Mindbody.
I really like the class fill rate, too. Every day when I log in, I love seeing that information, especially as I make scheduling decisions (like during summer when we are scaling back classes). I have the ability in this studio with my current teaching team to make pretty quick decisions. For example, we only have a 40% daily fill rate, so how can we change that?
I also love looking at the individual staff performance pages and staff data. That is super valuable information. Our teachers drive—and that’s not necessarily unique here—but they are why students come. And the teachers really are the ones filling the classes. I spend a lot of time giving them feedback. So, if I have the data to share with them, I see my role as holding the container for the teacher so they can hold the container for the students. And the more information I have to deliver to our teachers positively, allows me to have the opportunity to provide them with the tools they need to succeed.
What’s the worth of Walla to you—and your everyday life?
It’s just so great, and this software is phenomenal. It truly is! Fantastic and phenomenal. I am not on the phone trying to get little things done like I was with Mindbody, and I don’t have to waste my time. I used to be on the phone 15 hours a week with Mindbody. Waiting on phone calls back without answers. Now it’s totally different. I got an email from your co-founder, Doug when we came on board about how Walla has fast follows—and he’s asking me about my product and feature requests. I love the emails I get from Heather and support with product updates. I can see all the ways that Walla will continue to evolve and become even more powerful.
Interested in sharing your stress-free Walla experience?
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