The problem of customers not returning within a year of their first visit is being addressed by a new tool designed to improve client retention for health, wellness and beauty businesses.

Released by Mindbody, the platform – ‘Mindbody Reach’ – provides the company’s software subscribers with fully automated retention tracking, reporting and marketing tools. It combines automated email and SMS messaging to help reduce class and appointment no-shows, maintain engagement with active clients and win back lost clients.

The platform also provides an automated reporting capability that tracks client retention, triggering email and SMS messaging at specific times after a client’s last visit.

Some Mindbody subscribers participated in an early adopter programme to test the tool before it was released publicly. Mindbody said that these adopters had twice as many appointment confirmations due to the SMS messaging feature, which also cut their time calling to confirm appointments in half.