From Frustrated to Empowered – One Massage At A Time’s Successful Switch from MindBody to WellnessLiving

Last Updated on 2 March, 2026

From Frustrated to Empowered

After hesitating to leave MindBody for six months, Andrea Grigsby discovered WellnessLiving and finally found the freedom and respect she had always been looking for.

Key Takeaways

• The studio experienced slow support and communication issues with Mindbody before switching.
• Switching to WellnessLiving gave the team faster support and clearer guidance.
• The new software helped streamline operations and reduce daily administrative tasks.

Meet Andrea Grigsby

A decade ago, chronic pain sent Andrea Grigsby on an unexpected journey to becoming a successful business owner. After an acquaintance suggested that Andrea seek out massage therapy, she fell in love with the practice and soon returned to school and obtained her national certification in massage therapy and her state license. “I thought it was a great way to support my family and do something I really cared about,” she told us.

For nearly eight years, Andrea practiced her business on a small scale, working part-time until 2015. “My daughter had some medical issues, which required me to be more flexible, and my other job wasn’t able to offer that flexibility for me. So, I thought, if I’m ever going to do it, this is it. I just put my eyes on making this my full-time job, and showed up every day.”

Determined, Andrea began to fill her calendar and develop her skills. Having suffered chronic pain herself, Andrea knew just what her clients were looking for. Within a year and a half, her calendar was so full that she had to expand. “I started the dream around the spring of 2016. I got an accountant and started a process of building a business.” Finally, One Massage at a Time opened its doors for the first time.

Why MindBody Fell Short for One Massage At A Time

Having worked as an IT analyst in the past and understanding how software can contribute to the success of a business, Andrea did not hesitate to find a business management software right off the bat. Armed with years of knowledge and experience, Andrea took her first steps into the world of massage therapy and scheduling software. “I started researching everything; at one time, I had four different subscriptions and was only using one because I needed something that’s very powerful that could start off small. But if I grew and had more therapists and other locations, I need a software that would be able to handle [that].”

Eventually, she found what seemed to be her best choice. “I wasn’t convinced MindBody was the right one for me, but in the summer of 2016, I started because they advertised that it could do all of the things I was looking for.”

But, as many other business owners soon discovered, using MindBody means paying additional fees to third-party software providers. “Before I knew it, I had four more forms and four more bills. The worst part was that I literally had different dashboards that I had to use in order to see any of my information. It felt so clunky. It has no continuity. If you wanted to do one task, you had to learn how to do it in four different places.”

“My opinion was not significant enough. They wouldn’t own up to it. As far as I’m concerned, the company is bad. I have nothing but bad things to say.”

Endless Frustration

Her frustrations didn’t end there. After committing to MindBody, Andrea wasn’t about to give up after just one issue. “I’ve already made the investment, I’ve already put the money down, and there’s no way out. I was thinking I made a mistake, but I gotta make the best of it. Maybe it’ll be better once it’s all set up and running. I told myself all of these excuses about why it would be OK for six months.”

And soon, she had to contact customer support to ask for help with the program. When the agent couldn’t provide a solution for her problem, Andrea delved into the software herself. Although she had only recently begun to work with it, she was able to find a serviceable solution to her own problem. “And I was just like, ‘Oh my gosh, I am with the wrong company.’ I was just furious that this was this man’s job, and I, in a matter of minutes, figured out a workaround to my process with his module.”

After months of errors, hundreds of hours, and thousands of dollars, enough was enough for Andrea. Having never gone fully live with the program, she requested some sort of recognition of the broken promises from upper management, but her complaints were ignored. “My opinion was not significant enough. They wouldn’t own up to it. As far as I’m concerned, the company is bad. I have nothing but bad things to say.”

Choosing WellnessLiving for Flexibility, Honesty, and Long-Term Growth

With no other software system to turn to, Andrea set out on her own, trusting that there had to be another choice out there. Luckily, an affinity for Google and a penchant for good timing led Andrea to WellnessLiving. “I left in December and found WellnessLiving in July. One night, I was searching on Google and wondered if they’d have anything. I just put in something about Google and appointment scheduling software, and there was some sort of press release that WellnessLiving software had partnered with Reserve with Google. I went to your site, started looking around, and I thought, “No. Nah, it doesn’t! Where has this been? How haven’t I found it before?” I read everything I could, and then I sent an email to WellnessLiving.

Coming Home

Finally, Andrea had found everything she was looking for since 2015, and more. “There was one thing that you guys don’t have yet that was fairly high priority to me, and your team was super honest and said, ‘I’m not certain we’ll have it as soon as you would want it and I don’t want to promise you something that I can’t give you. This seems super important to you, so I’m not sure we’re a good fit. Why don’t you think about it and let me know?’ We hung up and there was no pressure. He just left the door open. And this quality of transparency and concern is actually more important to me. It only got better from there.”

“If you’re going to switch, now’s the time.”

After falling in love with the software, Andrea realized that the thousands of hours and hundreds of dollars she had invested in MindBody had essentially been a waste. She has this to say to other business owners who are frustrated and looking for a new solution: “If you’re going to switch, now’s the time. Every second that you know about WellnessLiving and don’t make the switch, you waste your own time and efforts. Don’t wait! If you want to grow, it wouldn’t make sense to keep investing in something that isn’t doing what you want it to do. I don’t want anyone else to go through what I did.”

Andrea and One Massage at a Time brought WellnessLiving to their clients live on January 1, 2018. Watch out for an update in the future on how they’ve grown since working with us.

How can WellnessLiving help your studio thrive?

If you would like to talk to a WellnessLiving representative about how we can help your business grow, contact us today at 1 (888) 668-7728, or book a free demo of the platform today!

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