From Chaos to Melodious – Indian Springs Academy of Music’s Transition from MindBody to WellnessLiving

After making the switch from MindBody to WellnessLiving, Sheila Vail and her team at Indian Springs Academy of Music finally found a software solution that they can truly trust.

About

With more than 40 years of teaching experience, Sheila Vail has established herself as a giant in the music education industry. Over the years, she has created several exclusive programs that helped students at the Indian Springs Academy of Music stand out from the masses.

Roughly two decades ago, Sheila helped introduce the Royal Conservatory Certificate Program to the United States. “It’s one of Canada’s crowning glories,” Sheila told us. “We are the founding school for their program, so we make their certificate program available to all of our students. That’s something that is very attractive to people that are looking for a structured program, as opposed to maybe learning to play a few pieces on an instrument.”

Sheila is dedicated to offering programs with incredible depth and varied options for her students, no matter their age or skill level. That’s why she created the Plus Program — the flagship program at Indian Springs Academy of Music. “The Plus Program gives students a weekly private lesson and up to four recitals a year,” Sheila said. “It also gives them seven group lessons a year, so they’re in with other students about the same age—including adults—and the same playing level. They have an opportunity to learn actual performance skills, as well as musicianship skills.”

The Problem

For a long time, Sheila and her team used MindBody to manage their scheduling and other aspects of their business. Unfortunately, MindBody never seemed to consider Sheila’s particular needs, so she was forced to navigate through superfluous steps to get anything done. “You had to go through lots and lots and lots of steps to do anything,” Sheila told us. “Because there were so many, you’d forget them, and then you’d have to call for assistance and you could never get assistance. It just became cumbersome, very cumbersome.”

Despite the fact that her business did not need them, Sheila was paying a lot every single month for those extraneous features. “We didn’t want to have the financial burden of paying for stuff that we would never really use,” Sheila said. That’s when she started looking elsewhere for her business management needs.

After two years of searching, Sheila finally heard about a better option. “People that I knew that had been with MindBody for a very long time… told me that they felt WellnessLiving was better, that it served our industry better.”

Excited by the prospect of a superior software solution, Sheila prepared to do her due diligence, beginning with a tour of the alternative. “When I took the tour, I saw right away that there was a more relatable aspect to the company, which is important. At the end of the day, no business is any better than the people who run it…I was comfortable immediately moving forward. I was comfortable with the product. I was comfortable with the people.”

Before finally deciding to transition over to WellnessLiving, Sheila made a visit to the head office in Toronto where she met the co-founders of the company, Len Fridman and Sasha Davids. “I wanted to meet my trainer and, while I was there, Len came in and we sat down and talked for a while. Then Sasha came in and we sat down and we talked. I was just so impressed with them, both of them. It just gave me a lot of confidence.” Sheila was ready to commit.

The Solution

With such charming first impressions, Sheila was looking forward to a smooth data migration. She needed her data in WellnessLiving right away, so she called Sasha directly. “He just took care of it immediately,” Sheila said. “[The Onboarding specialist] Vivian stayed on the phone with me one Saturday morning from eight a.m. till one, and we just launched. It was so impressive.”

Once all their data moved over, Sheila and her team had no problem getting started with WellnessLiving. “It was much easier than it was with MindBody… [I sent out] four little videos, maybe five [to my staff] and that was all they needed. I didn’t have to sit down with everybody and walk them through things, they were very comfortable with it.”

After a quick and simple training period, Sheila and her staff at Indian Springs Academy of Music were ready to start utilizing WellnessLiving’s features effectively. From the insightful and fast reporting system to the powerful Elevate Staff App, they had everything that they needed and more. “The teachers really appreciate it. The app is working better for them than the MindBody app. So, they appreciate having that.”

Like Sheila and her staff, clients of Indian Springs Academy of Music have been delighted by all the new, easy-to-use options provided by WellnessLiving. “The clients really appreciate the service, the whole service… Our demographics are parents in their 30s and 40s. Everybody is on their phone. Everybody likes the reminders. They live on the reminders.”

After less than a year since making the switch, Sheila has found an incredible partner for her business with WellnessLiving. “It’s wonderful. I appreciate being able to email everybody there. We’ve gotten to know some of the support people there… It’s just a much more personal and navigable experience than MindBody was.” With big plans for the new year, such as adding depth to their Achieve Client App, Indian Springs Academy of Music is not looking back.