by Ben Dwyer As the name implies, MINDBODY is a solution geared toward businesses related to wellbeing, like yoga studios, kickboxing gyms, or spa and fitness businesses.
It integrates scheduling applications as a core function, since the type of business it’s geared toward tends to offer scheduled services like fitness classes and appointments or lessons. If you need a POS system that offers scheduling in addition to payment processing, this MINDBODY POS review will provide more detail on what you can expect from this option.
What You’ll Need
To use MINDBODY to take credit cards and manage your fitness business, you’ll need a merchant account with MINDBODY and a monthly subscription to MINDBODY at minimum. You may also want to have optional equipment, such as card readers, cash drawers, and barcode scanners.
Features
The MINDBODY system has a bunch of features, but they vary depending on the package you choose. The company currently offers 5 packages, from an option for solo practitioners who just need the essentials to larger businesses seeking custom solutions. All packages include the following:
Recurring Billing
If you’re like most fitness and wellbeing businesses, you charge clients on a membership model. With MINDBODY, you can set up recurring billing so that your customers will be charged for their chosen package automatically.
Class Check-In
An app for class check in allows your clients to easily sign in when they arrive for class. The check-in app uses an iPad for sign ins.
Key Tags
Membership management is easier with custom key tags. Eliminate slow sign in processes by offering your clients a scannable tag that they can carry on their keychain. When they arrive at your business, clients can scan their key tag using a compatible barcode scanner.
Reminders
To help clients remember that they have an appointment or lesson with you, MINDBODY packages include an automated email/text reminder system that will contain details of the upcoming appointment or lesson.
Waitlist
Popular class? Set a maximum student limit and enable waitlists. When you choose to use the waitlists option, open spots will be filled automatically from the waitlist if an enrolled client cancels their spot.
Facebook SchedulingAn appointment booking app can load and display your business’s schedule in a tab on your facebook page. Clients can view open times for appointments or see the upcoming class schedule times.
Reporting
Reporting options are available with all MINDBODY packages; however, the Solo package only includes basic reports and limits it to 10. If you anticipate needing more reports, you may want to consider a different package.
Equipment and Accessories
Mindbody offers point of sale equipment and accessories, including cash drawers, receipt printers, and card readers. A smartphone or tablet compatible card reader is available for use with MINDBODY Express if you want to be able to take payments using your mobile device. The mobile reader works with Android and Apple devices.
Equipment bundles are available through the MINBODY hardware shop.
MINDBODY POS Pricing
Unfortunately, pricing is where there isn’t as much positive information to report. Firstly, it does not appear that you can choose your processor when you use MINDBODY. The company is a registered ISO of Elavon and of Wells Fargo.
Secondly, MINDBODY’s integrated credit card processing uses a tiered pricing model, generally the least transparent model available. With tiered pricing, it’s very difficult to anticipate what your processing costs will be, and MINDBODY can adjust your rates and fees at any time.
The published rates are as follows:
Under $5,000 per month
Qualified rate: 2.75%
Non-Qualified rate: 3.5% + $0.15
Over $5,000 per month
Qualified rate: 1.69%
Mid-Qualified rate: 2.49%
Non-Qualified rate: 3.39%
Per transaction fee: $0.20
Monthly fee: $6.00
PCI Fee: Undisclosed, charged quarterly
The credit card processing fees are in addition to MINDBODY’s monthly cost for the POS software. Those costs are as follows:
Solo – For independent practitioners: $45/month
Grow – For small teams: $65/month
Pro – For medium-sized teams: $95/month
Accelerate – For medium-sized teams that need more functionality: $165/month
Ultimate – For larger businesses needing custom solutions: $245/month
MINDBODY has lots of features that a fitness business may be interested in, but if securing the most competitively priced solution is a priority, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere.
You don’t have to take our word for it. Use CardFellow’s free quote comparison tool to see what pricing is available to you.
