Daniel's nine retention ideas, in five minutes

How we would build it

1. Fix the Reschedule button so moving a booking cancels the old one and books the new one in a single step.
2. Add a 'weekly ritual' to a member's account: day, time and start date. Members pick it on the confirm screen ('Make this my weekly ritual'), and staff can set one up for a member.
3. When a weekly ritual is saved, the app books every matching day left in the current paid cycle, each through the normal booking checks, and sends one summary instead of a stack of confirmations. If a day is full, it tells the member and offers the nearest open time.
4. At each renewal, the app books the new cycle automatically. A daily check makes sure this happens, since automatic renewals are not switched on yet.
5. Give members skip-this-week, change time and end controls, and let staff pause and restart. A pause releases the held seats.
6. Test it end to end in the test version of the app, then switch it on for founding members first.

Where we would start

• Weekly slots by plan: Core 1, Essential 2, Complete 3, Unlimited up to 3.
• Weekly slots use the allowance first, and extra visits are booked by hand. A 28 day cycle has exactly 4 of each weekday, so one weekly slot uses all 4 of Core's sessions and half of Essential's.
• Standing bookings take at most half the seats in any session, so drop-ins and pack holders can still get in. This is a judgment call, not an industry number.
• A reminder 24 hours before each visit with a one-tap skip, which leaves 12 hours to release the seat before the free-cancel cutoff.
• A second no-show inside 60 days pauses the weekly slot and flags it for staff, on top of the existing $40 rule.
• Pauses (staff only) release every held seat in the pause window and restore the slot on return.
• Standing bookings count toward Unlimited's 15 future bookings.
• At launch, set up founding members' weekly slots in the order they bought their membership.

Watch out for

• Your paid-cycle rule: a member on day 20 of a cycle can only book about a week ahead today. 'Four weeks ahead' needs option B, or it becomes 'rebooked at every renewal'.
• Renewals are not automatic yet, so the weekly booking needs its own daily check or it would never fire. Card payments are not live yet either, so option B can only be fully tested once they are.
• Fairness: members whose renewal lands earlier grab seats first. A cap per session protects drop-ins and pack holders.
• Allowance surprise: a Core member's one weekly slot uses all 4 sessions, leaving nothing for an extra visit.
• Easy-to-forget bookings mean more no-shows under the 12 hour rule and the $40 fee. The skip reminder has to arrive before the 12 hour cutoff.
• Blackouts added after bookings are made do not cancel those bookings today.
• Seats are counted per start time (9 per start, a new start every 30 minutes, 90 minute sessions), not people in the room. What 9 really means changes the fairness math.
• No studio software publishes proof that recurring bookings improve retention. The evidence is indirect, so prove it with founding members first.

How we would build it

1. Fill in each member's last visit and visit count every time staff check them in, and backfill from past bookings. This is shared with ideas 5 and 9.
2. Add a daily morning check that finds active, unpaused members with nothing booked whose last visit has passed their threshold.
3. Start with a staff task: the app adds something like 'Check in with Sarah, last visit 11 days ago, usually Thursdays 6pm' to a Check-ins list, and staff text her personally from GoHighLevel, where replies already arrive.
4. Then add an optional automatic text signed by a named staff member, with 2 or 3 open times and one-tap booking. Staff can switch it on or off and edit the words.
5. Stop the moment the member books. Send at most one follow-up 3 days later, then leave it with staff.
6. Track how many members book within 7 days of a check-in, so the thresholds can be tuned once there is real data.

Where we would start

• Threshold: twice the member's usual gap between visits, or a floor by plan, whichever is longer. Core 10 days (Daniel's number, about one missed week), Essential 7, Complete 6, Unlimited 6, and never more than 14.
• Members with fewer than 3 visits use the plan floor. New members are the most at risk.
• Also trigger after a no-show with no rebooking within 48 hours, so one miss doesn't become a streak.
• One check-in per quiet spell. It resets after the next visit.
• Send between 9am and 7pm only.
• Skip paused members, pending cancellations, anyone with a future booking, failed payments (those go to billing), text opt-outs, and anyone who got another retention message in the last 7 days.

Watch out for

• Everything depends on staff checking members in. A missed check-in makes a regular look quiet, and they get a 'we miss you' they don't deserve.
• The 10 day number is a guess until there is attendance data. Nobody has visited yet.
• Text replies stay in GoHighLevel, so the conversation splits across two places. The staff task approach keeps that simple.
• A text that reads like marketing needs consent and an easy opt-out. GoHighLevel handles STOP, but emails from the app have no unsubscribe link yet.
• The Automations screen looks like it can already do this. It can't, and staff could set one up that never sends.
• Paused and frozen members, and anyone with a booking, must be left out or it will feel like spam.
• Size: about a week as a staff task, about two weeks with the automatic text.

How we would build it

1. Add a daily check that looks at each member's unbooked sessions and when they expire.
2. Send a reminder with the balance, the exact deadline and 3 open times near the member's usual slot, each one a one-tap booking.
3. Never send when nothing can be booked before the deadline, and skip Unlimited.
4. Let staff switch the reminder on or off and edit the words, like the existing reminders.
5. Record expired sessions so staff can see what went unused.
6. Optional: a weekly staff list of members with sessions about to expire.

Where we would start

• Membership cycle: a pace check on day 14 of 28 if half or more are still unbooked, then 10 days before the end, then 4 days before, then a last nudge 48 hours before, only if open times exist.
• Packs and reward sessions follow the same timing, keyed to their own expiry date.
• In-app message and email for the first three. A text only for the last nudge, inside the shared limit of one retention text per member every 7 days.
• Wording like 'You have 2 sessions waiting for you before Tuesday, 11:59pm', always in studio time.
• Skip Unlimited and anyone whose sessions are all booked, including by a weekly ritual.

Watch out for

• Your paid-cycle rule means booking links can only show times inside the current cycle. That's right, but the last reminder has to leave enough open times to be useful.
• Nobody holds sessions yet, so this can't be proven until founding members and pack buyers start booking.
• Deadlines must use studio time (Pacific), or a reminder could name the wrong day.
• Some packs can be set to never expire, so the check must use each balance's own expiry date, not the usual defaults.
• Frequent nudges to members who can't make it could feel like 'use it or lose it' pressure.

How we would build it

1. Add a 'Join waitlist' button on full times, and a 'Waitlisted' section in My Schedule with a Leave button. Only allow it when a time is truly full, not just unopened.
2. When a seat frees up, check who on the list is still allowed to book, in order.
3. Text and email them a one-time claim link. The claim goes through the normal booking, so only one person can get the seat, and everyone else hears 'just taken, you're still on the list'.
4. Stop offers 60 minutes before the start. After that the seat is open to everyone.
5. Show staff a waitlist count per session and an 'offer to next' button.
6. Later, if needed: hold the seat for one person with a time limit, and accept 'YES' replies by text.

Where we would start

• Order: first in, first out.
• To start: text and email the next 3 people at once. The first to tap and confirm gets the seat.
• Later, for seats that open well ahead: one person at a time, with 30 minutes to claim if the session is more than 24 hours away and 10 minutes if it is 3 to 24 hours away.
• Offers close 60 minutes before the start.
• Texts only between 8am and 9pm, and email always goes too.
• Up to 3 waitlists per member at once. A member leaves a waitlist automatically if they book another session at that time.
• Joining holds no session. Claiming uses one, like any booking.
• If the claim falls inside 12 hours of the start, the text says it can't be cancelled for free.

Watch out for

• Few seats will free up. Members can't cancel inside 12 hours and no-shows free nothing, so most openings come more than 12 hours out or from staff cancels. Worth checking how often sessions actually fill before building.
• Reach: texts need a verified phone, and none are verified yet. Quiet hours hold texts from 9pm to 7am, so a seat freed at night for an 8am session may reach nobody.
• Claiming close to the start puts the member under the no-show rule ($40 on a second no-show in 60 days). The claim screen must say so.
• Seats are counted per start time. A seat freed at 8:00 does nothing for someone waiting at 8:30.
• Keep it separate from the website interest list in name, data and consent. These are booking messages, not marketing.
• A member's situation can change between joining and claiming (out of sessions, cycle ended, payment failed). The app re-checks at claim time.

How we would build it

1. Count visits from check-ins (the same fix as ideas 2 and 9) and backfill quietly, with no messages for old milestones.
2. On each check-in, check whether the member just reached a milestone, and record it once so it can never fire twice.
3. Send the member a personal note in the app and by email, and create a staff task such as 'Maya hits 25 today' for a handwritten card or a word at the desk.
4. Give rewards through the existing reward system, set by you in the business rules, so you stay in control of what is given.
5. Show members how close they are ('3 visits to your next milestone') on their home screen.
6. Later: a recognition opt-in in the member profile, off by default, showing first name and last initial only, with an easy way to turn it off.

Where we would start

• Milestones at 10, 25, 50 and 100 attended visits. No-shows and cancels don't count.
• Consider an early milestone at visit 5 too. New members are the most at risk, and Othership puts most of its gifts in the first visits.
• Starting rewards to react to: 10 visits, a personal note and a small gift at the desk. 25, a reward session. 50, a retail item or reward session.
• 100 visits: the private group session party Daniel described.
• Private by default. Public recognition only for members who opt in.
• A staff task on the day, so someone also says it in person.

Watch out for

• Visits to a recovery studio can be sensitive. Keep it private by default, opt-in only and easy to take back. There is no per-member consent record today.
• Rewards should go through your business rules, not around them.
• Missed check-ins mean missed milestones. Front desk routine matters.
• The help page promise about points per visit should be corrected either way.
• The backfill must not send a burst of old milestone messages.
• The 100-visit party is a group booking. It needs capacity and a session type set aside, which depends on the session picker from idea 6.
• Public recognition adds about another week on top.

How we would build it

1. Close the safety gap so unfinished session types can't be booked.
2. Add a session picker to the member booking screen and the admin calendar, with Contrast Therapy as the default.
3. Set up 'Sunday Ritual Reset' as its own session type once you choose the times and capacity, and take those hours off regular contrast if it uses the same space.
4. Optional: open it to Unlimited members first with an early-access window.
5. Promote it through GoHighLevel and the member blog now, and through the app once member messages can go out.

Where we would start

• One or two fixed Sunday times, the same every week, so it becomes a habit.
• Included in membership: it uses one normal session.
• A host opens with a short welcome and a theme for the week.
• The same 12 hour cancel and no-show rules as any session.

Watch out for

• Sessions are shared: a Core member spends one of their 4 sessions on the Reset. Is that intended?
• The same space can be double booked if contrast hours aren't adjusted.
• Unlimited's 15 future bookings count Reset bookings too.
• Some wording is written for contrast therapy only (the waiver, the loyalty reward for contrast sessions, the plan descriptions) and needs a look.
• Booking reports will shift once there are two session types.
• Still marked 'needs information' in the Request Center.

How we would build it

1. Build the session picker first (idea 6), so an event can appear in booking.
2. For the very first event: a temporary session type opened for one date by hand and promoted through GoHighLevel. It works, but it can't be members-only and it uses a session.
3. The proper version: a small Events feature. Each event has a date, time, capacity, host, members-only setting, guest limit, and 'included or ticketed'.
4. An Events list in the member app with an RSVP button, and a staff roster with check-in.
5. An opt-in for being introduced to other members before any names are shared.

Where we would start

• Monthly to start, on the same evening each month.
• Members only, with up to 1 guest each.
• Free for members, without using a session.
• RSVP required, with a cap.
• A named host at the door who greets people by name and introduces every first-timer to at least one person.
• Nobody's name is shown to other members unless they opt in.

Watch out for

• Social events would fall under the 12 hour cancel rule and the $40 no-show fee unless you make events different.
• The waiver is written for contrast therapy. A social event in the space may need its own wording.
• Introductions mean showing members to each other, which needs consent first.
• Opening a session by hand for each date is easy to forget, and a forgotten window stays bookable.
• Still marked 'needs information' in the Request Center: cadence, access, guest policy and host aren't decided.

How we would build it

1. Use the session picker from idea 6.
2. Add an instructor to each class, and a 'My classes' roster in the staff hub.
3. Decide included or paid, then make sessions apply only where you want them (class passes for classes, contrast sessions for contrast).
4. A breathwork waiver with health screening questions, signed before a first class.
5. A warning when an instructor is booked during their time off or outside their shift.
6. Share the events and host setup with the Social Club, so both come together.

Where we would start

• One recurring class a week at a fixed time to start.
• Its own session type and capacity, separate from immersion.
• Keep early classes small so the instructor can coach each person.
• Start with gentle breathing styles. Intense styles only after health screening.
• The same 12 hour cancel rule as any session, unless you decide classes work differently.

Watch out for

• Safety and liability: intense breathwork is generally advised against for people with heart conditions, epilepsy or seizures, and during pregnancy without medical advice. The current waiver doesn't cover this.
• Sessions leak value both ways until they are tied to session types.
• A second price set up the wrong way would block contrast bookings that need a paid seat, until it is limited to the class.
• If a class uses the same space as contrast, staff have to take those times out of contrast's weekly windows by hand.
• Staff scheduling is built but untested with real staff.
• Still marked 'needs information' in the Request Center: instructors, cadence, capacity, and included versus paid.

How we would build it

1. Soon, with no build: switch on the member banner and post the running total weekly (web app only).
2. Count completed visits since opening from check-ins, leaving out test and owner preview bookings.
3. Add a progress card to the member home screen.
4. Add a goal setting (target, start date, label) for staff, and a staff task when the goal is hit.
5. Keep it members-only at first.

Where we would start

• Count checked-in visits only, from opening day. No dips or minutes.
• Leave out test, owner preview and staff visits.
• Early on, show how many to go ('812 visits to our first 1,000'). Past halfway, show how many are done.
• Members only at first.
• Update the banner weekly until the live card is ready.

Watch out for

• Early numbers will look small. Pick a framing that motivates rather than embarrasses.
• Missed check-ins undercount the total.
• A public number shows how busy the studio is.
• Test and preview bookings must be left out, or the count gets inflated.