Wellness Practices May Be Growing Fast and Quietly Losing Their Regulars

A widely shared but unverified industry claim from 2024 reckons close to half of wellness providers lost long-standing clients even as membership sales climbed by a quarter, and yes, that includes practices like yours.

Whole-practice growth for wellness practices. Rooted in Wiltshire, UK, working worldwide.

Practices chasing new sign-ups can miss the quieter fact that loyal clients are leaving out the back door, though this particular figure comes with no paper trail worth following.

Original ResearchA claim that nearly half of wellness businesses lost regular clients this year, despite membership sales rising sharply
Sourcehttps://www.zenoti.com/thecheckin/client-retention-strategies-for-wellness-brands
OverviewThe piece discusses client turnover alongside membership growth in the wellness sector, published on the blog of Zenoti, a wellness business software company.
Year2024 (implied by the figures, not stated outright)
PublisherBrand, Zenoti
Relevance to WellbeingSpeaks directly to the growth-versus-attrition tension familiar to most practice types, though the headline numbers can't be traced to any named study.
Our VerdictToo early to tell The theme rings true but the number behind it has no named survey, sample, or publisher standing behind it.
Our Summary
  • The underlying idea, that growth can mask attrition, matches what most practice owners already suspect.
  • There's no named survey, no sample size, and no methodology anywhere on the page.
  • The 24% growth figure and the 48% churn figure aren't shown to come from the same dataset, or any dataset at all.
  • It's a decent prompt to check your own books, even if it's not proof of a national trend.
Our Geo ViewApplies broadly to all countries
Abstract of wellbeing niches and revenue flow
Recognise how this might impact your practice

Why this might matter to you

  • Coaching: this matters because a full diary of new clients won't tell you if the old faces have quietly stopped booking.
  • Therapy: this matters because clients drift away without a word more often than they announce it, and nobody sends an exit survey.
  • Training: this matters because filling new class slots can hide the fact that founding members stopped turning up months ago.
  • Alternative Healing: this matters because a booked-out schedule says nothing about whether the healer's oldest clients are still coming back.
  • Clinical: this matters because clinics live on repeat patients, and new referrals can paper over the ones who quietly moved on.
  • Retreat/Centre: this matters because a centre can sell more memberships and still be bleeding its founding regulars, and nobody checks that on a revenue spreadsheet.

Where this came from

A blog post argues wellness providers are losing long-term clients at the same time membership sales are going up.

Zenoti's Check-In blog. No publish date is stated on the page.

Credibility flags: no survey name given, no sample size disclosed, no methodology explained. The figures appear presented as fact with nothing behind them.

How we scored this

A relevance score out of 100, built from three things: how well it fits the six practice types, how recent it is, and how solid the methodology behind it is.

41%
Practice fit, 50How new, 70How solid, 0

Marked down hard on how solid the method is, since there isn't one to check, though the practice fit is reasonable and the claim itself is recent enough.

Faces of satisfied clients
It's worth considering changes to your marketing practices

What this means for your marketing

  • Pull last year's client list and check who hasn't rebooked, before you take anyone's word for it.
  • Put a follow-up call on the calendar before a loyal client quietly becomes an ex-client.
  • Brief your front desk to flag regulars gone quiet, not just chase new sign-ups.
  • Say the retention line before a client asks it for you: "we track who stays, not just who joins."
  • Leave this particular stat out of your own marketing copy. It isn't sourced enough to quote as fact.

Who this is most useful for

Practice typeRelevanceRecommended action
CoachingMediumCheck in with anyone who hasn't booked in eight weeks or more.
TherapyMediumReview drop-off patterns quarterly, not just at intake.
TrainingMediumTrack attendance trends per member, not just total headcount.
Alternative HealingMediumLog repeat bookings alongside new client numbers each month.
ClinicalHighAudit patient retention against new patient intake monthly.
Retreat/CentreHighCompare membership growth against renewal rates side by side, not on separate reports.

Best before

Best before: revisit this once a named survey with a proper methodology turns up behind these numbers; until then, treat it as a talking point rather than a fact. Check for updates at Zenoti's blog.

What next?

That gap between a fuller diary and a quieter list of regulars is one most practice owners will recognise, sourced or not.

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