Challenges (beta)

This article covers what Challenges is, how each type works, and what to expect during the beta.

Beta status

Challenges is currently in beta. All three Challenge types are available now, but the client-facing mobile app experience is still being built—Milestone and Leaderboard are being prioritized, with Bingo to follow. Until your app experience is ready, you can still create Challenges, enroll clients, and manage progress from the front desk. Nothing about running a Challenge requires the app to be live.

Challenge types

Milestone Clients work toward one or more attendance goals you define—for example, attend 10, 16, or 24 classes. You can set up separate rewards for each milestone, so a client can earn multiple rewards across a single Challenge.

Leaderboard Clients compete on who completes the most classes or appointments during the Challenge window. You choose how many placements earn a reward, and you can set a different reward per placement.

Bingo Clients complete a mix of activities across a bingo card. Some activities Walla can track automatically (like attending a class type or visiting a location); others—taking a selfie with an instructor, leaving a Google review, bringing a guest—need to be marked complete manually by staff. One activity can complete more than one square if it applies to multiple.

Setting up a Challenge

When you create a Challenge, you'll configure:

• Name, teaser, and description
• Start and end dates
• Participating location(s)
• Which classes or appointments count toward progress
• Goals, milestones, leaderboard placements, or bingo activities
• Enrollment settings
• An optional enrollment bonus
• Reward type and how it's fulfilled

A Challenge is tied to a specific date range and to the location(s) you select—only eligible activity at those locations during that window counts.

Enrollment is controlled separately from the Challenge's start and end dates, which gives you some flexibility:

• Open enrollment before the Challenge starts
• Close enrollment early, or keep it open after the Challenge has already begun
• Reopen enrollment later, as long as the Challenge hasn't ended

Enrollment closes automatically once the Challenge ends. Right now, staff enroll clients from the front desk; clients will be able to self-enroll through the mobile app once that experience is available.

One thing worth flagging: if a client joins after a Challenge has already started, only activity completed after they enroll counts toward their progress—not activity from the Challenge's original start date. We're exploring adding a setting to let you choose which of those two behaviors you want, but for now, late joiners start from zero.

Walla automatically tracks eligible check-ins during the Challenge window, with a few rules to know:

• Canceled and late-canceled visits don't count
• Multiple qualifying visits on the same day can all count
• A single visit can count toward more than one active Challenge at once
• Clients can be enrolled in multiple Challenges simultaneously
• Visits at non-participating locations don't count
• Staff can manually adjust a client's progress to handle corrections or exceptions

For Bingo, any activity Walla can't verify automatically has to be marked complete manually.

You can offer:

• Loyalty points
• Account credit
• A manually fulfilled reward (merchandise, etc.)

Loyalty points and account credit are issued automatically once the Challenge ends. Manual rewards are on you to fulfill, but Walla lets staff track whether each one has been issued.

• Milestone: a client can qualify for multiple rewards if they hit multiple milestones.
• Leaderboard: rewards are based on final placement once the Challenge ends.

Entry fees

If you want to charge an entry fee, note that it isn't collected automatically as part of enrollment—you'll need to charge it from the front desk when you enroll the client. A couple of things to keep in mind:

• Removing a participant does not automatically refund their fee
• Refunding the transaction does not automatically remove them as a participant

You'll need to handle both sides of that manually for now. Also, if a client tries to join a paid Challenge from the mobile app, they won't be able to—they'll be directed to contact the studio instead. Support for joining a paid Challenge in-app is something we want to add.

A Challenge moves through three statuses based on its dates:

• Upcoming – hasn't started yet
• Live – currently running
• Completed – end date has passed

Once a Challenge ends:

• New activity stops counting
• Enrollment closes
• Final progress becomes available to staff
• Loyalty points and account credit are issued automatically
• Staff can review winners and fulfill any manual rewards
• The Challenge stays available afterward for historical reference

As the client-facing app rolls out (Milestone and Leaderboard first, Bingo after), clients will be able to:

• View Challenges open for enrollment
• Join Challenges that don't require an entry fee
• View Challenges they're currently enrolled in
• See the rules, dates, goals, and rewards for a Challenge
• Track their own progress
• View past results and participation history

Paid Challenges will still direct clients to contact the studio directly to enroll, even once the app experience is live.

• Mobile app enrollment isn't available yet—Milestone and Leaderboard are being built first, Bingo after
• Late enrollees only get credit for activity after they join, not from the Challenge start date
• Entry fees are handled manually (charging, refunding, and removing participants aren't linked)
• Paid Challenges can't be joined through the mobile app yet

See a walkthrough of Challenges in action here: Loom demo