Kitomba: client lists and win-back campaigns

Kitomba is salon software with a clinic following, and its own blog has been writing about lapsed clients all year. The help centre is thinner: it documents the path to a filtered client list and a campaign, but not the names of the filters. So this guide is honest about which steps are quoted and which you'll have to confirm on screen.

The client list

From Kitomba's help centre, updated 23 August 2024: "To create a client list that you can use for marketing go to the Client tab in the top navigation bar for Kitomba 1", then "Select the Client lists button", then "Either download a full client list or create your own filtered list by selecting the appropriate radio button", "edit the filters as you require", and "select the Generate Client list button" (Create a client list in K1). If it takes a while you get a "notify me" option. Then: "Once the list is generated you have the option to Create a campaign or Download the list. Download will provide you with a spreadsheet that you can filter further."

What the article doesn't do is list the filters. Kitomba's blog says the software "makes it easy to identify clients who haven't visited in a set period and send them a targeted message" and that "Your client history in your salon software already holds this information. You just need to filter for it" (Kitomba blog, 21 August 2026). So a last-visit filter exists by the vendor's account; its exact label isn't quoted here because no help page names it. Open Client lists, look at the filter options, and if there's a "last visited" or "days since" option, that's the one. If not, download the full list and filter the last-visit column in the spreadsheet.

The columns of the downloaded spreadsheet aren't documented either. Check for mobile and last visit before you plan around them.

Sending a one-off campaign

Also updated 23 August 2024: "Select the Admin tab", "Select Campaign Marketing from the list on the left", "Select Create", name it and pick the send date and time ("It must be at least 60 minutes from the time you save the campaign"), then "Select the list of clients you want to send this campaign to from the drop down box. There are two default lists that can be used, or you can create your own by saving client lists from the Reports tab" (Create a one-off marketing campaign). Pick a message template (Admin → Message Templates), choose Text or Email, and "You can add a second method so your campaign can still be delivered to clients that do not have a mobile number or email address."

Two lines to note. "Texts have a maximum character limit of 160." And: "Clients will need to have 'accept promos' ticked in their client card to receive marketing messages."

That tick is Kitomba's consent gate. Under the Spam Act "it's up to you to prove that you have a person's consent" (ACMA), and a tick a receptionist added at intake three years ago is thin evidence for a promotional text today. It's fine for a recall about the treatment the client actually had, which is the lane a reactivation message should sit in anyway. The rules, quoted.

The Kitomba pages this build read don't mention the Spam Act, the ACMA, per-SMS pricing, or reply-STOP handling. Put "Reply STOP to opt out" in the template and make sure someone sees the replies.

Everyday marketing: the automatic version

Kitomba splits marketing into "everyday or campaign". Its description of Everyday Marketing: it "automatically sends your lapsed clients appointment reminders, birthday wishes, thanks for referring a friend and more" (Create Everyday marketing). The setup is Admin tab → create a message template → Everyday Marketing → Create → name, timing, recipients, template, delivery method (Email, text, post or a combination).

The recipient options for the lapsed-client message aren't quoted in the article, so the threshold that defines "lapsed" for Everyday Marketing isn't stated here. The blog's advice is to "Set up an automatic message that triggers once a client passes your lapsed threshold, so the outreach happens consistently without needing to remember to do it", which is what this feature is for.

Kitomba's own definition of rebooking

Useful because Kitomba is one of the few vendors that publishes one. "If your client makes another appointment less than 24 hours after their last appointment, this is rebooking", and future appointments booked before the last visit count too. Its Business Summary report then looks for "a future booking within the next 90 days", while the Customer Retention Report counts "all future appointments" (Rebooking vs Retention). If your rebooking rate looks different on two Kitomba reports, that's why. How to measure it, and why every PMS disagrees.

What the salon advice misses for a clinic

Kitomba's blog is good on the human side: "A lapsed client is simply someone whose gap since their last visit is noticeably longer than their usual pattern", "Not every lapsed client is coming back, and that's a normal part of running a salon", and "A genuine message, sent to the right person at the right time, with an easy way to book, brings a meaningful number of clients straight back". All true for a clinic.

What it can't cover is the clinic layer: a skin or injectables clinic is advertising a regulated health service, its client records are health information, and the text can't name a Schedule 4 product or tie a discount to one. Why your recall text can't name the treatment is the part a salon article never needs.

What to do on Kitomba

Build a client list filtered (or spreadsheet-filtered) to last visit 3 to 24 months ago, download it, sort most-recent first. Send the first 50 as a personal text from the therapist they saw, 160 characters, with a STOP line (templates). Then answer the replies. Kitomba will get the list and the send done; whoever picks up "yes, when?" is where the bookings come from.