We got started with Dubsado as our CRM back in 2017 – there was a 30% off sale that locked in a Premier subscription at their lifetime rate of $140/year and I just couldn’t pass it up! Little did I know, it would change my life. It’s like having a virtual assistant, except that it works for you 24/7 and costs the equivalent to what you’d pay for an hour or two of a real virtual assistant. So know that when I share about it, it’s truly because we can’t imagine running our business without it, not because it will help me to get a better deal (not sure they’d let me go much cheaper than that, ha!).
Dubsado really is THE BEST. I knew from the start that I would need to love their customer service team because I’m a bit of DIY-er and would probably need some help – which turned out to be totally true. Thankfully, their team is above and beyond helpful with every little thing I’ve ever had a question about!
Dubsado is hands-down the one thing I wish I would have utilized earlier in our photography business – it has legitimately cut off HOURS of my office/email time!
Something that kept me from fully diving in for years was the feeling of overwhelm with trying to figure it all out. Here are some things I wish I would have had fully organized before doing a single thing in Dubsado –
- EMAIL TEMPLATES: Gather all of your canned emails / templates into one main document. If you haven’t created email templates yet, look through your replies with your clients and grab/write 5 main ones – start small!
- CONTRACTS / QUESTIONNAIRES / PRICING: These will all be entered into the Forms section of Dubsado, so the design won’t matter until you get there, but make sure you have the basics of these all gathered. Which contracts are you missing? Do you questionnaires need any updating? Are your pricing and packages clear?
- WORKFLOW: Sit down with a pen and paper or post-it notes. Think through and write down each step a client goes through to book with you and what your action is for each step. For example, an inquiry/new lead comes in, what do you do with it? Email an auto-reply? Send a questionnaire to gather more info? Send your pricing? Then when they return it, what happens next? Etc etc. :) I found it easiest to break our existing process up into post-it notes then I could re-arrange them visually until it all flowed correctly.
- THEN, once you have your entire process written out, you’ll be ready to enter into the world of Dubsado!
Obviously, there’s so much more I could say about this (maybe I will sometime?) but this should give you a good start. :) Feel free to reach out with questions – I love love love this platform!
