How to Improve Your Client Experience as an Event Planner Using Dubsado
At this point, we think we’ve established that Dubsado is the perfect CRM for service-based businesses. Really, it doesn’t even matter what kind of service-based business you are or what industry you’re in– Dubsado is almost guaranteed to be a surefire option for you.
However, many people use it in different ways depending on their industry and their own client processes, one of those industries being event planners. So, today, we want to cover how to use Dubsado specifically to improve your client experience as an event planner!
Handling New Inquiries
Your process for new leads will be easier than ever using Dubsado because all the tools you would use otherwise are actually all native Dubsado features. They offer different form options for you to use, including lead capture forms. You’re able to create a lead capture form to collect new leads/inquiries that you can then either embed on your website or share the public link that Dubsado generates.
You could even attach a lead capture form to your appointment scheduler (which is also housed in Dubsado). If you don’t usually review the lead’s form submission before booking a call, then this would be awesome for allowing them to go ahead and book when filling out the lead capture form instead of having to email them in between.
BOOKING APPOINTMENTS
Since we’re mentioning the appointment scheduler, we wanted to go ahead and throw in some other perks of using Dubsado for scheduling. You can connect your Google, Apple, or other e-calendar type to the Dubsado Calendar. Any events on your calendar will be reflected on your Dubsado Calendar, and all appointment schedulers you’ve created will look to your calendar for availability.
You can create as many schedulers as you want, set a limit to how many times they can be used either total by the public or by clients individually, add a redirect URL, attach a form, set reminder emails, or even attach an invoice if you want to charge for an appointment (perfect for those clients that want to book too many meetings that are outside of scope).
PROJECT DATES
As an event planner, being able to keep track of clients’ event dates is crucial. Dubsado lets you attach dates to your projects, which will be reflected in your calendar automatically. You’re able to include a date select box in a lead capture form or questionnaire, and map it to the event date (A.K.A. “project start date” in Dubsado). Not only is this useful just to have in your calendar and easy to view inside the project, but you can also use this date in your automated workflows, which we’ll talk about soon.
If there’s more than one date you’d like to keep track of, you can create custom mapped project fields that are date-select boxes. Then, you’ll still be able to view those dates from the project in Dubsado, though it won’t be reflected on your calendar. We have more information on using custom fields over here.
Sending Proposals & Contracts
We mentioned lead capture forms and questionnaires earlier, and you can also create proposals and contracts inside Dubsado, too. Their drag-and-drop form builder allows you to build beautiful full-width proposals that you can then email to your clients, or you can even link or embed public proposals to a web page.
Dubsado has digital packages, so you can build out all of your packages or add-ons to add to your proposals. All clients have to do is select their package and any additional a-la carte items or perks they’d like, then hit submit. This will automatically create an invoice in their project reflecting what they selected in their proposal.
When sending proposals to clients, you also have the option to attach the contract or invoice (or both) directly to the proposal so that when clients are viewing the proposal, they’re immediately taken to the contract then the invoice in 3 easy steps. Instead of needing to use 3 different tools for this process, they’re all connected and seamless, eliminating decision fatigue for your clients and converting faster.
Getting Paid
On the payment end, Dubsado is able to connect with Stripe, PayPal, or Square. They also have a direct integration with bookkeeping software, Quickbooks and Xero. This could be awesome if you’re booking tons of events and need a more robust bookkeeping system to keep track of your income and expenses, but we’ve gotta say that Dubsado has their own bookkeeping tools as well. You’re able to:
Create project sources, track where projects came from, and see how much income is coming from those sources
View and export complete lists of your invoices and transactions
View a Chart of Accounts that lists your income and expenses, where you can filter by time range, as well as export your profit & loss
View colorful charts of an overview of your income, expenses, net profit, and sales
If you want to read more in-depth about how to use Dubsado for bookkeeping, check out this blog post.
PAYMENT PLANS MADE EASY
You’re able to create your own payment plan templates with reminder or payment-is-late emails for each installment. Installments can be due on a fixed date, leave them TBD, or have due dates that are relative to before or after a project start or end date, after the contract has been signed, or after the payment plan has been applied to the invoice.
If you use the client’s event date as the project date, this means you can make payments due a certain amount of time before or after their event. You could also have the first payment automatically due the day that the contract is signed without having to worry about going in and applying a fixed date.
Utilize the Client Portal
The client portal is the ultimate client hub! Inside, clients can view basically everything related to their project in one easy spot. They’re able to find:
A home page overview that tells them right off the bat how many unread emails from you they have, incomplete forms are left to view or complete, and open invoices they have to pay
Your business contact information
All of their invoices, contracts, forms and documents, appointment dates, and tasks (if applied to the portal)
All emails that have been sent between you
The business and contact info you have on file for them, plus the ability to edit this info
You’re able to add links and PDF documents to their portal, meaning you can send basically anything to be kept inside the portal for easy access! We go over the client portal in more detail in this post.
Automate with Workflows
As a busy planner, we know how powerful the ability to automate can be to you. Luckily, Dubsado has that functionality with their workflows! You can automate your processes so that you barely have to think twice about them aside from needing to edit an email or two here or there for more personalization to the specific client or project.
Since there are multiple step options for workflows, the possibilities here are endless. You can automatically send off emails a certain time after you’ve finished a project to ask for a testimonial (with a questionnaire form), respond to new inquiries, send out vendor questionnaires, send out other forms/documents that are timely (90 days out from the event, for example), etc.
There are tons of actions that can happen, like:
Sending forms, emails, contracts, appointment schedulers, or the invoice
Creating an invoice or a todo
Activating or deactivating the client portal
Archiving a project
Starting a new workflow
Pausing the workflow or holding actions until something else happens
As far as what triggers the actions (otherwise, the “when”) you can have actions completed in whatever time frame you specify related to:
After the workflow has started
Before or after the project start or end date (This is what we meant when we said at the beginning that you can perform certain actions based on the event date!)
After a form is or isn’t completed
After the invoice has been paid in full or the contract has been signed
After an appointment is scheduled
Before an appointment start time or after the end time
For a full step-by-step on how to create workflows, head over here.
SMART FIELDS & CUSTOM MAPPED FIELDS
Aside from workflows, there are other simple automation-like features that make a big difference, like smart fields and custom mapped fields! You can insert smart fields into emails or forms, and it will automatically generate information in that field that’s specific to the project (i.e. the client name, project start date or end date, your business info, the current date of the year, etc.).
With custom mapped fields, you’re able to gather more custom information about the client or the project. Project mapped fields only stick to that specific project the client has with you. If it’s a client mapped field, that info will follow them around on any other projects they may have.
Creating a premium client experience for your event clients can be pretty simple with a system like Dubsado. If you’re ready to streamline your processes, you can learn more about Dubsado and save 30% on your first month or year right here.
