How to Use Dubsado as a Coach
When it comes to all the different options of CRMs for service providers, Dubsado takes the cake. It's all-in-one capabilities mean that not only do you have easy access to basically all the tools you could possibly need to run your business, but also that you no longer have to pay separately for each one.
Because of this versatility, it’s perfect for all types of service-based businesses, and we want to show you how. We’ve previously walked through how to use Dubsado as a virtual assistant, photographer, and wedding planner. Today, we’ll be covering how to use Dubsado as a coach!
Collect Leads with a Lead Capture Form
Dubsado allows you to create multiple types of forms, including lead capture forms that you can embed on your website or share a direct link to. Anyone who submits the form will automatically be added as a lead to Dubsado. You can make tons of advanced changes to your lead capture form, like:
Using it as a trigger to a workflow (which we’ll cover later)
Redirecting to a certain URL
Adding a project status (You can learn all about statuses here)
Assigning team members to the lead
Adjusting the font and sizing of your text
Schedule Appointments
The native scheduling tool allows you to create multiple schedulers for different purposes. You can have a discovery call scheduler to vet new leads once they submit your lead capture form, periodic appointments for your clients, etc. To take the organization a step further, you can set schedulers to be able to only be booked on certain days or certain times of the day. There’s also the option to require payment when someone books an appointment, which is awesome for offering one-off coaching sessions.
INTEGRATE YOUR CALENDAR
Dubsado has a calendar built in, which you can sync with another calendar like Google Calendar or Apple iCalendar. The integration works both ways, so appointments that are scheduled in Dubsado will reflect on the other calendar, and slots that are booked on the other calendar will show as busy times on your Dubsado Calendar. They make it super difficult to accidentally book appointments during unavailable times.
Email Made Easier
Dubsado makes sure communication with your clients is easy and organized. You’re able to connect an email account with your Dubsado account to send and receive emails right within Dubsado. They even have read tracking which will let you know when an email has been viewed, so you can follow up appropriately.
CREATE TEMPLATES WITH CANNED EMAILS
Canned emails make this even easier (if that’s even possible at this point) by allowing you to create templates that you can select from when sending emails one-off, or you can add them to a workflow to be sent automatically. With either method, you’re able to edit it before it gets sent to make it more personalized to the client you’re speaking to.
PERSONALIZE WITH SMART FIELDS
Speaking of personalization, there’s also a thing called “smart fields”. When you insert a smart field into an email or form, that information will populate based on the client or project you’re sending it to. For example, the Client First Name smart field will populate the client’s first name.
Sign Clients and Get Paid
Among lead capture forms, you can also create proposals and contracts inside Dubsado. The drag-and-drop form builder makes it easy (we feel like we use that word a lot when talking about Dubsado, but it’s so true) to create beautiful and branded forms. There’s even a packages feature that allows you to create packages, which you can then add to your proposal for clients to select.
INTEGRATIONS WITH PAYMENT PROCESSORS
Did we mention that Dubsado directly integrates with the most popular payment processors? You can connect your Stripe, PayPal, or Square account to get paid immediately once an invoice is paid, and Dubsado takes no additional fees. You can even integrate with Quickbooks or Xero for a seamless bookkeeping experience (that is, if you don’t want to use Dubsado’s native bookkeeping tools… because, yep, they have those, too).
AS EASY AS 1-2-3
And we mean that literally! With Dubsado, you’re able to attach the contract and invoice directly to the proposal, which means your clients can select a package, sign the contract, and pay their invoice in three streamlined steps. You can even add a payment schedule to the invoice for larger payments that you may want to split up for your clients.
Collect or Share Information with Questionnaires
Questionnaires are yet another form that you can build inside Dubsado the same way you’d build proposals, contracts, and lead capture forms. You can have questionnaires for post-consultation feedback, testimonials, client homework, etc. Although they’re called questionnaires, they don’t have to include questions either! They can serve as informational sheets to share more about your process, as resources, whatever the need may be.
Keep Clients Organized with the Client Portal
The client portal is essentially their hub for all things related to their project. It’s optional to activate and utilize it for your clients, but it can really amplify their experience working with you. Inside the portal, your clients can view:
Unread emails
Outstanding invoices
Incomplete forms
Email communication between you
Documents (including Dubsado forms, PDFs, and links)
Appointment schedulers (if sent to the client)
Appointment dates and times (if applied to the portal)
Your business information
The business and contact info you have on file for them, including the ability to edit it
Task boards or (if shared with them)
Automate Your Processes with Workflows
Once you’ve mastered your process manually, you can put it all together in a neat workflow! Workflows trigger either from forms being completed, like we mentioned earlier, or they can trigger based on certain responses to a question. For example, you can add a workflow-tied drop down question asking which package they’re interested in. You can then apply a workflow to each response.
This means that you can keep your processes even more streamlined, plus cut lots of time out of your vetting process because you’ll already know what they’re specifically interested in, and then base the rest of the onboarding process on that response inside of that specific workflow.
If we lost you amongst all this automation talk, that’s alright because we have a more in-depth blog post on creating workflows and how they function right over here.
Want to Take Dubsado for a Spin?
One of our favorite traits of Dubsado is that there’s no time constraint on their free trial. You get your first three clients for free, and your trial lasts for however long it takes you to max out and need to upgrade. If that sounds like heaven to you like it does to us, you can head over here to save 30% on your first month or year!
Now that you understand how Dubsado can serve you as a coach, all that’s left to do is dive in and try it for yourself!
