How to Use Dubsado as an Interior Designer
If you’ve happened to check out our blog in the past month or so, you may have picked up on a sort of mini series that’s been happening here where we walk through how to use Dubsado for different types of service providers. So far, we’ve covered virtual assistants, wedding planners, and photographers, and the list series continues with today’s post for interior designers!
We’re hardcore Dubsado lovers and quite possibly the biggest fans ever. It’s our favorite CRM to recommend and talk about because we have so much faith that it can make a dramatic difference in how every service provider runs their business. So, if you’re an interior designer who’s been eyeing Dubsado or trying to find a great CRM, keep reading!
All of Your Tools, All in One Place
Dubsado is rightfully dubbed the all-in-one CRM because it really does have everything you need wrapped up in one software. This means that instead of having multiple monthly or annual expenses for subscriptions to different tools you use, we’d bet our top dollar that Dubsado can take care of the majority.
APPOINTMENT SCHEDULER
Instead of using a separate scheduling tool, just use Dubsado’s! You’re able to create multiple schedulers for different purposes, setting different availability windows for each, locations, duration, and more advanced settings. You can even attach a form to be completed when someone books.
ALL THE FORMS
Speaking of forms, Dusbado’s easy-to-use builder makes it simple to create proposals, lead capture forms, contracts, sub-agreements, and questionnaires. You can create as many as you need for so many different purposes. If you want to create an informational guide, for example, to walk potential clients through the process of working with you, you can create it as a questionnaire, just without the questions. This eliminates the need to design a PDF document, and it’ll add that extra wow factor to your client experience!
Questionnaires also include a file uploader so that clients can upload images and files. Any photos you need from them of their rooms can easily be uploaded straight within the questionnaire along with their answers to questions you need to make their dream design happen.
And to make the signing process even more streamlined so you can get paid faster, Dubsado also allows you to, with a few clicks in your proposal settings, attach your contract and invoice straight to your proposal. When new clients have read through the proposal and selected their package, they can move right along to the contract and then the invoice.
PUBLIC PROPOSALS
This is technically form-related, but we think it deserves a section all on its own, and that’s the public proposal. You know your regular proposal that you’d send individually to clients? Well, you can switch it to public mode, allowing you to share the direct link or embed it on a page of your website. This means that you can sign new clients right off the bat.
Not every interior designer holds consultations with potential clients before signing. Especially if your process is simple or you have no reason to go through a vetting process first, public proposals allow you to:
Display all of the information new clients need to know before signing
Capture the information you need from them by adding blocks for short/long answers, checkboxes, drop-down menus, date selection, etc.
Include your packages and optional add-ons for clients to select
Lead new clients straight to the contract and invoice so they can sign and pay right then and there
BOOKKEEPING TOOLS
Just when you thought Dubsado already does it all, they also have bookkeeping tools to help you keep your finances straight. Even though they directly integrate with Quickooks, their native tools will work perfectly for newer businesses that don’t need a fancy or robust system. Straight within Dubsado, you’re able to generate income and expense reports, track project sources, view all transactions and invoices, and export CSVs of all kinds of reports.
TASK BOARDS AND TODO LISTS
You can even manage your projects inside Dubsado using their task boards and todo lists. Task boards work similarly to Trello in that there are boards, columns, and cards for you to organize your projects. If you have multiple users added to your Dubsado account, you can assign tasks to them, as well as sharing the board with your clients. You can do the same with todo lists, too, which are awesome for those who prefer a more simple way of keeping track of tasks.
CANNED EMAILS
Instead of typing out the same emails multiple times to your clients, you can create canned email templates to choose from when either sending emails one-off from within Dubsado, or you can add them to workflows (we’ll talk about workflows next). You’re still able to customize them to make them more personable to your clients before sending them off.
Bring Automation into the Mix with Workflows
Your possibilities are endless when it comes to automating your processes using Dubsado’s workflow feature. By spending just a few hours getting it set up, you can save yourself so much time and headache in the future. With workflows, you’re able to automate steps like:
Sending emails
Creating todos
Sending forms
Activating the portal
Sending appointment schedulers
Adding tags
Changing project status
Archiving projects
Creating invoices
When you put all of these steps together, the possibilities are really endless for what you can make happen automatically without even having to think twice about it. We wrote an in-depth blog post about how to break your processes down and create workflows for them in this blog post.
Ready to Give it a Try?
If you want to take Dubsado for a spin, you can head here to learn more about it and save 30% on your first month or year once your free trial ends. (And that could be any time because Dubsado doesn’t put a time limit on the trial! You get your first three clients for free, and there’s no time constraint.) There are no features that aren’t limited during your trial either, so you get full access to the platform while you get settled in. Give it a try, and get your interior design business organized while having more time in your calendar to care for your clients!
