Dubsado is hands down my favorite platform. Okay that’s a lie, I love Acuity. And Asana. Dang it, I just freaking LOVE systems!! You’ve heard me say it before, but I’ll say it again, systems are what scale your business. Without them, you’re doing a ton of manual work, wasting man-power when a robot can do the same thing, much quicker, and without wasting any brain-power!
One of my favorite things about Dubsado in particular is their Workflow feature. It truly is what sets it apart from other systems. Workflows have the power to automate your entire client process. You can automatically send forms, contracts, invoices, emails, calendar invites, etc. to your clients. You can simply walk a client through their first contact with you as a lead, through a successful on-boarding process, all the way until you off-board them as a client.
I’m going to walk you through all the parts of the process of setting up a simple workflow in Dubsado.
Lead Capture Forms
Lead forms are such a time saver. Think of this in the same way you’d think of an email capture form for your email list. The difference is, these lead forms are specific for people wanting to work with you, join your program, buy your product, etc. For example, say you’re launching a new group program. You can embed a lead capture form on your landing/sales page. A person who’s interested in your program will fill out the form (I usually keep it simple - name, email). This will bring them in as a “new lead” in Dubsado and label them whatever you choose (i.e. New Lead - XYZ Program). Now, the cool thing about lead forms is, they can trigger a workflow to start. So when that lead comes in, a workflow can be triggered to automatically send that person a personalized email, contract, and/or invoice for your program.
Choosing an Action in a Workflow
Actions are what you want the workflow to do. For example, you can send an email, send a contract, create an invoice, create a form, schedule a call, etc. From here, you have the ability to decide how that action is “triggered”. Maybe it’s when the workflow starts, or maybe it’s once the contract is signed by the client. If you want to send a client an invoice for your new group coaching program once they sign the contract, you would select “after contract is signed by client.” You can specify if you want this to be sent right away, or if you’d prefer a time delay.
Pausing / Approving / Automation for a Workflow
The great thing about workflows is the automation element. Once you hit start you can simply rest easy knowing that everything is being taken care of automatically. BUT, if you wanted to set everything up but set an “approval” action along the way, you could do that too. For instance, if you send a client your scheduler to book a call in one step, the rest of your workflow may be set up assuming that they say yes to working with you (I’m all about the added confidence here). You can add in an “approve first” for the next step in a workflow - say sending an invoice or contract for example. All you would need to do is press the approve button in the workflow and it would continue down its course.
Triggers in a Workflow
There are many different triggers that can start the next action in the workflow. For example, once a contract is signed, once an appointment has been made, once an invoice has been paid, etc.. This can be extremely helpful if you want to give clients access to say book a 1:1 call with you, or give access to the online portal or email them with next steps, but don’t want to do this until you’re certain they’ve made payment. You can trigger the next step once they’ve done the said action that you’d like them to make.
Canned Emails
Canned emails are a lifesaver/timesaver. If you find yourself sending the same welcome email to a client with each new client you onboard, do yourself a favor and set up a canned email. But Katelyn, what if I personalize all my welcome emails? Girl, you’re wasting some serious time. There are still ways to personalize with automation and canned emails, but in order to reduce your overall time, generalize as much as you can and find ways to add the personalization later (maybe sending a welcome gift, or sending them a note after they fill out their onboarding questionnaire relating to something they shared, etc.). Examples of canned emails include: getting started/welcome email, contract, and invoice, booking an appointment, the process for your work together, etc).
PREP your Workflows
What do I mean by PREP? Get all the things you need ready before you start the workflow. This means, set up all those canned emails, set up your packages, set up your payment plans, add in all your relevant forms (think contracts, questionnaires, lead forms, etc.). Otherwise, you won’t get very far when starting to put together your workflow. You need all of these “set up” pieces in place and done first and then putting together your workflow should be a breeze.
Write Out Your Process First
When I do my “pre-intensive” call prep one of the first things we do is write out the flow of how they want things to go from start to finish. It’s here you typically realize you’re missing a step, or need to iron out a piece of your process. It’s better to do this up-front than mid-workflow. Trust me, a lot less frustration and time spent “redoing” or reorganizing your workflow. Think through every single step you want your client, or potential client, to take and what’s needed for that (forms, questions, copy, graphics, links, etc).
Once you go through all the steps and set your workflow up, make sure you test it out! 9 times out of 10 I find an error in the workflow trigger or have something that needs to be adjusted, added or removed. I set myself up as a test client and run through the entire process just as a client would. Then you can be confident in your process and your client’s experience. Workflows are such an amazing way to create efficiencies in your business. While they do tend to take a few hours to set up, they will ultimately save you so much time and frustration.
If you need additional support in setting up your Dubsado account, check out my Dubsado mini-course, Automate Everything, where I take you through setting up your entire Dubsado account. Click here to access and enter the code COVID19 to get 50% off! If you’d prefer more 1:1 support, I do offer a done-for-you intensive called Systems With Speed where I can set up your account for you in just 4-hours. Learn more here. If you’re new to Dubsado, get 20% off (either your first month or a full year purchase) using this link and the code katelynhamilton at checkout.
Katelyn Hamilton is an Online Business Manager and Get Your Sh!t Together Strategist. She helps busy entrepreneurs organize, strategize and prioritize their business to go from overwhelmed to out-in-front.
After spending 6 years in the corporate world working with multimillion dollar companies, top-rated chefs and celebrities, she launched her own business to find more flexibility and freedom. She matched her corporate salary in just one year of starting her business.
Katelyn is also a wife, stepmom, dog mama of three furry friends, fitness lover, sports fanatic (Go Dawgs) and dreams of living at the beach.
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