BIRD WILLIAMS: You’re listening to Bird Means Business Episode 16. 

Hi there, so I am excited about the episode today because so many people have asked me, or they're surprised when they find out how I automate client communication in my business. And I do that through Dubsado. And it is amazing. So, whenever I'd have these consultation calls, people would say, “Wow, I really love the process. The questionnaire was so great.”  And I didn't have to lift a finger through that entire process, because it's something that I set up on the front-end through Dubsado. And so I'm going to kind of just explain how that looks today. If this is something that you could be interested in, I actually do have a discount code which I'll share at the end of the episode. 

But I do want to rewind and give you some background. When I launched Bird Williams, I knew I wanted to have a really great system of keeping track of my clients and contracts and invoices and call notes. I was really used to the POS system that we used for the gym. If you don't know I own a gym, here in Houston called The League with my husband, Terry. And we've owned it for about seven years. I use Mindbody. It's a very common POS system for gyms. It’s great and it's kind of like an all-in-one thing. There's so many different ones out there. But I thought, what if there is something like that I can use in terms of just client management. And I found Dubsado actually through a young lady named Kristi Monte who has her own podcast called, “Coffee With Kristi, and she's legit, y'all, and hilarious. She's actually a virtual assistant and coaches virtual assistants, and has an incredible business. I was looking for a virtual assistant, so I started following her podcast, and she mentioned Dubsado and I said you know what I'm going to try that.  And I fell in love immediately. 

So I will say I haven't tried other client management systems. I tried this the first time and it works so great that I've just stuck with it. But I'm going to share with you how it kind of works in my system so that if you have an online business or a business that you think it could work well in, you can kind of see how it works. It saves me so much time. 

Okay, so I'm going to kind of just jump right in and give you an actual example of how it works in my business so that you can really see what I mean. But it helps automate client communication so that I'm not having to worry about each client's touchpoint along their path. It's kind of already done in the back end, from the very beginning. 

So I'll just use the example of my complimentary consultation. All right. So, somehow, someone gets to my website. Maybe it's to the link in my bio on Instagram. Or maybe they listen to the podcast and read the show notes and there's a link to my website there. But they end up on my website and they see at the top, okay she has a complimentary consultation and they click for that page. When they get to that page there's going to be a form, and that is a Dubsado form. It's a form that I set up months ago when I set up Dubsado for my business. And once they fill out this form with just a few questions and click Send, what's going to happen is they're going to see a completion page which you know tells them that they're all set and to check their email. And when they click Send it's going to kind of start what's called a workflow in Dubsado. It's basically the automation process or workflow for whatever they've chosen that form. So, they click Send. They go to their inbox and they see an email from me saying, “Hi, I look forward to chatting with you. Click below to schedule your call.” And there's a button that says schedule. They click that button and they're able to see all of my availability which I also pre-set. And it's amazingly flexible. You can choose what times you're available. Let's say you're only available during lunchtime, or, only you know before five, or whatever it is. Maybe you want to have people book 48 hours in advance or two weeks in advance. Or maybe you only want to have 10 consultation calls per week so the system will be able to know all of that, and only show them availability based on what you want. It is amazing. And the beauty of Dubsado is that you aren't having to have all of these different, Calendly, and a whole bunch of different software. Basically, it's kind of all in one. And that's the beauty of it. So they click the button, they see my availability, They book a call, and then they're going to automatically get a confirmation email which I've also pre-drafted. I drafted it forever ago and I could always change or update it. But that's something that I don't have to remember to do, to send them a confirmation, or to send them a reminder because there's also that you could have it send a reminder a day before or an hour before both things and as many reminders as you want. Also in that confirmation email that they get after they schedule the call. There are buttons to either cancel or reschedule if they need to. So, it's just automated and it's amazing. 

Another thing that I have happen after they have completed or after they actually scheduled the call, is to complete a questionnaire. And this helps me before they have a consultation call with me to kind of know where they are. So, you know, if you don't know I help small business owners launch and grow their business. I ask questions around that. Have you launched your business? If not, where are you in the growth phase? Or if you are launching what's your launch timing? That sort of thing. I get a sense for where they are in terms of their business plan. And if you don't know I have a free checklist on launching your business. It’s called “Ready, Set, Launch”. And there's questions in there around how they set up their business formation like an LLC, or do they have a bank business bank account. That sort of thing just so I can kind of gauge where they are in the process of that. I can make the most of the call. 

So they fill out this questionnaire, and then I will get emails along this entire process when they book the call. When they complete the questionnaire Dubsado automatically sends me an email and says so and so completed a questionnaire. And so then I'm able to go look at it. Another beautiful thing is that each client is in their own project, which is what it's called. And so, you are able to go into the project and see all of the forms, emails, everything, invoices, contracts, related to that client. It is amazing. 

I go in and even if maybe I review the questionnaire right then. But they don't have their call for another week before the call. I can go in and kind of review the questionnaire right there again. And then, after the call. We made sure to send a follow-up email and of course that's something that can't be automated. I have to actually go in and kind of maybe summarize our call if there's any follow-up. And so I would actually draft that. But there is something in the workflow that I've created that says, okay, Ashley needs to follow up. So it's one of the tasks on the task board, inside of Dubsado. It's amazing. 

You can do so many things with it. Inside it, let's say I want to send a proposal. I can send someone a proposal with three options and then depending on which option they choose. It will trigger the contract that's related to it. So if they choose option one, it's going to trigger a contract related to option one, and an invoice clearly created to the same option. And the beauty of it is that you can have it set to where if they choose a proposal, they're required to pay the invoice and sign the contract before we can move forward. And that's made very clear like before they can schedule the next call or do the next thing. So again, you're not having to worry about, “Have they signed their contract?” Scrolling through emails to kind of figure out where it is, or saving it to a file on your computer, on Google Docs. It's just all right there in one place. And y'all, it is just the best. 

So I want to point out a few other features that I really enjoy about Dubsado one is that you can take payments through Stripe, PayPal, or Square. But it's all in Dubsado so you're not having them link out or send them a link to something else. It's all just right there connected to your Dubsado account, super simple. And you can even have it send your clients payment reminders. Again you can set it up as frequent as you want so they remember to pay. Not something that you're again having to remember to do. 

I mentioned task boards helping you stay organized in terms of things like follow-up emails that you have to engage with your clients on that’s not automated. Also, it can track your time for projects. You can have your call notes. That's something I use a whole lot. So if I'm on a consultation call with someone, I typically have their call notes pulled up, and I'm taking notes on the call so that I can remember afterward. It's all right there. You can even do your bookkeeping and sync your QuickBooks to Dubsado and keep everything right there. Even payments that maybe you know you received elsewhere, you can just add it manually, or even expenses as well, just so that you have a one-stop shop for everything. That's so awesome. 

There's also a client portal which I actually just used for the first time recently. One of my clients requested to be able to kind of see all of her contracts and invoices and emails in one place. And it's so easy to just give them a link to their client portal. You can have it password protected or not. Again, it just makes it easy for your client. And you can actually brand it for your business. It doesn't say Dubsado all over it. You can put your business logo and branding in that client portal. 

Also, there's reporting. Y’all there's appointments. You're able to see all of your appointments and your calendars. And you can even add brands on. I know a few of you maybe have multiple businesses. I run three businesses from my Dubsado account and it's only $10 extra to add on another brand, so you're not having to pay the monthly fee for all three. You're just paying $10 more to add on. So it's pretty legit. 

Again, if this is something that you're interested in that you think will relieve a lot of stress and make your life a lot easier. I have a discount code that I'm going to mention just here at the end of the episode. But before I get there, I want to mention this. It does take some time upfront to set it up. I think I kind of went in a little bit too much in the very beginning. I don't think I knew what I actually needed. And so I spent a lot of time basically making a whole bunch of mistakes in terms of setting up my data and then I just basically simplified and simplified it a whole lot. So it does take some work on the front end. But y'all that is so worth it. It is honestly not rocket science to set up. But I will say this, if you do have the money, it may be worth the investment to have someone set it up for you. I think I mentioned that there are VA’s, virtual assistants, who specialize in this, and who will literally ask you what it is you need, and like do it for you. I actually mentioned Coffee With Kristi. She has a team of people who do Dubsado setups. But there's so many people out there. You could just search Dubsado VA and a bunch will pop up. And they'll set everything up for you so that you don't have to worry about all the intricacies of it. And they'll even teach you how to use it so that you know how to use it going forward. I did it myself. But I think the second time that I do my Dubsado setup I'm going to hire someone else to do it. And by my second time I mean, I'm actually getting ready to launch some new services, there's going to be a lot more ways that you can work with me that's super-duper clear, I'm excited about it. I'm going to have a Dubsado VA help me set that up so that I'm not having to do all that myself because honestly I just don't have the time right now.  So again, if it's something that you know you can invest in it might be easier to just have someone set it up for you on the front end. Since like I said, the second time I'm going to be doing this again. And also one of the three businesses I mentioned that I run my Dubsado through I haven't fully set up yet. So I'm going to have a Dubsado VA help me with that as well. 

I want to share with you what my process will be like because, for all of you, you're going to be, if you're interested in it, you're going to be going through this process. So it's pretty simple. This is what I'm going to do. Two things. One, I'm going to lay out what my client experience will look like with each of my service offerings. So let's say for example I have an event center because honestly, that's what I'm going to be setting it up for. Okay, so I'm going to lay out my clients and client experience for each of my service offerings. Meaning at my event center, you can book a small intimate wedding. You can book a retirement party or birthday party. You can book a baby shower, bridal shower. All of these different things, I'm going to list out. And I'm going to have a different client experience for each so what it will look like for a wedding client is going to be very different than like a retirement party for example. So the questionnaires are going to be different. Again, I'm just going to kind of say from top to bottom, what does that whole process look like. And I'm going to ask myself questions like, do I want to have them fill out a questionnaire before they can book a call? Or do they need to sign a contract before they pay? What needs to happen before they come into the facility? What information do I want to know before they can even book it because they're gonna be able to book it through Dubsado? But what is it that I want to capture in that form for example? So you're thinking through your entire client experience. What happens after they've had the tour? What email do they get? I'm going to draft those emails. Like, get as detailed as you can. And then I'm going to think of okay well what of this can I automate? And the thing is that most Dubsado will be able to automate. Man, it’s going to be amazing. 

So let's say you have five different options for packages. Each option will trigger its own workflow. So each option will trigger its own set of emails and questionnaires, and its own contract and invoice, etc. It's beautiful. So once you have that laid out, then you can go into the Dubsado system and just make it happen, or hire someone else to do it for you. 

In summary, I thought when I started bird Williams consulting that I would need someone to help with these types of administrative tasks, but I really don't. I don't really need that right now because Dubsado does a lot of the organizing for me. I'm not spending a whole lot of time in email, checking to see which client has which contractor invoice because it's all automated. I'm not having to pour through emails for files because everything's in one place, and I just click on the client name, and boom, it is all there. So it's pretty amazing and I'm just happy to be able to pass it along to you. If this sounds like something that could be helpful to you, which if you have an online business or space business, it probably will be. You can go to dubsado.com and put in the code birdwilliams to get 20% off your first month, or your first year. This is the cool thing. There's a trial period, and it's free. And you can use the free trial period as long as you have less than three clients or three clients or less. So, you could literally start working in Dubsado today and only pay once you get your fourth client. And then when that happens if you use birdwilliams whenever you sign up, it will be 20% off whenever you go to that fourth client. 

So, yeah, I love like no excuses. And you have no excuses to go ahead and sign up today because it is free, free, free for your first two clients. So go ahead and do that. Use the code birdwilliams, and let me know what you think. I’d really love to hear. I know there's a bunch of different systems out there. But Dubsado has been super-duper awesome. So just wanted to share with all of you. 

All right. Well, I hope this was helpful to you. I love sharing any tips or tricks that have been helpful to me. And if you know someone who's like, I think that could work for your business, it could really help you out a lot, share this episode with them. Tell them about Dubsado. And if you use it in your business, or if you try it. I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

Okay, well, I look forward to talking with you guys next week. Thanks so much for following us on Spotify and for subscribing on Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes). And we're telling all your friends about Bird Means Business. All right, exactly next week.