Dubsado Workflows 101
Updated: Dec 8, 2021
We've heard a lot of stories about why people haven't gotten the most out of their Dubsado accounts. Maybe they only started using it recently. Or they have been saving it for engagement season. Some people have even had their accounts for a long time and just haven't gotten around to getting it set up.
No matter what the reason is, many people also tell us that they're intimidated by the prospect of setting up their automated workflows. Which is understandable! It can be confusing to dive into the deep end of automation without any prior knowledge.
Whether you just took advantage of their Black Friday sale or have been putting it off for years, this guide will help you wade into the shallow end of the ocean that is Dubsado workflows.
And if you don't have a Dubsado account yet, you can use our referral code to get to get 30% your first month or year! After reading this blog, we know you're going to want to.
What the heck is a workflow?
Let's back up for a second. Dubsado? Automation? Workflows? What are we even talking about here?
Dubsado is one of our favorite CRMs for wedding pros. It allows you to organize your leads and clients however you want, and lets you create beautiful forms, proposals, and questionnaires. But the best part of it is how it lets you not work sometimes.
In Dubsado, you can set up processes that do repetitive steps of your business for you. These workflows can be nearly anything, from sending proposals to reminding people to schedule meetings to asking for reviews.
Basically, if it takes up too much of your time right now (or you don't even have time for it), you can and should automate it. But how?
Break it down
Before you can create your workflows, you have to know what it is you want to do. If you go into the process without planning it out first, you're likely to miss something. Do this work in advance to make it much easier to get into the more complicated next part.
Write out your dream client process, from when they inquire to when you ask for reviews after the wedding.
Go back over email interactions with past clients. What needed to be personalized, and what didn't?
Make sure your scheduler, canned emails, and forms are ready to go. If you change them later, you'll have to re-add them to your workflows!
Completing these three steps will make it easier to create your workflow, and lessen the chance of something going wrong with it.
DOn't worry, this section has pictures
We're going to show an example of a simple workflow that we would make to start a client process. First thing's first: let's create the workflow.
On the left side of your screen, select "Templates" and then "Workflow."
This button in the upper-right hand corner of your screen is the next step. Dubsado will ask you to name your workflow. We recommend something that makes it clear what the workflow will do. Since we're showing the start of a client process, we'll call this "Lead to Consultation."
The first option you can play with is the payment plan. But like the picture says, this is optional. A payment plan should only be selected if it's relevant to what is happening, like when a contract and invoice is sent.
We'll select that "Add Action" button to actually start the process.
There are two primary things we need to pick here: what happens, and when it happens. When we select action, a number of options appear. We'll start with "Change Project Status," because we want to be able to track where our leads are at on our Projects page.
If we leave the "0 days after all previous actions complete" as it is, this will occur immediately upon someone filling out our lead capture form and becoming a lead. There will be times where we wait a bit, but this one can happen right away.
Once we pick the "Change Project Status" action, a new field will appear that lets us pick the status we want. You can make as many of these as you like, depending on how many steps there are before a lead becomes a client. We'll select "New Lead."
After that step is done, congratulate yourself! You have officially created an automation. Now let's do something a bit more powerful. We'll add another action, but this time we'll choose, "Send Appointment Scheduler."
Suddenly, we have many more options to choose from! It may look intimidating, but it's actually not very difficult. Promise!
Just like before, choose your time to send it out. Usually you don't want to bombard your client, so you can make this happen a few minutes after they submit your lead capture form. Then the "Send email and apply to portal" option that is preselected can remain.
Next you'll select your scheduler and email templates. This is why we said earlier in this post that you need to have all this done in advance! Choose the ones you want, edit any text you need to in the email (in case you want to add a personal touch), and select apply!
Next we'll want to make some things happen once the lead schedules their appointment. Add another action and make it another status change. One thing we'll do differently this time is change when this occurs. Rather than make it happen after another action, we'll make it watch for a scheduled appointment.
Select "after an appointment is scheduled." It will then add a new option to watch a certain scheduler. Pick the one you just sent in the last action, and finally pick the new status. This is starting to go faster, right?
If all goes well, your window should look like this before you finish this action.
And just like that, you have a workflow! It's simple, but effective at saving you time. It can certainly be expanded upon, too. Here are a few more ideas for what could go in this workflow:
Reminders in case the lead doesn't schedule immediately
Actions that archive the project if the lead is unresponsive
A form that would go out right before the consultation happens to get some more information
The only thing that's left now is to go to your lead capture form in Dubsado, and in the settings make it trigger your brand-new automation. Now you can get busy planning weddings while new consultations magically show up on your calendar!
let the work...flow
Once you've got all of these steps implemented, you get to enjoy the best part of a workflow: not doing the work yourself!
But just getting a person into a consultation is a small part of your job. Fortunately, automations can help with the rest of your planning process, too. All the forms you send, all the meetings you schedule, and the entire offboarding process (asking for reviews and archiving the project) can happen in Dubsado workflows as well.
Whether you're a workflow pro (workpro?) now or still feel lost, there is still a lot that Dubsado can do for you. And as Certified Dubsado Specialists, we would love to help along the way.
About the Author
Madelyn Mahoney
Madelyn came to Wedding Tech BFF because she loves helping people better their lives through technology. If there's a website, app, or platform she doesn't know already, just give her 10 minutes and she'll know how to make it work for you and your business! When she's not being a Wedding Tech BFF, she's probably begging her cat for attention or writing young-adult romance novels!
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