As a wedding professional, you know how important it is to focus on your couple’s needs as they prepare for their big day! But that doesn’t mean you should ignore your own! Using a CRM (Client Relationship Management) like Dubsado can help you make the most of your business and save you hours and hours with automation.

Here are four tips to help you get started before you set up your new Dubsado account! Still on a trial? Use my code kellymccrackenva for an additional 30% off your first month or year.

Plan Your ideal Client Journey

Step number one is to map out exactly how you want to use Dubsado with your clients.

To create your ideal client journey, ask yourself:

• What happens after they fill out the lead capture form?
• Do I want them to book a call with me at the same time they inquire or do I need to review their wedding date first?
• Do I want them to get reminders about their meeting with me?
• How do they pay me?
• What questionnaires do they need?

Asking these questions and many more will help you map out what happens at each step with your client from inquiry to offboarding with a five-star review. When working with my clients I ask again and again, ok what happens next, and next, and next.

I use LucidChart to map out the client journey for my Dubado clients because I am so visual. It’s super simple and it has everything you need in one place to drag around and identify places where there will be automation and where it will be manual! We map out every step before anything is touched in Dubsado. Here is an example below where everything in yellow is automated and everything in green is manual!

Know Your Packages and Payment Plans

If you’re like me, you love having the ability to customize each and every client’s experience. However, that can be time-consuming and difficult for clients to navigate.

Spend time BEFORE going into Dubsado to know exactly what services you offer and how much it will cost. You need to know:

• The name of your package
• What exactly is included (every item)
• The total cost
• Any add-on services you would like to offer with their details and total cost.
• Set travel fees

For example, let’s say your best and highest-priced package is the Gold Package for wedding day photography. This includes 8 hours of coverage and an engagement session. The total cost is $7,000.

Next, you will need to decide on a global payment plan for all of your services. No matter what package they select have a payment plan in mind you would like to offer so all of your clients have the same experience, no matter the total cost.

My clients come to me wanting to automate but have a hard time sticking to systems. If you decide on how you want to be paid before setting up Dubsaod it makes everything easier to automate. Your contracts and proposals and workflows will be easier to make if you stick to one payment plan for all of your services.

You can absolutely select different payment plans but if you are looking to automate I recommend sticking to one.

Plan to Spend Time Learning How to Use Dubsado

Dubsado is not going to be learned overnight.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had people come to me frustrated with the software. Dubsado takes time to learn before it is a powerful software with many flexible options. Going into this with an open mind will lead to success for your wedding business.

It is my experience that it takes at least four to six weeks for someone who has never used the software before they are comfortable with its basic functions. Even then, there will be some features and aspects of Dubsado that they haven’t utilized or understood yet – you can learn the basics to get started.

Set time aside either during your slow season or for a few hours each week to take Dubsado’s 101 course (which is free). You will learn so much about how the system works before you even begin creating projects or workflows.

Set Boundaries for Your Wedding Business

Setting boundaries for your wedding business is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. It’s important because it helps you maintain a healthy work-life balance, ensures that you will deliver on the promises made to clients, and prevents burnout.

To set boundaries for your wedding business:

• Automate where you can! If you do this, then your clients will know what to expect from you and you can stay in touch without manually having to do everything. Nothing will slip through the cracks!
• What days do you have client meetings?
• What days do you offer engagement sessions?
• How quickly can your clients expect a response from you?

Answering these questions will help you know exactly what you want so you can share your boundaries with your clients. Before even touching Dubsado this will help make your life so much easier!

Conclusion

Planning your Dubsado account ahead of time will allow the setup much easier and faster. We hope these hacks will help you tackle Dubsado as a wedding professional so that you save yourself a lot of headaches and frustration. New to Dubsado? Use my code kellymccrackenva for an additional 30% off your first month or year, or click here!

If you are looking for help with your Dubsado account for your wedding business be sure to check out my services for wedding professionals and my Dubsado shop!