Do you need a CRM tool for your small interior design business?
Are you starting your interior design business and you're wondering if you should invest your time and money into a CRM tool like Dubsado?
Dubsado is a Customer Relationship Management tool. Some of the things that a CRM tool can help with are keeping track of your leads and keeping all the information for your clients in one place. You can easily access all the invoices, emails and questionnaires that you send them, allowing you to stay organized and efficient.
A great feature in Dubsado is the workflows, helping you automate some of your processes. Processes are just a step-by-step of everything that you need to do for your projects; for example, what needs to happen from lead capture to on-boarding a client all the way to off-boarding them. When you have a clear process, you become more efficient because you know what your client needs, when they need it and how to deliver that information to them.
If you are able to automate, it also means that you don't have to do every step yourself or hire someone to do it for you because, if a computer can do it, you can save time and money.
Should you be using Dubsado if you don't have clear processes yet?
It could be because you're just starting out so you're not sure what your processes are yet or you have been in business for a while but have never taken the time to create SOPs (standard operating procedures) of how you do things in their business. If the latter is your case, it might be a little difficult because you have to re-invent the wheel for every project, wasting time and energy in the process. Lacking organization can negatively impact your client experience because the clients may not be receiving what they need at the right time. It could also give you a harder time to grow your business as your wasting time and energy you could be onboarding a new client.
I recommend that you try to pin down your processes as early on as possible. If you've had two or three clients, you can look into similarities and work out a step by step of how you delivered the projects to them. It does not have to be perfect at this stage - as your business grows, so will your processes!
Think, for instance, of what happens when you receive an inquiry form from a prospect, what do you need to send them? An email? A questionnaire? Or when they sign a contract, does it 'trigger' sending them an invoice to be paid?
Once you are clearer about your step-by-step, Dubsado is going to be a great way to automate some of these steps. You'll be able to improve your efficiency, give your clients a better experience, look more professional and stress less about forgetting something important.
If you are still unclear about your processes or have tried using Dubsado on your own and find it hard to understand, investing in my Dubsado mini-course is going to save you tons of time. Made of three workbooks, with a mix of written and video instructions, it teaches you step by step how to set up the workflows from lead capture to the onboarding of a new client. If you do not have processes of your own, I share and outline my workflows, based on my own and my clients workflows, that you'll be able to edit as feels right for your business. After taking on another few clients, you'll have the knowledge you need to keep fine-tuning your workflows.
You can find more information about the Dubsado 'Done for You' mini-course in our shop.
Do you know how you start a business because you want more freedom and more time with your family but then you end up glued to your phone worrying about deadlines? KVM is committed to supporting interior designers with tasks that sit outside their zone of genius so that they can focus on what matters most to them. The result is that they can grow their business without the cost and hassle of having full-time employees.
Kristell Valentina Mouries
Director, KVM Design