Learn how Virtual Assistant and HoneyBook Pro Dana Sacco uses HoneyBook Automations to provide a seamless client experience. With more automation, she can turn inquiries into clients, get paid and onboard clients faster for three different businesses.
Success by the Numbers
Using HoneyBook Automations and a variety of branded templates, Dana was able to move clients forward faster in their journey to increase conversion and revenue. Learn more about Dana’s situation and the solution that provided a seamless client experience.
Conversions
Converted six times as many inquiries to clients.
Revenue
Doubled monthly active clients and revenue.
The Situation: Managing Multiple Businesses
Dana Sacco of i2iHype is a Virtual Business Manager and Systems Setup Specialist who helps small business owners with bookkeeping, general admin and business systems. She has a separate website for each line of business, including beachfrontbookkeeper.com (for bookkeeping), techsavvyva.com (for general admin) and i2ihype.com (her main business of streamlining systems and setting up workflows).
The Challenge: Using One System to Manage Multiple Client Flows
As a systems and workflows expert, Dana knew she needed a better workflow for her own business to help her manage client communication—and actually get paid.
“I had been using another client management system, but the complexity made it difficult to customize the experience for each client. There were also glitches in the payment system so people couldn’t pay. My customers were frustrated, and that experience reflected poorly on me,” Dana says. “I spent over a week going back and forth with their tech support team, and in the end, wasted more time because I had to go into another system, like QuickBooks, to send another invoice.”
The Solution: HoneyBook Automations Improve the Full Client Experience
“HoneyBook popped up for a free trial, so I set it up and created invoices,” Dana says. “I sent them out, they got paid and it was done.”
But aside from how easy HoneyBook made getting paid, Dana says joining was a “huge wakeup call.” HoneyBook’s client experience for payment was so smooth, she immediately moved all of her business processes over.
“Everything flows,” she says. “Client communication and projects go from one thing to the next to the next without a hiccup. No one has had an issue. And I get paid fast.”
Dana’s client flows are set up through HoneyBook Automations, which lets you send out emails, brochures and questionnaires in any series of steps. Your automated workflow will use templates you’ve already set up in your HoneyBook account, and you can edit your email language for each step.
Everything flows. Client communication and projects go from one thing to the next to the next without a hiccup. And I get paid fast.
How Dana Uses HoneyBook Automations
Dana has three HoneyBook Automations, all under one HoneyBook account, set up for three different websites.
For My Bookkeeping & General Admin Businesses
I use this automated workflow for clients who are interested in bookkeeping and general admin services, which are billed hourly.
1. From either website, inquiries fill out the HoneyBook Contact Form.
2. When they submit the form, the system automatically sends them an email with my brochure where they can select the services they’re interested in. It also includes a link to an online meeting scheduler where they can schedule a call with me if they want to discuss which service would be best.
3. For my general admin services, I also include a questionnaire in the brochure. (Because general admin can include a wide range of services, I need to know what they’re looking for, and the questionnaire helps me customize their package.)
4. Once I talk with the client, I create and send a Proposal using HoneyBook’s proposal software.
5. They click, sign, pay and DONE!
6. After the online invoices are paid, I set it up so that HoneyBook automatically starts sending another sequence to start the onboarding process.
The first onboarding email includes a questionnaire to fill out or instructions of next steps based on the service they paid for.
For My Systems Set-Up Business
I use this HoneyBook Automation for clients who are interested in my systems set-up intensives, which can be scheduled for either a half- or full-day.
1. From the website, inquiries select the date for their half- or full-day service using the HoneyBook Scheduling link on the website.
2. Once they’ve booked their date and service type (half- or full-day), I send a HoneyBook Proposal that includes their invoice and contract.
3. They click, sign, pay and DONE!
4. After the Invoice is paid, the same on-boarding process I use in my other businesses starts. The first onboarding email includes a questionnaire to fill out or instructions of next steps based on the service they paid for.
Results
“HoneyBook helps me provide a smoother client experience because the client has the information they need and knows where to go and what to do next,” Dana says. “It saves me time because I don’t have to wait, going from one step to the next. And my clients like it because it keeps things moving!”
HoneyBook helps me provide a smoother client experience because the client has the information they need and knows where to go and what to do next.
With HoneyBook, Dana was able to provide a high-touch and seamless client experience in less time, allowing her to take on more clients. And because it was easier for clients to understand what to do next, she also converted more inquiries into booked business.
“Simplicity speaks volumes,” she said. “Clients don’t see a whole bunch of technical stuff that keeps them from taking that next step.”
6x
Converted six times as many inquiries to clients
2x
Doubled monthly active clients & revenue
How to Use HoneyBook Automations Like Dana
Curious how you can use automations to double your revenue too? To get started, first consider your client journey. When leads inquire, do you send out a thank you email and go back and forth about scheduling? Do you have multiple meetings to ask your intake questions? All of this and more can be automated with a series of steps.
Don’t worry about giving up control – you’ll still have plenty. Inside HoneyBook Automations, you can preview each step before applying the automation to a project. You can also be very specific about when your automation kicks off, even choosing to approve each step before it happens so you get an extra level of oversight. We know all projects are different, so you’ll always be able to adjust your automation as well, even once it’s live.
Get Ready to Simplify & Scale
HoneyBook takes the heavy lifting out of running—and growing—a service-based business off your plate. From managing inquiries to helping you get paid to streamlining your projects, HoneyBook can be customized to fit your process, whether you’re a VA like Dana, a business coach, an interior designer or a graphic designer, just to name a few.
This post was updated in August 2021 when the HoneyBook Workflow tool was renamed to Automations. The HoneyBook Automations tool maintains the same functionality with the ability to automate communications, tasks and more. For more information about the Automations update, check our August 2021 Release Notes.
