4 powerful, simple ways to automate your clientflow with HoneyBook (+ examples)

OK, gather ‘round the virtual campfire, independent business crew.🔥

I know, this isn’t our first conversation about clientflow. But you can bet your bottom dollar it will not be our last. That’s because clientflow — the entire experience your client has from the moment they land on your website to the moment they complete work with you — is that freakin’ important.

For instance, recent research found that 86% of consumers would pay more for better customer experience. Given the instant gratification era we live in, this data likely isn’t too much of a surprise — especially since, off the clock, we’re all consumers, too! 

On top of that, when you’ve got a clientflow problem, your clients aren’t the only ones who suffer. As an independent business owner, clientflow issues can all too easily leave you feeling disorganized, constantly behind the eight ball, and sending more “thank you for your patience!” emails than you’d like.

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That’s why I’m here today to share my favorite, super simple clientflow automations you can set up using HoneyBook. You deserve to make more money from happy clients because they know you’re going to deliver a superior experience. More than that, though, I think we can all agree you deserve more freedom and sanity as an independent business owner. 

1. Automate initial touchpoints in your sales process

If you missed HoneyBook’s new clientflow data report, in partnership with Visa, released earlier this year, here’s a key piece of information you need to know. How quickly you communicate is crazy important to your clients and prospects. In fact, Harvard Business Review found that brands that responded to an inquiry within an hour were seven times more likely to qualify that lead.

HoneyBook makes it easy to automate this part of your sales process. Whenever someone fills out an embedded HoneyBook contact form on your website, you can set up an automated email response to give an estimate of when they can expect to hear back from you. 

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You can even take it a step further to include your HoneyBook scheduler link, which allows a prospect to book time on your calendar to chat without having to wait to hear from you! 

2. Guide service selection more strategically with prospects

If you want to increase the chances of a prospect saying, “I do!” to working with you — sorry, you can take the girl out of wedding photography, but you can’t take the wedding photography out of the gal! — personalize how you share your products and services with them. 

Sure, you can point them to your website for more information about what you do, so they can make an informed decision on their own. Or, you can use HoneyBook’s interactive sales brochure templates to create an experience that is customized to the unique needs and goals of your prospect. 

You’ll not only speed up the decision-making process, you’ll also communicate a degree of focus and care for your clients that they may not find elsewhere. 

3. Get to know your clients with an automated onboarding questionnaire

HoneyBook user Liz Murphy shared she loves using the platform’s questionnaire functionality to onboard her clients:

“When I’m onboarding a new client, a lot of things need to get squared away very quickly, based on the needs of my clients. For example, do they have specific communication preferences? Are there other stakeholders that need to be involved? 

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Sure, we can take an hour covering all these questions in a kick-off call, but I’ve found that using HoneyBook to send an automated email with a questionnaire covering these questions is way more effective and efficient. By the time everyone arrives at the kickoff meeting, we already know all the basics, and we’re getting down to work much faster.”

4. Brand and automate your invoicing processes

Cha-ching! That’s right, HoneyBook makes it crazy easy to get paid — one of the most exciting (and important) parts of being an independent business owner — in two key ways: 

• You can give your clients a polished invoicing experience with branded invoice templates you can customize with a few simple clicks. 

• Reduce the number of late payments you receive (and the need to manually send reminders) with automated payment reminders you can set to a specific payment schedule.

What’s also amazing about HoneyBook is that you can see when your clients view reminder emails and invoices, giving you peace of mind that your communications aren’t being eaten by the dreaded spam folder.

Remember, prioritizing clientflow is your ticket to freedom

Time is the most valuable resource any of us have — and when I am talking about us, I mean us as human beings, not just business owners. 

There’s just one problem. 

When we’re heads down in our independent businesses, day after day, week after week, month after month, we often don’t see how inefficient our “efficient” processes are. Sure, as a one-off, spending 30 minutes on a manual task that could be automated seems smart — it’s faster to “get it done,” than to take yourself out of your day-to-day to build clientflow automations. 

🔎 Related: How to set client expectations in the instant gratification era

But those minutes add up. For example, if you get sidetracked with a 30-minute task only six times per week, the math gets a bit scary. That’s 180 minutes (3 hours) per week, 810 minutes (13.5 hours) on average per month, and 9,360 minutes (156 hours or 6.5 days) per year.

What would you do if I could give you a week back at the end of the year, assuming you’re only losing 180 minutes per week on clientflow issues?

If your time matters to you, I’ve got a simple challenge for you — book a single hour on your calendar each week to implement some of the clientflow automation ideas I’ve shared above. You’ll be surprised at how much your clients will thank you … and how much happiness and fulfillment you’ll unlock as an independent business owner.