Show notes:
Do you ever find yourself wondering which wedding business CRM is right for me? Choosing a CRM (or customer relationship management) tool for your wedding business or venue is a way to streamline your processes and save yourself time. However trying to decide which tool and price point is right for you can be a complete minefield. In today’s episode I am talking to Rachel Parker who not only works as part of my team but also owns her own VA business.
At the end of last year I set Rachel a research project – to compare 3 of the most popular wedding industry CRM’s systems and in today’s episode we discuss her findings. We talk about the features they have, the pros and cons to each, the pricing and who they would work best for. If you have been considering a CRM or want to see if yours is the best option for you, then dive into today’s episode to find out.
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Time Stamps:
00:28 – Introduction to CRM for Wedding Businesses
04:32 – Understanding CRM: A Comprehensive Overview
08:31 – Introduction to CRM Systems for Wedding Professionals
14:15 – Pros and frustrations with Aisle Planner
20:31 – Pricing and Project Management in Aisle Planner
24:44 – Transitioning to Dubsado: A New Perspective on Project Management Tools
30:22 – Exploring Dubsado’s Features and Limitations
37:20 – An Overview of Dubsado’s Features and Pricing
44:21 – Integration Features of BriteBiz
50:22 – Limitations with BriteBiz
01:00:01 – Getting Started with CRM Systems
01:06:12 – Building a Community in the Wedding Industry
Transcript:
Rachel
00:00:01.520 – 00:00:28.060
Having a CRM just saves you so much time and anxiety about missed invoices and have I contacted this lead and everything?
I think if you’re wanting to save time within your business and you’re wanting to streamline systems and automate certain parts of your sales funnel, I think a CRM is needed yesterday.
Becca
00:00:28.720 – 00:01:43.920
I’m Becca Poutney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker, blogger and you’re listening to the Wedding Pros who Are Ready to Grow podcast. I’m here to share with you actionable tips, strategies and real life examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you love, then you’re in the right place. Let’s get going with today’s episode. Today I’m bringing you a totally different kind of podcast episode.
I’m going to be chatting with the fabulous Rachel Parker.
Rachel wears many hats, including including being the owner of Celebrate with Rachel Louise, the alternative and nerdy wedding planner and also the owner of her own VA business, the VA magician.
She is so great at what she does that she even works as part of my team as a va, which is exactly why I’ve invited her to this different kind of podcast today where we’re going to be talking all things CRM. Rachel, welcome to the podcast. Oh, it is so lovely to have you here.
Now, before we get into our discussion about CRM and for anyone wondering, we are going to explain what CRM stands for if you don’t already understand. But before, before we get into all of that, I would just love to hear a bit more about you, your journey.
I’ve talked about you in the intro, but how did you end up in this crazy world of weddings?
Speaker C
00:01:44.260 – 00:01:52.812
I mean, it’s kind of a roller coaster ride. Very unexpected. There’s a lot of things that kind.
Rachel
00:01:52.836 – 00:01:54.492
Of had to marry up to kind.
Speaker C
00:01:54.516 – 00:01:56.700
Of get me to this bit the.
Rachel
00:01:56.740 – 00:02:00.940
Wedding planner side of things. I’ve kind of been the mum of.
Speaker C
00:02:00.980 – 00:02:38.452
My friendship group and the event planner of most groups most of my life.
And then when I decided that I wanted to work for myself, I started doing various courses online and stalking various companies and decided to try and launch a wedding planning company on the side of my corporate life.
And then the more I delved into networking with fellow wedding pros, I kind of felt there was a lot of people who struggled with the things that seem relatively easy to me. It’s not completely second nature, but I.
Rachel
00:02:38.476 – 00:02:39.748
Do find I have A lot less.
00:02:39.804 – 00:03:14.292
Hurdles than a lot of the Wedding pros that I was speaking to, especially at the retreat that I came to of yours and Kelly’s back in October 2023. I think it was.
So feeling or hearing about the pain points from people even back then, had a little kind of thing in the back of my head of, I really want to be able to help people with this side of things, too, but I should, in speech marks, be focusing more on the wedding planning business. So I ended up just creating two different companies because apparently variety is the spice of life.
Becca
00:03:14.396 – 00:04:57.220
Absolutely. And you are brilliant at what you do, and you do make it seem easy.
That’s why I love working with you, because you’re so organized and you always know what you’re doing. And you keep me on track as well. You’re always a couple of steps ahead of me with my organization, too.
So we had a conversation now, we think it was back in about September, October, because one of the things we do as part of the Wedding Pro agency is we set up CRM systems for people. And quite often people say to me, becca, which CRM system should I use?
And it’s a little bit of a minefield because there are loads and loads and loads of different ones. So we had a conversation back in September, October, and I was like, rachel, we need to do something to help people.
Why don’t we do a podcast episode where we research a few different CRMs, kind of live on the podcast, and then we discuss them and talk about what the features are and what they do and that kind of thing. So I set you a task. I basically said to you, right, let’s start with these three. I know there’s loads of to choose from. Go away, do some research.
Let’s get some free trials going. Let’s get on the phone with some of their tech support, and let’s try and do some digging to try and simplify this.
And we’ll let the listeners listen in while we have the conversation so that they can learn, too. So that’s what you did. You’ve gone away, you’ve done your research, and now we’re back and we’re ready to share it.
So before we go into those real details about the different CRMs you’ve been looking at, and I’ll talk about what they are in a second. Some people may be stuck at the first hurdle, which is, what on earth is a CRM? What on earth are they talking about?
So I know you did an Instagram post on this recently for your own VA business, which you’re going to share some of with us. If you want to see the full post, I’ll put the link to the Instagram page in the Show Notes. But do you want to just talk us through?
What does CRM stand for? And in reality, in language that people can understand. What on earth is it?
Rachel:
00:04:57.520 – 00:06:35.976
So a CRM, the acronym stands for Customer Relationship Management, so that title kind of covers a lot of sins, but in basic terms it’s a digital tool where you can try and organize all of your clients information, forms, automations and lots more.
On the post I realized it was actually back in June, so you might have to scroll quite a bit on my page, but I’ve done a quick bullet point list of a few different things that CRMs can help you with.
So things you can track or manage include new and existing leads, sales journeys and analytics, client engagement, email stats, client data and contact info, invoices and their statuses, and any targeted marketing campaigns. With most CRMs, obviously some of them have different features which we’ll get into in a bit.
I’m sure most of them you can sort out segmented client groups, you can integrate your packages and services, you can create things they called canned email. So like an email template so you don’t have to keep creating the same emails over and over again.
Any kind of email automation or auto responses, you can usually create some kind of lead capture form and then there’s usually many, many other templates. So contracts, proposals, invoices, payment plans, and then you can also integrate nurture sequence and sales funnels and things like that.
Becca
00:06:36.048 – 00:07:40.520
There’s a load of functionality in all of these systems and I think the thing is these systems are designed to make our lives easier because as wedding business owners and wedding ven news we wear many hats and we have to do lots of things and we have lots of people coming in and inquiring and all sorts of things.
And quite often when I work with clients, especially at the beginning of their journeys, they’re doing everything in different places, so they may be dealing with something on email, then they’ve got a form on their website that sends them an email so there’s no automation set up.
Maybe they’re then making an invoice on something, maybe they’re using hello Sign to get someone to sign something, maybe their contracts on a Word document like everything is everywhere. Then they’ve got to try and get people to pay them and then they’re trying to remember payments, schedules and all that kind of thing.
And it’s all very manual, which is fine when you’re starting out and you’ve just got one, maybe two clients. But if you start getting into 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 clients, all of a sudden it’s easy to drop the ball and it kind of all gets in a mess.
So the idea of these systems is that it streamlines that process so you can do pretty much everything in the one system and track it. Is that fair?
Rachel:
00:07:40.820 – 00:07:45.452
Yes. Streamline is definitely a good word for CRM tools. Yes.
Becca
00:07:45.516 – 00:08:30.842
Okay, now, if you’re listening to this and you’re not so techy, don’t switch off. Because just not being able to set up the CRM tool doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use the CRM tool.
And we’ll come to how we can help you with that later. But when you’re listening to this, I want you to go into it with an open mind.
Because sometimes I think the setup is the bit that’s the hurdle for people. It’s the thing that takes up the time and it’s the thing that they have to understand.
Whereas actually our experience is in the agency that when we’ve set something up for you and we’ve shown you how to use it, the actual using it part isn’t that difficult.
So if you’re that person and you don’t fully understand, then listen to the end of the episode because we will talk you through how we can help you with that as well. Okay, so first of all, Rachel, tell me the names of the three CRM systems that we are going to be talking about today.
Rachel:
00:08:31.026 – 00:08:33.642
So the three we’ve chosen are Aisle.
Rachel
00:08:33.706 – 00:08:36.074
Planner, Dubsado and Brightbiz.
Becca
00:08:36.122 – 00:10:12.388
Brilliant. So we’re going to go through each of those systems. Now, if you’re wondering, why have they chosen these systems?
Well, the first thing I want you to know as a listener, this episode is not sponsored at all. So no one has come to me and said, here’s some money to talk about my software. We just picked these three softwares for us to discuss.
And the other thing is, I know there’s some other great softwares out there. There’s loads and loads and loads of CRMs. We could have gone on forever.
So if you enjoy this episode and you do want us to do another one on some of the other systems, or if you’re listening to this and you own a system and you want us to cover it, just reach out and talk to us. But this is not sponsored. This is just us picking the system. So I wanted to br. Briefly talk about why we chose the three that we did.
So the first one is Aisle Planner. Now, the reason I wanted us to look at this is because we’ve actually set up a client on Aisle Planner as part of the agency.
And so we’ve got first hand experience of a wedding planner client using it. We’ve set it up for them, we know how it works. So that seemed like the obvious first choice for us to look at.
Then we chose Dubsado, because you use Dubsado quite a lot in your own business, so you have an understanding of it already. So we weren’t starting from scratch.
And then finally we chose Bright Biz because I use it in my business and so therefore I have a login and we have some understanding. So they’re not completely picked at random.
There are reasons for us picking those three, but like I said, if there’s other ones you want us to look at, then do reach out and let us know.
So before we get into each of those individually, are there any key features that you think as business owners in the wedding industry specifically we should be looking at when we’re just reviewing CRMs in general, that we should be looking to see if they can do the.
Rachel:
00:10:12.444 – 00:11:08.696
Most important features that you’d want to use? I haven’t yet discovered a CRM tool that doesn’t have them, which does make life for wedding pros a little bit easier.
I think the main things is it kind of reiterates what you said just now, but the ability to streamline so many areas of your business into one place. So having a way to capture those leads and inquiries but then automate their sales journey, I think is a really good way of saving time.
So you have the kind of task automation as well as your nurture sequence and sales funnels kind of embedded in one aspect. And that does sound complicated to set up and sometimes it can be, but it will save you so much time in the long run.
Becca
00:11:08.768 – 00:12:03.006
Okay.
And I think the other thing is just knowing what you want in your own individual business and looking for those features because you will have a specific way of doing things.
So if you choose a software and then one of the most important things you want is that someone can pay you through it and you choose a software that they can’t pay you through it, well, then we need to then look at a different software because otherwise you’re then still just using extra softwares on top of the software and doing integrations. And actually the more you can do in one place, the better because it saves so much time. Okay. Let’s get into it then. Let’s start with Aisle Planner.
Now, I believe Aisle Planner is a US owned business. I know it’s very popular, particularly with wedding planners, both in the US and the UK.
Now, for each of these different CRMs, we’re going to go through some of the pros, some of the frustrations, the tech support available, the pricing and who we think is best for. So let’s start with our planner. Let’s talk about some of the pros when it came to all things Aisle Planner, when you were looking into it.
Speaker C
00:12:03.148 – 00:12:03.642
Yes.
Rachel
00:12:03.706 – 00:12:08.010
So the biggest one is the fact that it is tailored to the wedding industry.
Rachel:
00:12:08.130 – 00:12:21.162
It was specifically made for wedding planners and venues and then they’ve kind of branched out a little bit to cover other wedding pros as well. Another big pro is that it’s an.
Rachel
00:12:21.186 – 00:12:40.972
All in one platform, so you can manage your events as well as your clients.
So there’s a lot of features in Aisle Planner where you can, for example, sort out the seating plans and the timelines for the days, whereas a lot of other CRM tools, because they’re not focused for the wedding industry specifically, they.
Rachel:
00:12:40.996 – 00:12:52.940
May not have the kind of project management kind of sections within it that I.O. planner does. There’s also templates for timelines, budgets and.
Rachel
00:12:52.980 – 00:13:03.650
Checklists, which again, that kind of comes under the project management, which you may not get in the more general CRMs. There’s also really strong client management and.
Speaker C
00:13:03.690 – 00:13:16.290
Workflow automations, and there’s some integrated budgeting, timeline and design tools. I won’t go into the con of the budgeting thing just yet because I’m sure we’ll cover that in a minute. But yes.
Becca
00:13:16.370 – 00:13:46.010
Okay, so on the surface then, Aisle Planner is trying to do two things. It’s trying to help you at the start of the process.
So when you get the lead, you’re making the sale and all of that kind of things, the invoicing, the contracts, etc.
But it’s also then trying to do the second part of the process, which is particularly good if you’re a planner because it’s helping you with the event planning. So things like having project checklists, budgeting tools, timelines, all those things you mentioned.
Design is to help the planner side of things, is that right?
Rachel:
00:13:46.390 – 00:14:15.224
Yes. Yeah. There’s a lot of. There’s lots of sections within Aisle Planner that I haven’t spotted in other CRM tools.
And it is very much helpful for the wedding pros that will want those timeline templates and the seat planning and the timelines and all Sorts of other fabulous things that wedding planners and wedding pros have to kind of manage day to day. Yeah, I keep wanting to then go into more of an explanation, but I won’t.
Becca
00:14:15.272 – 00:14:38.138
Okay, let’s look at the other side of things then. Let’s look at some of the things that I’ve called them frustrations.
So as I said, this is a very balanced discussion and we’ve used all of these different systems so we’re looking at things that we are thinking, okay, well it does this, this is great. But what we’re frustrated about is that it doesn’t do this.
So talk to us about some of the frustrations or things that you found not so easy to use with our planner.
Rachel
00:14:38.314 – 00:14:49.042
So the biggest frustration I found was that any automated payment systems are currently only available for those in the us they don’t have the options for UK.
Rachel:
00:14:49.146 – 00:14:58.882
Automated payment systems, which if you’re looking for a system for people to be able to pay you, you kind of want that in your CFM system. So that was the, that was the biggest.
Becca
00:14:58.946 – 00:15:36.980
Yeah, that makes me really sad actually because actually it’s such a shame because the payment option is a really important part of it. So Aisle Planner, if you’re listening, us lovely people in the UK would love you to roll it out so that we can use that feature outside of the U.S.
and obviously if you’re in the U.S. listening to this, it won’t matter to you. But yeah, we, when we found this, didn’t we?
When we set up the client ourselves through the agency and we wanted to set up their payments and the payment reminders and then we came up against this wall and we’re like, oh no, this is really frustrating. So Aisle Planner, we are appealing to you, please let it be working outside of the US so that we can not have that as a frustration anymore.
Okay, what other frustrations did you have other than the payment?
Rachel:
00:15:37.560 – 00:17:17.405
So for small, smaller businesses or like one person teams, it can be quite costly just because the amount of features that they have within the platform, it can be a little bit costly. If you just starting out, there’s not that much automation flexibility within the client onboarding section.
But when I did get in contact with Aisle Planner, they did mention that they were hopefully looking to make some changes in adding more flexibility in the automation systems and also looking to be able to automate payment systems for UK people as well. So I believe they are already trying to work on it, which is great news. Another frustration, I like the fact you called it frustration, not con.
Actually the limited Customization outside of wedding specific features. So if it’s not something that is specifically wedding focused only, it’s very rigid.
And if you want things to be more personable, I suppose you can come up against quite a few blockades. It’s also not as strong if you’re looking for goal setting or business management side of things.
So you would then probably have to have something else on top for the business management side of things. And the. Yeah, the biggest things are the automation or lack thereof. There’s.
There’s quite a lot of rigid templates and ways of helping things that way. But if you’re looking for more personalization and automation, it then gets a bit tricky.
Becca
00:17:17.437 – 00:18:12.610
Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
So it seems like maybe, and I don’t know this is just a discussion between us, but it seems like maybe they focused really heavily on the event planning tools and now they’re kind of working backwards to improve the business tools. So if you’re someone that really wants those event planning features, this could be for you and you’ll put up with the frustrations.
But actually if the business things are more important to you than the event planning, so maybe you’re a florist or a cake maker or something that where you’re not going to use those tools, maybe this isn’t necessarily the right choice at the moment, but things are changing all of the time. Now I should have mentioned a little bit earlier, I did sort of mention a little bit in the title, but you like to refer to yourself as Neuro Spicy.
And one of the things I love from the research that you gave me and the reports that you’ve done is you’ve also talked about whether or not these different platforms are neurodiverse friendly. So we’re going to add that in as an extra category. So talk to me about Aisle Planner. Is it neurodiverse friendly?
Rachel
00:18:13.030 – 00:18:28.974
So from the angle of its structure, yes. So if you’re neuro spicy and liking the structure. So potentially ASD side of things, you may really like the structured workflows, visual.
Rachel:
00:18:29.022 – 00:19:04.982
Tools and the customizable templates. With the project management tools. It is quite neurospicy friendly because it has quite a lot of step by step elements.
So it kind of automatically chunks the bigger tasks down, which I know from my experience that is something I struggle with. I’ll have a big goal and get overwhelmed because of having to kind of chunk that down. So I.O. planner kind of already has that in place.
So yes, in those aspects I would say perfect.
Becca
00:19:05.046 – 00:19:22.086
Now let’s Talk about the tech support then, because I know with all of them you were looking at what tech supports available, whether or not they’ll speak to you, all that kind of thing. So when it came to Aisle Planner, you already mentioned that you spoke to them about some systems and features that are coming up.
So what is the tech support like for someone when they join IELTS Planner?
Rachel
00:19:22.278 – 00:19:39.626
So the tech support is quite good. So there is some kind of wedding specific tech tools required for the setup and customization.
When I was doing my research, it came up as a medium for tech knowledge requirements.
Rachel:
00:19:39.818 – 00:20:04.870
So there is some kind of technology needed initially for the setup, but I don’t think you need that technology to use the platform going forward. And they have quite a lot of guidelines and quite a lot of information on their support kind of area within their website.
And they were also very quick at responding by email, which is fantastic.
Becca
00:20:04.950 – 00:20:45.330
And I’ve noticed as well when I’ve done my own research that there’s quite a lot of, particularly US educators who have done their own YouTube videos and things like that, particularly on Aisle Planner, possibly more than some of the other platforms.
And so that I think out there in the world there is quite a lot of support for Aisle Planner and understanding how to use it and being able to watch, not necessarily Aisle Planner videos, although there are some of them, but also just general educators talking about Aisle Planner and why they use it as well. So I think the tech support does look pretty good. Okay, let’s talk pricing then.
Now with all of these, again, it’s really hard to compare pricing because they all do pricing very differently and they all structure it differently. So can you give us a little bit of a rough overview around what the Aisle Planner pricing looks like?
Rachel
00:20:45.630 – 00:20:53.798
Okay, so you can choose between monthly and annual payments, which most companies now.
Rachel:
00:20:53.854 – 00:21:31.424
Do offer that kind of flexibility. And you’re looking at, as I said, this is quite a pricey CRM tool in comparison to some of the others.
So with the conversion, because obviously we’re in the UK and they do their prices in dollars with a rough conversion, I estimate it’s going to be about 30 to 80 pound a month.
So it depends how much of a budget you have and how much of the tools that are the features within IO Planner you are actually going to use, because that’s quite a steep investment if you’re very early on in the game, especially if you’re going for the. The higher end. 80 pound a month.
Becca
00:21:31.592 – 00:21:44.700
Yeah, but they do have a lot of features and actually it looks very professional. So it is always about weighing it up, isn’t it?
And am I right in thinking that with Aisle Planner there’s something to do with projects so it costs you more depending on how many projects you have?
Rachel:
00:21:45.080 – 00:21:56.964
Yes. So I believe it’s up to 15 projects. Is the, the monthly lowest, which it.
Becca
00:21:57.132 – 00:21:57.796
From the.
Rachel:
00:21:57.868 – 00:22:22.240
The lovely blurry screenshot that I’m currently looking at was about $60 a month, up to 15 projects.
So if you’re starting out and you don’t have that many weddings booked, it’s not too pricey for how much it gives you, especially if you are a wedding planner, because you’ll be able to have your timelines and your checklists and your seating plans and things. So, yeah, weighing, weighing up the investment.
Becca
00:22:22.360 – 00:22:56.920
So if you’re someone that has a lot of clients, then it’s going to start costing you more and more because you’re paying per client project. Oh, sorry, let me just have some water because my throat’s bad and this will get edited out. Oh, dear.
Yeah, so with our planner, obviously you’re then paying per person or per customer. So if you’ve got a lot of customers, it is going to start getting a little bit more expensive.
And where do leads come into this or are you not really paying attention to leads in our planner? Are you only really dealing with them once they’re booked? Do we know that?
Because otherwise, if we’ve got lots of leads coming in, do they each count as a project? Are we counting those or no?
Rachel
00:22:57.300 – 00:23:04.892
So I couldn’t quite get to the bottom of this, but from what I’ve kind of pieced together, from what I.
Rachel:
00:23:04.916 – 00:23:25.454
Have found, it was you’re paying for those booked clients when they then go into the project stage.
So if you’re getting a lot of leads through Aisle Planner, but you’re only converting like 2 out of 10, you’re only going to be having to pay for those two. But don’t quote me on that because I haven’t been able to get to the bottom of it.
Becca
00:23:25.542 – 00:24:06.230
Amazing. Okay, so let’s have a little roundup of Aisle Planner then and we’ll talk about who it’s best for.
So some of the pros are definitely those event tools. They seem to have a really good suite of those.
Definitely the look of it is very clean, it’s very professional, it’s very easy to understand and work through.
But we talked about some of the frustrations with it is a little bit more limited in the automations and they definitely paid more attention to the event tools than necessary. The Business tools, although maybe that’s going to develop. They’ve got a great tech support. The pricing, well, it could be good value.
It just depends on what you’re looking for and how many projects or clients you’ve got in a year. So as a roundup then, Rachel, where do we think this is or who do we think this is best placed for?
Rachel
00:24:06.850 – 00:24:26.318
I think Aisle Planner would be best suited for wedding planners and wedding planners specifically who have been serving clients for a number of years. I think this is going to be more for people who have more of those client bookings. I don’t think I would recommend this.
Rachel:
00:24:26.374 – 00:24:28.702
For a newbie planner, for example.
Becca
00:24:28.766 – 00:25:07.424
So someone who’s more established maybe got a higher number of weddings or a higher value of weddings.
So therefore they’ve got a bit more disposable income and they can invest it into a CRM that is looking and feeling professional and has all those extra tools. Amazing. Okay, let’s move on then. We’ve talked about Aisle Plan. Let’s move on to our second system. We are now going to talk all things Dubsado.
Now, as I said before, you know this one quite well inside out, back to front. I believe you use it in your own business or have done as well.
So we’re going to go through exactly the same set of questions now with our Dubsado hats on. Now, am I right in thinking that Dubsado is not wedding specific, it is just a general project management tool?
Rachel:
00:25:07.622 – 00:25:15.612
Yes, Becca, that’s right. So it’s just a generic one. But I do know that there’s quite a few wedding pros who have been drawn to it.
Becca
00:25:15.716 – 00:25:20.560
Okay, so let’s start with the pros then. What are the good things? What do we like about Dubsado?
Rachel
00:25:21.140 – 00:25:26.252
So what I liked about it was initially as a newbie planner when I.
Rachel:
00:25:26.276 – 00:25:33.622
First started using it. You get three clients within its like free trial set up.
Rachel
00:25:33.726 – 00:25:36.342
So your first three clients plus a.
Rachel:
00:25:36.366 – 00:25:41.862
Test client, they kind of add on for free. You don’t have to then sign up.
Rachel
00:25:41.886 – 00:26:08.610
To their monthly or annual subscriptions.
So if you’re just starting out and you want to see what platforms are going to work for you, Dubsado is quite a good one as a, as a beginner to kind of get those first three clients under your belt, getting all the automation systems streamlined and kind of working out the, the kinks before you then have to start paying for.
Becca
00:26:08.650 – 00:26:14.830
The platform with those first three. Is that first three inquiries or first three people who’ve booked you?
Rachel
00:26:15.370 – 00:26:26.882
So it depends how you put them into the system. So in theory it could be three inquiries. But I worked around that and did.
Rachel:
00:26:26.906 – 00:27:13.910
It as the first three projects. So it depends how much you want to integrate the platform into your existing systems.
So because when I was, as I said, a newbie using this, I didn’t want to waste my my first three by having it just inquiries. So I made sure that the inquiry form I’d set up with Dubsado wasn’t linked to creating a project file.
So then it meant that if that inquiry didn’t become a booking, I didn’t then lose that one of three slots. But obviously you can. It depends how you want to do it. I was just determined to make the most out freebies.
Becca
00:27:14.730 – 00:27:39.240
So you took away some of your automation abilities so that you didn’t have to pay, which is absolutely fine because there will be people listening that are at the beginning and don’t have loads of money. And sometimes we want to be able to have a system like this and we’re not ready to dive in.
But for someone that’s already got leads coming in quite regularly, someone who’s already got clients coming quite regularly, they’re gonna have to go onto the paid one pretty swiftly, is basically what we’re saying. So what other pros are there? What else do we like about Subsado?
Rachel
00:27:40.060 – 00:28:23.272
So with Dubsado there is a lot of automation capabilities.
So from emails and various templates that it provides you, but also down to the workflows, so you can create tick lists of the tasks that you want to do within certain automation systems. So you can have a workflow for the inquiry into the nurture sequence.
You can then set up workflows for various extra information inquiries when you’ve actually booked that client, going on your kind of sales journey towards their wedding. There’s just a lot of automation capabilities, which I found we struggled with with.
Rachel:
00:28:23.296 – 00:28:24.888
The aisle planner side of things.
Rachel
00:28:25.024 – 00:28:26.020
There’s almost.
Rachel:
00:28:26.640 – 00:28:46.580
There’s also sorry words. There’s also really good handling of contracts, proposals and payments. So the automation of payments isn’t just restricted to certain countries.
You do have to integrate it with an external tool. So you have to choose between.
Rachel
00:28:46.920 – 00:28:53.792
I believe it was Stripe, PayPal and there was one other, but I’ve gone blank on that one. But they’ve given you a couple of.
Rachel:
00:28:53.816 – 00:29:23.226
Options rather than just saying you have to use this, this is what we do. And I don’t like having just one option, so I like the fact that it gave you lots of options. So it’s also really good for customization.
So if you want to personalize your wording or your design, the, the forms, the workflows, it’s, it’s all very much.
Rachel
00:29:23.378 – 00:29:25.722
You can use their templates in their.
Speaker C
00:29:25.746 – 00:29:33.482
Canned emails, or you can start from scratch or a combo of both. It’s very flexible, which is probably why I went for it.
Becca
00:29:33.586 – 00:29:56.970
Okay, amazing.
So especially if you’re someone with a bit more of a techy mind and you don’t need that step by step quite so much, it’s particularly useful because you’ve got the flexibility to do a bit of your own thing and to chop and change it as you go. Now, I believe that on Dubsado as well, it’s not the same thing where you only pay by projects, it’s all plans.
Like, it doesn’t matter how many of these you have, they’re included within your plan.
Rachel
00:29:57.990 – 00:30:06.830
So it depends the price package that you’re on. So if you’re on the free version, you’ve got the three projects maximum.
Rachel:
00:30:06.990 – 00:30:09.496
But once you go from there, I’ve.
Rachel
00:30:09.528 – 00:30:14.088
Not had to pay per project, which is awesome.
Becca
00:30:14.264 – 00:30:32.980
That’s nice.
Especially if there’s someone that’s got a lot of different clients or is dealing with a lot of different people, then at least you know you’re not going to hit that upper level. Okay, so we’ve talked about some of the things we like about Dubsado. Now, presumably some of the frustrations.
I’m guessing Dubsado doesn’t have those same event management tools that I’ll planner had because it’s not designed for the wedding industry.
Rachel:
00:30:33.680 – 00:31:15.402
Yeah, so that was one of the biggest frustrations was the lack of the project management.
So I’ve kind of tried to create my own versions within the platform, but there’s nothing there kind of innately already you kind of have to create that yourself.
So you do, you do have to go on quite a deep dive through their tech support and the various YouTubers that have got info out there so that you can get it set up to the way that you want. But because it’s so easy to. Easy in speech marks, easy to kind of navigate, personalize, automate, it does eventually feel a lot easier.
Becca
00:31:15.466 – 00:31:21.710
Okay, what else are a frustration then? Other than the lack of project management tools? What else was a frustration with Dubsado?
Rachel
00:31:22.130 – 00:31:27.658
So when I initially started using it, it didn’t feel very intuitive.
Rachel:
00:31:27.834 – 00:31:33.578
You had to give it, you had to kind of feed it a lot of the information before it used it.
Rachel
00:31:33.634 – 00:31:35.306
If that makes sense.
Rachel:
00:31:35.498 – 00:32:41.440
So a lot of the other CRM tools will be A lot more perceptive of what you need.
So whether that’s an onboarding process that they gather more information about the business or how you work ahead of time or however they systemize that.
But Dubsado, I think because it prides itself on the, the ability to personalize it to such a, such a level that it then makes it harder to have things in place initially. So yeah, the, the initial few days or weeks, depending on how much time you have to deep dive it initially is a little bit tricky.
You do have to have a bit more techie skill or confidence behind you. I don’t necessarily think it’s skill. I think it’s just knowing that it’s not going to break and you just try things and it does.
It doesn’t have masses of marketing tools. So again, you kind of have to build your own marketing within that, if that makes sense.
Becca
00:32:41.520 – 00:33:13.760
Yeah, that does make sense.
So unlike Aisle Planner where we were talking about how great they’re kind of, they spent a lot of time on their kind of event management stuff, if you’re looking for more of the start of the journey, then maybe Dubsado is a better choice for you. So presumably then if I was to go on Dubsado, I can create a lead, capture a form which I can embed somewhere in my website or embed on an email.
When I send it to someone that brings the lead into Dubsado, I can then maybe send them a proposal via Dubsado. Can they digitally sign that via Dubsado and then they can make the payments?
Rachel:
00:33:14.500 – 00:34:54.805
Yes. So that’s something that really works with Dubsado is because of the automation. Everything is very digital first. So you can get that inquiry.
As you said, you can create the inquiry form on Dubsado.
It then gives you an option for either just sharing it to someone or it gives you a code that you can then embed in emails, websites, socials, that kind of thing. That then means that the information inputted in that form comes into your Dubsado.
You can then, unless you did the workaround like I did, you can make it turn it into a project and then it can automatically trigger a workflow.
So you can set up a workflow that says when someone infill fills in this form, I want to send them a welcome email or a thank you email that will automatically send. You can do a like send in five minutes and next day, whatever. You can set the times.
You can then say like a day or two later, I want to send this, I want to send calendar invites, I want to send proposals and everything, 9 times out of 10 can be done with you not actually having to do anything, which is great if you have a lot of clients because it will automate a lot of your tasks for you.
Obviously you can choose to not automate it to make things more personal, but you can also use bits of coding and things to kind of fake the personalization as well, to some extent.
Becca
00:34:54.917 – 00:35:16.169
So this is getting quite technical now. So for some people, they might be thinking, oh my goodness me.
But actually the basics can be done maybe with a little bit of help as well, setting it up, but it doesn’t have to be as complicated. It can be more complicated if you are that way inclined, because you want to be able to do different things, but it doesn’t have to be either.
So would you say that this platform is neurodiverse friendly?
Rachel:
00:35:17.710 – 00:35:50.186
I think because it’s so customizable and it allows for so much automation and that then means that 90% of your systems can be automated and streamlined and it reduces the cognitive load.
So the need for using your executive function with the repetitive tasks, I think, because if you set it up in such a way it can alleviate those repetitive tasks, I think it then does become very neurodiverse friendly.
Becca
00:35:50.218 – 00:35:57.350
Fantastic. And what about the tech support at Dubsado? Did you engage the tech support? What have they got going on to help you get set up or to talk to you?
Rachel:
00:35:57.890 – 00:36:35.354
So again, they’ve got quite a comprehensive support area in the website itself, but you can also access it through their Dubsado website. So you don’t have to be on Dubsado to be looking at their support. There’s also a lot of videos on YouTube and various other platforms, I’m sure.
So there is a lot of. A lot of people that have. Have done quite a lot of setup videos and how to videos.
But the support that’s given by Dubsada themselves is quite comprehensive as well. So no matter your tech level.
Becca
00:36:35.442 – 00:36:55.226
Yeah. There’s something for you. And presumably then that those videos aren’t necessarily wedding specific.
So unlike Aisle Planner, where I was saying there’s lots of wedding educators talking about how to set it up, these may not be people in the wedding industry that are teaching you to set it up. So they may not have that lens on when they’re talking about it, but they will be able to show it to you. Technically, yes.
Rachel:
00:36:55.418 – 00:37:18.060
Yeah. So I don’t think I’ve seen any wedding specific Dubsado guides. Not that I remember seeing anyway.
So they obviously either aren’t there or weren’t very memorable but the, the tech side of things. So helping you set it up in just a general sense, there’s a lot of information out there.
Becca
00:37:18.100 – 00:37:28.070
Fantastic. And what about pricing then for Dubsado? I think it’s probably one of the slightly lower cost systems that we’re looking at.
So talk to me about the pricing for Dubsado.
Rachel:
00:37:28.810 – 00:37:54.668
Yeah, so again they do price it in dollars so I’ve had to do like a rough conversion but dollars wise it’s between 20 and 40 pounds so I put it as like 16 to 30 quid. Ish.
So yeah, it’s definitely one of the cheaper ones which when you also take into consideration those first three projects for free, it’s definitely a system for, for newbies I think.
Becca
00:37:54.724 – 00:38:44.560
Okay, fantastic. And unlike Aisle Planner where you’re paying for projects on this, you are paying for features.
So you can get a starter which is going to have more basic features but if you want to have more features available to you, some more of that automation, actually you’re going to be looking at more of the premier option. So it is going to be on the slightly more expensive end because you probably want to have more of the features. Okay, fantastic. So let’s recap then.
So Dubsado is very good in terms of bit more being able to be flexible, do what you want with it. There’s a lot of automation we can do our payments on there, which is fantastic.
But it’s not so good in the sense that it’s not wedding industry specific. It doesn’t necessarily have that in mind and it doesn’t have those wedding tools built into it.
It is good value though, so we have to pay attention to that. So with all that in mind, who do you think that Dubsado is best for?
Rachel
00:38:45.530 – 00:39:25.528
So I think Dubsado is best for people who offer very different services.
So if you’re, if you’re providing a service that’s relatively new to the wedding industry and not needing those project management tools or if you’re just kind of setting up your business and therefore you don’t have that many clients or you just want to have a lot of personalization and automation. So I find that a lot of neuro spicy brained people will go more towards the Dubsado side of things just because of the automation.
So it means you don’t have to have so much in your brain. So newbies and spicy.
Becca
00:39:25.704 – 00:40:21.740
I know that there’s definitely some clients that I know that have been using Dobsado particular hair and makeup. I Found it really helpful. I think I know a florist that uses it as well. So yeah, there’s definitely people out there using it.
Okay, let’s go on to our third CRM, our final one, and we haven’t done these in any particular order. The third one we’re going to look at is Bright Biz.
Now, as I said, I use Bright Biz, which is why I picked it and I wanted to talk about it with you and to get you to have a look at it as well. Because I’ve been using it and testing it in my business and I do like it. And also I know Eamonn and the team at Bright Biz.
I’ve met them at a number of events and we’ve talked on stage together and things like that. So it’s good to find out a bit more from your perspective about what you think on Bright Biz. So let’s start then with the pros.
What are the pros when it comes to Bright Biz? I must say this is also another wedding designed platform. So they’ve designed it with the wedding industry in mind.
Rachel
00:40:22.040 – 00:41:11.178
Yeah. So you can tell that they put the wedding industry in mind from, from just the way they kind of created some of the systems.
The onboarding for new clients going into Bright Biz is also really helpful.
You have very clear communication from the Bright Biz team who get to know you, your business and your business needs before they even start recommending which packages and things that you might find useful. There’s some really, depending on which package you go for, there’s some really good integrations with things like directories.
So then you can integrate your directory request inquiries into your CRM tool, which I haven’t seen in the other tools that I’ve started researching.
Rachel:
00:41:11.274 – 00:41:12.842
So that’s a really cool feature.
Rachel
00:41:12.986 – 00:42:57.148
They’ve also got really good project management and invoicing payment tools which obviously we’ve seen was a bit of a struggle for the UK people with aisle planner. But BrightBiz seems to do this really well.
They also have the ability to integrate SMS messaging which with obviously you mentioning like the WhatsApp and the kind of growth of the popularity of that that I think is going to be a very popular feature for BrightBiz. I think there’s going to be a lot of people signing up for that feature in particular.
There’s also some really good templates for contracts and proposals. So if you don’t know what kind of legal wording you need, they’ve got those templates already.
And because it is a platform created for the wedding industry.
It has more wedding focused terminology and clauses within those templates, which if you’re going for a more generic CRM tool, like we mentioned Dubsado was, it’s not going to have the wedding focused things in their contract templates. It’s going to be a very generic template for contracts and proposals. There’s also really good collaboration for working with other suppliers.
So you can add other suppliers within your projects within BrightBiz, which I thought was really cool. So from a planner perspective, you can add in your hair and makeup artists, photographers, videographers and all of that.
You can, you can put your whole team in the project, which again, is something I’ve not really seen elsewhere. You kind of have to find a way of sharing it to the other suppliers if you want to collaborate, whereas.
Rachel:
00:42:57.244 – 00:43:00.412
BrightBiz have already thought of that kind of thing.
Rachel
00:43:00.596 – 00:43:14.460
So, yeah, the collaboration tools are really, really cool and they also have really good project tracking tools. So the, the way their dashboard works, you can change around which elements you.
Rachel:
00:43:14.500 – 00:43:16.412
Want to like, the order in which.
Rachel
00:43:16.436 – 00:43:22.496
You want to see your dashboard and you can delete things or add things or whatever. It’s very personable.
Rachel:
00:43:22.668 – 00:43:23.900
That’s the wrong word.
Rachel
00:43:24.640 – 00:43:25.848
Personalizable.
Rachel:
00:43:25.944 – 00:43:27.100
Is that the right word?
Rachel
00:43:27.600 – 00:43:29.576
So you can change that around quite.
Rachel:
00:43:29.608 – 00:43:51.874
A bit, which means that you can kind of make sure the things you want to be tracking on a daily, weekly basis can be at the forefront of your dashboard. So whenever you log in, you can have the first things there, whether that’s income or inquiries, leads, that kind of thing.
Becca
00:43:52.042 – 00:44:20.620
I do think one of my favorite features of BrightBiz actually, and obviously it’s not one I use in my business when I’m using it, but I think for clients is definitely that integration with the directories. Because we know how frustrating it is to get all these leads from directories and some of them ghost us and all the rest of it.
But actually, I think in BrightBiz it pulls them in. So if you get an inquiry via guides for brides, it literally pops straight into your Bright biz.
And then you can set it on its journey automatically rather than it going into your inbox and then you having to copy and paste it over. Is that right?
Rachel:
00:44:20.920 – 00:44:54.888
Yes. Yeah. So the integration with the directories is one of my favorite features from when I had my little getting to know my business needs call.
I just thought that was really, that was amazing.
So they have, I believe it’s three different directories that they’re already able to integrate with, but I think they are looking to add more as well. So I should have put these in my notes, but I think it was guides for bribes, the knot unhitched that they’ve got already.
And then I think they’re working to do other integrations as well.
Becca
00:44:54.944 – 00:46:17.810
The other thing I really like about it when I’ve used it in my business is they also have a Gmail integration. So one of the things we know is that sometimes when we use CRMs or different systems, our emails end up in spam.
But the way that it works on BrightBiz, you can send an email within Bright Biz, but it actually just goes via your Gmail. So it ends up like if I send you an email out of Bright Biz, although I’m doing it in Bright Biz, actually it’s in my sent items in my Gmail.
So to all intents and purposes I’m just sending you an email. But it helps me keep it all in one place.
And I also found a really cool feature actually that they were showing me where I’ve added like a little Bright Biz thing into my Gmail.
So if someone does email me and they’re not in Bright Biz or they haven’t come into Bright Biz, I can hit that button and it puts their contact details into Bright Biz as a lead. And so if someone just emailed you as a lead, you can also populate it into Bright Biz with that button.
So there’s definitely some really cool features inside of there with the wedding industry in mind for sure. And I think as well, I don’t know because I don’t use this side of it. So I obviously use the client facing side of it sometimes for the agency.
So things like bring in new leads, tracking sales, sending them contracts to sign, giving them a client portal, sending them a survey, all that kind of stuff, getting them to sign contracts and make payments, which we can talk about. I haven’t looked at many of the event management tools, but I believe there are quite a few event management tools inside of BrightBiz as well.
Speaker C
00:46:18.270 – 00:47:04.952
So Bright Biz is really good. You can tell that it’s got a wedding industry in mind. The fact that they’ve got so many project management systems within it.
So there’s ways of using their various templates to set up your timelines, there’s a drag and drop seating chart creator tool, there’s a lot of things. Basically you can pretty much transfer a lot of the templates that Aisle Planner had as a feature on theirs.
BrightBiz have very similar tools, but I do feel like the Bright Biz were better at the drag and drop element rather than having more rigid templates.
Becca
00:47:05.016 – 00:47:40.680
So there are lots of those project management tools inside as well. And the other thing is that seems to be a pro on Bright Biz is that they seem to integrate with a lot of different systems.
So I don’t know if you looked into much of this, but I can see on their website that they’ve got integrations with like accounting software integrations with obviously the directories which we’ve already talked about integrations with Calendly as well. So I don’t know if you’ve looked into any of the integrations that they have, but it seems like they’re trying to make it all in one place.
And it’s just popped up on my screen as well that it looks like they’ve got an integration with Apple Pay, which is something I’ve been asking more people to do is because I think everyone should have an integration with Apple Pay.
Rachel:
00:47:41.460 – 00:48:24.250
As a non Apple user that means nothing to me, but I’m sure it’d be very helpful for anyone who does use Apple. But yes, the integration is really good. So they actually have a full two way integration with both Xero and QuickBooks.
So that means that not only do BrightBiz recommend Xero and QuickBooks as an accounting software to their clients, they actually get recommended as a CRM tool From Xero and QuickBooks for their accounting clients who are looking for CRM tools. And as far as I’m aware they’re the only CRM tool that has. Has got that kind of relationship with the accounting software.
And yes, so they’ve also got the.
Rachel
00:48:24.550 – 00:48:28.286
Calendly integration and the directories integration.
Rachel:
00:48:28.478 – 00:48:33.050
You’ve got the collaboration tools that they don’t have.
Rachel
00:48:33.830 – 00:48:36.510
Zapier. Zapier, however you pronounce it.
Rachel:
00:48:36.630 – 00:49:23.052
But they’ve got their, their own version. So if you’re, if you’re familiar with the, the Zapier. Zapier way of integrating tools together.
Basically it’s a system where it bridges the gap between two digital tools. So if it doesn’t have. If the tools don’t already speak to each other, it kind of has the ability to bridge that.
So brightbids don’t use Zapier itself, but they have their own versions of that. So you can then integrate more and more things if you’re wanting to use systems outside of this CRM tool within your business as well.
But there’s not many things I think you’d need to integrate with it because.
Rachel
00:49:23.076 – 00:49:33.260
There’S so much already within the platform. So because you’ve got all the templates, you’ve got the email systems, you’ve got the accounting, so they can.
Rachel:
00:49:33.380 – 00:49:35.276
Your clients can pay you through it.
Rachel
00:49:35.348 – 00:49:43.714
You can set meetings through it with the calendar connections. There’s not many other things I can imagine you’d.
Rachel:
00:49:43.762 – 00:49:48.322
You’d need to integrate. You might want to, but there’s not many things you would need to initially.
Becca
00:49:48.386 – 00:50:25.840
Amazing. And I’m just looking at their website now and Zapier has popped up as an integration, so it’s possible that that’s now also available.
I know that the team are adding stuff all of the time in there as well. So, yeah, with all of these CRMs, there will be new features added constantly.
Once you decide which one you’re going with, just make sure you’re following them on Instagram or following their email newsletters, because any system I’m on, not just CRM, are updating their features all and all of the time. Okay, so we talked about lots of the pros. It’s wedding industry specific.
There’s loads of features, loads of integrations, and you can do everything in one place. So let’s look at some of the frustrations with Bright Biz.
Rachel
00:50:26.420 – 00:50:28.324
So I actually only came up with.
Rachel:
00:50:28.372 – 00:50:32.116
With two relatively big frustrations with the platform.
Rachel
00:50:32.308 – 00:50:47.892
And both of them it’s kind of a personal preference rather than an actual properly grounded frustration, I think. So some users I know find the interface quite outdated, but with all the.
Speaker C
00:50:47.916 – 00:50:59.560
Updates that BrightBiz have been doing and continue to do, that’s probably going to be something that changes soon anyway. And there’s limitations on how much you.
Rachel
00:50:59.600 – 00:51:04.952
Can customize compared to some of the other CRM platforms, but those are the.
Rachel:
00:51:04.976 – 00:51:12.952
Only two that I came up with. I genuinely tried to find more frustrations, but couldn’t think of anything.
Becca
00:51:13.016 – 00:51:48.962
I have one more frustration to add to the list as someone that uses BrightBiz, but we’ll come back to it because it’s around pricing and lack of pricing on their website. Anyone that knows about me, you will know that I’m all about transparency.
And so that is definitely one of my biggest frustrations when it comes to Bright Biz is the lack of price transparency. But we’ll come back to that in a moment.
Okay, so the cons is some people find it a bit outdated, some people don’t like the interface, and maybe it’s a little bit less customizable, a little bit less pretty than some of the other platforms as well. Okay. Neurodiverse friendly. Talk to me about that.
Rachel
00:51:49.146 – 00:52:13.110
Because it offers the project timelines and the ability to collaborate on such a large level, it can help Neurodiverse people stay a bit more organized and reduce a level of overwhelm that they might get with some of the other platforms. So I would say this is a relatively Neurodiverse friendly platform.
Rachel:
00:52:13.530 – 00:52:18.630
Once you’ve kind of gone over whether or not you like the interface.
Becca
00:52:18.970 – 00:52:28.350
Okay, amazing. And what about the tech support with BrightBiz? Talk to me about that. Did you interact with their tech support? What’s their tech support like?
Is there a lot of help to get it set up?
Rachel
00:52:28.810 – 00:52:44.266
So because of how they onboard their clients, you get quite a lot of one to one support even in your trial period. So it doesn’t require too much technical.
Rachel:
00:52:44.378 – 00:53:58.240
Knowledge to get it all set up and get going.
It’s more just familiarizing yourself with the way in which the platform does things and changing it to have your dashboard, for example, have the items you want where you want it. So with their technical support they’ve got. You’ve got like your own personal advisor almost.
So I was able to email the person that was allocated to me with any questions pretty much at any time and they’re quite quick to respond. I don’t know how big the team is, but they seem to respond really quickly.
And then the technical support from their like help center side of things, there’s written instruction and video instruction which I have to say is something I would put in the neuro diverse friendly category as well. The it gives you options depending on how you learn. So if you’re, if you learn by doing. I was very much told you cannot break this platform.
If you want to just try things, go for it. But they also do have the ability to, to read those guides or watch the video tutorials as well.
Becca
00:53:58.280 – 00:54:29.360
Okay, that’s super helpful. Now I don’t know if there’s loads on YouTube for them. So we talked YouTube for Dubsado, we talked about YouTube for aisle planner.
I haven’t come across loads of stuff for Bright Biz. I don’t know if you have at all, but it’s something I keep saying.
So maybe I should help you do some videos and we can showcase how the platform works things. I use it myself already so maybe there’ll be more of that down the line as well.
Okay, let’s come on to pricing then and my little frustration with BrightBid. So talk to us about the pricing with BrightBiz.
Rachel
00:54:30.290 – 00:54:32.550
So if you go onto their website.
Rachel:
00:54:32.930 – 00:55:50.796
You will be none the wiser of what they will ask you to pay, which I’m assuming is your frustration. So when I was going through the frustrations, I was focusing purely on once you’re in the platform.
But yes, I did find this the trickiest tool to sign up for. So there’s not much clarity on their website as to how long a piece of string is basically. So, like, their pricing isn’t clear.
It says that there’s different packages, but it doesn’t really tell you much about them. So I had to input my information and schedule a 15 minute call with one of the team before you even really get a taste for the platform.
So for anyone who’s introverted, has phone call anxiety or is just tapped out and doesn’t want to speak to any more people that day, it’s quite a hurdle. Obviously, learning from your teachings, Becca, I’ve always been quite transparent with my pricing, so I did find that quite tricky with them.
But once you’re in and you’re speaking to the people, they’re relatively clear of kind of price expectations, but they do want to find out what you need first.
Becca
00:55:50.948 – 00:56:11.440
Okay, well that kind of makes sense. But as you know, I also like to have an idea because otherwise I think there’ll be people that are put off by that. Exactly.
Like you said, it is a bit of a hurdle. So did you get any more wiser about how much it would cost you as an individual business if you were to carry on after your, your free trial ended?
Rachel
00:56:11.940 – 00:56:26.088
So for myself they. So they have have like four packages, but they don’t necessarily always go with those packages. So that because it’s more tailor made.
Rachel:
00:56:26.224 – 00:56:54.042
I was kind of in the middle of two different packages and I believe they said it was going to be around 100 or 200 pounds a month. For me, I think, because I wanted quite a lot of the integrations. So I’m assuming it’s like Dubsada, you pay for the features.
So because I needed more or wanted more of the integrations, my price then would go up. Whereas if I just wanted like the basic level, it probably would have been a lot cheaper. But I didn’t get a quote for that one.
Becca
00:56:54.146 – 00:57:33.848
Yeah, but for most of us it’s going to be those integrations that we want. Right. Because I think that it costs you extra if you have the payments enabled. Well, we definitely want to have that enabled.
I know that the SMS stuff is going to cost extra, but that’s because if you’re sending text, you’ve got to pay the charges. For the text.
But yeah, I do think this is why it’s one of my frustrations is it’s hard to nail it down and go, right, this, if you use this, it’s got all these amazing features and it will cost you this. So if what you’re saying is right, then it’s coming out as one of the more expensive ends of the market.
Although it’s got amazing features, great integrations and it’s going to be amazing, it is going to be quite costly. So with all that in mind, who do we think Bright Biz is best for?
Rachel
00:57:34.034 – 00:58:16.298
I think Bright Beers is best for people who are a bit more established or people that have a bit more to invest within their business.
So I don’t think you necessarily have to be hugely experienced within the wedding industry, but I do think you need quite a bit of financial backing of yourself to use this platform, especially as a wedding pro, wanting to get the directories and other integrations that they offer because they also have integrations with mailchimp and things like that. So if you’re wanting the integrations with.
Rachel:
00:58:16.354 – 00:58:27.258
Everything that they have the ability to give you, you’re going to need to have quite a substantial investment on a monthly basis. So I think it’s just more people.
Rachel
00:58:27.314 – 00:58:43.628
Who maybe have higher paying clients or more, more higher paying clients and just have that bit of financial investment behind them. Because I love the platform and I would, I would transfer to it, but I didn’t think I would get my.
Rachel:
00:58:43.684 – 00:58:46.556
Money’S worth if that made sense. So I’ve stuck with the start.
Becca
00:58:46.628 – 01:01:36.550
Yeah, that makes sense. So if you haven’t got loads of clients or loads of leads, maybe it’s not working for you right now at its current price point.
But actually if you’re a venue or you’re a photographer that gets a lot of leads, or a DJ that gets a lot of leads, is a great place to be able to manage high volume in a really succinct way that’s made for the wedding industry.
So I think, particularly venues and wedding agencies like mine, I found it really helpful for what I’ve been doing when I’ve been testing it out as well, because I’m dealing with contracts and changing contracts and getting people to sign contracts.
And I have found, and this is kind of a win for CRMs in general, not just for this one particularly, but if you’re thinking about a CRM is that the speed in which someone signs a document and makes a payment when it’s all automated is so much faster because it’s so quick for them to make the payment and it’s so quick for them to just sign it with their finger rather than the old way of printing out the form and signing it and scanning it back in and emailing it back and, you know, so CRMs for the win on that front. Okay, we’ve covered a lot of ground.
I know this is going to be a long old episode of the podcast, but we’ve gone really in depth and I’m so thankful for all of your research. Now, as I said earlier, some people may be feeling a bit overwhelmed about the idea of getting it set up, but we actually can do that for people.
So if you are listening to this and you’re like, this sounds amazing, I need a system like this. But Becca and Rachel, I have no idea how to get started. I’m not particularly techy.
Well, actually, as part of the Wedding Pro agency, me and Rachel can work with you to get this set up. Now, in the interest of price transparency, you’re going to be looking at about £400 ish to get us to set that up for you.
Obviously, if what you’re setting up is much more complex than that, then it could go up. But for most people listening, it’s going to be around £400. And what we do in that is that you get, first of all, you have a strategy call with me.
So I chat to you, I talk about what you need, the features that you need. If you haven’t decided on your CRM, we can talk through the best option for you. We also work out what you want the journey to be, look to look like.
I then take all of that information, I pass it over to the lovely Rachel, who then does the tech side for you, and she then builds out the tech in whatever system you’ve chosen. We put all of your information in there and then between us, we then show you how to use it and hand it back over to you.
So if that sounds of interest to you, do reach out to me via the Wedding Pro agency again, I’ll put the links in the show notes or reach out to me on Instagram and I can point you in the direction. And we would love to absolutely get you set up on these different CRM systems.
And even if it’s a system that we haven’t mentioned today, as I said, there are loads of systems out there and we will help you with any of them because they all operate in fairly similar ways and we can usually work out what we need to do for you. So, final couple of questions.
For you then, Rachel, before I let you go, if someone’s thinking about getting this into their business or into their venue, when do you think is the perfect time to start bringing a CRM into play?
Rachel
01:01:37.410 – 01:02:07.428
Yesterday. I think having a CRM just saves you so much time and anxiety about missed invoices and have I contacted this lead and everything.
I think if you’re wanting to save time within your business and you’re wanting to streamline systems and automate certain parts of your sales funnel, I think a CRM is needed yesterday.
Becca
01:02:07.524 – 01:02:47.590
Amazing. I love that. And it is, is so helpful.
And if you’ve got to a point where you’re feeling overwhelmed with all that different bits of paper and things coming in left, right and center and you want to streamline everything, that’s probably a sign that exactly, you should have done it yesterday. So let’s get it set up for you asap. Stop putting it on your list to I’ll do it when I have time.
Because you’ll not have time because you’re spending all your time trying to sort your paperwork out. So outsource it, let’s get it working for you and you’ll buy back some of your time.
If someone is wanting to get set up with us, obviously they’re also going to think, yikes, I’m going to have to prepare loads of stuff for you. What do we need from them in order to be able to get this stuff set up? It’s not actually that time consuming, is it?
Rachel:
01:02:47.970 – 01:02:48.474
No.
Rachel
01:02:48.562 – 01:03:53.910
So it kind of depends what systems you’ve already got in place.
So I know some people, we’ve transferred their systems from one site to another, so we kind of had all the information needed from the initial site and then anything extra we just emailed and got them to send our way.
But if you don’t have things in place, like if you’re literally just working from an Excel spreadsheet at this point, then it would be a case of, okay, let’s delve into your brand guidelines. What kind of nurture sequence do you have in place at the moment?
What kind of of wording do you use so that we can create some more email templates that sound more like you, rather than just using the templates that are available on the CRM platform.
So a lot of that will probably come from the strategy call that they have with you to find out the kind of journey that they want their clients to be put on. And we then transfer that into a lovely sales funnel on a CRM tool.
Rachel:
01:03:53.950 – 01:03:55.774
That you just have to click A.
Rachel
01:03:55.782 – 01:03:57.150
Couple of buttons and it’s there.
Becca
01:03:57.270 – 01:04:48.460
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s why you don’t need to be afraid of it. And that’s why it works when me and Rachel do this together and we work on it through the agency.
Because you kind of get both.
You get the technical setup, which, yes, you could go anywhere for the technical setup, but actually you also are going to get the advice and the strategy from me.
So if you don’t even know where to start, I will say to you, well, I recommend that we put a form on your website and then I recommend that we send this email to follow up. And then I recommend, and I will give you all that on the strategy call.
We’ll build it out, we’ll work out what it needs to look like and then, as I said, I’ll then hand over for the technical side of stuff and Rachel will do the magic and make it happen. So don’t let lack of understanding or lack of information hold you back. Just reach out and chat to us.
Rachel, it’s been so much fun talking about this. If people have enjoyed the episode, are you willing to dive into some more CRMs? If they ask us to and we could do another one.
Rachel
01:04:48.580 – 01:04:52.572
Oh, yeah, definitely. I love researching deep dives, so this is all good.
Becca
01:04:52.676 – 01:05:39.570
Amazing. So if you’re listening to this and you’ve enjoyed this different kind of episode, then do let me know. Reach out.
If you want us to dive into anything else, particularly different types of software, different things that you can use in your business, maybe we can look at email marketing as well. Then we’d love to deep dive and just uncover it because it can be time consuming to do this research yourself.
So the lovely Rachel’s done it for us and hopefully in today’s episode, we’ve broken it down in a way that makes sense to you and thank you to these different platforms for existing, to Brightbiz, to Dubsado, and to Aisle Planner, because they all do amazing things, Anna. We’re glad to have been able to look into them. Now, unlike every other episode, this has been a different one.
But we still need to end with my normal question. So we are going to do that now, Rachel, and that is this. What’s one thing you wish you’d known sooner in your own wedding business?
Rachel
01:05:40.510 – 01:05:45.574
So there are many, many things that I wish I knew sooner, but pretty.
Speaker C
01:05:45.622 – 01:05:48.422
Much all of them Shameless Plug are.
Rachel
01:05:48.446 – 01:05:49.574
Covered in your book.
Speaker C
01:05:49.742 – 01:05:56.120
So I’m not going to cover those ones, but I think community for me has been everything.
Rachel
01:05:56.240 – 01:06:20.040
So being a member of your group full of incredible human beings who are so supportive and so knowledgeable and just lovely, talented, supportive cheerleaders, basically. So my, my recommendation is if you’re.
If you’re struggling within the wedding industry or you’re just starting out, getting a good community first is. Is a good, safe bet.
Becca
01:06:20.080 – 01:06:42.136
Absolutely. Community over competition every time. And everyone who’s listening, you’re always welcome to join my community, the Wedding Pro Members Lounge.
I like to say that it’s the loveliest wedding community on the Internet, and I believe it’s true because everyone in there is so supportive and so encouraging and so honest. Rachel, thank you so much for all of your time, all of your research, and I’ll chat with you soon.
Rachel:
01:06:42.288 – 01:06:43.816
Bye. Thanks for having me.
Becca
01:06:43.888 – 01:07:15.660
Such a great episode. I hope you enjoyed that different way of us having the podcast today where we really took a deep dive into those different systems.
Let me know what you thought. Did you like this kind of episode or would you prefer the normal kind of episodes?
I’m always listening for your feedback, but hopefully you found it helpful, particularly if you’ve spent a while wondering, what is this CRM thing all about? And actually, what do all these different systems do?
If you’ve got questions, or if you want to get me and Rachel to set it up as part of the Wedding Pro agency, then reach out to me. And all of the links to all of the different systems and things we’ve talked about are in the show notes. I’ll see you next time.
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