What I Was Looking For In A CRM For My Photography Business
FYI - some of the links in the post are affiliate links. I only promote products that I actually use and love though! By clicking the links you’re helping me fund my book obsession, so my Kindle and I thank you :)
I've been using Dubsado as my client management system since November 2016. That’s over 3 ½ years. Before that I had been using 17hats but I wasn't happy with them and had been actively looking for another solution for quite a few months before that.
I had signed up for trials and tested various photography related CRM's before I finally landed on Dubsado through the recommendation of Jessica Stansberry - owner and tech nerd over at www.heyjessica.com
With Dubsado - I have to say - it was love at first sight.
But it really was love at first sight and first use. Once I signed up for a trial and started setting my systems up I fell even harder.
But before I gush on and on about Dubsado, let's talk about some of the other CRM"s I had tried so that you can get some perspective.
17hats
I jumped on 17hats when it first came out. I really liked the simple design and the clean interface. It was the easiest to get set up and started from all the CRM's I had tried.
I thought that this was going to be the system for me and I was happy to start. However small things started to frustrate me with the system. Then larger issues popped up and I found the customer service severely lacking and sometimes downright rude from this company.
Over time though I fell less and less in like with 17hats and moved more into the 'I wanna get the hell outta here camp - even though I still had about 10 months on my 2 year plan'. I didn't care. I just wanted a system that would work for me and for my clients as well.
Though keep in mind - this was over 4 years ago now. Hopefully, things have changed since then but I haven’t been back to check.
Tave
Tave is the biggest name in the biz for a photography CRM. It's been around for years, is established and has a solid base. Its photographer specific so all of the features are designed especially around what we need. This was my second favourite I tried behind Sprout Studio. It has great capabilities and you could build your business around it.
Plus the interface was nice to look at. I did find the little notification icons above everything in the menu to be more stressful than helpful for my brain though.
However - the set up is insanely hard. There are so many features of Tave that it's hard to wrap your head around where to even start when you go to set it up. Plus the terminology is super confusing and there weren't that many videos in the help section. Just text walkthroughs - which is ok but not the quickest way to understand a system or convey how something works.
It did have some webinars showing you features but there was no breakdown of exactly what was included in each webinar so you had to invest over an hour of your time watching each webinar without knowing if it was going to answer your specific questions. Not helpful.
Pixifi
Pixifii is great. I know some die hard Pixifii fans. And it has a lot of capabilities. However, I found the set up of this system to be laboriously hard ( and that's coming from someone who loves systems and processes). I couldn't figure out the system and the terms and the help documentation for some of the features showed a previous design so that when I tried to set something up, none of the information matched up.
(I do believe they now have a Pixifi Academy you can go through to help get set up, but that wasn’t there when I did my trial).
Plus the interface is a little bit stuck in the nineties. It's functional. And it works. But it's in no way pleasing to my eye. I hadn't realised how much of a big deal that was to me until it was lacking in this system.
I will say that when you do have it set up, it can do a lot of things for you and run great. Also if you have a problem the customer service is stellar and if you want you can hire out the set up. Plus the owner, Tim, is honestly amazing. I hadn't seen customer service like his in all the other CRM's until I came to Dubsado.
Studio Ninja
Newer to the market than Tave or Pixifii, this is actually an Australian based system. For that alone I wanted to love it. There wasn't anything wrong with this system. There were some limitations due to it being newer so it didn't have the same capabilities as the other - more robust CRMs. I honestly can't remember what exactly I didn't like in the system just that I wasn't drawn to it, even though I really wanted to be.
Sprout Studio
This is a beautiful system. It's nearly an all in one system for photographers. It combines client galleries, proofing, a client portal, a sales gallery, emails, invoices, contracts etc. I signed up and I loved the interface, the clean design and especially the client portal.
However, the price tag is more expensive per month than any of the other CRM's (especially for me over in Aus with the currency conversion - yikes!).
It would definitely have been my top contender if I utilised every feature of this system. Then the money would definitely be worth it for me.
There were a couple of issues that I had with it though - namely not be able to set packages with digitals in their galleries. You can either download the favourites or all of them - not a set amount like 5 or 10 etc. (I believe that’s changed now and you can set up packages with a set amount of digitals, plus print & digital packages too).
Depending on your business model and workflow, you may want to give them a go.
Insightly
Not a photography specific CRM but since it integrates with Gmail (my absolute favourite email) and was free, I wanted to give this one a shot. The basic premise was good but I didn't find it very intuitive. Plus it seemed like it was more suited to typical sales and marketing people and less for the creative types.
The more CRM's I tried the more I felt like Goldilocks - I couldn't find a system that felt 'just right'. They were either too hard to set up, too ugly, had too many things that I didn't need, terrible customer service... the list went on.
Though all of these trials with various CRM's was labour intensive it did give me a good perspective on exactly what it was that I was looking for in a CRM. And what I wasn't.
Here's what I knew that I needed:
A clean interface - I wanted something that I would be happy to look at day in and day out for hours at a time. Something that was clean and uncluttered and that wasn't back in a different decade or promoting their latest product on prime real estate of a page that I had to look at all the time.
The ability to automate with workflows and canned emails - I wanted to be able to set up my system to run for me in the background while I did other things but also give me the ability to change things as I went or customise and personalise certain details. I wanted to be able to create a consistent experience for each of my clients while still personalising it for each individual.
Emails being sent without ending up in spam - To create a consistent client experience I needed to have my client communication not hit the spam folder and actually reach their inbox.
Contracts and invoices - the ability to have template contracts, questionnaires and invoices so that my clients can complete all of these online at their convenience ( and let's face it, my convenience too).
A central location - to manage all my clients without being completely overwhelmed with the set up.
Affordable - I'm a small business. Every expense has to be weighed against need vs want. It has to actually work for me and my business and I needed it to not cost a fortune.
An integrated booking system - I book all of my appointments online using Acuity Scheduling at the moment. I was looking for a system that had this feature in place so that I could get rid of Acuity and keep everything in one spot. Or if they didn't have it right now, I wanted a CRM that was planning on implementing it.
Zapier integration - this may not be a big deal to everyone but I love and use Zapier a lot in my business. I wanted a system that was integrated with Zapier or planning to integrate because I wanted my business systems to be able to talk to each other so that I could automate as many of my systems as I could. The only other CRM that did this was Insightly. And none of the other photography CRM's were ever planning on integrating with Zapier. Now Dubsado only has a few triggers in Zapier at the moment but I know it’s on their roadmap to add more ad some point.
Customisable - I wanted my forms, questionnaires, contracts, emails - everything, to be customisable to my brand. Not just a button on a form but my fonts, my photography, my words. I wanted to be able to create a client experience that was completely on brand with my business.
White label - Along with complete customisation I wanted it to be white label too. I didn't want their to be any confusion about who a client was interacting with or a concern that they everything wasn't up to par because they had to go to three different businesses to sign a contract, pay an invoice and complete a questionnaire.
Client portal - There's a lot of communication that occurs before and after a session so I wanted a central location that my clients could go to where they could access all of their emails, questionnaires, contract and forms without feeling like they had to contact me to get access. I wanted it to be as easy as possible for them to be informed. I also wanted to be able to embed a sign in page on my website so they could access the portal even if they couldn't find the email link.
Transparency - after the bad experience I had with my previous CRM I wanted to find a system that was transparent with their roadmap and what they were working on. I didn't need to have exact dates because I know how much things can change when you try to put out software but I wanted to be able to know what a companies plans were for the future of their product.
A CRM that listened to its users - and implemented ideas based on their feedback. And in a timely manner too. I wanted a CRM that was regularly updating their system to match what their clients needs were. And then I wanted to know that they would actually implement those ideas into their system.
Customer Service - This one was paramount. I needed not just a CRM I could rely on but I needed to know that if I had an issue it would be heard and resolved. Especially if it was US based. Being on the other side of the world, most times when I run across a problem I can't expect to hear back from someone until the next day and the cycle continues with an email a day as we work with different time zones.
I also wanted a system that didn't overlook the small things while they released a larger product. Or deemed a feature as not important even though lots of people were asking for it.
In essence I wanted a company to care about my business as well as theirs.
I actually wasn't sure I was going to find this mythical beast. With such a this towering list of wants and needs I didn't even know if it existed.
Until finally... I came across 'the one'. My unicorn CRM…
Enter... Dubsado.
Hallelujah! It was like finding a Ferrero Rocher amid a pile of cheap chocolate from the dollar store.
It had everything from my list and then some features I didn't even knew I wanted until they were shown to me.
Added to that the company was founded by a husband and wife, Jacob and Becca Berg, who hands down have the BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! EVER!!!!
They had not only designed a piece of software that answered all of my needs but they were upfront about their roadmap and what they planned for their company. AND... and this is the big one... They actually followed through on what they said they would - MIND BLOWN!!!
I was in - I'm still in and I plan to be here for awhile.
So if you're thinking about switching CRM's or you've just started looking for one then I encourage you to check out Dubsado. They even have a full, unrestricted trial for your first 3 clients. So you can test out the system completely without worrying about trying to get it done in 14-30 days like most CRM's.
Also, If you sign up through my link or use my code 'sheismoxie' you get 20% off your first month or your first year, depending on what plan you go with.
(Full disclosure - that's an affiliate link but I hands down recommend and use Dubsado in my own business. I wouldn't promote it if I didn't believe in it.)
So... what are you waiting for. Get on it now.
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FYI - some of the links in the post are affiliate links. I only promote products that I actually use and love though! By clicking the links you’re helping me fund my book obsession, so my Kindle and I thank you :)
