From Inquiry to Booking: How I Simplify My Client Workflow

Let’s talk about how to automate your client workflow and simplify your business process! It took me years to come up with a good system to automate the pieces of my business, but once I did, it legit changed everything. So, today we’re going to talk about how you can automate your client workflow so that you can put pieces of your business on autopilot, and give yourself more time to focus on the parts of your business that you love the most—or, I don’t know, have time to have a hobby. ;)

For the sake of this video I’m going to talk about how I use Honeybook to automate my processes, but most of the processes can be translated over to other systems. For example, e-mail templates and scheduling can be done through G-mail, Calendly offers a free scheduling platform, Wave for sending invoices & payments, and you can use a contact form directly through your web-site provider or by embedding one through a service like Jotform.

However, I’ve found that using an all-in-one service like Honeybook helps me keep track of everything a lot better, and using one software for everything makes it a lot easier for me to actually make use of all of the automation systems instead of switching back and forth between different web-sites, programs, and applications—and likely forgetting to put something to use or losing motivation to do so.

Now, let’s get into the nitty gritty of my client workflow from initial inquiry to officially booking.

Step 1: Initial Contact

My web-site is hosted through Squarespace, and I’ve embedded the Honeybook contact form into it. What’s great about this, is as soon as a client makes at inquiry through my web-site, it creates a new project in Honeybook.

Step 2: Send Pricing

Depending on what the inquiry is about, I have an e-mail template that’s pre-loaded with a PDF of the pricing guide. While Honeybook does offer what they call “brochures”, I prefer to make my own pricing PDFs in Photoshop and upload them to the Honeybook server, pre-attaching them to e-mail templates. So within a couple clicks, adjusting the e-mail to the client’s inquiry, I’ve already formulated a reply.

Step 3: Scheduling

If after viewing the pricing the client decides to move forward, I’ll respond with a link to my scheduling calendar where my client can choose their session date, at which point it automatically be shared to my iCalendar. The way I’ve found to make this most useful is to decide ahead of time which days I’d like to schedule photoshoots, and then I block out days on my scheduling calendar accordingly. This has been so helpful, because it takes away the back-and-forth conversations and guesswork that goes into finding a time that works for myself and my clients, because I’ve already decided which days and times work best for me. Honeybook makes sharing scheduling links super easy by adding a little button to the bottom of their e-mail composer so all I have to do is click the appropriate schedule and just like that, it’s in the e-mail.

Step 4: Invoicing

Once the client selects the date, I’ll go to their project and update their date & project type in the details.

I’ll enter the services into the invoice, adding sales tax, and making sure the payment section reflects a payment plan appropriate to the services selected. Then I’ll hit share, again using a templated e-mail detailing the session so that I make sure my client and I are on the same page about our session. Honeybook will auto fill some sections with the clients’ details, and then I’ll fill in whatever else I need to.

Step 5: Confirm Session in Calendar

Once the client receives their invoice and pays their deposit, their session is officially booked (hooray!). At this point, I head to my calendar to ensure that I have the date and time blocked off and then confirm any needed session planning, outfits, and locations from there.

Again, using automations not only makes things easier and faster for myself and my clients, but it helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page about session expectations and payments are made on time, keeping everything running smoothly, and allowing me more time to underwater basket weave or, more likely, read a book.

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Watch the video below where I show you how I do this process live in Honeybook!