Being a photographer is a beautiful journey. As a fellow photographer, you understand the passion that flows from behind our lens as we take image after image for our incredible clients who trust us with their moments and memories. If you’ve been in business for any amount of time, I’m sure you’ve also learned the importance and value of an amazing CRM (customer relationship management) program.

If you’ve been reading my blog, you probably came across my Time Saving Tools for Photographers blog post. I live by the tools I spoke of in this piece except one of them is getting a bit of an upgrade…

I’ve recently made the switch over to Honeybook and it has left me wondering why I hadn’t switched over sooner! While there was nothing wrong with the client management program I was using before, Honeybook has proven to be more streamlined, easier to use and has a few extra perks that have been wonderful to explore and put to use.

1 – The App

I had been pining for an app for over a year with my last CRM and sadly never saw one. Being able to step away from the computer, without leaving behind everything that needs to be done, is wonderful. I appreciate the app that Honeybook has so I can quickly respond to AND EASILY follow up with inquiries, see when invoices are paid, start workflows down the pipeline, and more. It seems you need an app these days to really advance your software and Honeybook is definitely doing this right. I find this the most helpful when I’m traveling. Before Honeybook, I felt I had to wait until I was in front of a computer to type out and finesse a response, but now I can easily reply (and book!) my clients as soon as I receive their inquiry. This is a feature you absolutely have to see for yourself to appreciate how amazing it is! You can sign up for a free trial with Honeybook to check it out here.

2 – Concierge

When you sign up, you meet your ‘concierge team’. This team helps build your account for you which saves time and the somewhat daunting process of figuring out yet another new system. You send your contracts, pricing and questionnaires and the concierge team will actually turn the into templates for you to use in the future. You can go in and tweak the templates once they are created as you update things. This is so great for client questionnaires that I am tweaking consistently to be able to give my clients the best experience. On top of this, they have really helpful webinars available to go over everything and will even set up a live call with you to go over all of the things which I found incredibly helpful and was definitely the selling point for me once I saw how seamlessly everything worked all together!

3 – Editing the Workflow

The best part of a CRM program is the automated workflow. When someone signs a contract, an invoice can be automatically sent. When someone fills out a questionnaire, an email requesting a consultation can be sent automatically. Setting up good workflows is amazing but with other programs, the flow is the flow. With Honeybook, you can go into each clients workflow and edit or make adjustments (this was HUGE for me!) While most clients can enter a workflow seamlessly, every now and then you have a client that needs a little extra tweaking for what questions you want to ask, what their invoice will be, etc. With Honeybook I can open the workflow for each client and remove the pieces I don’t need and even edit the ones I want to use.

4 – Calendar

ince all you bookings will go through Honeybook, their interactive calendar auto-populates so all of your sessions appear on your calendar (and totally syncs with your existing goole, office, outlook and icloud calendars!) This makes knowing which dates are available easy and you can give one quick glance over at ONE place instead of searching through emails and maybe even Facebook messages. I also love that when a lead comes in, Honeybook automatically lets you know if you’re available for the requested date or not!

5 – Email Integration

With my last CRM, I found my emails getting very messy. I would send something from the CRM, but the replies from my client would go straight to my inbox and were getting increasingly difficult to keep track of. Honeybook simplifies all of this and keeps everything together for you. I also really appreciate the email tracking so you know exactly when and how many times your clients have received your replies! This has been helpful for so many reasons, but here’s #1! If I don’t hear back from an initial lead, I always send out a followup email. Everyone once in awhile, I find the client never read the initial email and this always comes down to them entering their email address incorrectly! Usually, with a little investigating or a simple change of .con to .com I can resend my response and book the session!

6 – Editing Templates

Another place Honeybook really excels is the ease in which you can customize sesssion guides, proposals, invoices and contracts. With my old CRM I would have to make an entirely new template and contract if I wanted to make any changes at all. Alternatively, I could go back to my templates and duplicate or edit them, but really hated that I couldn’t just edit them for my current client as I was putting everything together. With Honeybook this is all a seamless process! You can edit as needed, just for that client as you go and this alone has saved me SO many headaches!!

7 – Automation

HoneyBook allows you to run your business on auto-pilot, but still keep all the control! You can make an awesome first impression with potential clients by instantly responding to their inquiries. Whenever clients submit an inquiry via your contact form, you can set up a workflow to send them an email with your price list attached as well as follow up tasks and additional emails later in the week. HoneyBook never sends an email without your approval. You can use your Task Manager to approve a scheduled email, edit it or remove it from your workflow all together. Honeybook, I think I love you.

If you would like to give Honeybook a try, click here or use code TWYLA for 50% off your entire first YEAR! I know you’ll be happy you made the switch!