One of the BEST thing about Dubsado is the ability to send automatic form reminders to your clients, that way you don’t have to track them down to make sure you submit things. I have a formula I follow for every single form that I put in any workflow for any of my clients. This formula ensures that your clients are well taken care of and ensures that YOU are well taken care of- getting all of the information you need, when you need it, without manually following up.

What you need to know about Automatic Form Reminders

Here’s how I recommend handling EVERY SINGLE form in all of your workflows:

1. When you send the form for the first time, give the client a deadline. This shouldn’t be a DATE because Dubsado can’t fill that in automatically, but instead should be something like “Please complete this form within 3 days.”
   • Workflow Action: “Send Form” based on your desired trigger
2. Send Form 3 days after form is not completed (on the due date you set)- You can write a generic email for form reminders that you send on the due date and you can use for any form. Make sure to include the form link smart field so that they can easily access/finish the form.
   • Workflow Action: “Send Form” x days “after form is not completed”
   • See below for an email template for this reminder!
3. Send additional form reminders as you desire when the form is past due. You may create as many reminder emails as you’d like, but remember that you will not be able to send them in quick succession (like days 3, 4, and 5). Dubsado automatic form reminders are weird. Each reminder is sent the number of days after the LAST reminder was sent, and the numbers must get larger or they’ll send out of order.
   • For example, you can NOT send form reminders on the following schedule, because the 1 day reminder would go BEFORE the 3 day reminder:
     • January 1 – send original form for the first time
     • Send Reminder 3 days later – Jan 4
     • Send Reminder 1 day after the last reminder – Jan 5
   • Instead, your reminder schedule would need to look like:
     • January 1 – send original form for the first time
     • Send reminder 2 days later – Jan 3
     • Send reminder 3 days later – Jan 6
     • Send reminder 4 days later – Jan 10
   • This funky schedule / Dubsado constraints is also why I don’t have a reminder PRIOR to the due date, because it would be difficult to time it correctly to be able to send a reminder before the due date and ON the due date.
4. Create a To Do for manual follow up if the form is still not complete at the end of all of these automatic reminder. This is an optional step that I find to be most important when some kind of pre-job questionnaire is needed prior to your work with a client in order to adequately serve them- so something like a wedding questionnaire that allows you to create a shot list & timeline for the day, or an event questionnaire that tells you what’s going to be happening at the event, etc.
   • Workflow Action: “Create To Do” x days “after form is not completed”
5. For every form in your workflow, I also recommending workflowing a completion alert so that your client is assured that you received their responses. There’s a template for this below!
   • Workflow Action: “Send Email” 0 hours “after form is completed”

Templates

I’ve given you all the recommended steps here, but I also want to leave you with a few helpful templates and examples to make sure that you can fully take advantage of this formula!

Form Reminder 1 – ON Due Date

Subject: {{form.title}} is due today

Hi {{client.firstName}},

I’m checking in because your {{form.title}} {{form.kind}} is due TODAY and it looks like you may still be working on it. Are you going to be able to finish it up today? Here’s the link to make it easier!

{{form | formLink}}

Let me know if you have any questions!

{{brand.emailTemplate.signature}}

Form Completion Alert

Subject: Form Complete | {{brand.name}}

Hi {{client.firstName}},

Thank you for submitting your form! I will review it and let you know if I have any questions or need anything further from you. Be on the lookout for another email with next steps!

Thank you,

{{brand.emailTemplate.signature}}

Conclusion

And there’s my foolproof formula on setting up Dubsado automatic form reminders! Following these steps, along with the extra tips I’ve provided, will ensure that your clients are well taken care of and that you NEVER have to manually follow up with them to collect key information again!