Dubsado is revolutionary in the variety of ways they allow you to provide your leads with interacting with you – whether it’s filling out a form, scheduling an appointment, or directly picking their package and paying (and there are a whole lot of in-between options there too!). One of my favorite ways is for clients to pay directly for their service on your website- whether by filling out a proposal or scheduling a paid appointment with you, BUT, if you’re using any of the options where you’re collecting payment on your website, then you’re going to need to create a Dubsado abandoned cart workflow in order for things to work the way you’re expecting. Keep reading to find out more.
Why You Need A Dubsado Abandoned Cart Workflow
To put it succinctly: because Dubsado starts your workflow as soon as a lead completes your FORM,
*not* once they make payment.
Whether you’re using a Public Proposal or a Scheduler with a Lead Capture/Public Proposal attached, either way, there’s a form involved. That FORM is the key to entry into Dubsado. If a client completes the form involved but does NOT complete the process of booking by *paying*, it *doesn’t* matter. The workflow still starts.
Now this isn’t a flaw in the system- the point of Dubsado is to capture lead information- and if someone is interested enough in your service to fill out their information and then chickens out when it’s time to pay, that’s still a pretty good lead that some nurturing could convert into an ACTUAL paying client.
The problem is simply that most people don’t realize that this is how it works, and they don’t know how to fix it so that ONLY the leads who COMPLETE the process AND PAY receive the post-booking information, and that’s what this blog is all about- making sure that only paying clients receive post-booking workflows, but ALSO creating a Dubsado Abandoned Cart workflow that will help you convert more warm leads.
Examples
If you book any of these via workflow after a free inquiry process, then this blog is NOT for you.
If you book any of the following DIRECTLY from your website, you should follow these directions:
- Mini Sessions and/or portrait sessions
- Paid Group Trainings
- Paid consultations, strategy sessions, or other paid appointment
- If you allow people to purchase anything directly from your website
How to Create Your Dubsado Abandoned Cart Workflow
- Create your Post-Booking workflow. If you’re reading this blog, you probably already have this part. It’s the stuff that you want to happen when someone actually books you.
- Create a project status: Lead – Abandoned Cart
- Write Canned Email: Abandoned Cart – Payment Reminder
This email reminds the client that although they’ve started the process, they haven’t officially booked. They must pay their invoice in order to do so. Include the invoice smart field:
{{job | invoiceLink}} - Write Canned Email: Abandoned Cart – Restart Booking
Email the client with some nurturing information to encourage them to finish their booking. Include the link back to the public booking page so that this will work over and over. - Create the Abandoned Cart Workflow below
| Action | Timing | Trigger | Content/Asset | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Send Primary Invoice | 2 hours | after workflow started | Abandoned Cart -Payment Reminder | This email reminds the client that although they’ve started the process, they haven’t officially booked. They must pay their invoice in order to do so. Include the invoice smart field: {{job | invoiceLink}} |
| Change Project Status | 1 day | after workflow started | Abandoned Cart | |
| Send Email | 1 day | after workflow started | Abandoned Cart – Restart Booking | Email the client with some nurturing information to encourage them to finish their booking. Include the link back to the public booking page so that this will work over and over. |
| Archive Project | 0.5 hours | after all previous actions complete | This step ensures that if the email in the previous step WORKS and the lead goes back and book- you don’t have confusing duplicate projects. | |
| Start a Workflow | 0 hours | after invoice paid in full | Post-Booking Workflow | Ensures that all the actions for actual clients don’t’ start until they PAY! |
| Pause Workflow | 0.1 hours | after invoice paid in full | The delay in this step ensures that your post-booking workflow will start BEFORE this workflow pauses. The pause ensures that your client does NOT receive the abandoned cart reminder if they pay! |
NOTE
It is not recommended to allow partial payment for booking when something is on your website. Dubsado doesn’t give you a clean way to collect the second payment. I highly recommend changing your policy to 100% payment up front.
IF YOU INSIST on partial payment:
Book a Strategy Session so that we can talk through WHY you need partial payment and so that we can come up with an appropriate custom solution for you.
And there you have it!
That’s how you use create a Dubsado abandoned cart workflow! Say goodbye to frustrating automations that email people the wrong things at the wrong time under the wrong scenarios… at least for services you allow clients to book directly from your website.
Did you find this useful? Comment below with the type of service you implemented this hack for!
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