The Best Client Management Resource-- goes beyond normal software

Before I used HoneyBook, I had tried several other client management platforms. All of them were clunky, and often I'd have to hunt around for things in the interest of the app developer's attention to folders and organization. What a mess! I'm so glad I switched to HoneyBook. They've consistently made product improvements and seem to really care about their customers. It gets easier and more fun to use every day, with just enough features to accomplish what I need without overwhelming me. I highly suggest this to anyone who is managing multiple clients, especially if you have client projects that tend to go dormant for awhile then pick back up.

Pros

I love how easy it is to use, and how amenable the HB team is to updating the software if you have a feature request or complaint. It provides very visual, easy user prompts that allow me to easily accomplish what I need in a fraction of the time of other software apps I've tried.

Cons

It's annoying that I can't delete the default emails that came with my account to replace them with my own workflow, so myself or a team member doesn't get confused with their suggested emails vs. the ones I actually want to use.

HoneyBook is the right CRM for you!

I love HoneyBook. I have looked at switching just because I’m interested in seeing what else is available & how they compare, but I think my loyalty & the overall satisfaction with HoneyBook will keep me here!

Pros

HoneyBook just overall has so many great features that will help you run & maintain your business every day. During the onset of Covid & with so many of us experiencing cancellations & such, they were the only CRM I knew of that rolled out any help with legal documents to help you convey the right words to your clients to not only help you stay level headed & in charge of your business, but also helped your clients realize that cancelling should be a last resort & that we business owners are here for them! I am also a big fan of most all of the templates that they provide for you to help set your business up for success! Aaaand in the Winter, I love the little Snowman icon that sips hot cocoa & makes the computer screen be a wintery scene. Adorable! HoneyBook is very easy to use, & their customer service & tech departments are da bomb!

Cons

The only things I wish that HoneyBook would improve on the most would be trying different variations with the project pipeline, with adding more availability or being able to choose between pipelines for different project types, & working out some kinks with the scheduling system between what we intend for clients to see in availability & what they actually see; & for the client to be able to go in & change their selection of date & time immediately afterwards & up to half an hour later.

Best Business Decision we have made

Great! Fabulous! Wonderful! Customer Service is awesome and the website is NEVER Down. I have business friends that are always complaining about their systems not working. We can't say that about Honeybook. Reliability is HUGE in the profession. It's very reliable!

Pros

We can conduct all of the business we need to within one software. We can create contracts, get them signed and get paid, all within HoneyBook. Our team can communicate with clients straight from HoneyBook. It will even allow us to communicate from emails within the website. Love it! Makes our jobs so much easier. It allows our creatives to create and not have to worry about all of the details associated with the business practice.

Cons

We don't have any complaints. We book 40ish weddings a year and I strongly believe HoneyBook pushed us up to the next level with professionalism.

Not User Friendly - Difficult Learning Curve

Pros

Keeps contracts in one place, able to accept credit cards. You can network with other vendors, and they seem to really concentrate more on this than actually developing software that works well.

Cons

I am a "founding" Honeybook user and bought the lifetime membership. At first, HB was very convenient. The learning curve was very frustrating as the online software had many MANY bugs. It still does. The entire premise behind the software was to free up your time, have all your projects in one place, sign contract, get paid, etc. Yes, great idea! However, the software has so many glitches! You're not able to even edit a person in your contacts. Their customer support team used to be great you could actually message a real person - now you have to wait a day or two to get an email answer and most of the time they just send you a link to deal with your problem. Once you email your client the contract, everything goes down the Honeybook "rabbit hole". My clients are tech savvy and they can't even figure out Honeybook - the emails that I've received from frustrated clients is numerous. Save your time and money and get another online software that will actually do the job - like Sprout Studio or Dubsado. Wish I would have done that from the beginning. Regretting my purchase since my lifetime "membership" isn't transferrable and Honeybook continues to make money off of me by accepting credit card payments. I looked at 17hats, which also didn't have great reviews before I purchased Honeybook. Moving on, however, I'm assuming that the process will not be easy transferring existing contracts and other office files.

I LOVE IT

The invoices are my favorite. I love being to bill clients through HB and not have to use a different program to do that. I get to keep EVERYTHING in one spot which actually saves me money. I don’t need a separate software for bookkeeping, calendars, workflow, etc. It’s ALL here. In one place. I’m obsessed. I can’t imagine not having HB.

Pros

Very user friendly, they offer so much! I love being able to track my expenses and schedule clients. I love the workflow feature, it’s so helpful. I REALLY love the fact that clients can pay you through the HB invoice. That’s probably the best part. Its awesome that they added a COVID-19 tool kit that shows you which clients are most likely to be affected. And then they have email templates that are COVID related. So many resources are provided, it’s like they actually care about us haha. Highly recommend

Cons

The only thing that’s a little slow is the payment actually getting to my bank account. I’m not even sure if HB has anything to do with the time it takes, but I do wish it didn’t take 2 days to finally show up in my account. I wish there was an option to “instantly” transfer the funds for like a 1% fee. Like Venmo! That way if someone needs the money ASAP, they can instantly get it OR they can choose to wait the 1-2 business days to get the full payment. That would AMAZING

Ever Growing to Meet the Needs of My Business

If they keep improving the product the way they have been I will be a happy HoneyBook HoneyBee for life.

Pros

I love the Project Management area. I can see everything i am working on and the stage it is at. I also love the automation of some of the project stages. I love that everything pertaining to that project is all included in the project. Once i open each project i can see all the files, correspondences between my client and I. I can simply pick up where i left off.

Cons

I was expecting more from the workflow and would love the option to create a link so clients can open the link to get to the invoice to make the payment. As much as I’d love everyone to use the client portal, not everyone can handle it and this would be a great feature for older, less tech-savvy clients.

Keeping it all together!

I have loved Honeybook since I first downloaded it...Customizing everything was easy and FUN! Any time i had questions customer service was super fast and nice...which makes everything easier!

Pros

I love that all my projects are in one space, and organized so I can see where I am with what at what time...with just a click!

Cons

I don't have a con...Although it is worth each penny that they charge, it is hard justifying when business stopped bc of a virus (which shall not be named lol) I wanted to keep it to keep everything together but could not when even communication stopped with clients for a while.

I wish I had found HoneyBook sooner.

I can easily set up meetings, send proposals, get signatures and create subscriptions to my agency services.

Pros

HoneyBook has the features I need to run my small digital agency. I shopped around and paid too much for other systems which was frustrating. HoneyBook fits perfectly with my agency's sales flow.

Cons

Because I was migrating from another system with many existing clients, onboarding was challenging. I would like to have had a personal and live onboarding session with specific advice on how best to set things up. It took a while to find the optimal use for brochures, proposals, invoices etc...

Get HoneyBook! You will NOT regret it!!!!

My overall experience was very good. I would highly recommend this software to anyone and everyone, big or small businesses!

Pros

I love how I am able to keep track of all my clients and every single thing I have sent to them!

Cons

I honestly haven’t come across any issues yet! I love everything about HoneyBook!

HoneyBook Rocks

Pros

It's clear that the developers of HoneyBook have really focused on making a product that is perfect for every element of running a business. It's very customizable, yet, the initial setup is very helpful. Everything from the forms that are easy to integrate into your website for lead collection to workflow to billing has been well thought-out and runs very smoothly.

Cons

The setup is a slight bit confusing at first. It takes a little time to understand what the File system is and how to implement. Just took a little exploration to understand.

Using HoneyBook is like having a personal sales assistant helping me run my business 24/7

Wow, just keeping everything in one place for my business and the way HoneyBook automatically saves everything that I've been working on has been absolutely transformational. I feel like HoneyBook is 5-10 apps all in one. I also like your customer support and the overall vibe of your company that I get from using your product. I feel like you truly care about your customers :) Also, I'm currently on the $1 per month plan for 6 months. Keep offering that, because that is what made me commit to HoneyBook! Also, your pre-written proposal legal contract is AMAZING! So professional and easy to customize.

Pros

Honeybook is incredibly intuitive and easy to use. Luckily, I started using it when I began my business, so I didn't need to transfer any existing CRM or sales data over. When I was onboarding, HoneyBook's support staff loaded in a bunch of pre-designed templates specific to my industry. They also took images I sent them of my products and prices and turned them into usable sales proposals. That alone has saved me WEEKS of time that I would have had to spend learning how to use HoneyBook and manually inputting my content.

Cons

The time tracker does not function to the extent that I need it to. I currently use Time Doctor to track my time, but it would be nice if I could keep everything in HoneyBook. Also, I oftentimes don't see my reminders for following up with "tasks" for clients in my projects pipeline. If there's a way to have those notifications automatically sync with my personal google calendar and send me an email reminder, that would be helpful. Pipedrive's CRM and sales pipeline does a really great job of showing urgent prospects to follow up with. I think it color-codes them too. Also, the email feature within HoneyBook can be a bit confusing. Sometimes, I can't tell if an email sent or not. The notes are also not displayed in a way that's very easy to read. It would be nice to add bullets, bold text, underline, etc. Pipedrive does a really great job of showing all of the email threads and notes between clients and multiple team members in their CRM. Also, the first time I sent an invoice, HoneyBook automatically included a place for gratuity/tip. I've now figured out how to turn that setting off, but I couldn't see that it was automatically included in my invoice ahead of time. With my business (and I think most), they will never need gratuity, so I think that's kind of an odd setting. Maybe instead of having to click and review the settings in the left side bar of invoices, there could be an extra prompt to review those settings before the user sends the proposal to their client.

Organize My Squirrel Brain

Pros

Everyone kept telling me, "Honeybook is great, but there's a learning curve." So I was a little intimidated. They were wrong, I could jump in face first and start using it exclusively immediately. Even in the middle of a terrible time for my little business, I will pull all the strings I can find to be able to afford Honeybook. It's easy for me, easy for my clients and keeps me focused. It saves me time and energy and thats the most important thing!

Cons

The only thing I'm having issues with right now is making a brochure. It probably user error, but I wish it there more extensive editing capabilities within the brochure making operation. I will play around with it some more though.

Powerful, Intuitive Tool

When we were starting up our business, an event venue, I was going nuts comparing the different CRM software. When you haven't actually used them, you don't know which will work best for you. Another venue owner told me she used HoneyBook. I had learned a lot from her, and finally decided that if she thought HoneyBook was good, it probably was and I'd just go for that. Best decision ever!

Pros

I love the pipeline, where each client's project is categorized by stage (new inquiry, tour scheduled, proposal signed, etc.). I can pull up all clients who are in the "Planning" stage of the pipeline, for example. Under each client's project is absolutely everything related to their project: all emails exchanged, contracts, payment schedule, separate workspaces with vendors who will be working on the project, and more. I have templates for emails and have them sent automatically. One goes out when we receive an inquiry, a different one 5 days after client signs the contract, and another 30 days before their event date. There are also templates for brochures, contracts, and payment plans. I can't imagine having to do all of that manually! I set the system up for my business with no outside assistance. It was easy to understand.

Cons

Would like to have more ability to make formatting changes (bullets, numbering, bold, etc.) when editing a document. I can do this on a new document, but not when editing an existing one. Workflows could be improved to have more triggers and the ability to automatically send files.

Best choice I made for my business yet

Payment processing was always a challenge until I found Honeybook. I love that the automated convenience of honey book. I set my templates, it does the rest. I send an invoice, it bills, reminds and keeps everything squared away. Not to mention it auto-deposits funds into my account. IT keeps me in business!

Pros

Running my own business where clients contract via email and forms through my website can get overwhelming when trying to keep track of small but important details. Invoicing, payment processing, contracts, client communication, client surveys and now they have a feature where you can connect with other local professionals on projects. Very useful.

Cons

I wish it was a little more upscale looking on fonts, colors and the user experience. My brand is more of a luxury brand so I want customers to feel like when they're being transferred to the contract or payment portion of our interactions that they're still receiving a luxury experience.

The easiest way to get paid fast!

My overall experience has been very pleasant! The customer service is always very helpful and the little frustrations of working with a start up or nothing compared to the benefit that it’s given our business in the past two years!

Pros

1.Template building for sure. Not having to hand customize every single contract has saved so much time. 2. The fact that, in the wedding industry, it is heavily female dominant.... which means a lot of us are moms.... which means that this app allowed me to take care of critical work while on my phone. THAT is a lifesaver with kiddos. If you know you know! 3. The time between sending a proposal and getting paid (depending on how ready to book a client was) was minutes at most. I’d get live feedback when they opened the file, signed the contract, and made a payment. I never had to guess. 4. Customer service was great!!! They actively ask for feedback from their customers and even go granular with their questions so they can consider the nuances of each client’s industry!

Cons

1. The email communication side of the app is very hit or miss. Where they soar with sending files and making payments a BREEZE, the ability to create a streamlined, semi-automated Follow-up process for leads that come in is sorely lacking. Even if HoneyBook never intends to be the best at that portion of sales, I feel it is a simple task to add a feature that makes it easy to add tags to leads so that you can export those contacts to a service that DOES soar in email communication and lead nurturing. 2. There is still a lot of room for more organization in the communication process from sales to project completion.

The Best CRM Software EVER!!!

I am keeping my workflow seamless. I am not falling behind with not knowing what i have and havent done. I get notifications in my app on my phone to keep me up to date when i am not at a desk. Saving templates keeps me from having to re-do contracts and brochures to send to clients. And honestly the BIGGEST thing is it keeps me on top of clients and either closing things out if they arent interested, booking them if they just forgot to get back to me, or making sure they are seeing things.

Pros

I love how seamless and easy to use it is. It may be a transition at first but once you get changed over you will NEVER go back. The workflow is so easy to use and very customizable. Other softwares i've tested are not even comparable to how simple honeybook is to use.

Cons

The only thing i wish were better is the calendar system. It would be nice to be able to block dates out on the calendar to avoid booking, like if you had planned a vacation. I also with it would sync directly to ical. I hate having to make it use google becuase if google runs out of space it doesnt tell me and then i have a calendar issue.

HoneyBook is amazing!

It’s been great!! Any time I’ve had an issue it’s been resolved quickly. I do find that asking a question in the group & getting a personal email is rather annoying. I specifically ask in Facebook for a reason - so when I get an email I usually don’t see it right away whereas I’m looking for a notification or other users experiences.

Pros

User friendly for both myself and my clients, ease of set up (love that they do most of the upload work & it’s easily changeable!), the community it’s created, & the “opportunities” section.

Cons

1. I wish there was more internal automation, like the workflow applied just sent out the emails and not prompted me to act. 2. While “linked” with Calendly, it’s not linked in the correct way. I wish when someone signed up for a slot in Calendly, it could generate an automatic proposal that I could look over before sending, or sent automatically. When adding my “Calendly link” to a honeybook email, the link always fails. I don’t use Calendly enough to have this be a major issue, just a nuisance. 3. More flexibility in personal branding & branding the contact form. I don’t currently use the form on my site because of this.

From Employee to Business Owner Honeybook has been by my Side

Overall, Honeybook saves us so much time and allows my business to be operated with only 2 full time employees. If I were to try and run this business on my own, without Honeybook, I would not be able to give my clients the attention to detail and quick response time they deserve.

Pros

There is a very small learning curve using Honeybook. When I convinced my previous employer to purchase Honeybook, I realized how very quick and easy it was to integrate into the company. Now, as a business owner, my employees can utilize Honeybook as well and our company can have full transparency on where we are at with each client.

Cons

I really wish that Batch Emailing had more options. We often need to send specific batch emails to our clients dependednt on which stage they are at on our timeline. Only having the options to hand select each client to send the batch emails to or to send them to our entire client list is an inefficient use of our time and thus we find no use for this tool that has so much potential to be so valuable to our business.

Level up

It’s saved me so much time organizing client data, bookkeeping, payment processing and contracts. Their helpful reminders to keep things from falling through the cracks and maintaining my brand appearance when working with clients.

Pros

When singing up with Honeybook they took my exhausting contracts, forms, questionnaires and placed them into their system. This saved me so much time switching from DIY client management to this online resource.

Cons

When responding to an email through the software, it makes a new email. Some clients have more questions and I’d like a way to organize with in a project the emails.

Honeybook is the best!

Before Honeybook, we were having issues with past due account and staying on top of them. With Honeybook-that issue has gone away. Our customers are thrilled with the reminders and the ability to pay online. Before Honeybook we either had to have couples come back to the venue to book or would mail out the contracts delaying bookings by up to 2 weeks. Now we can send out everything and have our bookings completed in just hours! Working with clients and assisting in the coordinating /planning of their weddings are soo much easier with Honeybook. All emails are stored with the project-from the lead contact to the final thank you! No more hunting through email accounts. Notes and information stored there. And the ability to work from home without hauling home a stack of files is unbeatable. This is the BEST program for a wedding venue!

Pros

The ability to work from anywhere at any time is one of the best features. I can access all the information for our clients from home and answer any questions. Since leads go directly to this program, all emails are attached to each project so you have a record of everything you said. The Library stores all our documents and handouts. I love the report section--last month the owner was starting a project to see what months was our best months for bookings. He said he was going to have to dig through Quickbooks for the information. I pointed out that the information was already in the Honeybooks!

Cons

The only thing have to say that is bad about this program is when there is an update of change. Opening up the program to do something and finding that things have changed with no notice is frustrating.