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.

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

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.