What is a CRM? (and does a doula need one?)
“I become a doula to work with clients, but I’m realizing nobody taught me how to run the business side of my practice.”
If this sounds like something you’ve said, you’re not alone. Running a doula practice means running a small business, and any business owner will tell you that takes an enormous amount of time and energy.
But, finding the right doula software for your practice can help you run your practice AND improve your client care, earn more, and (just maybe) find some time for a little rest and relaxation every now and then!
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Here’s everything you need to know about CRMs for doulas, and how they can help:
What is a CRM for Doulas?
A customer relationships management tool (CRM) is a business software that helps you organize and keep track of all the information you need to collect and reference as you care for your clients.
This includes information like:
Due dates
Hospital or home address
Notes about past trauma or potential triggers
Contact info
Visit notes
Whether or not you’ve sent contracts or invoices, and whether or not they’ve been signed/paid
CRMs are also sometimes called billing software because some doulas use them for billing.
Doulas who work with insurance or just want to provide an extended level of protection for themselves and/or their clients may also want to be HIPAA-compliant; to do that, they need a HIPAA-compliant CRM.
Read more: A New Social Impact Film Features Doulas in South Carolina
Why Should Doulas Use a CRM?
The best CRMs for doulas work like office managers or virtual assistants; they keep you organized and help you focus your time and energy on caring for your clients.
Here are a few more ways doula software helps:
Streamline your workflow, so there’s an organized, consistent set of tasks for each client (this means you’re less likely to forget important paperwork, like contracts and billing agreements, that can cause trouble for you later)
Track billing, which can get especially complicated when your clients are utilzing payment plans, sliding scale pricing, and/or you need to keep track of the services you’ve performed
Keep all client communication in one place (you’re much less likely to lose or forget important details, and your client is too!)
Create a sense of professionalism, which helps you prove your value in your client’s mind, and also helps your client feel great about their experience overall
Track your own clients and easily differentiate which clients are part of a team and which are your private clients (which means fewer details you have to hold in your head)
Added together, all of these benefits can help you improve client care and overall client experience, and increase your own enjoyment of running your practice, which can help you avoid burnout in birth work.
Read more: 5 Ways Doulado Helps You Manage a Team
Different Types of CRMs Available for Doulas
There are a handful of CRMs designed for doulas (including Doulado, eDoula, and BirthBase), as well as some popular CRMs designed more generally for entrepreneurs, small businesses, etc., that doulas have made work for them (including HoneyBook, Dubsado, 17hats, Trello, etc).
Here are some of the most popular doula softwares, and why they might or might not work for you:
HoneyBook
HoneyBook is a cloud-based CRM designed for creative professionals, such as photographers and event planners. It includes the CRM features you’d expect, like contact management, invoicing, and payment processing.
It also has a built-in project management system that allows users to manage their projects or client journeys. HoneyBook integrates with QuickBooks, which makes it popular with QuickBooks users who use a CRM primarily for invoicing, billing, and tracking hours.
HoneyBook plans start at $15.20/month and go up to $52.80 for unlimited team members.
Dubsado
Dubsado is a CRM designed for small businesses, and like HoneyBook offers features like contact management, project tracking, and invoicing.
The people who love Dubsado usually point to its automated workflow feature, which allows users to create highly custom workflows based on their business processes. This can be very helpful, especially if you like to customize your software extensively, however it can be quite difficult to set up (some people hire experts to set up Dubsado for them).
Dubsado pricing starts at $20/month, but to get access to automated workflows, you’ll need the Premiere plan, which starts at $40/month.
Read more: Just the Essentials: How to Get Started with Doulado (the Quick Start Guide)
17hats
17hats is a cloud-based CRM designed for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Like most other CRMs, it offers features like contact management, invoicing, and payment processing.
It also includes project management tools that allow users to track tasks and deadlines easily. Additionally, it provides marketing automation tools such as email campaigns and lead capture forms.
17hats seems to be fairly popular among doula agencies for its combination of relatively low pricing with popular features like automation and lead captures. However, most feedback from doulas indicates that while it’s useful, it still has missing features that don’t take into account doula teams and their needs.
17hats’ monthly plans start at $15/month and go up to $60/month.
Trello
Trello is a web-based project management tool that can be used as a CRM solution for small businesses. It’s especially popular with freelancers such as photographers, and is known for it’s visually appealing “cards” that help with project management.
It offers features such as task tracking, collaboration tools, and file sharing capabilities.
Additionally, it provides integration with other popular applications such as Google Drive and Dropbox so users can easily access their files from any device or location.
Trello allows many of its basic features for free, however to take full advantage of its automation features, you’ll need a plan, and those start at $12.50/month.
BirthBase
BirthBase is a cloud-based CRM designed specifically for birth professionals such as doulas. It is still in beta (which means features are still actively in development), but it offers features such as client onboarding forms, appointment scheduling tools, and invoicing capabilities.
Additionally, it provides marketing automation tools such as email campaigns and lead capture forms so users can easily reach out to potential clients or nurture existing ones.
BirthBase currently offers two plans: a Doula plan for $20/month and an Agency plan for $30/month that offers up to three seats for doulas.
Doulado
Doulado is another new online platform designed specifically for doulas, doula agencies, and the nonprofits and holistic providers who support doula work. Like other doula CRMs, Doula tracks clients, captures client notes, and provides invoicing and payment capabilities.
What sets Doulado apart is its HIPAA-compliant plan, vital for practices working with insurance and/or submitting to Medicaid. Doulado also has recently released dynamic team features which help doulas move easily between solo clients and clients they see as part of a team.
Doula offers three plans on a sliding scale pricing model (suggested pricing starts at $9/month).
eDoula
eDoula, to our knowledge, was the first CRM designed for doulas. It offers features such as client onboarding forms, appointment scheduling tools, invoicing capabilities, automated workflows, and reports dashboards. Additionally, it integrates with popular applications like Google Drive and Dropbox.
eDoula pricing starts at $10/month (though you can’t accept payments) and goes up to $60/month.
Read more: Doulado FAQs (Here’s What You Need to Know)
Setting Up Your Doula CRM
The truth is that setting up a CRM can be a real headache! The right CRM can make a HUGE difference for your day-to-day life, especially if it’s intuitive and designed for your industry, but that isn’t always the case.
Here’s what you’ll need to do to get set up with your CRM as a doula:
Upload contracts, templates, agreements, brochures, etc. (anything you regularly send to your clients, whether you need it signed or not)
Set up your offerings and payment options for invoicing and billing
Add any active clients
If you’re managing a doula team, you’ll also need to set up your team/teams and/or assign back up doulas.
Here are a few strategies we’ve seen doulas and small businesses owners use to tackle setting up a CRM:
Hire a virtual assistant or software expert to setup your CRM, and help you get the most out of your platform. If you can find the right person who understands how doulas work, how your brain works best, and how the software works, this can be hugely helpful!
Work with the CRM. A smaller, growing CRM like Doulado will upload your files for you, meet with you one-on-one to help you learn the software, and be on hand to answer any questions as they come up.
Set aside a day or weekend to work on setting up your CRM, with childcare if possible.
Read more: Get on the list for The Doula Newsletter and get event announcements and community updates
How to Pick the Right Software for Your Doula Practice
First, identify the features that are non-negotiable for you. These might include:
Invoicing and accepting payments
HIPAA-compliance
Client portals
Lead capture
Automations
Marketing features (like lead captures)
Unlimited team members
Unlimited or free backup doulas
You’ll need to know which features are included in the doula software plan you’re looking at, and which you’ll have to pay extra for.
You might also ask yourself:
How much work will this CRM be to set up? Is it easy to get help if I need it?
Does this CRM seem to be intuitive and make sense to use?
Does the pricing make sense for me and my practice?
A good CRM can be a game changer for a doula, and worth exploring. It’s also worth noting that if you’re using one that isn’t make your life easier, it’s ok to switch! Any small business owner will tell you’ve they’ve changed softwares as they’ve grown and learned more about what’s right for them.
If you’d like to set up a demo with a doula CRM expert, and learn more about how to use a CRM in your doula practice, you can schedule a demo with Doulado’s Mary Beth right here.