HoneyBook Erfahrungen

Vorteile

Easily sending out contracts and enabling the clients to sign them electronically

Nachteile

The cost of transitions when collecting online payments from clients

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

DocuSign

Warum HoneyBook gewählt wurde

We stopped using QuickBooks Online to send out invoices as we couldn't use it to sign documents electronically

Zuvor genutzte Software

Quickbooks Online

Gründe für den Wechsel zu HoneyBook

We used DocuSign for some time and stopped because HoneyBook provides significantly more value

Vorteile

Honeybook took my booking process to a massively higher level of success. My contracts are all signed, and invoices are paid before I even start designing. I walk my customers through the process and we discuss TAT and rates, next steps, and then I kick them over the Proposal with the same details we discussed during the sale.

With other software I've struggled to receive timely payments, or contract signatures.

Not anymore!

Nachteile

The contract templates are pretty limited to social media management and marketing ops. I think that every business needs their own contracts, period, but it would be nice to have a better starting place for other service providers.

Additionally, the emails that Honeybook kicks out for proposals, payments, contracts and the like have reportedly found their way to many of my customer's spam box. I just warn them ahead of time, but it's not super reassuring to some more leery customers.

Vorteile

Posts from other creators to help on jobs if needed.

Nachteile

Cost was expensive long term and not in out budget at the time but they do work with small businesses to help with that during slow times

Vorteile

The look and feel of the app is very clean, love the ability to add images and customize the look and feel of contracts, flyers, brochures and more. Adding a custom form field to our website was easy to do. Automation feature seems nice, but we didn't really use it.

Nachteile

In contracts the most frustrating thing is that you can only add line items at the very bottom of the invoice. That means if you have a very long invoice and want to add a line to the top of the page, you have to add a line at the bottom and drag it all the way up to the top ( which is extremely tedious ). It wastes so much time that it made me wonder if we wasted more time trying to use this clunky app than just doing things the way we were used to in excel!

Vorteile

Hand off booking to HoneyBook. They have several automated services that keep business on track even if you've gone off the rails for a moment.. (l.o.l.)We came to Honeybook because I'd heard great reviews of their contracts, I wasn't disappointed at all. Easy peasy.

Nachteile

While HB shined in some ways, I guess it just wasn't what I expected in others. Payments lagged behind.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Event Booking Engines

Warum HoneyBook gewählt wurde

Possibility of improving processes

Zuvor genutzte Software

Quickbooks Online

Gründe für den Wechsel zu HoneyBook

Reputation

Vorteile

Integration with gmail for scheduling, payment processing and mobile app! Also, how easy it is to use and how it maximizes the client experience.

Nachteile

For our industry, it is lacking an edidable document such as a BEO or Event Details Sheet - I wish this type of document would be an option.

Vorteile

I enjoy customizing the templates they have for each customer's individual needs. I love giving my customers a quick payment platform so they do not have to jump through different websites or accounts for access.

Nachteile

I have not experienced any glitches on the platform that was not solved very quickly. One glitch I had recently was that the project page was not loading, but they had a notification on the side stating that their team is already working on this issue before I noticed it.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Microsoft Teams

Gründe für den Wechsel zu HoneyBook

I chose HoneyBook because they had a great first year pricing. This was important to me at the time because I wanted to test different products until something fit perfectly for my business.

Vorteile

Easy to use invoicing platformCRM helps maintain contacts and specificsContract templates are perfect for my needs

Nachteile

Payments take much longer to deposit vs competitorsThe pipeline and smart file functionality takes a degree to figure out. After two years I am still not using these featuresClients do not like the notifications on every change within their project

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Basecamp

Gründe für den Wechsel zu HoneyBook

I thought I would be able to use the project management platform in Honeybook. The PM platform is not great and I switched to BasesCamp free instead. I often use Square for invoicing as the fees are lower and I receive the deposit faster without an extra free.

Vorteile

Invoices are easy to create and send and even easier for your clients to make payment!

Nachteile

There is nothing I dislike about this software.

Vorteile

So for the planning, coordinating, and tracking aspects, Honeybook is awesome. Our business is presented well to our clientele.

Nachteile

The reason I didn't renew is the payment processing speed.

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Jira, Pipedrive, Proposify, HubSpot CRM und Qwilr

Gründe für den Wechsel zu HoneyBook

Price, ease of use, everything being in one place, support staff to help with onboarding, good UX and UI.

Vorteile

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!

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

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!

Nachteile

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.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

17hats

Gründe für den Wechsel zu HoneyBook

After looking into many different options (I don’t even remember all of them) we chose HoneyBook because of: 1. It’s UX design. It was very easy to navigate and use for both us as the admins and the customer. 2. The process of receiving payments was so simple. 3. The template creation which eliminated customizing every single contract manually. 4. The app!

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

17hats, DocuSign und Adobe PDF Library

Warum HoneyBook gewählt wurde

I did a trail run of both 17hats and Honeybook. Honeybook put my documents into the system and the customer service help to learn their system was stellar. It made me more confident that if I had trouble in the future, someone would answer.

Zuvor genutzte Software

17hats

Gründe für den Wechsel zu HoneyBook

See above. It applies to all the potential products used

Vorteile

I moved away from Quickbooks online because they didn't have an easy way to send customers automatic recurring invoices. Honeybook had pre-built service agreements along with the automated recurring payments feature I needed for my business. It was appealing to work with them because set up was very easy to get what we needed up and running

Nachteile

After a client pays their invoice, it usually takes 12-24 hours for Honeybook to send me a confirmation email saying they've paid. This is (I don't use this word often) absurd. With Quickbooks, I know payment confirmation comes in within 10 minutes.

Especially if I am going to start work with a client right as they pay, this hurdle in their platform stops me from getting to work right away.

It usually leads to me emailing my customer "Did you pay the invoice?" then them replying "I did!" then me looking into Honeybook wondering why the heck it hasn't come in and making me look foolish to my client... Then I finally get the notification the next day.

It's the #1 feature request they need to get updated.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Stripe und Quickbooks Online

Gründe für den Wechsel zu HoneyBook

Because they have online scheduling, and pre-built proposals/service agreements to use. More of an all-in-one platform.

Vorteile

I really like how seamless, intuitive, and robust honeybook is. I like how it keeps me on track and integrates with calendars, emails, and helps my clients stay organized.

Nachteile

Some of the features I would like to see in the future would be the ability to integrate a "store"-like function directly into the crm. I would like my clients to be able to choose from options that I offer and those choices to become a proposal or invoice.

Vorteile

What I love most about Honeybook is that most of my business needs can be handled through them! Aside from client galleries- it’s all done here on Honeybook. The program is organized, intuitive, and includes so many features! It’s easy to learn and use. I can’t imagine running my business without it!

Nachteile

I have no cons. This meets and exceeds all expectations that I would have for a CRM.

Vorteile

Streamlines workflow, templates are either already perfectly set up, or if not, so easy to make changes.

Nachteile

Con mentioned in previous question when asked how can you improve

Vorteile

The workflow feature helps me keep track of everything from inquiries down to executing the final details before the event. It’s easy to use and customer service is quick and helpful when I do get stuck!

Nachteile

I wish the deposits and payments made were a little clearer on my end so I don’t have the check the bank and HoneyBook at the same time to cross reference. That being said, I JUST started using the payment feature and it could be that I’m just not used to it yet.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

17hats und Curate

Gründe für den Wechsel zu HoneyBook

It fit more of my needs as an event venue owner

Vorteile

Clean interface
automation assists small businesses to ensure great customer service.
Can add more than one company if you're like me and run different events and services.

Nachteile

still has some growing pains, but they are really receptive of suggestions.
Would like to be able to have email coro come from a chain, and not have to send new emails from the system each follow up.
The brochure maker is limited at the moment. Would like to see it more customizable.
In Canada your clients can't pay you with online bank transfers, only available for US businesses.

Vorteile

I have been with HoneyBook since it’s inception, I was fortunate enough to be one of the founding fathers. In the beginning, what attracted me about the platform was the ability to focus on getting my clients booked quickly by keeping everything in one spot through the iOS app or web-based interface and it has been relatively easy for them to use as well. They were already an amazing company with an outstanding product, and with each update they release, they continue to exceed my expectations and help me run my business on the go by making the complicated tasks seem quick and easy. BEST INVESTMENT EVER!! Thank you so much for bringing me and my entertainment company to the 21st century!!!

Nachteile

Definitely Would like to see a review questionnaire or rating system with an HTML generator plugin that could be used to post on my website or google ad. Updated training videos for the new features.

Vorteile

That everything is at my fingertips no matter where I am. I also like that I can track a clients contract, contact info, entire email exchange, invoicing at once. I like the reports and data that I can access easily. I like the ease of seeing the pipeline and where I'm at with my bookings. I like the daily reminders to follow up on my clients.

Nachteile

I would like the ability to look up a clients files by date - the calendar only shows bookings that have a retainer paid. I'd like to search by date and find prospectives. I'd like to search by category - for instance school dances versus weddings versus company parties. And, I'd like to see reports of how many of each type of gig we do each year.

Vorteile

I love that it makes everything so easy. you can send out your contracts, you can send out your emails, you can set reminders that will tell you when things are due you can send out invoices. If someone enters in their information through the contact page that honey but provides they put everything into the system for you that the client has provided to sell the name the email address all of that making it that much more easy for you . I also really love the customer service everyone is very professional and helpful and they go out of their way to make you feel taken care of. it’s also very easy to understand. It makes you look very professional as a business owner I highly recommend Honey Book

Nachteile

Honestly there’s not really a whole lot of cons the only one that I can think of is that the mobile app is not as interactive as if you were using a computer or laptop but honey book constantly works on improving things so I’m sure that in the future it will be fully interactive from your phone where you can check on things like bookkeeping and Send out contacts faster. So for me it’s not really a con just something to be aware of other than that I really honestly can’t really think of any cons.

Vorteile

Honeybook has everything we need to run our two companies (and we use it for both). Support has been absolutely excellent, and we love how they're constantly adding new features and templates. HoneyBook is easy to use and they take security seriously, which we value.

Nachteile

They're stuck in the Stripe system for payments with zero other options. We run our businesses using PayPal and the lack of paymention options pales in comparison to a couple of the CRM competitors out there. The app could use with a UX/UI redesign for the new decade. It's easy to use, but could be much better.

Vorteile

I signed with Honeybook originally just to replace services that Wedding Wire had dropped. I expect this to be short term and didn't see that I would use it much besides what I needed to replace. I was absolutely mistaken!! This product changed the way I do business. My process from inquiry to booking is streamlined. The contract templates are solid. The entire suite of technology doesn't just make my job easier, it increases my value to my clients. I can't recommend Honeybook more highly! I am always telling others in my industsry what a valuable tool this is. Their customer support team is outstanding as well. Absolutely worth it!!

Nachteile

I wish I could go back to an email besides the last one and still reply to that rather than have to always start a new thread. I don't like that I can't tell if I have sent the Client Portal link to a client or not. I have a difficult time with the copy/paste function on my keyboard inside Honeybook.