Client Expectations Before and After a Doula Consultation
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Transcript
Welcome to doula tips and tips. This podcast is a place where we answer one question about doula work, both to support you and to help you support your clients. I'm Kaylee Harrod. I've been supporting families in this perinatal space since my oldest was born, 12, nearly 13 years ago.
I am a birth and postpartum doula childbirth educator, La Leche League leader, and a doula coach. I love guiding and supporting doulas as they work out their doula business. It is a tremendous joy to be trusted in this way.
Thank you for joining us on this journey. Welcome back to doula tips and tips. This is our third and final episode that's just solely about consultations because we have this masterclass coming up. Now, if you have already registered for this masterclass consultation workshop, it is on September 19th at noon Eastern.
Go you. I am so excited that you have already gotten yourself on the list. You are officially in. You are coming to the masterclass. You're learning all the consultation magic. If you have not signed up for that masterclass, what are you doing with your life?
Go sign up for it. The link to sign up for it is in the show notes. Go sign up now. That will also put you on my newsletter list so you'll hear about all the classes coming for the rest of the fall. And if you did not listen to two episodes ago, I'm going to have a class every month September, October, November, December.
That is the plan. Okay. Now, today we are talking about the before and after of the consultation. I have found that if I do not do a good job of responding to someone's initial inquiry, I usually do not get a hire from them.
And I'm not even joking when I say that. Like if I respond to someone really quickly, there's a much higher chance that they're going to hire my company. If I respond to someone really slowly, there's a much slower chance, much lower, not slower chance that they are going to actually hire us.
The same is true for the follow -up. Okay. So the follow -up of what does it look like for me to interact with these people before and after, am I giving them predictable next steps? Am I giving them clear information about what to expect from me and from the process of hiring, right?
All of that really matters. Now, if you're thinking to yourself, okay, Kaylee, I don't even have a process of hire yet. Okay. This is the perfect time for you, right? Because I want you to have that process and I also want you to solidify what that process is before people start coming in.
So one thing that I think is really helpful to have is a website and a way for people to contact you on that website. What I call that contact form is inquire about services because I don't want people to assume they can hire me, right?
I want people to ask about hiring me. I want them to inquire so that I then ask them questions about themselves and hear about what they're wanting and see if they're a good fit, et cetera, et cetera.
Now that does not have to be fancy. It can just be one small form, but it can be something that's set up where you can connect it to other systems and they get responses automatically. So for me, for instance, I have an inquiry form on my website at this point.
That inquiry form is from JotForms, which is the same place I do my contracts and things like that. When I have a podcast guest on, et cetera, all of that's on there. That form connects to my email system.
The email system I use is called MailerLite, and there's a free version. So I use a paid version now because I want some intricate automations that aren't available in the free version. But the free version has almost everything you need.
Like truly, unless you have thousands of people on your list, you can be on the free version for a really long time. When you're on the free version, then you can automatically set it up where someone fills out this form.
So for me, the inquiry form, then it goes into my MailerLite system, puts them on a list of people who've inquired. And then that form automatically, well the email system, automatically sends them an email that says, thank you so much for reaching out.
We will get back to you shortly. Expect to hear from us in no more than 24 hours. So that right away, they're getting a response to the fact that they inquired. So this is helpful because they know they actually did it correctly, right?
I don't know about you, but when I submit a form somewhere, I expect to get a response from that form, right? I expect to see something in my email. And when I don't, I'm like, maybe I didn't hit send, right?
Maybe I did something wrong because it didn't show up how I expected it to show up in my own inbox. So that email is kind of my fail safe. It's clearly automated, right? It's clearly not for me. It's not like I didn't personally send it.
So it's saying, hey, thank you so much. You filled out the form. We got it. Amazing work. You know, we're going to talk to you in the next 24 hours. Look for another email from us because then I'm going to personally reach out to them and say, hey, thank you so much for reaching out for services.
What kind of services are you looking for? Or like you're doing this month. These are the people who are available. Or like, hey, you're doing a month that I still have one spot. Would you like to talk to me or would you like to talk to someone on the team?
So that is what that looks like, right? And what happens is then people have very clear expectations of what is coming next. So they fill out the form right away. They get an email that says, this is what you can expect.
Expect to hear from me. Expect to get another email shortly about booking a consultation. Then that second email comes and says one of a few things. Either, hey, thank you so much for reaching out for services.
We have three doulas or four doulas available for your due date. Here are their names. Here are their bios. This is the package information in case you haven't seen it yet on the website. Let me know if you'd like to talk to one or all of them.
That's for like a birth, right? When someone's reaching out for postpartum care on the inquiry form, I don't ask like how much postpartum care? What kind of postpartum care? Anything like that? So then in that email, I say to them, thank you so much for reaching out for postpartum care.
What amount of postpartum care are you thinking you might need? And are you looking for mainly daytime or overnights? Also, do you mind sharing where you live because that makes a difference for which doula seems like a good fit for your team, right?
Usually I hear back right away and they're like, oh, we're not sure. We're thinking 60 hours, maybe 100, but I'm not positive, right? I live in this area of the city or I live in this part of Alexandria or whatever.
And then I'm saying, okay, great. Because you want daytimes and overnights and you're in Alexandria, Kirsten is probably the best person to talk to because she lives really close to there, right? And so it depends on the person's due date, how frequently they need care, what kind of care they need, and where they're located, which doulas I'm saying they should talk to.
Very rarely someone has a clear opinion about who they want to talk to ahead of time. But usually they're reaching out, they're inquiring, and then I'm saying, hey, these are the four people you can pick from.
And they're saying, okay, great. I'd like to talk to these two or I'd like to talk to this one or I'd like to start with this person and then maybe talk to the others. And it's different every time. Some people say I'd like to talk to all of them, right?
But really like that process all along the way makes it very predictable for them. So when they email me back and they say, oh, thank you so much, I'd like to talk to Courtney and Tavia, right? For instance, then I right away say to them, okay, great, I'm gonna connect you with them via email.
You're gonna set up calls with them and then let me know if you have any questions along the way. So they kind of see the next couple of steps on the journey, right? The next step on the journey is you're gonna get an email that connects you with this doula.
That doula is then going to book a call with you. You are gonna have that call with the doula, then you're gonna decide which of them is a good fit, right? That is how that's gonna work. And I want you to very clearly know that process so that it is not a surprise and so you don't think you've been forgotten about and so that you can clearly predict how this process will play out so you can hire us at the end of it,
okay? Now the other thing is having a thank you email after the consultation that talks about what next steps look like. For us, we have a contract that allows someone to sign and pay all in the same step.
So we don't have to go back and forth a bunch of times, you know, it's an electronic signature, it's an electronic payment and it's very simple. So the only time we need to customize that for someone is when someone's wanting or needing a payment plan that's not kind of what we already do, right?
We generally do half of the birth upfront. Our payment looks like half of the birth price upfront and then all of the postpartum package unless someone has specifically asked to pay it half and half.
And so they can fill it out and pay it all at the same time. So oftentimes for me, I'll get off a consultation and I literally am like, here's the contract, let me know if you have any questions, I'll check back in with you if I haven't heard from you in a few days or something like that.
And then usually the next thing I hear from them is that they fill out the contract, right? Like that's the next step in most cases, but I do follow up with people if then they don't fill out the contract.
I'm like, hey, I haven't heard from you, do you have more questions? Are you still interviewing people? You know, what's going on? Or if someone is hiring and it's the last spot for somebody, I do make sure to follow up and say, hey, I want you to know, you know, another family might book that spot.
So if you want it, I want you to just have first dibs, no pressure from me, right? But I want you to have, I just want you to have all the information. So I think those things really matter. And if you do not yet have pre and post kind of processes, start to think about that.
Like, what does that look like for your customer? How do you like that to look for you, right? Like, how does it look for you to be able to say, I think I would really like to talk to this person and then you book a call and then what kind of follow -up do you get, right?
Like, what is that interaction like for you? Because that really, really, really matters, okay? So if you have not already done so, please go click that link in the show notes and sign up for the doula consultation masterclass on September 19th at noon Eastern time.
And there will be a replay. So if you have not signed up because you're not available then, you can listen to the replay my friend and you will hear about it. And you will still be in the know about the other classes that are coming out later in the year, okay?
All right, I will see you in the next episode. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the doula tips and tits podcast. If you learned something today or had an aha moment, we'd love for you to share that on Instagram and tag us at Harad doula so we can celebrate alongside you.
If you've found this podcast helpful, we would so appreciate you taking a second to leave a rating and a review on your favorite podcast app that helps other doulas find us as we do this work together.
This podcast is intended as educational and entertainment. It is not medical advice or business advice. Please consult your own medical or legal team for your own needs around your health and your business.
We'll see you again soon.
Don’t miss the FREE Doula Consultation Workshop: 3 Proven techniques to increase client conversions. This 1 hour workshop will teach you how to show up with confidence and ultimately get more “HELL YES” responses! Sign up today!
https://harroddoulaservices.thrivecart.com/doula-consultations-workshop-pod/
Expectations are key when we consider what a client experience may be like in our business. How do they enter, journey and leave? That starts with the Doula Consultation! Today’s episode is all about how to respond to inquiries, how to help the client journey and how to follow-up with them after!
Quote from the show:
“If I respond to someone really quickly, there's a much higher chance that they're going to hire my company. If I respond to someone really slowly, there's a much slower chance, much lower, not slower chance that they are going to actually hire us. The same is true for the follow -up. Okay. So the follow -up of what does it look like for me to interact with these people before and after, am I giving them predictable next steps? Am I giving them clear information about what to expect from me and from the process of hiring, right?”
CONNECT with Kaely on TikTok or Instagram
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Kaely Daily is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services
It is sponsored by The Birth Prep Blueprint Childbirth Class
Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay
