# 90 | How to Create a Paid Waitlist for Interior Design Clients

Interior design BusinessMindset2-Establishing3-ScalingInterior Design Services

Sep 5

paid waitlist for interior design clients

"Clients who are willing to be put on a waitlist are going to naturally prioritize design over a timeline."

In today's episode, I walk interior designers through why I believe that a paid waitlist is a good idea when you have that ideal client you want to work with but you just aren't able to take them on immediately. By creating a paid waitlist opportunity, you offer both yourself and the client the ability to commit to working together. I have found that clients who are willing to be put on a waitlist, are going to naturally prioritize design over a timeline, which is exactly who I want to work with. Personally, I use a paid waitlist anytime I can't start on a project for at least 4 - 6 weeks.

Sharing the Benefits of a Paid Waitlist

When talking with potential clients, it is important to be able to share what the benefits of getting on a waitlist are. I believe the main points to share are:

As a client, they will get the attention that they deserve because you are ready to take them on and able to commit to their project.
You are a boutique business providing top-of-the-line boutique services.
By committing to work with you financially, you can commit them to your project calendar and prioritize their interior design project.
Jumping onto your waitlist ensures they are on your calendar rather than touching base in a few weeks or months when you still not have availability right then, or the wait may be even longer.

How to Implement a Paid Waitlist

Implementing a paid waitlist is much like marketing for any service you provide. You can share on your website contact page, social media, and your client emails that you are now booking projects starting in "X" month with a call to action to book a call now.

Before getting onto a discovery call, it is important to know how far out you are truly booking in advance so that you can prepare your potential client for the wait. You can still do the initial onboarding with a consultation and a proposal/retainer to be on the waitlist at this point.

Once a client has signed the agreement and paid the retainer, they are placed on the waitlist. For collecting the retainer, I suggest that when you have a shorter wait time (4 - 6 weeks), you collect the full initial payment, and if you are scheduling for more than 6 weeks out, take a smaller, non-refundable retainer based on the total proposal amount.

Once you decide how you feel comfortable charging for your waitlist, make sure that you are very clear about when and how future payments are to be made.

How to Support Your Clients While They Wait

Imagine if you paid for a service and then didn't hear anything at all for weeks - you'd feel some anxiety and not start on a great foot, right? This happens to waitlist clients as well. Think through anything you could initiate prior to really getting the project started - site survey, deep dive interview, setting up a client portal to share ideas and notes.

I also highly suggest you set up a series of emails that waitlist clients will receive while they wait (these can definitely be automated through software like Dubsado, Honeybook, etc. Some ideas for these emails may include opportunities to get to you know you and your team, revisiting how the process will work, how to save their ideas for their project, as well as recent projects you have completed to get them excited as their project start date comes closer.

Hopefully, this is helpful as you build up your interior design business and find yourself in a place where you may be needing to push project start dates out past 4 to 6 weeks.

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