When it comes to client onboarding, ensure that you’re paying close attention to how you get new consumers. The most successful strategy for long-term client retention is to create a pleasant experience. This is critical both at the outset of the engagement and throughout their relationship with your company.
According to the Harvard Business Review, if you can keep 5% of your customers from defecting, you can raise your bottom line revenue by 25%–95%.
What is client onboarding?
It can refer to a vast number of things. The simplest sales-to-delivery handoff is typically the simplest: the post-purchase experience of a new buyer.
It’s crucial to implement a client onboarding system that can handle it to avoid clients leaving due to dissatisfaction with the onboarding process. In addition, client onboarding is critical for every business since it directly influences their level of satisfaction with your organization. Clients should feel secure in entrusting you with their care.
Isn’t that obvious?
The significance of new client onboarding
Acquiring new clientele is more than a lucrative endeavor for businesses. When executed successful, it results in the following:
- Customer turnover is reduced: The first 90 days of a customer’s onboarding are the most churn-prone. Begin cultivating relationships with your consumers immediately and demonstrate your value early in their journey.
- Onboarding benefits both your organization and your clientele. It provides you with all of the necessary information to begin working for a customer as soon as possible. This leads to enhanced efficiency and aversion of future bottlenecks.
- When expectations are well defined, it becomes much easier to avoid scope creep. Hence, conducting due diligence in advance will reduce the likelihood of scope creep.
- Customers want to do business with companies who know what they’re doing, have a clear strategy, and are committed to long-term relationships.
- If your clients are pleased with your onboarding process and customer service, they are more likely to recommend you to their friends and family, which allows you to upsell them in the future.
Also, a well-thought-out, highly repeatable client onboarding process is essential for ensuring compliance.
Client onboarding steps and best practices
No matter the size or location of the business, it must have a well-defined and consistent client onboarding method. As long as you establish a positive relationship with your consumers, you’ll have all the information necessary to wow them.
The proposal, payment, and contract
Obtaining a signed contract from your client is the first step. Please wait until you get a signed copy in your hands (or inbox!) before doing any of their work. Before you may get $500, the parties must strike a written agreement. You risk wasting time and money on inefficient duplication if you don’t have the right process and workflow. This contract should also include critical information about price and invoice.
Note your client’s current requirements
Understanding your client’s wants is a critical component of the onboarding process. The resources available will vary according to the customer’s requirements. After you know their strengths and shortcomings, you can develop a strategy for addressing them.
Create a list of your client’s current assets and any opportunities for improvement. It’s a vital way for a consumer to view you as an authority on the subject.
Did you know you can automate the distribution of your client surveys using ProcessMaker?
Begin working on the client’s projects
Finally, once you’ve obtained all the necessary information, you may transfer management to your new team. To foster an effective working connection, the primary point of contact should have specific characteristics with the customer.
Invite the client’s team to a meeting and share the following information with them:
- A summary of the project
- Why and how the client should be satisfied with the conclusion of the project
- The chronology of events
- Any pertinent information about the consumer
- Requirements for project completion
Additionally, it is vital to discuss any earlier correspondence since repeating oneself to other practice members may annoy the client.
Prepare a speech for pre-project
It is critical for the launch call to be successful in ensuring that everyone is on the same page and has the necessary information. Your client’s opinion of your whole workforce, not just you, must be favorable. Ascertain that your team has access to the essential information and resources to complete the project on time and under budget. Further, allow the new consumer to communicate their objectives and expectations in depth during their interaction with you.
Offer your new clients a token of your appreciation
Ensure that the customer receives a welcome package following your initial encounter. This is an excellent time to educate and validate your consumer’s buying choice. With a bit of effort, you can accomplish a memorable client onboarding experience to drive customer retention and loyalty. Your welcome present might be a combination of digital and tangible products.
Check in after the first month
If your customer has any questions or concerns, this is an excellent time to address them and gather feedback. Utilize this check-in call to demonstrate how much you respect your customer’s business. Prepare a list of pertinent questions and a synopsis of all work completed in the preceding 30 days. You should conclude the phone call with the assurance that your consumer made the correct choice in doing business with your company.
In addition, a follow-up phone call is also an excellent opportunity to gently remind them to provide any further information or documents they have not yet sent. A message can get lost in their inbox or disregarded.
Automate the onboarding process
With manual onboarding processes, it can be difficult if not impossible to collect and leverage data to provide actionable insights. Onboarding automation makes it easy to track each new client’s journey in real-time. This increases accountability, reduces errors, and provides management with valuable insights to improve the onboarding process.
Client Onboarding with ProcessMaker
When initiating client onboarding, test your processes to determine effectiveness. A well-designed workflow is critical to the success of your client onboarding process. ProcessMaker can help in this case. ProcessMaker aids in the client onboarding process at every stage. Further, you can adapt your technique and strengthen any weak points based on client feedback and KPIs.
