Welcome to another episode of CRM Success Secrets, your ultimate podcast for productivity strategies tailored for business coaches and consultants. In Episode 2 - "Mapping the Path: Crafting Your Onboarding Journey," we focus on mastering client onboarding to convert buyers into loyal advocates. Discover the benefits of a streamlined process that saves costs, minimizes issues, and boosts client satisfaction. Learn how to map out the onboarding process effectively and enhance customer engagement. Whether refining your current strategy or starting fresh, join us on the fast track to CRM success by ensuring your client onboarding process is top-notch.
Key Takeaways:
- The Onboarding Path – Mapping and Crafting
- Effective Onboarding Strategies
- Reflecting and Improving Onboarding
- Wrap-up and Invitation
Quotes
"It's about proactively solving problems before they even have a chance to bubble up."– Mary Sue Dahill
"In effective business onboarding, you craft the journey and set up friendly signposts to guide new clients."– Mary Sue Dahill
Featured in this Episode
Mary Sue Dahill
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marysuedahill
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:39 - Proactive Onboarding Minimizes Customer Service Challenges
02:47 - Efficient Communication Strategies for Enhanced Client Experience
03:43 - Efficiently Mapping Out the Onboarding Process
06:45 - Aligning Business Tasks with Client Experience
07:47 - Efficiency in Onboarding Process
08:21 - Kickoff Call Preparation: Setting Clients Up for Success
10:07 - The Crucial Role of Effective Onboarding in Client Success
12:12 - Securing Successful Client Onboarding and Engagement
12:55 - Conclusion
Mary Sue Dahill:
It's the CRM success secrets podcast about productivity with a twist. Hi there. My name is Mary Sue Dahill, your host. This podcast is for business coaches and consultants tired of working nights and weekends. They are looking for strategies and proven tactics to streamline their business using a CRM and automation. Let's get to it. Welcome back to CRM success secrets. I'm your host, Mary Sue Dehayle, here to be your guide in the world of customer relationship management.
Today, we're diving into step 2 of our series, mastering client onboarding, a 5 step guide. We're talking about mapping the path and crafting that perfect onboarding journey for your clients. So why is new client onboarding so darn important? Well, think of it. The journey doesn't end at purchase. Oh, no. It's just getting started. That moment when a client decides to buy is when you roll up your sleeves and get to work on transforming them from a one time buyer into a loyal brand advocate. And how do we do that? With a solid customer onboarding plan.
1st things first. Onboarding ramps up customer engagement like nothing else. It's not just keeping your brand on their radar. It's about making them feel like a part of the family, an insider. Engaged customers are the ones who will come back for more, pick you over the competition, and open their ears to upsells and cross sells. Onboarding is the key to making the overall value of that one customer much higher. And that's right. Did someone say repeat sales? They're not just easier, they're also more cost effective.
We all know that getting new customers in the door costs more money. But with a KickBook onboarding plan, you're not just saving money, you're making money by keeping those customers coming back for more. And here's a fun fact. Happy customers love to talk. When your clients are over their moon about what you do, they'll spread the word. That's right. Referrals are gold, and loyal brand advocates are your treasure chest. Plus, if you sprinkle a rewards program on top of that, you'll see that word-of-mouth marketing works magic.
And one more perk, say goodbye to a chunk of customer service headaches. Effective communication through onboarding means your clients get the most out of what you're offering, cutting down on complaints and negative feedback. It's about proactively solving problems before they even have a chance to bubble up. I'm gonna repeat that because it's so important. It's about proactively solving problems before they even have a chance to bubble up. So I said this in the first episode that onboarding is where I usually start with my clients. We sit down and talk through their onboarding, and we fix the issues that they currently have in that process. And they usually that's why they're working with me is because they have problems there.
They know it isn't really working, and their clients are suffering. So how do you get this onboarding party started? Picture it like drawing a map of the steps, and you want to lay it out from the initial height, like hello, to getting them fully up and running with you. It does not need to be super detailed or overcomplicated. You just wanna write out the steps, And, I would actually you know, I'm a spreadsheet girl, so I would put it onto a spreadsheet. But, I would have 2 lanes. There would be the lane where you have your client steps, maybe actually 3, client steps, what are they doing? Then I would have your steps, what are you doing? And then a third lane is, what are they seeing your client? Because this is where things get lost, is that you are doing a lot in the background, but your client isn't seeing any of that. So they pay, and then you're in the background doing all of these things to prepare for your 1st kickoff meeting. You're excited.
You're getting their onboarding guide ready. You're doing this. You're doing that. And then your client, your brand new client is sitting there twiddling their thumbs like, oh my god. I just spent 1,000 dollars on this program. And, she was talking to me, like, every other day before I paid, and I haven't heard from her in days. She doesn't you know, why did I spend this money? That's what they're thinking. And once you sit down and actually look at your steps, the or, sorry, the client's steps, what you're doing, and what they're actually seeing, this will become far more apparent to you.
So onboarding is about making sure you're communicating during the start up of a new client. So, let me walk through kind of a typical client onboarding, and I'm gonna use, you know, a business coach process since I work with a lot of business coaches. So you have a sales call. At the sales call, your prospect says, yes. I am interested. Okay? Now a typical new client for me says, great. I will send you my contract, and that's coming from one system. Then I will send you an invoice that's coming from another system, and they might be chasing their prospect down to get both of those things signed and paid for.
And then they're personally sending a welcome email, which may be delayed because, you know, they're juggling lots of different things and missed one of the payments or the payment or the contract being signed. Then, then they're scheduling the kickoff call, and that's about it until the kickoff actually happens. Okay? But when we actually streamline it, this is more what it looks like. Okay? So the prospect said, yes. I wanna work with you. The business coach can share one link, and they say, great. Here are my 3 packages. Select your package.
The prospect clicks the package. They select 1. They make their payment. It then redirects them seamlessly to the contract to sign the contract, then it redirects them again seamlessly to maybe an intake form. A lot of business coaches like to have a little bit more information, address, other things they wanna know about the person, and then it goes to maybe a welcome page. Alright? So just in that one link, the prospect has become a client. They paid. They signed.
They provided a little bit more detail. And in the background, an automated welcome email has gone to the new client. Alright? Now in that welcome email, the client can schedule their kickoff call. Alright? The business coach has already been super intentional about their onboarding because they know their KPIs. They know that a new client is most successful if they do a couple of things leading up to that kickoff call. They, in the welcome email, have them schedule the kickoff call, which is great, and they say, we're gonna task you with a couple of activities prior to the kickoff call, and they will send them a couple emails about it. So the next email they receive is to say, please create a presentation, 3 slide presentations about, like, a business overview for them to go over at the kickoff call. So the business coach has tasked the business owner with a small project to summarize what's going on in their business, maybe one slide on, you know, their financials, one slide on what they're selling, and one slide on their, challenges just so that their thinking in their mind is in a good place when they're ready to talk at the kickoff call.
Then, they send another email prior to the kickoff call saying, please watch this, video on the best way to take advantage of my program. You know, the 3 ways that you've got to engage with the program. And then, finally, there's another email maybe with the schedule of activities depending on what kind of a program it is. If it's all scheduled out and they just gotta add these things to their calendar or if they have to book appointments ahead of time. So you can see the difference between a business coach that, you know, is a little more frazzled where they get their payment, they personally send the welcome email, and then they're futzing around with a lot of different things, before the kickoff call, and their new client hears 0 from them until the client till the kickoff call versus the business coach that has engaged with their new client, given them some tasks meaningful tasks that are helping them be prepared and in the right space to have a conversation with them so that they make the most out of their time and money in their program. That is a stellar onboarding, so you can see the difference. So when you have on boarded many clients, all it takes is really sitting down for an hour and putting pen to paper, thinking about your most successful clients, and identifying what you did or what they did and helping your other clients replicate that and putting it onto a timeline. You're really just crafting the journey and setting up friendly signposts along the way, guiding your new clients through that process.
It's about making sure they feel supported, informed, and above all, excited to be on this journey with you. That's it. It is that simple. New client onboarding is super important to your client's success and to your business success, so make sure you've got it right. That's a wrap on today's episode of CRM success secrets. We've talked about the why and the how of mapping your client onboarding journey. Next time, we'll dig even deeper into the steps you can take to make sure your onboarding process is as smooth as silk. Until next time, keep those customers happy and those onboarding paths clear.
Bye for now. Are your business systems a hot mess? Take the system scorecard quiz at www.worksmarterdigital.com/quiz. You will receive proven strategies to leverage technology in your business. And when you schedule a system strategy session with me, I will personally provide you customized recommendations for your business. So, again, that is www.worksmartyrdigital.com/quiz. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the CRM Success Secrets podcast. Cheers to you, and I hope that your systems are successful.