“Steps for a Successful Client Onboarding”
Client onboarding is not only the first step to welcome a client into your business, but also the first step to building a relationship that lasts.
What is Client Onboarding?
“Customer onboarding is the nurturing process that gets new users and customers acquainted and comfortable with your product.”
We can also describe it as the journey each customer needs to go through from the moment they become a customer until they are fully proficient with the service/product that has been acquired.
Why is Client Onboarding Important?
Because the onboarding is the first opportunity your company has to stand out from its competition. It’s the first step to build trust and engage your customer.
Fact: 86% of people say they’d be more likely to stay loyal to a business that invests in onboarding content that welcomes and educates them after they’ve bought
A good client onboarding process sets the tone for the rest of your partnership and helps create expectations about what your customer service will be.
If the process is done right from the minute a user signs up for your product or a deal is closed, there is a much higher chance that the customer will stick around, increasing their customer lifetime value (LTV).
Here you have some statistics that about how customers value the onboarding process.
If you’re improperly onboarding new customers, it’s been proven that 3/4 of your new clients will be lost within a week. This can lead to poor client satisfaction and affect your company’s bottom line.
The highest portion of a company’s revenue comes from existing customers, not new ones.
Holding onto those long-term relationships is one of the most important parts of running a successful business.
How does a client onboarding process look like?
Specific requirements may vary depending on the industry and organization.
However, here there are some important points that each organization needs to take into consideration.
1- Initial Contact: This is the first interaction after a prospect actually becomes a client. Since another department may have taken over the account you need to communicate with the client and explain new point of contacts, etc.
2- Documentation and Information Gathering: Collect all necessary client information, such as contact details, billing information, legal documents, and any other required forms. This step ensures accurate record-keeping and compliance with regulatory obligations.
3- Kick-off Meeting: Arrange a meeting with the client to introduce key team members, clarify project objectives, and establish open lines of communication. This meeting sets expectations and aligns everyone involved.
4- Account Setup: Create the client’s account or profile within your system, including login credentials, access privileges, and personalized settings. Ensure that the client has a smooth onboarding experience and can access relevant resources easily.
5- Training and Education: Provide the client with any necessary training on how to use your product or service effectively. This may involve webinars, documentation, tutorials, or personalized sessions, depending on the complexity of your offering.
6- Follow-Up: Establish a communication plan to keep the client informed about project progress, milestones, and any potential issues. Regularly check in with the client to address questions, concerns, and gather feedback.
7- Support and Troubleshooting: Offer ongoing support to address any technical difficulties or questions the client may encounter. Provide clear channels for them to seek assistance, such as a dedicated support team or helpdesk.
Provide the support your clients need with Virtus Flow Ticketing System!
8- Feedback and Evaluation: Seek feedback from the client periodically to gauge their satisfaction levels and identify areas for improvement. This feedback loop demonstrates your commitment to their success and helps strengthen the partnership.
How to Onboard a New Customer ? (the workflow)
Each organization may have its very own process to onboard new customers.
However, you can follow the client onboarding workflow we describe below and make the adjustments you think are needed. The onboarding process will depend on the type of product or service you sell.
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Tools to automate your Client Onboarding
What is a client onboarding software?
According to G2, Client onboarding software is a type of software that helps you to manage post-sales activities related to the delivery of the product or service sold by the company. These are tools that will help you to put in place and track the onboarding process you designed.
3 Solutions for Onboarding New Clients digitally
Virtus Flow: It’s a No-Code Workflow Automation solution which provides the platform to automate not only the customer onboarding process but any business process; including tasks, approvals, document delivery, forms, etc.
You can quickly start and track activities, notifications, to-dos, documents, and more.
It also provides a dynamic form creator, which allows users to create rule based interactive forms (see below) to gather data, digitize client onboarding questionnaires, as well as to automatically distribute and store data.
You will be able to manage all onboarding activities and collaborate with clients from the app main dashboard (shown above).
Pro: This solution allows you to automate not only the customer onboarding but also any other business process and integrate them with the onboarding process.
Virtus Flow vs other Client Onboarding Solutions
Many onboarding solutions in the market focus on that alone or small related processes.
Virtus Flow, on the other hand, offers the possibility to automate not only the client onboarding but any business process.
You may want to explore a Virtus Flow-like solution if you:
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- Are looking to streamline the onboarding process and related ones
- Want to automate and connect processes across LoBs
- Have very specific, complex, industry related processes in place
- Are interested in having multiple solutions in one
How to automate the Client Onboarding?
You can automate your client onboarding process in minutes, in a similar way to the one described in the video.
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- Use the customer onboarding template or create yours from scratch
- Create your database with company specific fields
- Add the rules and conditions that apply to your very specific process
- Add users to your database
- Assign roles and permission levels
- Test your process
- Publish your process
Automate your Onboarding process in Minutes!
GuideCX: Helps you to build project templates, including milestones and tasks. You can easily customize the template for each new type of onboarding.Use it to manage tasks, reminders, and updates.
» This is a tool only for Customer Onboarding automation and Project Management.
Rocketlane: It’s a collaborative customer onboarding platform. From kickoff to value delivery, it helps you to collaborate with customers and provide visibility into goals, plans, and statuses.
» This is a tool only for customer onboarding and collaboration.
Best practices for onboarding new clients
So how do you properly onboard your clients, ensure they stick around after a free trial, and set expectations in a way that will ensure a healthy working relationship?
You must implement proper onboarding as a part of the sales process.
Generally speaking, there are 5 steps to follow to create a successful client onboarding:
1- Ask yourself the right questions when developing the customer onboarding strategy that works for what your client wants to achieve. Do some benchmarking. What’s the competition doing? What about companies that a re recognized for having successful onboarding processes in place?
2- Know your client’s KPIs, goals and pain points. This will help you define their desired outcomes and it will help your client understand the value that your product brings to their business.
3- Work to build a true client relationship, not just a business transaction. When you think long term, your customer starts to trust you more, and will likely consider you for a longer contract. Even if that means not making as much as you thought on day one.
4- Be transparent, and use your knowledge base as an asset to share with everyone involved how to get the most out of your solution or service.
5- Use client feedback to improve and refine your onboarding. This can be particularly relevant for Saas companies that are still tailoring their product and want to ensure customer goals are being met.
Each of these steps is crucial in ensuring that your new client feels valued. It sets the tone for a successful partnership that will last.
Even though each company’s steps might look different depending on their target audience, this is an excellent start.
Summary
Client onboarding experience is highly valued and important. Failing to provide what your client expects can affect the business relationship short term and long term.
In order to do an effective onboarding design and put in practice a frictionless digital experience. Make sure to provide all the information and support your client needs until is fully proficient with your product.
Do not forget to do periodical follow ups and share with them the easiest way to access you if they need help.
