Show Notes:
Learn tips on how to onboard new clients into your process and system.
How to Onboard Clients – Episode 21
Transcript
[Music intro]
The 8th Level Podcast is about being self-employed, entrepreneurship, and managing our online business. It’s also about connecting to our souls, having the right mindset, and self-care. My name is Lourdes, and I am the host of this show. Thank you for listening to this episode today!
Welcome back! And if this is your first time listening to me at my podcast, let me tell you about myself. I’ve been a business owner since 2014, and I’ve been creating WordPress websites, along with some digital marketing strategy, implementing technology and systems. I’m a certified coach from an ICF accredited school, and business mentor. And, I help spiritually-oriented men and women over 40 years old that are ready to step into their power and create unlimited income and financial freedom by starting their online business and enjoying their life. And if you have any questions, please visit my website at https://8thlevelpodcast.com.
Now, in today’s episode I’m going to talk about customer on-boarding. What is customer on-boarding? It’s having a system to teach your customers how to use your product. It’s also building strong relationships. Perhaps you can gather more information about your customers, and perhaps to even set clear expectations. On-boarding is an integrated approach that creates a consistent customer experience, which is so important in an overall customer satisfaction.
So the first thing you would do to have a successful customer on-boarding starts with developing an outline for your entire on-boarding process, which includes which systems you’ll need and how you’ll track results. Start by listing all the aspects of your customer’s experience with your products or service after they made the purchase. So create a big picture after the purchase.
You should list a couple of things, such as what will your customer do with your product or service, how will they use it, how might they use it if it’s different from one person to the next person, what can you do to better help them use it? By having that type of list, it should help you do a follow-up content on using your product or accessing the service. What kind of results will the customer get from your product or service immediately, and in the long term?
So here’s an example, let us pretend you’re selling a child car seat. So to answer the question of what the customer will do to that car seat, here are some things you might wanna think about. Will you have directions on take the car seat out of the package and assemble it? Install the car seat in the car, strap a child into the seat, add additional extra buckles, insert toys here, toys there, and any additional features.
So, using that example you can see how providing customer on-boarding experience teaching people how to use your product will help that customer. And as an online business, you can provide these instructions online or a video. Plus, you can followup with e-mail.
By having the on-boarding process, your customer will feel more confident in knowing that their child is safe, that there’s a sense of security while they’re driving with that car seat, and relief and peace of mind that they can concentrate on their driving. And that’s the big picture.
And here’s another example of a non-physical product. Kay, so now let’s pretend you’re offering website design services. Now, once you redesign or create a client’s website, they’ll need to learn how to use the website and any special or added features you added to the website.
You’ll have to offer ongoing technical support in case there are problems, and this is a good example where you can easily see how training, having tutorials, FAQs, and other educational content can help the customer. And the benefits that a client receives from your services, besides having a beautifully created website design that also increased traffic and sales, peace of mind knowing that all of the technical aspects are under control, and relief that they don’t have to do the design work themselves.
And so, you can provide them with an introductory e-mail after they purchase your service that has helpful content such as tutorials on using special features, and maybe offering consultations on Zoom or by phone where you can check to see if the customer is getting the best use of their new website, and to ask questions and solve any more problems.
Okay, so now that we see a big picture by answering those two questions or creating some questions about what your client does with your product or services resulting in some benefits, let’s think about these other things. When they receive your product or services, or deliverables, what is the process of the customer receiving your product? Installation; what does the customer need to do in order to start using the product?
What are, or how many different ways can they use the product or service? What special features or add-ons are there that the client may not be aware of, or how to use? What does the customer have to do to maintain a product? If they run into problems, what might your client encounter using the product, including bugs, repairs, or malfunctions?
And so, seeing the big picture and asking all kinds of questions will drive the entire process of creating your on-boarding system. Next, let’s think about our points of contact. A point of contact could be an interaction with you, your team member, maybe your website designer, or somebody else in your team that can be the touch point between your customer and you.
You can make a visual graphic timeline which shows what will happen at each point of contact with your business. You can also create a mind map that has different branches for different points of contact. Or, if you prefer a non-visual list, you can create a spreadsheet or a table. Use whatever method makes most sense to you.
So for example, in the car seat product, you can have a point of contact such as your phone number, or sending them an e-mail that a client or customer can sign up for if they’re interested in learning more about your products or services. And for the example of the website design, you probably would need more points of contact. These would include your regular help sessions as well as possible e-mail newsletter. You might even want to schedule regular followups in person or on the phone or online.
And next, you’ll need to have a CRM, a Customer Relationship Management program. And if you don’t have a program, you can also use like an Excel spreadsheet, which is what I used to use when I first started my business. So for example for your system, each step should trigger the next step.
For example, when the customer pays for your service, this triggers the payment confirmation e-mail, the new product welcome, and access to additional content of the how-to in nature. Also, you should include the system to have a way to track and implement these steps. This can be done with an automated software program such as shopping carts, e-mail auto-responders, or advanced CRM platforms. Also, you might consider writing down a step-by-step checklist for yourself or for a team member to use to make sure that the customer on-boarding system is going accordingly step-by-step.
And by doing that, you can keep track of the interactions with your client or customers post-purchase, and then keep the metrics for customer service calls, response time, as well as sending a follow-up survey so you can get feedback from your clients.
Alright, so I hope that you see the value and the necessity of having a structured customer on-boarding process that will help in customer loyalty and satisfaction, as well as future sales! And if you have any questions on customer on-boarding or client on-boarding, send me an e-mail at hi@8thlevelpodcast.com. And in next week’s episode, I’ll be interviewing a guest who is a life consultant for stressed, overworked, and exhausted women.
[Music outro]
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About the Host
As a spiritual Business Mentor and Success Coach, Lourdes is passionate about helping spiritual men and women how digital marketing can scale their business by bringing their practices into the online, world. She’s also a Reiki II Practitioner and Certified Coach. You’ll get the right mindset, clarity and strategies for business, personal or spiritual guidance without compromising your soul’s mission or your life’s purpose.
If you need clarity, or defining your life’s purpose, visit her business website: click here for her website at: BlueLarimarCoach.com
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