Onboarding doesn't have to be onboring.

Hey there,

A Prospect has said “Yes, I’m in!”.

They’ve signed up to work with you, to let you take them on a journey that ends where they’ve always wanted to be.

In other words, that Prospect is now a Client.

And you’ve moved from Sharing your Promise to now having to Keep it.

What happens next will have a big impact on your relationship with each other.

‘Onboarding’ is one of those processes that is often neglected, or relegated to the responsibility of a junior. Because once you’ve ‘hooked’ a Client, it’s all too easy to forget about keeping them attracted to you, to forget about their journey and focus on the nuts and bolts of what you do for them, on the money they bring in, rather than the Client themselves.

Which is a shame, because if you get it right, 'Onboarding' can really set everyone off on the right foot.

So in this newsletter I’m going to talk about:

How to make your client feel welcome
How to make sure you get everything set up at the right time, and in the right place
How to plan now for the end of the Client’s journey with you, so that can always be a happy one.

As usual, let’s dive right in.

How to make your client feel welcome

I used to think that the first step in Keeping your Promise was getting everything in place to be able to deliver your service to them smoothly and efficiently.

How very functional of me.

Now I feel differently.

Sure, your client has enthusiastically signed up, but they are probably already feeling a little buyer’s remorse, questioning whether this daunting journey really is the right thing for them.

What they need now is the reassurance that you will continue to ‘see’ them as a human being, not just as a ‘thing’ to be processed.

So, why not start your Keep Promise with a welcome?

Get the metaphorical bunting out.

Find a way to make your new client feel safe, special, and seen.

It could feel extravagant.

As long as you’re sure you can replicate it for each new client.

For example, one accountant I know only takes on new clients twice a year. This is primarily to make sure the capacity to deal with all those clients is in place before they join.

But as a side effect, it makes it easy to take all of them out to dinner, as a cohort, alongside the team members they will be working with, and a few existing clients. This acts as a thank you for signing up, reassurance that they’ve done the right thing, and a lovely way for everyone to get comfortable with talking to each other right from the off.

It doesn’t have to be expensive.

One of my clients sends a specific chocolate bar to every new customer, as a reminder of the metaphor they use to characterise their relationship. Another gives every client a little packet of sweets at every face to face meeting.

It doesn’t have to involve physical gifts. You could simply get the team member(s) who will be working with this client to give them a call to welcome the client aboard, and to introduce themselves and their Role in Keeping your Promise for this client.

It doesn’t have to be the same for everyone.

I like to buy people a book I think they’ll find useful. Which book depends on the client, their business and what they’re interested in.

Not everyone likes to read though, so I need to make sure I include audiobooks as a possibility.

However you decide to welcome a new client, make sure it can’t backfire:

“Here’s your welcome treat” said the email. Inside, a code for a 10% discount on my first purchase, as a reward for signing up to the mailing list. Lovely.

Except that I’d already made my first (hefty) purchase, which is how I signed up to the mailing list in the first place.

So now I’ve been given a discount code I’m unlikely to use.

I don’t feel special, or welcomed, I feel cheated.

This would have been easy to avoid. The shop could suppress the 10% discount email for people who have already made a first purchase. I wouldn’t have known about it, so I wouldn’t have cared. Or they could automatically give a 10% discount on each first purchase accompanied by a sign-up to the mailing list. That would have been a lovely surprise.

Now it’s your turn:

What could you do to make a new client feel welcome?
What could you do to reassure them that they’ve taken the right step?
What could you do to help them feel comfortable talking to you and your team right from the start?

How to make sure you get everything set up at the right time, and in the right place

Once you’ve made your client feel welcome, or kicked off that process, you need to do the nuts and bolts of getting them set up on all the systems you use to deliver on your Promise to them.

This will include:

Adding them to your email system. Maybe creating an email folder for them and a rule that automatically moves their emails over, so you don’t have to hunt for emails.
Creating a system folder for them, to hold any documentation they send you, and/or any documentation you create for them.
Adding them to any systems you use to track your progress with them. Perhaps even creating a login for them, so they can track progress for themselves too.
And of course, since payment is part of the process, adding their details to whatever accounting system you use to send invoices and receive payments. Perhaps also sending them a request to set up a direct debit,so you can both concentrate on doing the work, not chasing payments.
Depending on which of your Packages they have bought into, adding them to any systems you use to deliver on your Promise to them.

Be careful here though. You want to make sure ‘Set Up Client’ is separate from ‘Set Up Client Package’.

Why?

Because ‘Set Up Client’ only happens once, while ‘Set Up Client Package’ can happen more than once per Client.

But Kirsten, the only reason I’m setting up a new client is because they’ve bought a Package from me. Why would I split them?

Ask yourself: “What happens if we do a second project with this client?”

Does the person running this process start (who is not me) at Set Up Client and repeat unnecessary tasks?

Or do they have to check whether they have been done already before they carry them out?

The last thing you want when your people are running a process is to have to stop and ask themselves “Hang on, do I do this step or skip it?” every time.

That’s a recipe for getting things wrong. Either by asking the client for information they’ve already given, or forgetting to ask them for something that will be vital later on.

So, restrict ‘Set Up Client’ to only those tasks that are relevant to it. And put in ‘Set Up Client Package’ only those tasks that are relevant to this Package.

If the Packages you’ve defined involve different tasks, create a separate ‘Set Up Client Package’ for each one.

That way, anyone running the process doesn’t have to think too hard - they can move from ‘Set Up Client’ to ‘Set Up Client Package’ seamlessly for the first project, and repeat from ‘Set Up Client Package’ if you work together again.

Your turn again:

First ask:

What tasks need to be done as part of ‘Set Up Client’?

List them out as a checklist. (Use this one if you like)

Then, for each Package you’ve defined:

Ask:

What tasks need to be done as part of ‘Set Up '?

List them out as a checklist. (Use this one if you like)

How to plan now for the end of the Client’s journey with you, so that can always be a happy one.

Making a new Client feel welcome, and getting them set up smoothly and efficiently will go a long way to making a positive start to your journey together.

But whether we like it or not, all things come to an end.

Sometimes you’re the one that decides to finish it, sometimes it’s your Client’s choice.

Sometimes neither of you decides, fate or accident steps in and cuts the thread for you both.

Most often, it’s just the natural conclusion of the journey you’ve taken together.

We’ve already seen that it’s important to welcome your client at the beginning of their journey through Keep Promise.

It’s just as important that the end of that journey works just as well.

However the end occurs, you want to make sure your client feels as ‘seen’ at the end as you made them feel at the beginning.

So, when everything ends well, when your client is delighted, having achieved the transformation they sought:

How can you celebrate that with them?
How can you mark their achievement?
How can you make it memorable for you as well as for them?

Could you include a permanent reminder that will also show others what’s possible?

A medal, a certificate, an investiture into a hall of fame? Or even better, enrollment into a community of fellows where they can carry on learning?

But what if things don’t have that kind of clear ending?

What if your service is ongoing, perhaps even invisible - part of the client’s infrastructure?

How do you empower the client to leave if they want to, and at the same time make them more than happy to stay?

If you just let them carry on, and hope they’ll forget about you, you can be sure that when they do decide to leave, you’ll be remembered as sly and manipulative.

If you do what some big corporations do and actively make it difficult to leave, you’ll be remembered as nasty and exploitative, and people will say so.

And what about when things don’t end well?

What if the client decides to stop before you’ve reached the end? Or you decide to cut it short?

There’s a question that’s useful to ask in these situations:

“What’s the least you want a client to feel when they leave?”

You may not part friends, but you can at least part with mutual respect, knowing that you’ve left the client with as little as possible to complain of.

If you do this really well, you may even lose a client, and gain a referrer.

There’s no easy answer to all of this.

It all depends on the nature of your Promise, the kind of service you offer and what will delight the people you serve.

The important thing is to think about possible endings before you get there.

That’s it.

Here’s what you learned today:

Onboarding should start with a welcome. Celebrate the start of your journey together, show the client you are grateful to them for putting their trust in you.
Make sure the mechanics of onboarding are simple, straightforward and easy to carry out consistently. It’s the first way you can demonstrate that your Client’s trust is not misplaced.
While you’re designing the beginning of a Client’s journey with you, also design how it should end. Remember, your aim is to be able to happily Bid Farewell to a client, whatever happens, and however they leave. That means that the least you should do is put as much thought into how your Keep Promise ends as you do into how it begins.

Start by writing up your checklists for ‘Set Up Client’ and ‘Set Up Client Package’.

Think about how you want to ‘Welcome Client’, and ‘Bid Client Farewell’, then have a go at writing up your thoughts, using the guidelines from this previous newlsetter.

If you’d like some help, book a 30-minute Zoom call with me:

Good luck, and thanks for reading!

PS would a WhatsApp group be useful to discuss these newsletters with each other?

Let me know by replying to this email.

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