Your sales and marketing teams work tirelessly to engage new prospects and nudge them toward becoming clients. The hard work pays off and new clients join your company.
But now what?
Your job isn’t done once you get clients to sign on. You need to create a client onboarding process to welcome them to your company, give them important information, and more.
That’s why we’ve created this client onboarding guide to help you get started. We’ll cover everything you need to know, including:
- What is client onboarding?
- Why does onboarding new clients matter?
- How to onboard new clients
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Keep reading to learn more!
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What is client onboarding?
Client onboarding is the process of welcoming new clients to your business. The client onboarding process enables you to provide clients with the necessary information they need and to start building a relationship with them.
Why does onboarding new clients matter?
The new client onboarding process plays a pivotal role in maintaining clients for your business. Here’s why you’ll want to onboard clients:
- It helps you build relationships: Think of client onboarding like going on a first date. You want to make a good impression and take the time to understand your client’s needs and goals.
- It makes your business more efficient: An established client onboarding process keeps your team from scrambling to help new clients get settled. You’ll reduce confusion and stress when your team knows the drill for bringing on a new client.
- It makes clients happy: Your new client onboarding process makes your clients happy. Not only does it tell them that you’re professional and organized, but it makes them feel valued by your company because you take the time to welcome them and get them settled.
- It reduces customer churn: Poor onboarding is one of the top reasons clients churn within the first 90 days. Having a solid onboarding process prevents customer churn and keeps them engaged.
Onboarding new clients is crucial for helping your business maintain those clients in the long run.
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8-step new client onboarding process to make clients feel welcome
Next in this client onboarding guide, let’s dive into creating a top-notch onboarding process. Here are eight steps on how to onboard new clients:
- Send a welcome message
- Set your expectations
- Make sure all legal documents are in order
- Create an assessment for your clients
- Have a client meeting with your team
- Deliver a welcome package
- Plan check-ins
- Gather feedback about your client onboarding process
Let’s dive in!
1. Send a welcome message
One of the most crucial components of this client onboarding guide is sending the welcome message. A welcome message sets the tone for your partnership with a client and sets a positive first impression with them.
Your welcome message doesn’t need to be over-the-top. You’ll need to include important information like:
- A welcome greeting that fits with your brand
- A reminder of what they signed up for (this is especially important if you offer multiple products or services)
- Contact information for customer service
- A message about your excitement about working with the client
Sending a simple welcome message ensures your clients know you’re excited to work with them and that you value them as a customer.
2. Set your expectations
Once you’ve welcomed new clients, it’s time to dive into the nitty-gritty –– that starts with setting expectations. You must review those expectations with your clients, so their expectations are realistic.
You can follow up your welcome email with an “expectations” email where you outline what you provide for the client. This step is crucial if you provide multiple services for clients –– it ensures there isn’t confusion about what you include in the clients’ package.
You’ll want to ensure you review:
- What products/services the client receives
- What your team will provide to the client
- Customer service/support options
- Client relationship expectations
Sending this information is a great way to review with your clients what they get from you, while setting realistic expectations for your partnership with them.
3. Make sure all legal documents are in order
The next step in this client onboarding guide is a crucial one –– make sure all your legal documents are in order.
When you onboard a new client, you need a contract. Your contract will outline the services you provide and what the client will receive.
You’ll also want to ensure you have all legal documents in place. If you own a healthcare software company, for example, you need to have legal documents surrounding HIPAA compliance. If you’re working with a high-profile client, you may need to sign an NDA and have that included in your legal documents.
On top of all that, make sure you have their payment agreement documented. This document serves as a contract of what the person agreed to pay, when, and how.
Checking all your legal documents is a must-have step in your new client onboarding process. It ensures that everything is in order and that you and your client can move forward in the relationship with both parties’ interests protected.
4. Create an assessment for your clients
If you want to know how to onboard new clients, listen to this crucial tip: You must assess your clients. When your sales team worked on getting these clients to work with your company, they gathered a lot of preliminary information –– now it’s time to get to the heart of the matter.
You want to create a questionnaire that enables your clients to dive deep into what they want from your company. It helps you understand their expectations and desires. Knowing this information helps determine what resources you need to use to help them meet those goals.
Your assessment can include questions like:
- What goals do you want to achieve with our service/product?
- How do you want to allocate your budget?
- Do you have key performance indicators (KPIs) you’re targeting? What are they?
- What assets and resources do you already have?
- Who is your ideal customer?
These questions help you gain a more in-depth understanding of individual clients and how they intend to use your product or service to reach company goals.
Once you have all this information, you and your team can start creating a plan of attack for your new client.=
5. Have a client meeting with your team
A crucial part of your client onboarding process is having a client meeting with your team. You can opt for in-person or virtual meetings. Think of this meeting as a kick-off to the partnership.
During the client meeting, you’ll want to:
- Introduce the client to the team working on their project
- Introduce the point of contact
- Review the client’s goals
- Go over the plan for the client and timeline (which you help create from the assessment questionnaire)
- Hash out deadlines and last-minute details
- Provide opportunities for questions
This client meeting is an excellent way for you to review the scope of the project and provide the client with the opportunity to make suggestions and ask questions.
6. Deliver a welcome package
When onboarding new clients, it’s crucial to make them feel valued by your company. One way to do this is by sending a welcome package to new clients.
This package can have a dual purpose –– It can make a good impression while also providing helpful information clients need.
From an information standpoint, you’ll want to send:
- A guide to your company (hours of operation, contact information, locations, etc.)
- Helpful resources for clients (guides, articles, etc.)
- Case studies from similar companies
In addition to the information, don’t be afraid to send some physical gifts for clients! You can send them company swag as a “welcome” gesture –– after all, who doesn’t love getting free things?
7. Plan check-ins
You’ve sorted out all the paperwork. You met with the client and introduced the team. You sent your welcome package.
So, what’s next in the client onboarding guide?
Well, it’s time to start thinking about the future –– you need to plan check-ins. Once you have a client onboarded and go to work, it’s crucial to check in with them and give progress updates.
Establishing those check-ins early, before you even start working, is crucial for building trust. It lets the client know you’re dedicated to keeping them in the loop.
Generally, you’ll want to plan a check-in about a month after you start –– it may be longer or shorter depending on the project and what the client wants.
8. Gather feedback about your client onboarding process
The last step of the new client onboarding process is obtain feedback from your clients about your onboarding process. No process is perfect, and you may find that there are places where you fall short with onboarding new clients.
Send your new clients a feedback survey at the end of the onboarding process to understand their experience with onboarding. You can ask questions like:
- How satisfied are you with your onboarding experience? (Can be a scale of 1 to 10, or a “neutral, very, extremely” scale)
- Did you receive everything you needed for onboarding? If not, what was missing?
- Do you still feel satisfied with your investment after the onboarding process?
- What can we do to make the onboarding experience better?
Asking these questions helps you understand your client’s point of view with your client onboarding process.
Get help with managing your clients
Onboarding clients is crucial for creating a positive first impression when people choose your company. So, how do you keep that good feeling going? With a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, of course!
At WebFX, we offer Nutshell, a CRM platform that helps you keep important contact information, documents, notes about client preferences, and more! Using our CRM software enables you to maintain relationships with your clients after onboarding, so you keep them happy and engaged with your company.
If you want to learn more about maintaining happy clients, contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our CRM software!
