A step by step guide to mastering client onboarding
Master client onboarding with Formaloo’s template. Build trust, manage client info, and enhance collaboration for client satisfaction and customer success.
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Successful businesses build strong and lasting customer relationships that guarantee customer retention. The client onboarding process is one of the first steps of the entire customer journey. To set itself apart, your agency's client onboarding experience should be smooth and efficient. A smooth onboarding experience engages customers more and will help them understand the value of your products or services from the very beginning.
However, we understand that many agencies face challenges during onboarding, such as managing client information, setting clear expectations, and ensuring effective communication. Keeping customers engaged and satisfied is not always easy, and we know these challenges.
In this blog, we’ll guide you through the step-by-step process of client onboarding. Plus, we show you how Formaloo’s client onboarding dashboard can help you enhance your onboarding process.
By the end of this guide, you’ll have the knowledge and tools to create a seamless onboarding experience that meets and exceeds clients' expectations.
What is client onboarding?
Client onboarding is the process of integrating new clients into your agency, setting clear expectations, and establishing a strong relationship to lay the groundwork for a successful partnership. This initial phase is critical to establish the foundation for the entire relationship. Client onboarding helps to ensure that both the client and the agency are aligned on goals, deliverables, and communication. Client onboarding is the first key step to customer success.
Key elements of successful customer onboarding processes
- Collect essential client information:
- The challenge of managing client information: Tracking all client details, documents, and communications can be overwhelming without a centralized system.
- Collecting detailed information about the client’s business, goals, and expectations. This helps to tailor your services to their specific needs.
- Set clear expectations:
- The challenge of communication gaps: Ineffective communication leads to misunderstanding, missed deadlines, and a lack of trust between the client and the agency.
- Defining the scope of work, deliverables, timelines, and communication protocols from the start prevents customer churn.
- Establish a primary point of contact:
- The challenge of consistency: Ensuring a consistent onboarding experience for all clients can be challenging, especially when your agency grows and you have more clients.
- Designing a main point of contact helps to have consistent communication and builds a trusting relationship with the client.
- Engage team members:
- The challenge of scope creep: Without clear boundaries, projects can expand beyond the initial agreement, leading to overworked teams and dissatisfied clients.
- Involve relevant team members early in the project and with the client to make sure everyone is on the same page. This will also help them understand their roles and responsibilities.
Always look to understand agencies' common challenges to better prepare for the onboarding process and implement strategies to overcome potential obstacles. This understanding has a direct impact on your sales process and how your after sales services are performed.
Initial contact and kickoff call
The initial contact with a customer sets the tone for your entire working relationship and your customer success. This is the first client-facing moment after the customer signs, an opportunity to make a positive impression and build trust. It’s crucial to confirm the key points during the preparation phase. Make sure to gain the trust of your clients and let them feel confident and excited about the collaboration.
Steps for effective initial contact
1. Warm welcome contact:
Always start a warm and professional email or call, and introduce yourself and your team.
Example email: “Dear John, welcome aboard! We’re thrilled to have XYZ Inc. Join us and look forward to a successful collaboration.
2. Confirm key points:
Reiterate the key points discussed during the preparation phase, including project scope, timelines, and communication protocols.
Example: “As discussed, our project will kick off with a redesign of your website, followed by the creation of a new logo and a social media campaign over the next 6 months.”
3. Share resources:
Provide and share any initial resources or documents that the client might need, such as an onboarding checklist or project plan.
How to conduct an effective kickoff call?
The kickoff call is the moment your agency and client have been waiting for. It is the most vital part of the customer onboarding process. An effective kickoff call dives deeper into the project details, clarifies any uncertainties, and establishes a strong working relationship with the client.
What are the steps to a successful kickoff call?
- Agenda preparation:
- Prepare and share a clear agenda with the client beforehand to ensure a structured, professional, and productive meeting.
- Example agenda: Introduction, project overview, timelines, key deliverables, communication protocols, Q&A
- Introductions:
- Start the call by introducing all participants and their roles in the project.
- Example: “I’m Mo, your project manager. Joining me, Sarah, our lead designer, and John, our developer”
- Project overview:
- Discuss and provide a comprehensive overview of the project, including goals, deliverables, and timelines. Ensure that you meet your client's expectations.
- Example: “Our main goal is to increase brand awareness and generate leads through a new website, logo, and social media campaign.”
- Setting expectations:
- This part repeats the past talks, but it’s important to reiterate the scope of work, deliverables, and communication protocols discussed earlier. This will ensure that you are on the same page with your client. Set a routine for your meetings or email reports.
- Example: “We’ll have weekly progress meetings. Moreover, we will send you bi-weekly email updates to keep you informed throughout the project”
- Discuss the next steps:
- Set up and outline the next steps and any actions required from the client. This helps customers align better with your plans.
- Example: “Our first milestone is the website redesign. We’ll need your input and inspiration on the initial design concepts by the end of next week.
- Q&A section:
- Always allow time for the client to ask any questions or express any concerns they might have.
- Example: “Do you have any questions about the project timeline or the deliverables we’ve discussed?”
- Follow-up:
- Summarize the key points discussed during the call and send a follow-up email to the client within 24 hours of your call.
- Example email: “Thank you for the productive kickoff call. Here’s a summary of what we discussed. Moreover, you will find the next steps and key milestones.”
Client onboarding template overview
Formaloo’s client onboarding template is designed to help you streamline the onboarding process, elevate your customer journey and decrease customer churn. It is part of our agency suite and ensures all essential information is collected, organized, and easily accessible. This template takes a structured approach to onboarding, which helps agencies save time, reduce errors, and enhance customer success.
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Key features of Formaloo’s client onboarding template:
Comprehensive information collection:
Collect detailed client information, project scope, business goals, and key contacts.
Customizable fields:
Tailor the template to fit the specific needs of each client and project by adding various fields.
Centralized record keeping:
Maintain all onboarding information in one place for easy access and more efficient client management.
Task management:
Set up task management in the client onboarding template to keep the onboarding process on track. You can also connect this database to another task management app.
Access management and collaboration:
Facilitate team collaboration and client communication with built-in portal mode. Add portal mode to your app and let your clients add their input. Give different access levels to the data. Let your internal team have full access and clients with limited access.
Benefits of client onboarding template:
- Efficiency: Streamline the client onboarding processes, reduce the time and effort required to gather information, and build a strong client management process.
- Consistency: Ensure a consistent onboarding experience for all clients, regardless of project size or complexity.
- Accuracy: Minimize errors and omissions by using a structured template.
- Client satisfaction: Provide a smooth and professional onboarding experience to enhance client satisfaction and customer success. Good clients will be your promoters.
How to use Formaloo’s client onboarding template?
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use the client onboarding template:
- Access the template: log in to your Formaloo account and open our template list. Choose an agency category or search for a client onboarding template.
- Customize the template: Modify the template to include specific fields relevant to your client or projects. For example, add fields for industry-specific requirements, such as compliance details for a healthcare client.
- Client information: Enter your client information, add them manually, or upload your excel in Formaloo. You can also use a two-way sync with Google Sheets. Use the client onboarding form and share it with your client to fill it out. Client onboarding questionnaire helps to collect their information directly for more accurate data.
- Define project scope and deliverables: Outline the project scope, key deliverables, and timeline in the template. Collect and analyze all the data in a centralized database.
- Facilitate team collaboration: Share the template with your team and use the built-in collaboration tools to track the progress and discuss project details.
- Communicate with clients: Create a new form and call it a Bi-weekly email updater. Add fields based on your activities. Fill out the form and use email notification to send it to your client and other team members.
Track client progress and task management
Use our task management and client progress tracking tool to improve client management and smoother client experiences. You can connect your data from the client’s onboarding template to this template. Enjoy an all-in-one, centralized agency management software.
Tracking client details and progress throughout the project lifecycle is essential for maintaining a clear overview and ensuring that all tasks are completed on time.
Steps to track client details and progress:
- Task assignment:
- Use the template to assign tasks to team members, specifying due dates and priority levels.
- Example: “Assign the logo redesign task to Sarah, with a due date of April 1st and high priority.”
- Progress monitoring:
- Regularly update the template to reflect the current status of each task and deliverable.
- Example: “Mark the logo redesign task as ‘In Progress’ once work begins.”
- Status reports:
- Generate status reports from the template to provide clients with regular updates on project progress.
- Example: “Generate a weekly progress report to send to the client every Friday.”
- Milestone tracking:
- Use the template to track project milestones and ensure that all deadlines are met.
- Example: “Track the completion of the initial design concepts milestone due on March 15th.”
How to set up a structured plan:
- Define deliverables:
- List all the key deliverables for the project, ensuring that each one is clearly defined and understood.
- Example: “Deliverables include a redesigned website, a new logo, and a social media content calendar.”
- Assign responsibilities:
- Assign each deliverable to the appropriate team members, specifying their roles and responsibilities.
- Example: “Sarah Lee is responsible for the logo redesign, while Mark Johnson handles the website development.”
- Set deadlines:
- Establish clear deadlines for each deliverable to ensure timely completion.
- Example: “The logo redesign is due on April 1st, and the website development should be completed by May 15th.”
- Create a timeline:
- Develop a project timeline that includes all key milestones and deadlines.
- Example: “March 15th: Initial design concepts, April 1st: Logo redesign completion, May 15th: Website development completion.”
How to use the agency task management template?
Start using our task management template from the Formaloo template page. Open the form, add a look-up field, and connect it to your client onboarding form. Like this, you will ensure your data is connected, and you don’t need to enter client information or their tasks manually.
Progress monitoring and regularly update the template to reflect the current status of each task and deliverable.
Generate status reports from the template to provide clients with regular updates on project progress. You can use Formaloo AI and ask to generate a weekly progress report. Then, add these details to the Bi-weekly form you created before.
On the status page, set the deadlines for each deliverable and prevent scope creep. Clear the scope definition, implement a change management process, and hold regular check-ins.
Kanbans will give you the best visualizations, and it’s easier for you to manage tasks on your team.
Join Formaloo today
Sign up on Formaloo for free and start creating your own agency management software. From client onboarding template to task management template and marketing performance template are all available for free.
Use our templates to create a seamless workflow with centralized data. Collect data and elaborate on them.
Check our YouTube channel and Helpdesk page to learn more.