When it comes to an online coaching program, the best indicator of a business’s success is its process of onboarding its new clients. 86% of people say they’d be loyal to a company that invests in onboarding content that welcomes and educates clients after being brought on, and 55% of people have returned a product due to a lack of adequate customer onboarding.
Essentially, a high-quality onboarding process is an 86% increase in customer lifetime value (CLTV) and a preventative 55% loss in revenue (CLTV is the amount of income that you earn from a customer over the time they continue to use your services). Additionally, a good onboarding process can reduce scope creep, maximize your client’s time efficiency, and reduce your customer churn rate.
What is client onboarding?
Let’s understand what an “onboarding process” is.
Client onboarding is welcoming new clients to your business with two goals: teaching clients how to utilize your services and establishing a solid professional relationship between you and your clients. In short, client onboarding aims to reduce ambiguity and increase clarity. But what constitutes a “high-quality” onboarding process? This article will go over the four essential steps to enhancing this vital process.
1. Welcome them in a creative way
When you sign a new client, your sales process should not end after your customers sign an agreement to work together. You will want to set a positive and friendly tone early on with your clients.
The baseline way to do this is to send an automatic welcome email once the contract is signed. Personalizing this email to your client shows a more genuine appreciation for them as your customer. After you begin working with someone, the way you communicate with them also needs to change. Your clients will be excited AND anxious, so it is best to send an email to make them feel optimistic about your future partnership.
In addition to emailing, two more advanced ways to welcome your clients are through a welcome video or to have them shipped a welcome gift—the more personalized, the better.
2. Integrate them into your community
Once the client has joined your service, and you have established a good rapport, the next step is to integrate them into your online coaching business community.
A to-do list of tasks for the client is standard practice for all user-onboarding processes. The tasks required by new clients should be to schedule a meeting with them and have them complete a registration form so you can understand better how to work with them. For example, you can ask questions about their past professional experience and future professional goals.
Other tasks to foster the client-provider relationship should focus on community-building. This can include asking them to follow social media pages or join your social media groups to connect with other clients and keep up with company updates. Having new clients participate in these groups as soon as they sign up for your service increases their CLTV.
3. Provide effective software training
Now that your client is a full member of your coaching business, now is the time for some technical work. If conducting your coaching business online, you will need to help them get familiar with the different software programs used by your company.
The optimal software where you conduct coaching for your clients will ideally meet three criteria:
A single-sign-on platform to connect your client’s email account.
A virtual classroom AND a learning management system so clients will not need to utilize multiple EdTech tools.
A user-friendly interface that will be easy to navigate for clients, coaches, and administrators.
At HiLink, we designed our virtual learning space to be a platform that fulfills all these needs. If you’re interested in learning more about HiLink’s virtual training platform, contact us and sign up for a free trial!
4. Develop a channel for immediate feedback
The final step to a successful client onboarding process is to ensure clients have an easy-to-access mode of communication with you or anyone at the administrative level. This can look like:
Assigning someone on your team other than their coach to be their contact person.
Providing a schedule of available times when best to be contacted.
Having a FAQ page set up on your website.
If your business is new, it is essential to hear from them frequently about the software they are using or the coaching that they are receiving. You’re also getting used to understanding your clientele’s needs, so the sooner you hear their feedback, the better.
Conclusion
The purpose of the onboarding process is to systemically provide the necessary information that your client will need to engage with your business entirely. Breaking down this new information into smaller, successive steps will enable your clients to ease into using your coaching services without being overwhelmed.
Following these steps will lead you to experience better client satisfaction, better retention rates, and a higher CLTV. As a professional coaching or training business, maintaining your CLTV is vital to strengthening your brand reputation and growing your company. If you haven’t implemented these four steps into your onboarding process, now is the time! You will be amazed at the difference it will make.