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August 12, 2021

Best Practices for Trade Businesses to Manage Their Client Onboarding

Client onboarding is the way you welcome new clients to your business, answer any questions they may have, and make sure that they understand all of the services you offer. It gives you the opportunity to get your new clients excited about working with you. This is where the customer will get their first impression of what it’s like to work with your business, so make it count!

Start Right Away

Your client onboarding process starts the moment your client has paid a deposit. You should immediately send them a welcome message and let them know what to expect from you and how the communication or job process works. This kind of clear and friendly communication will ensure that your clients are content with what you are doing and provides them with the opportunity to speak up if they have any questions or concerns.

Be Clear and Communicate Well

It is important to make sure that the scope of your work is written out so that there are never any questions. You should also make sure that the client understands how the process works if any changes are made or the timeline needs to be changed. Clear communication from the beginning is the best way to avoid problems down the road.

Review the Process Again

Although you’re likely to have gone over your process with the client, you should go over it again in the onboarding process. Set up ways to ensure you check in and review everything with the client at important points in the job process, like:

  • deposit paid
  • job date scheduled
  • parts organised/purchased
  • job starting
  • and so on…

Your client may not have taken in all of the information in the initial conversation. You may also have more technical knowledge that the client has trouble understanding. This is a great opportunity to share your process one more time and allow your client to ask questions and get concerns out of the way before you get started.

Write Out Your Process

Sometimes it is best to look at the onboarding process as steps in a journey. Make sure you help the client move through each step so you can be sure everyone is aware of what’s going on, and everyone has the right information when they need it. The best way to do this is to have a step-by-step guide that outlines what to do and when. So that anyone in your business can handle the client onboarding process and nothing gets missed.

It should look something like this:

Automate the Process

Once everything is clear, you can automate the process to keep your client informed. You can let your client know that you have an automated process to make sure that they stay informed, but that you are always available for any questions or concerns. And if you notice common concerns or questions from multiple customers, you can address these and include them in the automation process for future clients.

In Summary

Client onboarding is crucial in building and maintaining good relationships with customers, while ensuring that you’re on top of each job.

Key points for good client onboarding are:

  1. Starting the process ASAP
  2. Communicating clearly
  3. Writing out your process
  4. Frequently reviewing it
  5. Automating where possible

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