Podcast Transcript

Welcome to episode two of Customer Success Matters. As with everything that I will discuss on this podcast, there are elements that will resonate more specifically with agencies, but the insights are relevant for all service -based industries. So this week, I'll be talking about the onboarding process of a new client. Prior to onboarding, you and your team have spent a lot of time in the sales process, establishing relationships and starting to build trust. But this can all be for nothing if your onboarding process is not smooth and considered.

New client onboarding sets the standard for how your project is going to run. Get this part right and you will put the client at ease and start to build the good foundations of a good working relationship. Get it wrong and you can undo a lot of the good work you've already put into place. I would suggest creating an onboarding deck at the outset, which you can take your client or clients through on a call, which will include all of the important details that you will need to cover off to ensure you're all on the same page by the end of onboarding.

If you are the main client lead, you should be the one to lead the call, so they build confidence in you from the outset. Make sure you take charge and lead the conversation. Ensure you do introductions at the beginning. Allow your client to go first and then let your team introduce themselves. But make sure you have the right people on the call. I've heard from many clients and have experienced it myself when you join a call with a business and they bring what feels like half the office onto the call or into a face -to -face meeting and it can feel very overwhelming.

You can also make some clients question if they're paying for all of those people to be on that call or in the meeting. I would suggest only those that will have a client -facing role throughout the project are required and judge that against who from the client side is attending. Start by reiterating what was purchased in the sales process. This is really important to ensure that everyone is still on the same page about what the business objectives and program objectives are and what the responses to these objectives are in the form of a strategy.

This ensures there's no misalignment between what was sold in the sales process and what will actually be done. The same applies to the budget. It is really worth showing what the invoice schedule is and asking who is responsible for payment. Again, just so that everyone is completely clear on when the invoices will be sent and who needs to be chased in case of any problems. Establish ways of working with your clients straight away so there is no misalignment on how each party should be communicating.

but make sure you ask them how they would like to be communicated, whether that is via email, Slack, Teams, or even a hybrid, but let them decide what works best for them and adapt to their preferences. Within this, also understand how to communicate with your client when there's an urgent request. This will save you time and stress down the line. Some clients might like an email with a subject line as urgent or a WhatsApp message or a call.

But knowing this information means you're able to get access to your client quickly and efficiently when you need an urgent response. Look to set up weekly status calls, obviously if that cadence works, to ensure that the project is kept on track. You may not be able to ascertain what day or time works best on the call. This can be done post -it, but what it is going to do is give the visibility to your client.

about what to expect following on boarding and put confidence in you that you're going to be able to manage the project effectively. Discuss your client's internal approval process with them so that you are able to build out an approval organogram. Not only will this help you from a management point of view, but will save you masses of time down the line if you are ensuring all the right people are involved in the process at the right time. Your client probably hasn't thought through about who needs to be involved at what stages.

It is even worth considering whether you need to bring those stakeholders into certain meetings to ensure they understand the project before they see the final piece they need to approve. Context is everything. It will also help you to be able to put a realistic gantt shot together, giving the client a reasonable amount of time to review dependent on the number of stakeholders involved in sign -off. For example, some social posts may only require sign -off by your client, but a creative concept may require five or six stakeholders from different areas of the business

which likely will take a lot longer for approval. Sharing files with clients can become quite painful and can also be really confusing for clients if they have a lot to review. You have to remember that your project is not the only thing they are working on. So if they are being sent links to review and they are coming in from different messages at different times, it's very likely that something is going to get missed or forgotten. You are best placed to set up a file that both you and your client can access.

and anything that needs to be approved is placed in an appropriate section within that file. You might already have a process for this in place, but as long as it means the client only has one area to access rather than having to find previous emails or messages of links, but use what you have available. Depending on the stage of the project at the time of onboarding, either provide a milestone timeline, so the client has some visibility of what to expect in terms of deliverables. Alternatively, if the project has already been finalized, provide a detailed Gantt chart

and take them through it so they're clear on what the spreadsheet represents. This may not be possible to conduct on the call, but understanding what tech your clients have and what access rights you are able to get will help you in putting together your strategy, knowing what tech is available for you to use and also what possible hurdles you may need to overcome. This obviously may not be applicable for all projects. Finally, create some SLAs for your client in terms of your response times, working hours, how you book resource, et cetera, so they have a clear expectation set from the outset.

Remember to under promise and over deliver, not the other way around.