This month’s theme is “Creating your Onboarding Process.”

Successful customer or client onboarding starts with developing an outline for your entire onboarding process, including what systems you’ll need and how you’ll track results.

In this video, I walk you through a process to create your outline with lots of examples of what this would look like. I also have a handy download to help you document your outline as you go through the steps.

We are continuing with “Creating Your Customer Onboard Process” and today we are going to start planning it out. Lots of steps, lots of details, but I have something that’s really going to help you today. 

Successful customer onboarding starts with developing an outline for your entire onboarding process, including what systems you’ll need and how you’re going to track results. Start by listing all aspects of your customer’s experience with your product or service after they’ve made their purchase.

Begin your onboarding process plan by creating a “big picture” of the customer experience post-purchase in relation to one specific product or service. Your big picture should include a list of the things your customer will do post-purchase and the results they should achieve.

To create your big picture, answer the following questions:

1. What will your customer do with your product or service? How will they use it? How might their use of it differ from one person to the next? What can you do to better help them use it?

These questions reveal specific things you can do in onboarding, such as offer follow-up content on using the product or accessing the service.

2. What are the results the customer will get from your product or service both immediately and in the long-term?

Think of these in terms of the customer’s experience with the product or your service. Identify how the customer’s life changes after using or implementing it.

As you create your big picture, you should already be thinking about how you can support your customers so that they can gain these benefits.

Let’s look at an example of a service. Imagine that you offer a website design service. Once you redesign or create a client’s website, they will need to learn how to use the website and any special or added features. You will also have to offer ongoing technical support in case there are problems. This is a good example where you can easily see how training, tutorials, FAQs, and other educational content can help.

The benefits that a client receives from your service, in addition to an aesthetically pleasing website, include increased traffic and sales, peace of mind knowing that all of the technical aspects are under control, and relief at not having to do the design work themselves.

For your website design service, you may want to create:

• An introductory email that offers links to helpful content such as tutorials on using special features
• Regular consultations over the internet where you can check to see if the customer is getting optimal use of their new website and to field questions or solve problems

Once you’ve created a big picture by answering the two questions about what your customer does with your product or service and the resulting benefits, flesh out the details of your post-purchase experience even more.

Consider the following:

• Deliverables: What is the process of the customer receiving the product?
• Installation: What the customer needs to do in order to start using the product?
• Use: What are all of the different ways they will use the product?
• Features: What special features or add-ons are there that the customer may not be aware of or know how to use?
• Changes in Use: In what ways might the customer change their usage of the product, including upgrades, re-installation, and so on?
• Maintenance: What does the customer need to do in order to keep the product in optimal working condition?
• Problems: What problems might the customer encounter using the product including bugs, repairs, or malfunctions?
• Benefits: What additional benefits will they receive as a result of the entire process of buying and using your product or service well into the future?

This list that you create will drive the entire process of creating your onboarding system. As the examples above show, each item on your list will help you brainstorm specific tasks you can perform in order to meet your customers’ needs post-purchase.

As you continue to build out the list of details for your customer’s post-purchase experience, start thinking about the following for your onboarding process:

• The How – The venue you will use for customer interaction, information, and education
• The What – The general content you will need to create to use in the onboarding process
• The When – A timeline for when everything will happen

Action Steps

1. Using your download, take one product or service and create your picture of your customer’s or client’s post-purchase experience:
2. Create a list of the systems, processes, and tasks that you will set up to implement your customer’s post-purchase experience

Don’t forget to get that download! Make sure to use it as you document everything. This is where it all starts everybody. You can’t really move forward until you’ve done this part

Catch up on other “Creating Your Onboarding Process” episodes + resources mentioned in the video:

• [Video] Why you need customer onboarding in your sales cycle
• [Video] Set Up Your Customer Onboarding (The First 30 Days)
• [Video] Creating your onboarding process for the next few months and beyond
• [Video] Common Mistakes to Avoid with Customer and Client Onboarding
• How to Plan Your Customer’s Onboard Process – Download Step 2 Action Steps

Did you enjoy this episode and want to put it into action? Grab this kit!