How to increase the value of your service with effective onboarding
Quick question…How easy do you make it for your clients to work with you?
I recently was my own experiment when I ended up going over my initial budget and paying £500 more for the same service and here’s why ⬇️
I experienced two very different processes and a series of emotions when I enquired with two service providers who had caught my eye. One left me feeling like the stress was instantly alleviated whilst the other left me frustrated.
Now initially, I had every confidence that both would have done a great job as I had seen proof of their work however I chose to work with the one who left me feeling confident, and made it very easy to say yes even though it was over my intended budget, the onboarding process was quick, stress-free and my questions were answered before I had to ask them.
Their effective communication left me feeling like they cared and I was a priority and not a burden.
The Result….it was a no brainer to go ahead and accept their proposal.
The fact is an effective onboarding strategy can increase the value of your service
Wouldn’t you prefer to pay more for something knowing you will be left feeling confident that the job will be done right and the stress has been taken away?
To prevent any of your potential clients from getting cold feet, check out my top tips for an effective onboarding strategy
1. Be realistic with your timeframe
Don’t promise to call a lead back or send a proposal within 24 hours if you might miss the deadline. We often fall into the habit of trying our best to people please as much as we can, but this can actually lead to a negative experience when we cannot live up to our expectations.
➡️ Set your boundaries and communicate them clearly, people will appreciate this so much more than being let down when they don’t hear from you. It will also have a much more positive impact on your productivity and decrease potential stress.
2. Answer questions before they need to be asked
The last thing you want is to spend your time putting a price together and the scope of services to then finally send it off to then be bombarded with follow up questions. It means you have to spend more of your valuable time answering emails and it leaves your client feeling frustrated.
➡️Your proposal should clearly outline your scope of services, cost, payment terms, the project timelines or start date, the next steps on how they can proceed and what they can expect and even an FAQ section to really make it effective.
I sometimes personalise the FAQ section as there may have been something we covered during the discovery call and I want to make sure a certain topic is covered and clearly communicated to them before a client books my services.
The same goes for your emails. Keep your inbox quota low by outlining what happens next. For example, don’t just send an email saying, “here’s a link to your contract please sign”.
Explain what will happen after they agree to your terms eg, “once your contract has been received you will receive an invoice for your deposit payment to confirm your booking.”
See…question answered before it had to be asked!
3. Automate repetitive tasks
Save your time and streamline your processes with automation.
You can use scheduling tools to make it really simple for clients to book a call with you and save all that back and forth about their availability. Automating your invoicing and payment reminders will end all of that beige admin that no one ever wants to do. Save your time for the fun stuff not chasing clients for payments!
We all know my favourite tool is Dubsado… you can check out my 5 top saving automation tips here.
4. Use Templates
Use proposal templateS and canned emails which you can easily personalise.
In the long run, this will save you hours and will make sure your leads are kept engaged and the process is quick. A lot of my clients used to spend an entire day putting a proposal together and now they can do the same job in half an hour.
An effective onboarding strategy should easily be rinsed and repeated and an easy way to do this is by creating a library of templated emails and forms.
Now I know a lot of people suddenly think this can become impersonal or robotic, which I am absolutely not about. I’m all about humans first. Which is why I love the templates I use and create for my clients in Dubsado. These can be easily personalised, allowing the use of custom fields and images can be swapped within seconds so your clients will never feel like just another number.
Does your onboarding strategy need a refresh? Check out my simplify sessions for a done-with-you approach, to design a killer client experience. No thumb-twiddling necessary.
