Sharon: Good morning, this is Sharon, and I’m here today with Steven Kohnke from Denver Business Coach. Good morning, Steven.
Steven: Good morning Sharon, how are you doing?
Sharon: I’m good. How are you today?
Steven: Doing great, thanks.
Sharon: Good. Well, why don’t you set us up for our topic this morning?
Steven: Yeah, absolutely. So as business owners, it’s helpful to think of your business as not just this thing that, other things happened inside, right? It’s really several different technical areas that need to be focused on and focused on regularly. So what we’ve done here is really broken down what these big components are of successful businesses, those being foundations, leadership, sales, marketing, operations, financials, and HR; and have put together this series of tips and insights you can use and apply to build a better business. And what we’re doing today is we’re focusing on the operations lever there and specifically the customer or client onboarding process.
Sharon: Right, well, of course, I’ve heard of employee onboarding, but explain a little bit more what you mean by customer onboarding.
Steven: Yes. So similarly, it’s a repeatable process that you can take your customers through and they can get a full understanding of who you are. So if you’re looking at your employees, those first couple of days are really critical of them really feeling immersed into your business, what you feel, and one with your business. And you should be able to do the same thing with your customers or your clients… They want to be able… They’ve made the decision to buy from you. Be it, customer, be it client, and it’s important that they really feel that difference. It’s not enough to just have your customers purchase from you and then you provide the service. You’ve really got to make them feel like they are a part of what you’re able to do, what you’re able to provide. And it really it helps just join each other together on that.
Sharon: So just to kind of take that a little bit further, can you explain a little bit more about why having this effective customer onboarding process is so important to the success of your business?
Steven: Yes. So a business that wants to keep their customers buying from them and not from their competitors, and that’s how a business scales. The objective of having any super strong onboarding process is aimed at retention, whether we’re talking employees or clients, showing your customers that you care from day one really sets the tone for working with you for the rest of that relationship.
Steven: And we’ll show them that you’re really different than the rest. So it kind of hits two different things, you’re helping with the retention and you’re helping with differentiation too. Having a repeatable and onboarding… Having a repeatable onboarding process means your business has a greater probability of repeat customers. It’s not going to guarantee it. But the chances of them buying from you again and continuing to buy from you go way up. So having that effective onboarding process really means you can show that value and show how you’re different from the first day, and again, making sure that, that is repeatable just exemplifies that whole process there.
Sharon: Makes a lot of sense. So, how would a business owner go about really understanding what their client onboarding process is or what they need it to be?
Steven: Yeah, you know, developing this effective kind of onboarding process can be tricky. It takes time. You really do have to slow down and pay close attention to detail, which can be tough after, especially after getting the new customer you’re all excited to get going on. But when you do slow down, pay attention, you can develop a really good process and framework of which to work, and have it done for the first 30 to 60 days. These days are by far the most important for client retention, as is employee retention as well.
Steven: But we’re talking client-side here. It is really getting that business again to understand what your business is about. So saying what are those? They’re developing that checklist, right? It’s what are those pieces of your business that you really need to show your new customers that you’re… You’re the business that they should continue to buy from. If you’re able to make a gesture, Welcome to the team.
You know, I’ve done cards before in the past for new clients within the first 30 days, just saying, hey, I’m super excited to be working with you and working together towards whatever our goals are. So, you know, just being able to demonstrate what you can do and having that checklist so it is repeatable. So across the board, everyone has the same experience no matter if it’s you are delivering it or that your next salesperson or customer account management person, the idea is to to keep them around and by having the solid process to follow and a checklist of what are the pieces that we need to make sure that our customers and our clients are understanding, is what’s going to keep them around.
Sharon: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I know as a… As a consumer and as a customer myself, it makes all the difference to have these personal touches, right? And all the difference not just for myself being a repeated customer, but also referring my friends and family and network. So…
Steven: Yes, it helps with the word of mouth, doesn’t it?
Sharon: Yeah, for sure. Good. Well, as we wrap up, Steven, any closing words for me today?
Steven: Yeah. You know, the client onboarding process is, it’s not a super common thing to be thinking about or to establish in your business, but it is very, very important. So if that’s something you want to develop for your business, you can just go to our website it’s the best way to contact us at www.denverbusinesscoach.com, and we’d be happy to talk to you about how to do that.
Sharon: Awesome, thank you. Have a great day. We’ll talk again soon.
Steven: Thank you, Sharon. Talk soon.
Sharon: All right. Bye-bye.