4 Ways You’re Wasting Your Time Onboarding New Clients
How many agencies can say that their onboarding process was deemed by one of their clients as the best they’ve experienced?! An agency whose systems are designed to streamline things for ALL parties involved, that’s who.
If you’ve been following us for a while, you know that continually improving our systems and processes is our JAM, and one that we’re most proud of is our onboarding process! It’s truly SO streamlined at this point that ANY member of our team could confidently take on the process solo and with ease.
Over and over we’ve heard from fellow SMMs that they’re tired of investing HOURS of their time on unnecessary tasks and back-and-forth with clients, so we compiled everything we know into one master course, The Client Concierge Suite (only available 3/12/24 - 3/19/24)!
Read on to discover four ways you could be saving time during your client onboarding process.
YOU DON’T CONVEY YOUR VALUE EFFICIENTLY.
Real talk: the onboarding process (aka the investment of your time in a potential or secured new client) begins before the contract is signed and the first invoice is paid. Stop making the mistake of spending HOURS of your time hopping on discovery calls and creating proposals that don’t convey your value effectively.
At Homemade Social, we use brief 20-minute discovery calls to chat with leads and determine if we’re a mutually good fit for one another. If we’re interested in moving forward with the brand after that initial call, we’ll send the lead a social media proposal of our packages.
The presentation and way we convey our value within the proposal play a major role in whether or not the client will choose to book with us. Thanks to our 19-page pre-made and fully-customizable Social Media Proposal template, our days of spending HOURS creating new proposals for leads are over. It makes it super easy for us to plug and play all of this information, while still making the proposal feel specially curated for each client.
We tailor the details within each proposal to appeal to the brand’s needs and always make sure to highlight:
About us
Portfolio + testimonials
Package options + add-on services
Case study
Next steps
YOUR CLIENT COMMUNICATION PROCESS ISN’T STREAMLINED.
Once the contract is signed and first invoice is paid, it’s time to really dive into the remainder of the onboarding process.
If you feel like you can’t get through onboarding without a glass of wine in one hand and a stress ball in the other, it’s likely because you’re lacking a master Client Onboarding Checklist and done-for-you email templates outlining step-by-step how to walk through the process with ease.
We’ll be the first to admit that there’s a lot of information and assets to collect from clients prior to their start date. To prevent missing steps or too much back and forth via email or phone call, our Client Onboarding Checklist kicks off with the task of sending the new client a questionnaire to fill out. This questionnaire allows the brand to submit login credentials, branding and image assets, and answer key questions related to their goals, target audience, tone of voice, and competitors all in one place.
Once complete, these checklists provide our internal team with everything we need to get started on their account and content! From there, we’ll draft the client’s first round of content and schedule a kick-off call to walk through everything together.
One business day prior to the call, ensure meeting success by sending a Meeting Agenda (available exclusively in The Client Concierge Suite - only available 3/12/24 - 3/19/24) to the client. A great space for guiding the course of conversation and logging meeting notes, this document prevents the dreaded “this meeting could have been an email” situation.
This next client communication tip has literally saved our Account Manager at least two HOURS of her time each week. When you’re ready to officially send clients content for review, do so in our templatized Content Approval Document (available exclusively in The Client Concierge Suite - only available 3/12/24 - 3/19/24). This document makes it easy to track what’s ready to be sent, what’s approved, what edits the client requested, and where your team is at with revisions. Trust us when we tell you you NEED this in your social media biz!
YOU DON’T ENFORCE BOUNDARIES FROM THE START.
The biggest way to waste your time is by allowing clients to walk all over you. Communicate your boundaries with clients from the START by adding it to your contract and walking through it with them on the kick-off call.
On our kick-off calls, we always share a New Client Welcome Presentation (available exclusively in The Client Concierge Suite - only available 3/12/24 - 3/19/24). This presentation allows us to welcome the client to our family, outline the next steps, and re-state systems, processes, and policies from our signed contract that they should be aware of.
More specifically, we use this fully-customizable slideshow to:
Introduce the team
Share the project’s kick-off timeline
Highlight key policies outlined in our contract, such as:
Posting and approval process
Content requests
Office hours + communication
Reporting
Client meetings + concierge
About their package + service add-ons
And more!
YOU LACK THE PROPER SYSTEMS TO SUCCEED.
If it isn’t already clear, successful client partnerships are deeply rooted in how efficient your internal systems and processes are. If tasks are slipping through the cracks left and right, resulting in constantly unmet deadlines and client expectations - it’s time to invest in better systems to ensure operational excellence.
Our Client Concierge Suite course features an Asana template including pre-built task lists (from onboarding to-dos to recurring social media management items and everything in between) that make it easy for you to seamlessly integrate into your own agency.
This plug-and-play task management resource is perfect for you if you're looking for a better way to:
Collaborate and communicate with team members
Oversee and review the work of subordinates
Automate recurring tasks
Track project progress and prevent delays
Ensure white-glove execution of projects from start to finish
We hope you found this blog post helpful in learning how to better streamline your client onboarding process!
xx- The Homies
