The Power of Client Onboarding

A friend of mine, Nathaniel Holzmann, made a great post today about something every new agency owner should think about. https://lnkd.in/p/ekNGnREE

His team needed access to a client's domain registrar. Instead of asking the client, "Where is your domain registered?" they figured it out themselves and went back to the client with one simple request: We know where it is. We just need you to give us access.

Small difference. Big difference in how the client perceives you.

It also reminded me of something I've learned over the years:

Your onboarding process may be one of the most important processes in your agency.

When you sign a new client, don't just collect enough information to start the first project.

Build a client profile.

Where is their domain registered? Who hosts their website? What platform is it built on? Who controls DNS? What CRM do they use? Where is their email hosted? What analytics are installed? What social accounts do they have? Who are the people you need to know? Who has authority to approve something?

And just as importantly, why did they hire you? What are they trying to accomplish?

You won't need all of that information today. That's the point. Six months from now, when something needs to be changed, fixed, migrated, integrated, or replaced, you shouldn't have to start asking the client questions you could have answered during onboarding.

Good onboarding does three things:

It saves you time.
It saves your client time.
It makes you look like you know their business.

And there is another benefit that agency newbies sometimes don't recognize. Processes make you scalable.

If every client engagement depends on you remembering what to ask next, you don't really have an agency. You have a collection of projects.

Build the process once. Improve it every time you discover something you missed. Eventually, your onboarding process becomes part of the value you bring to the client.

Nathaniel made a great observation in his original post: clients often can't evaluate the technical work you're doing behind the scenes. They can evaluate whether you appear organized and whether you seem to know what you're doing. Your processes help demonstrate that.

Don't just onboard the project. Onboard the client.