Client on-boarding is essentially defined as ‘establishing the account relationship, having a legal framework and getting the CRM correctly populated between yourself and the client’. In the practical corporate world, it is much more than just that. For marketing agencies, it is rather an ongoing process for the initial months with the client. And being a fundamental part of the relationship, marketing agencies that shun away from firm execution of client on-boarding either lose their clients fast or end up with clients who are just carrying on to get their projects done.
As very well said by the author and marketing consultant John Janstch – “If you hold a customer’s hand for 90 days, they’ll be loyal for life”, if clients are satisfied in the initial stages, they will never abscond your services. Simply pulling them towards your services does not suffice, especially in the marketing industry. This is because actual results take time to show up and you need to continuously convince clients that you are truly working towards the very best for them.
After the client acquisition process, you need to assure the client that they have made the right choice by picking on you. Set the client into your business and establish a good and promising relationship. One must executively integrate clients into the business rather than just having them on the clientele list.
The following steps can be used for assuring a successful client on-boarding process:
- Collect all client information and requirements to every detail. It would be a good idea to update all this information onto your CRM and share the updation with the client.
- Send a welcome note to the client on acquisition – this could be in the form of a letter or an email. You may also send a welcome kit to the client. Welcome kits would generally (but not necessary or limited to) the following items: a welcome video/link, several business cards, business brochure, testimonials/case studies and promotional items engraved with your logo.
- Arrange for a team meeting so that both teams are introduced to each other and the client is in well knowledge about who is working on his project.
- Regular reporting about the ongoing activities to the client is an important augment of all on-boarding activities. Make sure the client is in loop.
- Check-up calls at regular intervals (weekly calls are recommended) keep you both updated on any new activities/changes that are going on.
Keep the above points in mind to ensure an effective client on-boarding that will result in less of churn for your business. No-one wants to keep on cliffing too new clients because of losing older ones. Make your clients cling on to you by building a profitable business relation.