Melanie
The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves. Welcome back, guys, to another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing podcast. Today we're talking about onboarding new clients. What does that even mean?
Melanie
It really depends on how you plan to do it. Some people use sheets of paper. Other people use whiteboards. Other people use CRMs or customer relationship management tools. Like it's basically a database. Some people do it online. People onboard clients online. So, like, when you're signing up to an email list that's onboarding a client. When somebody buys something from your website and they put their address in, they put in their preferred delivery date and type of delivery. That's all onboarding a client. And every single step is ultimately needed. And it's down to you how you use that information. But I'll be really honest with you, Esther, I didn't do a formal onboarding process until 2020.
Esther
And what changed?
Melanie
Well, aside from the obvious, I think it was because of the sheer workload previously, I had like a steady stream and I had time to manipulate the information, get further information. But because I started getting busier and busier and busier, I needed to find ways to streamline this and I needed to start looking at getting a virtual assistant to come in and help me. And so then I had to kind of look more objectively at what I was doing because I knew where to find the information, but my VA didn't.
Esther
Yeah, that's true. And it's true. Even if you're only going to be a oneman band and a single solo entrepreneur, you still need some sort of way to keep track of everything. What did that person want me to work on, what did that person pay me to work on?
Melanie
And then more importantly, if they come.
Esther
Back and say, oh, can you also do this? Is this also included in what we talked about? Then you're not sitting there scratching your head, you're going, actually, that's extra, or actually, yes, that is included. So you have to have all these things. It is a good way to. Like. We use CRMs like HubSpot and things like that. Because on things like that. You can actually put in how much a customer brings in. How much they're worth. What they're in monetary terms. And how much it costs you to acquire them. And how much it costs you to run their account in terms of software and things like that that you'd be using. Obviously depending on your business. Depends on what information you need to input into these things. But I personally much prefer having an online or, you know, digital CRM than a paper based one for many reasons.
Melanie
Well, one of them is sustainability.
Esther
Yes, that and if you saw the state of my office I just moved.
Melanie
How could it be in a metal residence?
Esther
Because I've just moved everything's everywhere, but I know where all the little tiny bits of paper are. But if I were to send somebody else to find the bit of paper for that client, they wouldn't be able to find it. So having it online also means that you can share it with your team if you're growing, and also means that everybody is on the same page with what information they're asking for. If you hire a sales manager.
Melanie
I query that a little, because I do get officey people contact me through online and then I also get people who call me by phone and I actually find I can help people with more things by speaking to them, because, unwittingly, normally, the first sentence they come out with is their full pain point. And I've just set up a business, I'm in the process of sorting out my website and I know I've got to get my social media sorted out. And in that sentence, I know immediately I can pass on your details to them. Whereas when they go to your website, all they see are the options that you offer. Yeah, and that's if you remember to.
Esther
Offer it, or if you remember to update your website.
Melanie
And then some people look a bit overwhelmed with the amount of information that you've taken down, where I heard of them and they want to know this and I want to know that. Whereas when people are unwittingly taking a telephone conversation, I find they're giving me a huge amount of data that I can work with.
Esther
Yeah, no, it is like you said, depending on where they come in, I.
Melanie
Suppose I could have the onboarding form electronically open in front of me whilst I'm taking a phone call and I can fill in the gaps myself.
Esther
You could, because otherwise you're noting it down a pen and paper and then the next call comes in and the next one, you don't get time to put it into the system.
Melanie
But it really is important to have one, I think, because you find out birthdays, you find out they're the general secretary of the local football club and you're finding out all this other information where you could possibly especially as digital marketers. And let's face it, that's why everybody's here listening. We can find other ways of helping people.
Esther
Yes, and referring car selling and referring to other people that you collaborate with.
Melanie
Exactly.
Esther
But, yeah, it is one of those things that a lot of people probably don't realise that they need to improve. They just think, oh, well, I made a sale, that's great, I have this client now, but now what do I do? In our case, because there's a number of people that work for us, we have to have a system in place that we let other people know this new client has come in, please send an invoice with these information, please, you know, set up their board on Trello, Asana, Infinity, whichever system that you use so that all this information goes in there. Let the editor and the content creator know that this is the field that they work in and to investigate for these areas that they want. Other times, it's just go and make an image for the header of my Facebook page that doesn't require as much onboarding as doing a full website rebrand.
Melanie
So far we talked about services. What do we need to collect for a product based business, do you think?
Esther
Well, if it's a physical product, but technically digital, you know what I mean? If they can download it on their end, then just an email address and a name. Some people just go with first names. But funny, we were talking with a client the other day about this and said, you know, a lot of people are now just going with first names, Cesius, but in my country, Maria is a very popular name, so everybody would be called Maria on the list. So I prefer to have first and second name. So culturally, you might have to look at that aspect of it, but definitely name, email address, and that could be it.
Melanie
Or maybe for the initial. Yeah, for first contact, I think there has to be a baseline basics, but then it depends on who your revenue stream is it B to B or is it B to C? If it's B to B, will you need to know a purchase order number.
Esther
Let'S say, or their VAT number?
Melanie
VAT number, yeah.
Esther
Yeah. Do you need to know if they are the person, if that's the email address that you have to send the invoice to? If it's a different one, do they.
Melanie
Want it emailed to them directly or do you have to download it? Because I have to do that for one agency I work with. They don't want invoices sent through my bullet system, so I need to download it and send it to them via my own private, my own business email. So just the way that their system blocks my bullet system, knowing this sort of information from the get go. Otherwise it could be a month and you've sent out all these invoices and then it comes to the end of the month and nothing's happened.
Esther
Yeah. It could also be that they only pay invoices every 40 days or two months, 90 days. It's a government agency. It could be 90 days, it will.
Melanie
Be a lot more.
Esther
Yeah. So you have to figure all this out, get as much information as possible from the person, but don't be afraid to go back and ask. There's times that we've emailed the person saying, here's the invoice, and they come back to us and say, oh no, it should actually go to such and such a person. Or they'd come back and said, could you actually print that off, post it in an envelope to the address, because we prefer to have or the finance department is in a totally separate building, and they know nothing.
Melanie
Had that before as well. Yeah. And there's so many different things we need to know when we're all onboarding someone. And the assumption is that, well, knowing all this is useful, but what happens if you're off sick? What happens if you want a day off?
Esther
What's?
Melanie
That nice, but it's always handy to have this information available somewhere. Now, obviously, you still need to be security conscious. You still need to have two factor authentication and that sort of stuff. But it's important that you get into a habit of creating this information, because one of the first things I found really, really important is, how did you hear of me? How did you find me? Was it google Search? Was it a social media post? Was it me speaking at an event? And you find out over time because you've asked your audience what has worked for you? Such a basic question.
Esther
Yeah. Yeah. And another one that maybe a month down the line, you could start asking them for reviews. If you don't have this in your head or in an automated system that will remind you, remember to ask for a review, then time could go by and you forget, and then you're off boarding them at the end of the contract, and you never get the review, you know? So, yes, having it written down somewhere feasible, somewhere that is accessible to other people and not just in your head, is a good plan to start with. So you can go and find out more about onboarding at Melanie's blog, stump. Ie. And you can look for why Melbourne beverly called.
Melanie
Why your business needs an onboarding form.
Esther
There you go. That's exactly what it says on the tin. That's it for today, guys. We'll be back next week with Monday morning marketing. Until then, bye bye.
Melanie
Bye, guys. I remember that time. Keep ghosting, people, please.