[VA Tips] How To Onboard Clients

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It's your virtual biz bestie, Romaine Brown Palmer coming to you with a quick tip for onboarding new clients.

First off - CONGRATULATIONS on securing a new client! That is awesome news and also congratulations on wanting to ensure you have a smooth onboarding with that client!

When it comes to improving your client experience, you can never have too much information as a virtual assistant, because things are changing every day as more systems are coming out to make life a virtual entrepreneur easier.

This week, I have an amazing download for you to help you make the most of that onboarding call but before I get to that, I like the share the structure I use for onboarding new clients.

Now my onboarding system will work for you assuming that:

1. You have done a great job in the discovery phase and you feel confident you know what the client needs from you as a service provider and

2. You have had your client complete a new client questionnaire that has gathered the basics about their business to fill in the gaps.

If you have that - then here are the next steps.

In the virtual support world, onboarding is broken down into 2 categories.

What They Need From You and What You Need From Them.

Examples of what they need from you are things like an agreement, your w9, your office hours, your planned days off, etc.

Examples of what you need from them are those agreements executed, the systems and processes they use, access to those systems, etc.

It's important to remember that your onboarding process begins from the minute your client says - Great! Let's do this.

So the workflow for onboarding a new client is:

1 - Sending them their proposal, service agreement to accept along with their first invoice to make their payment. I like to do this via my CRM 17hats because it makes the process seamless and simple. If this is something your CRM also provides, you want to invest the time to set this up for yourself.

2 - Once they have taken care of the above, sending them a welcome package that covers everything that they need from you to set you up as a vendor in their business. Your welcome letter to them should also include a link for them to book their onboarding call as well as a link to their new client questionnaire to complete in advance of the call.

3 - On your onboarding call - be prepared with an agenda to make the most of the call. The goal is for you as the administrator to take the lead on the call and that starts to build client confidence from the beginning. I recommend this as a screen share conference call so that everyone can be on the same page.

Be sure to have reviewed their new client questionnaire, if you are an agency, be sure to have their account manager on the call and that they have been provided with all the details you have on the client including their scope of work, the onboarding survey, their website, etc. so that they can do their own due diligence. As an agency, I also recommend having a pre-call with the account manager to review client expectations and prepare the AM for the client.

On the onboarding call - this is where my download comes in. The download I have provided is a Client Business DNA Sheet. This is your central place where you have everything documented that the client uses in their business.

Fill out as much as possible ahead of time and then on the call, you will work together to fill out the rest.

· Page one - is where you are going to fill out the information you have already gathered, such as the package they selected as well as the agreed scope of work.

· Page two - is where you outline all the systems they use in their business by category, system name and description of what the client uses it for in their business

· Page three - is where you will go over the recurring tasks in their business, broken down but what needs to be done daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually. This will help you build those out in the client project management system and avoid anything slipping. Be sure to add as much detail as possible, including what day and times these tasks need to be completed.

From them, you are on the road to making an impact on their business. Have the client show you around the systems in their business and end the call by setting 10, 30- and 60-days goals for you working together.

I hope this was helpful to you! Be sure to grab the download to support your seamless onboarding.

Until next time and Thanks for hanging with me!

Romaine

Looking for a mentor or coach to help you figure out building a virtual assistant business - go to www.RomaineBrownPalmer.com/freedomthinksessions to learn more about working one on one with me for systems and process training, business development support and niche-specific training on supporting coaches, events and speakers.