Prospecting and winning new customers are not simple or cheap tasks. In addition to the effort of the manager or commercial team, there are other costs that can be lost in the process if the customer gives up on the service in the first few months.
In this scenario, customer onboarding (CO) is critical.
During negotiations, customers create expectations that they expect to be met right away and, in other situations, inexperience with outsourcing these services can generate insecurity for contractors that will prevent them from realizing their true differentials.
Customer onboarding works precisely at this delicate and essential moment for the customer to be successful with the contracted services and, in this post, we will explain its operation and the benefits that the company can obtain by adopting it. Follow up!
Customer onboarding operation
The creation of a customer onboarding must be customized according to the services that the company provides and, of course, the needs of its customers.
It must be understood as a differentiator of your business and also a tool to ensure better results and cost reduction.
Definition of responsible
One of the first steps in implementing the CO is to determine who will be responsible for playing this role. In large companies, it is possible to have a team dedicated to this stage.
However, smaller companies can train their employees to perform this role, which can be even more satisfying considering that future relationships will also be managed by them.
Process development and follow-ups
Next, you need to determine how customer onboarding will work.
When will he contact the client, and what tools, processes, and follow-ups should he develop to ensure that the client’s first months are satisfactory?
Choosing success indicators
To analyze whether the CO is achieving its goals, it is necessary to define indicators that measure its success.
The number of cancellations in the first few months, for example, is a great metric to indicate if it is performing well.
Business benefits
Ensuring that the customer receives everything that was offered during the negotiation is essential for him to generate revenue and even referrals to third parties.
But these are not the only benefits that can be realized with the use of Customer Onboarding. Check out some more below!
Increased Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
The CLV is a very important indicator for service providers and, although it is not formally monitored, it provides crucial information for the financial results of the business.
When client prospects, several costs — including the time of the professional who was in contact with him — are spent to close the deal, and, in order for them to be compensated, the deal needs to be extended as long as possible.
If it is canceled before paying off the investment, the company suffers a loss, but the longer its contractual period is extended, the greater the profit margin achieved.
Promoting customer autonomy
The first interactions with the service provided are also worth learning.
Customers can understand the processes and dynamics if they are supervised by someone able to answer their questions.
Once this experience is internalized, in the following demands he will be able to trigger the services and respond more easily and without the help of third parties.
In addition, in this initial follow-up process, the customer onboarding can also identify the main difficulties and elements that need to be adjusted to the reality of the customer who needs guidance and even training.
By carrying out this survey, the CO can suggest preventive actions such as support materials and other content that favor the customer experience and eliminate the recurrence of calls for less complex services.
Expectations alignment
When hiring a service, the customer has expectations to solve their current demands, but also to progress in their own market.
With customer onboarding, this information can be collected and aligned with the service they actually hired. This is very important, especially when a service provider offers different packages of solutions.
A third-party IT company, for example, can offer emergency and preventive support in addition to infrastructure management. If the client contracts only part of these services, he must understand their contractual limits and not demand anything beyond what has been negotiated as an obligation.
With onboarding tracking, these limits can be better understood and possible migration to the full package can also be advised in the future.
Customer drive for success
By meeting their initial needs and doubts, customer onboarding guides the customer towards success, that is, meeting all their needs and, of course, advancing their situation.
A company that hires an IT outsourced to manage its technological infrastructure not only wants its equipment to be up and running but also wants its performance to provide market competitiveness and the possibility of progress, right?
As a natural consequence, the satisfactory result also becomes a success story that serves as an advertisement for new customer prospects.
Service improvement and customization
The CO also allows the company to further customize its services according to the needs of each of its customers. This is because one of the most fundamental roles is to follow the evolution of the first experiences and identify points that can be improved.
It is also in this monitoring that new needs assessments can be made for future contractual upgrade proposals. This ensures that, in addition to the extension, the business with the client also increases in terms of contracted values.
Relationship strengthening
The relationship with the customer is fundamental, especially in the provision of services. This approach and follow-up from the first interactions that the CO proposes guarantees a stronger commercial link that can be translated into loyalty.
A loyal and satisfied customer does not close the business for any failure or delay and, even if the company tries to avoid them, eventualities can happen and it is reassuring not to see your business at risk because of them.
Customer onboarding needs, at all times, to record information that may be relevant to the continuity of service provision. Therefore, the person responsible for it must master both the information about the customer’s reality and the solutions it sells.
In this sense, a service management system is essential, isn’t it? Customers will have valuable historical records for future troubleshooting.
So, did you like the content of the post? Do you want to know other essential solutions for the success of customer onboarding and adjacent services? Then check out the 5 essential IT management tools for your business!
Has your company or the clients you accompany ever experienced a problem with the lack of clarity and reconciliation between the Help Desk and the Service Desk? Share your experience in the comments, telling what the solution was adopted and its results.
