We live in a world of immediate gratification. Whether right or wrong, people don’t seem to have much patience anymore. Which is ironic because I believe that having patience and being committed to your business for the long-haul is where you will see the hard work pay off, but so many people quit early BECAUSE THEY LACK PATIENCE.
But I digress, because irregardless of if I think the world needs to adopt a mindset of more patience, Amazon Prime has effectively ruined this for all of us. People now expect things to be done quickly and with ease.
What does this mean for your business?
It means you need to have a smooth onboarding, program management and off boarding experience set up for your clients to make sure they have easy access to what they need, a positive experience inside your container and make sure that all of the processes tied with their experience from the first time they connect with you to the time they off board is quick and seamless.
What are you doing wrong?
You’re more than likely focusing your time, energy and effort on creating the offer, creating content for inside the offer or to promote the offer, and selling said offer - but little to no time on the “next steps”. Oftentimes I find clients are manually doing so many of these processes, and not efficiently I might add, leading to human error and mistakes along the way leading to unhappy clients. There’s a gap between the marketing of the program and the actual delivery.
How do you fix this?
Make sure you have sound onboarding processes in place. Things to think about: once someone purchases your offer, what’s their next step? This should typically include some sort of welcome email that guides them through that process. Is it a link to book calls, a link to a slack or FB group, automatic enrollment / access to their course hub, information on start date, call times. etc. Then, when in the program, how are you checking in on clients? This obviously depends on what your offer is. If it’s 1:1 are you in the DMs with them or Voxer frequently? If it’s a group program, do you have a check-in form or support coaches? If it’s a course, are there emails that go out asking them about their progress and giving them a space to ask any questions? When they’re ready to be offboarded as their time comes to a close, are you upselling them to another offer of yours or asking them to “resign” with you? Do you ask for feedback and/or recommendations? Do you have automations in place to alert you or them regarding their time left in the container? Is there any sort of celebration for their work? These are all super important things to have in place to make sure your client experience is seamless from start to finish.
Your goal should be to remove the “thinking” or “decision making” from your client’s plate. Make it so easy for them to engage with you and get the info they need in order to get the most out of your work together. Because too many times, I walk into a business where the client has an amazing offer, but their clients are “lost” along the way because they don’t have access to what they need, don’t know about the things they get access to, and there’s not a clear path laid out for them for next steps.
This is ultimately costing you revenue. If you serve your clients well and give them a clear path to continue working with you, they will naturally follow suit (assuming they like you and had a good experience inside your offer).
In short, people like to be guided on what to do next - but they want it to feel like a natural, easy solution. If you can provide a smooth experience and deliver on what you say you’re going to deliver on, I can promise you that your client retention rates will skyrocket and you’ll not only build a business of long-term clients, but this will cause a ripple effect of referrals they send your way too.
In order to do this, you need to:
Create the strategy for how you want to funnel clients in your biz
Define the steps in each process for onboarding, during program and offboarding
Put the right systems in place to support you (automations and any needed manual check points)
I work with my clients to smooth out these processes to ensure all of their clients have a positive experience working with them all around. Because you could be the best coach or service provider, but if your client experience is meh, your clients will go find someone else. If you need support in creating the most kickass client experience, let’s chat. I’d love to support you and your clients in generating that recurring income and keeping clients in your funnel for the long haul.
Katelyn Hamilton is an Online Business Manager and Get Your Sh!t Together Strategist. She helps busy entrepreneurs organize, strategize and prioritize their business to go from overwhelmed to out-in-front.
After spending 6 years in the corporate world working with multimillion dollar companies, top-rated chefs and celebrities, she launched her own business to find more flexibility and freedom. She matched her corporate salary in just one year of starting her business.
Katelyn is also a wife, stepmom, dog mama of three furry friends, fitness lover, sports fanatic (Go Dawgs) and dreams of living at the beach.
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