The first part of developing your onboarding process is to think about how you want to make your clients feel when they are going through your welcome sequence. With my welcome sequence, I want my clients to have a clear understanding of my business policies, gain excitement to work with me and get inspired to gain clarity and organization is their business.
Below are 9 suggested steps to an onboarding process that is clear, easy to follow and not overwhelming with too much information at once. The 9 steps include:
1) Welcome Video
A short welcome video is a great way to say hello in a quick, efficient manner, and to get face to face contact with you. This is especially helpful if you’ve only ever talked on the phone or communicated via email thus far in your relationship. It doesn’t have to take much. If you are just getting started, you can do a simple recording using your phone or laptop webcam and YouTube. This will not produce the best quality video but as you get more experience in your business, you can update your video with better equipment. Be sure to invest in a ring light at some point if videos are something you want to continually showcase in your business. A simple ring light can make a huge difference in your video quality.
This welcome video should simply state who you are, what your overall goals are to help your clients achieve their goals and the next steps they can look forward to hearing from you.
2) Welcome Email
The Welcome Email is a reiteration of your Welcome Video. Utilizing many ways of communication is the first step to building a thriving client relationship. Some people do not retain information well by watching a video alone (me!) and require written information. Plus, it’s another wonderful way for clients to understand your writing style. Are you straight to business or do you add inspiring quotes? It’s up to you how you want your welcome email to be – just remember how you want your client to feel when they read the email. And if you need help crafting a well thought out and aesthetically pleasing email, I’m here to help. The next part of the welcome sequence can be the differentiator between you and every other health coach.
3) Welcome Gift
The third part of your welcome sequence can include a welcome gift. This is such a special part of your sequence and should not be overlooked. It’s doesn’t have to be very expensive but it should have your logo, be useful and well thought out. You could send the same item to all of your clients (who doesn’t love a new water bottle?) or you can customize your gift based on your client’s preferences. Perhaps a recommended book specific to what you will help your client with, a logbook to help with food and water intake tracking, a wall or desk calendar, or just a blank journal for them to do whatever they might want. After the welcome sequence is complete, your client will be so excited to work with you, they’ll want to know how to best get in touch with you!
4) How to reach you
This part of the sequence is about establishing and communicating the best way for your client to reach you. This should be explicit in stating that you prefer ___ method of contact. That way, it’s clear to your client. Obviously, if you don’t mind any form of contact, then let them know that as well – just make sure you are true to what you say. If you are not great at checking your emails throughout the day, then put that as your least preferred method of contact (or tell them the time every day you check your emails). If you would prefer to text over a phone call, let them know that too! In this section, you should also include “hours of business”. It’s especially important to draw some boundaries with your clients in the onboarding process so that both of you do not get frustrated or angry with each other. Depending on how you found your client/your client found you, you may want to omit or combine the next email in the sequence with this one since it’s about social media and following.
5) Like/Follow on Social Media
If you client found you on social media, you might to modify this email to be in the same one as the “How to Reach You” email. It’s up to you but this one is important, because even if they did find you on one platform, there could be another platform they are not following you on and are missing out on valuable information. Be sure to include information if you do regular updates. For example, if you always post a Monday weekly Instastory – then tell them that! They would have something to look forward to instead of just stumbling upon it.
6) Invite to Facebook Group
How you run and operate your Facebook Group is completely up to you. You may have one group for everyone – cold leads, warm leads and clients OR you could make two groups – one for leads, and current and past clients and then another one specifically for people who are your current client. Of course, the private group for your current clients should not have the same posts and information. It should be more a more intimate space for people to connect with you and with each other. It goes without saying that you should not include this email if you do not have any Facebook Groups at all but if you don’t, what are you waiting for?!
7) Schedule a meeting/call
This next email is an important one – with information in it for your client to schedule their meeting or call with you. This should be your onboarding call where you will both agree on the objectives and goals of your relationship and your client’s health. It’s important that you come up with S.M.A.R.T. Goals on the call that your client has determined themselves. On this call, you may also want to give an overview of any software or apps that you use to run your business and any course log in information. You will want to gather more information from the client but this phone call may not be the best time to do that. On this call, you can let your client know what the next steps will be – to expect the “Getting To Know You Form”.
8) Client Intake Form
The Client Intake Form or “Getting To Know You Form” is a great way for you to be able to get to know a little more personal information about your client and better understand their lifestyle. Some questions you may want to include are: Which areas of life do you want to improve (Fitness, Nutrition, Mental and/or Spiritual)?, What do you want to get most from this coaching relationship?, Have you had other coaches in the past? If so, why didn’t they work out?, Are there any tips you can give me to coach you?, Why is it important for you to make healthy changes?, What has prevented you from achieving your goals in the past?, How committed are you to making healthy changes?. The list goes on but you do not want your intake form to take them 20 minutes to fill out. The more clients you get, the better idea you will have of the information you will need to build a successful coaching relationship which will enable you to keep your intake form shorter and more concise. On this form you should also still find the time to give them a little motivation – you may want mention a few things that you require of them: dedication, determination, and patience throughout their journey. Finally, the last step in the on-boarding process will sum up all of the previous steps in one concise email.
9) The All-In-One E-mail
This email is the last piece of the on-boarding and should be an accumulation of all of the previous emails’ information. It’s the All-In-One-Place email of links to the Facebook Group(s), Meeting/Call Scheduler link, App and Course login and information and contact information with social follow links. The reason why this is not the very first email we send is that it could bombard people with too much information all at once. This e-mail sequence allows you to set up a drip campaign to your client and feed them information over the course of a few days or week.
Conclusion
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