By Srikrishnan Ganesan
“Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.” — Sydney J Harris
You could apply that sentiment to life and business. Businesses are as good an area of life as any if you want to study the various ways things can take a turn for the better or for worse.
Let’s hone in on one aspect that screams change in big, bold neon letters: customer onboarding! If you sell a product or solution, you’re familiar with how the sales teams chase prospects with laser focus: cold emails, follow-ups, catch-ups, decks customized to address the prospect’s needs, etc. They risk becoming meme material if that means they can pull in more customers for your product. They’re proactive, they have monthly and quarterly targets to hit.
But what happens once the deal is sealed? Everyone’s euphoric, with good reason: months of chasing, uncertainty, and accelerated heartbeat have led to a great new customer getting added to your list. Woohoo! Post sale, usually, the intensity drops—your team would understandably want to soak in the sense of relief that follows. After the contract is signed, everything becomes a reactive process for the vendor’s teams.
Onboarding shouldn’t be a reactive process
Your onboarding team needs to enable your customers to get up and running with your product. They reach out to the customer to find out their availability so they can set up a time with them for the kickoff, to walk them through the plan, and get them started with using your product. After that, the ball is seen as being in the customer’s court; the onboarding team just waits for their response, they’re probably onboarding other customers too. They aren’t really chasing this new customer to respond.
The customer also has multiple priorities in their organization, and may not send timely responses to your onboarding team’s bids for connection. There is also an inertia when it comes to initiating change or taking on something new. In Sydney’s words, they really want things to remain the same but get better: they have little motivation to be the proactive party in this equation. So one moment you’ve kicked off their six-week onboarding and the next thing you know the onboarding has lasted two months and you are nowhere close to getting them to go-live! Customers will count the post-sale experience as part of their overall experience with you, and any delays will be seen as negative.
The fact that you have a new customer to onboard means the sales team has done a good job of letting the customer know that they are reliable and trustworthy. If you want your customer to stick with you, you need to keep proving you are a trustworthy and reliable partner.
So what can the customer onboarding team do to reassure them of their choice? Do as the sales team does: bring intensity to the game. Here’s how.
Start early
Get your sales team to introduce the onboarding team right before the contract is signed. The objective is to show your customer that you aren’t going to take things easy after they’ve chosen you. Humans love certainty; help your customers by letting them know what they’re in for.
Show them what the post-sales journey will look like. Your onboarding team should walk into this meeting with a clearly-defined plan in place, complete with timelines and milestones. Bonus points if they are able to call out quick wins that the customer can experience during their onboarding journey; this means they have learned the customer’s requirements and the problems they are trying to solve.
Another great idea, which I credit Star Hofer with, is equipping the sales team with a ‘Readiness Kit’ that will help them walk customers through what they need to do in order to prepare for their onboarding journey: data, tools, time, effort, etc.
Kickoff on the right note
Use the kickoff meeting to set the expectations for your customer as well as the onboarding team. Start by understanding how much of a priority it is for them to get onboarded with you. Understand where you stand with them. Use the kickoff to emphasize the importance of them getting onboarded, should they not see it as a priority.
You need to bring the right people to the kickoff call. Ensure the executive sponsor at the customer’s organization is present, and the customer champion. Reiterate to your customer why they bought your product. You can have their executive articulate their status quo and what they would miss out on if they don’t go live with your product. Impress upon them that they needed your product yesterday.
Walk them through everything that needs to be done. Outline a tight plan, specify the duration of the onboarding (x weeks), outline a communication plan, and get their permission to chase the customer’s team in case of delays and unaddressed dependencies.
Help your customers stay accountable
It’s not unusual for the customer’s team to lose motivation post-kickoff. They tend to have multiple priorities and push the onboarding piece later by weeks. Any dependencies you may have on them remain incomplete until they choose to get around to it.
Help them with some external motivation by giving them a strong reason to stick to the timelines your team outlined during kickoff. For example, you can tell them that you charge for onboarding services after a specific time period post-sales has passed.
Your team can also lead by example: get your team to stick to deadlines, send out meeting minutes within an hour after every meeting with the customer, and send status updates on time and at agreed intervals. Call out dependencies and blocks ahead of time, and follow up for responses. You have the license to chase, after all.
When your customers witness your intensity and the professional experience you deliver, they will take note. Your push to get them to hit their goals and get to value will inspire them to become accountable and reliable too.
The onboarding phase is the first partnership that your customers experience with you. When you make it one where they are able to witness your professionalism and how you keep things on track, they know you can get them to value and their trust in you as a partner increases multifold.
The Success League is a customer success consulting firm that offers an online certification program for CS Leaders which includes classes such as Onboarding New CS Professionals and Change Management. Please visit TheSuccessLeague.io for information on classes and our other offerings.
Srikrishnan Ganesan - Sri is a co-founder of the leading Customer Onboarding Platform, Rocketlane and the #1 customer onboarding community, Preflight. He is passionate about all things CX and start-ups.
Sri has spent his last decade building and scaling SaaS businesses. His last start-up was acquired by Freshworks (NASDAQ:FRSH) in 2015.