Save Time and Reduce Errors as You Set up New Clients

Client onboarding is a critical task for any service company. Each client needs to be set up the right way in your internal systems, and needs access to key documents, contracts, and communication channels that will guide your engagement. 

But as important as onboarding is, most of the tasks that make it up are the kind of repetitive, robotic processes that are perfect for automating to save your team's valuable time and energy.

In this post, we’ll show you an example of the kind of onboarding automation that we build for our members at XRay to help smooth and expedite their onboarding process for clients. 

These automations ensure that onboarding tasks are accomplished cleanly, consistently and correctly every time as it creates and shares resources. 

Keep in mind that the automation we’ll describe in this post is just a sample of what an automated onboarding workflow can do; members can substitute any software tools they prefer and add additional actions to fit their workflows.

Let's get into it! 

How the automation works

In a nutshell, this automation will create internal and shared resources whenever you get a new client. 

The automation creates some shared Google Drive folders, sets up a Slack channel for day-to-day communication with the client, creates an Airtable base for your internal documentation and finally sends an email to your new client with a survey for them to complete and links to the docs that were just created.

This automation will make onboarding a more consistent and timely process and eliminate much of the manual repetitive work of onboarding, letting your team focus more time on high-touch interactions with their clients.

Here are the steps in Zapier that make up this automation.

Step 1. The initial trigger for this automation is when a lead is updated to “Closed/Won” in HubSpot (or the equivalent on another software tool such as Pipedrive or Sales Force) or an internal Airtable form is manually filled out. 

Step 2. The automation creates  a “Customer” folder in google drive.

Step 3. Inside that new customer folder, the automation creates a “Resources” folder... 

Step 4. ...and a “Project updates” folder. 

Step 5. The automation adds a Statement of Understanding to the “resources” folder by copying an existing file. You can use an automation like this to share templated docs that set expectations, or to share copies of signed contracts.

Step 6: Creates a new Slack channel with the client’s name.

Step 7: Creates a record inside of Airtable as an internal activity log. This is where you can track each action the automation performs and check on the files it creates.

Step 8: Sends an email to the new client to make them aware of their Google Drive link, and prompts them to  fill out a short survey. You can fully customize templated emails in Zapier with dynamic data and links to helpful resources. 

The Benefits of Automating Your Onboarding Workflow

Consistency

Folders will be created in the right place every time, channels are created uniformly, and you can trust that your onboarding process will be consistent and repeatable. 

This allows you to delegate this process to people on your team without needing to teach them the ins and outs of the process. The consistency that automations brings to the table allows you to trust your onboarding process every single time.  

Customer Preparedness  

New customers and clients will be better prepared for onboarding and their expectations will be set in a more consistent manner. They will better understand how to enable you as their service provider to do what you do best. 

Surveys allow you to get any information you need from your clients and paint a clearer picture of your future partnership. Setting client expectations can be vital, and there is not a better, more consistent way to do so. 

Progress Tracking

You will be able to consistently track your clients progress during the onboarding process and see at a glance if your client has filled out their surveys. 

Everyone has an onboarding checklist, and automating a large chunk of those items can give you a clear picture of where every client is on that timeline. Items will be automatically checked off the list, freeing your time so you can do the manual high-touch things that set you apart from other service providers. 

How to Get this Automation

If you want to integrate an automation like this into your workflows, an XRay membership may be a good fit for you. We could build the first version of an onboarding automation in the first 30 days of your membership, and then refine it and build additional workflows that meet your specific needs. 

If you want to know more about our services and methodology, visit XRay.Tech and reach out to us; we would be happy to talk with you!

You can also check out our blog or our YouTube channel, or follow XRay on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.