9. New Client Onboarding Best Practices for 2022 (Bookkeeping, Accounting, CFO)

And what I've learned is that the delivery of that aha moment is such a critical point in a relationship with a client. And what I mean by aha moment, the aha moment is that point where they say, yes, I knew that working with you was the right thing to do. I knew it when I signed my name on the bottom line. But because getting that aha moment is so important, you've got to be really deliberate about finding it and delivering it as soon as possible. And I found, hands down, the best way to do that is to just work that right into your onboarding process.

Hey, numbers nerds, My name is Michael King and welcome back to the Connected Accountant. If nailing the sales call is the most important time in really establishing the trajectory of how a client relationship is going to go, then I would say the very close, second most important time in determining the trajectory of a client relationship is during the onboarding process. A good onboarding process can really set the stage in the energy and the expectations for a long lasting client relationship. Or it can really just kind of get things off on the wrong foot. And honestly, when onboarding goes poorly, normally it's not a long, great relationship. Normally it's full of a lot of meh. So today what I want to do is share with you my five best practices about creating a world class audio onboarding experience. So let's go ahead and dive in. I think the first step in delivering that great onboarding experience comes as soon as the sales call is over. I mean, as soon as they sign on the dotted line, I want you to be reaching out to them with an email that's covering next steps with a video. And let me dive into that just a little bit. Client signs the contract. You have either a templated or a semi templated email, right? Or like a semi customized email that you immediately send that starts to line out exactly what they can expect to happen next. So a lot of excitement. I'm so excited to be working with you. I'm going to send over this document with this information request. I need you to send me this and I need it by this date. And I think what's really important in here is that you use this as an opportunity to set and manage expectations. This should be really a recurring theme for you. As a bookkeeper, an accountant, or fractional cfo. I can tell you that you will live or die by how well you set and manage expectations. So right there in that first email, I want you to line out, what are the next steps? What do you need from Them, when do you need it from them by? And also, what can they expect from you and when should they expect it by? Notice what and when through all of those so important they. Now, I also mentioned that you should do a video. Now, the video is completely optional. You don't have to do it. But what I found that a onboarding video can do is really elevate the perceived value of your brand. It just, it feels good, especially if you do a personalized video. And it doesn't have to be anything with massive production quality and a fancy camera and lights. You can just do it with your iPhone. And it can be something as simple as, hey, Sarah, I'm so excited to be working with you as your new accountant. And what I wanted to share with you is that you're going to be getting an email from my team here in the next hour or so. And in that email is going to lay out the calendar of what the process is going to look like when we work together. It's going to have a list of some information that I need from you, and it's also going to let you know what order I need that information and when I need it by. So, once again, Sarah, I'm so excited to be working with you. I can't wait to see you on our kickoff call. That should happen sometime in the next two weeks, right? It doesn't have to be anything more complicated than that. But that video really just adds a level of professionalism and level of you give a poo about them as a client. The next part of a great onboarding process is when you send what I call an information request list. So that's gonna be access to QuickBooks, previous year's tax returns. It might be LastPass or banking credentials or bank statements. You're gonna have this whole list of things that you need from them. Whether you're doing bookkeeping, accounting, CFO work, it can be overwhelming for your clients. And so what I want you to do during the onboarding process is I want you to prioritize the information that you need from them. Okay. I found that when you tell them, hey, these are the three things that I need right away. If you get stuck on any of these, give me a call. But here's some other things that they're nice to have. And so if you don't have access to them right away, if you're confused about where to find them, then that's okay. We can cover that during our onboarding call. What happens when clients get overwhelmed is they'll get frustrated they'll look and they'll be like, QuickBooks access. I don't know how in the world to give you QuickBooks access. And they'll just bounce, right? And so then you're like, hey, I need the rest of this stuff. And they just won't do it anymore. So give them a really clear priority list of what they need and when you need it by. That kind of goes closely with this next point, and that's identify sticking points. And the one that I love to talk about there is QuickBooks access. And so a lot of clients, they don't know how to give you accountant access to their books. And so if you see a lot of people getting hung up, for example, on granting accountant access to QuickBooks, what we decided to do is QuickBooks has a great video, a walkthrough video on how to grant that access. So during the onboarding email, I just stick that link right in there and I'll say, hey, one of the first things that we've got to get is access to your QuickBooks so that we can start doing our numbers nerds wizardry. If you don't know how to grant us that access, here's an easy to follow how to video for you. And what that does is it prevents or reduces the amount of back and forth that you have to go. And it just makes for a faster, more seamless onboarding process. And again, when you're anticipating their needs, it just gives them this sense that you are an expert and this isn't your first rodeo. It creates such a more pleasant experience for everybody. The next one is really, really big. Find the aha moment. And what I mean by the aha moment is I'm sure you've worked with somebody in the past. I mean, it might have been a plumber, somebody that did flooring for you. You might have bought a car from somebody. It might have been a coach that you worked with, but you've worked with somebody when you had that moment of clarity in that relationship where you were like, yes, this is why I decided to work with you. I knew you were awesome. And this just proved it for me. I'm so glad we're working together. You want to deliver that aha moment for your client as soon as possible. The quicker that you can deliver them that value that gives them the aha moment, the less likely they are to be thinking about, oh, gosh, did I really make the right decision by working with Bill? I don't know if Bill's the right guy for me. Right. It's I just don't know. So the faster you can do that, the better. And what I found to be a best practice is work that AHA discovery into your onboarding process. Here's an example. Let's say that you're doing bookkeeping for coaches. I've learned from working with a lot of coaches that they get eaten alive by credit card processing fees. And so they might be paying, you know, 3.5% plus 20 cents a transaction, whatever it might be. And a lot of them don't realize that you could take ACH payments instead of credit card payments. And ACH payments are typically free or super, super low cost. And so if you're working with a coach that's charging 3, 4, $5,000 for coaching package, 3.5% adds up. And so if you've got it in your process to, say, evaluate potential cost savings from taking ACH payments, I mean, you could save your client 10, 20, $30,000 a year right out of the gate. And I'll tell you that if you've been working with a client for three weeks and you come to them with a $30,000 savings, that's going to deliver an aha moment like nothing else. But what you got to do is really be intentional about figuring out what those potential AHA moments are for your clients. What I've learned is because we're laser focused on the industries that we serve, most of them have those same four or five or six potential aha moments. So right there during our onboarding, internal onboarding checklist, we're like looking at like five or six things that we know is normally an opportunity for them. And then we hit them with it early and we hit them with it hard, and they absolutely love it. The last thing that I'll share with you around creating an awesome onboarding experience is so important. Process it out. When you try to do it by memory, it's going to be less efficient, it's going to be less effective. The client will feel that. I really want to encourage you, just, just take a couple minutes, process it out. What are the seven steps that you do every single time to onboard a client with excellence? It will pay dividends for you. Listen, if you're the type of bookkeeper, accountant, or fractional CFO that loves having a community around you to share ideas with best practices for onboarding, I'd like to encourage you to check out the connected accountant. We're a community of bookkeepers, accountants, and fractional CFOs that love supporting each other, sharing resources, bouncing ideas off of each other. Check us out@theconnectedaccountant.com in the meantime, I can't wait to see you right here next week, my friend. See you. See you then.