HoneyBook: Client Onboarding and Kicking Off Projects

So you’re ready to onboard your first client? Congratulations! As an independent business owner, each client is a cause for celebration and a doorway to offering your noteworthy services.

As grateful as you may feel for your clients, have you ever considered that your client onboarding process is as much a part of your branding as any other aspect of your business? Well, it is.

By using HoneyBook to create an amazing client onboarding flow, you’ll fulfill both your own and your client’s dreams from first contact. If you’re ready to learn more, read on!

what does client onboarding involve?

Client onboarding is the process of finalizing the payment and terms of the services you will perform for your client while giving the client any needed materials to start the service process.

Although client onboarding looks different for every business, it typically involves some sort of personal communication to welcome the client; a contract or proposal for both parties to sign; and documents that clarify deadlines, provide contact information, outline expectations, and provide answers to any anticipated questions. Some business owners create a “welcome packet” as a way to deliver these components while others provide them more casually through a string of conversations or emails.

It doesn’t take much to realize that the client onboarding process involves many moving parts and requires clear communication. Oftentimes, it also engages many different applications and services. During my years in the real estate industry, my client onboarding flow utilized many platforms including email, in-person visits, printed brochures, and editable documents. I created a carefully outlined onboarding and project workflow in Evernote and used Evernote to house draft templates for various email scenarios. While my system was thorough, adaptable, and something I was proud of, it was also time-consuming and carried a large margin for error. I had to populate the same information fields across documents, which often involved reformatting graphics and typing large numbers. This meant that I had to spend extra time double and even triple-checking each form for accuracy. Even though my clients appreciated the efforts I took with my materials, they too had to open multiple applications to access all the components. Even if my system worked well on the front end, it was not the most efficient.

Thankfully, HoneyBook removes most of these difficulties by allowing business owners to create smooth, seamless packages that enhance, rather than encumber, the client experience.

How HoneyBook improves client onboarding

The best-known perk of HoneyBook is that it provides a one-stop shop for business communications and operations. Gone is the need to use multiple platforms for client onboarding. With HoneyBook, business owners can integrate whatever applications and systems they need for their industry in a way that allows them to interact, engage with, and complete projects for their clients from one interface.

While this feature is useful for all business milestones, it is particularly important for client onboarding because that is the moment in the business process where first impressions and a working relationship are cemented. With the right workflow in place, you can set up a client onboarding workflow that allows for a painless, seamless, and streamlined experience.

Here are some templates that HoneyBook can help you develop for onboarding:

• Meeting schedule calendar
• Questionnaires
• FAQ documents
• Information documents
• Contracts and proposals
• Invoices
• Video walkthroughs
• Brand logo and signatures
• Client CRM

Although HoneyBook provides helpful resources to get you started (including this Onboarding checklist ), it does not create your onboarding workflow for you. This is actually in your favor in that it allows you to make a system that is highly personal for your brand and clients. Setting up an onboarding process that meets the particular requirements and needs of your industry and clients establishes personal trust and better fits with your own workflow. Setting up your system will certainly require an initial time investment; however, the results will be worth it. Creating a memorable, pleasant onboarding experience will distinguish you from the next guy offering a similar service and, if done properly, will save you hours of time later on. A clear onboarding process can answer questions and communication inquiries up front, which will also boost your clients’ confidence.

Considerations for client onboarding flow

So, how should you go about creating the client onboarding flow of your and your client’s dreams? A good rule of thumb is to think like your target client. Take some time to think through your industry, common scenarios, questions, and service options that you have encountered in the past. Set up your systems in a way that would be the most intuitive for your client, and then use HoneyBook to seamlessly integrate that workflow to your own so that you benefit too.

As you go about this process, here are some things to keep in mind:

Before creating your welcome packet and/or onboarding system, consider polling past and existing clients to learn what they would like to see and would find helpful. You may be surprised at the level of insight someone who is entering your industry with fresh eyes can give you.

• Consider your client’s emotions in the process. How do clients typically feel when onboarding with you (excited, bored, scared)? Adjust your onboarding workflow to specifically meet these emotions.

• Think about what your clients need at each step in the process, including the questions that they tend to ask along the way. What resources, templates, and informational content could you provide to them at various steps to ease their experience?

• What expectations do you need to set for your client about work deadlines, communication, making service order changes, and making or renewing payments? Make sure these are communicated in a clear, winsome way.

• Think through your own personal workflow. What parts of onboarding can and should be automated? Will you want to approve all documents before they go out to clients? What degree of personalization do you desire to give each particular client? Will you need any reminders for yourself as you go along? Implement all of these into HoneyBook.

• Yes, you need to handle the logistics; but how can you also make your client feel welcome in the process? Depending on your brand, a warm welcome letter, funny meme, or online gift card can go a long way. Whatever you do to establish yourself and your brand, make it clear. Make it count. Make it you.

• Whenever you can, combine content and intake queries. For example, could you provide your service options on the same form where you collect their personal and financial information? If so, HoneyBook could also provide the service option questionnaire at this same point in the process (rather than requiring your client to fill out a second query at a later time). Or maybe you could find ways to include helpful FAQ content in your onboarding document. Your goal is to get whatever you need from your client in a way that creates the least amount of hassle for them and for you.

• Take extra pains to ensure that your contract is written for your line of work. Some industries come with requirements and processes that are bound by law. Make sure you do your research or even invest in purchasing a contract template for your industry. The more kinks you can think through in advance, the less you’ll need to troubleshoot later.

• If you use email communication, have HoneyBook attach forms and templates to that email. In this way, you can avoid attaching the template each time.

• Adjust as you go. If you realize within a few months that you can improve your onboarding system, don’t be afraid to make those changes!

Whatever you chose to do, make sure that your clients can enter the onboarding processes as soon as possible. Immediacy boosts client confidence and makes them feel lucky that they chose to work with you. Everything you do throughout the working relationship, and especially at the outset, will reflect back into the client experience.

Kicking off projects

After onboarding, you get to start doing what you do best: working on your client’s actual project. While kicking off projects may be a separate step for you as a business owner, it doesn’t need to be that way for your client. With HoneyBook’s streamlined workflow features, your client can experience your work relationship as a journey rather than as a series of business-related tasks.

Imagine that your client’s onboarding documents automatically generate the initial project steps and forms, with all necessary client contact information and other fields already filled out. You’ve created all that you need for your projects in advance so that materials, documents, and deliverables are automatically sent at each milestone, all while automated project reports (marked with your beautiful graphics and branding colors) are sent to your clients before they even feel the need to ask you for an update themselves. Talk about the “wow” factor!

With HoneyBook, projects can launch as soon as the last onboarding document is signed. Just as with onboarding, the entire client experience throughout the project can be exactly as you control and design it. Thanks to HoneyBook’s integration and automation features, project updates, new forms, and necessary emails can quickly reach your client even when you are out of the office.

Perhaps best of all, each of your clients can expect to receive an equal level of care and service no matter how many other projects you have, at what step in the process they are, or how you are feeling that day.

One thing to keep in mind when setting up HoneyBook is to choose project types that are right for your industry. This is especially important if your industry has specific legal standards or requirements. You also want to make sure you hit the right note between personalization and automatization. It can be easy to get caught up in HoneyBook’s workflow options and perks to the point that you forget why you purchased the program first place: to make the job happen. You do want your clients to benefit from HoneyBook and feel that they personally matter to you, but you also want to get them what they need as quickly and as efficiently as possible. In some cases, FAST is better than highly personalized. During the project phase, find some ways to insert a few, personal touches (good branding is key here), and then leave the rest to delivering what you promise.

As you let HoneyBook work for you both on the front end and behind the scenes, your clients will be glad to have chosen such a knowledgeable, efficient practitioner for their needs.

Final thoughts

How a customer engages with you is just as important as what you sell. By taking the time to set up an amazing HoneyBook system, you can design your onboarding process so that it reflects you!

With HoneyBook, you control the customer experience. How things feel becomes just as much a part of your brand as any logo, text font, or color scheme. And every client can have the same, wonderful experience from you time and time again.

If you find you need a little extra help in setting up a system that works for you, take a look at our free honeybook setup guide. If you don’t have HoneyBook yet, save 35% by signing up with our Affiliate link. Of course, if you get stuck or would rather spend your time doing other tasks for your business, Luneer Mgmt is happy to do the work and thinking for you. Don’t hesitate to set up a clarity call with Brandi if you’re interested in working together.

Once you get your new client onboarding system up and running, don’t be surprised if you get more referrals. People love talking about services they love and they will be looking for excuses to tell others about how great it is to work with you!

WRITTEN BY: KATIE BARNETT