You might have heard that selling your product to a new customer is more expensive than selling it to an existing customer. Most of the business firms tend to neglect their existing customers with the false perspective that the customers will always prefer their products and come back to them. You are not just the only product or store. But if your loyal customers are still coming to you every time, it becomes your responsibility to retain customers and value them.
What is client on-boarding?
Client on-boarding is a process of bringing a new client to your business which in turn creates an opportunity to build a good relationship and start a project on the right foot.
Client onboarding is one of the most important functions for all the business because it will directly affect the client’s experience with the company which will affect the profit of the business. Do not make the mistake of assuming that the structure of your current customer will take care of the client onboarding process as it will lead to frustration of the client and they might cancel their account. Assuming that clients can solve the problem and can figure things out on their own might damage the relationship with the customer and will lead to a loss in the business. It is necessary to streamline the process of client onboarding so that customers will have all they need and you also don’t need to lose your business.
Let us discuss the importance of client on-boarding in our business :
Satisfied and happy clients
Client satisfaction (customer satisfaction) is one of the most important reasons behind the growth of the business. When you follow the correct directions and basic milestones, you can not fail to satisfy your valuable customers. And when your customers are happy about your product and services, they tend to buy from you everytime.
Increase in clients
Your loyal customers are the best marketing team your company can ever have. They can market your product much better than you can ever do. Your loyal customers don’t just buy products or services from you every time but they help you get four more customers for you.
Reduction in churn rate
Customer churn is the percentage of customers who stopped or denied using your product or services during a particular time period. But if you have a good client on-boarding process there will be a reduction in the churn rate in your business.
Increase in revenue and brand image
Once your business has an increase in the number of clients and number of satisfied clients, there is an automatic maximization in the revenue and brand image of your company simultaneously.
Benefits of Client onboarding
- Client centricity – The only sustainable way of growing your business is keeping your client at the center of your focus. This also implies not just about collecting the data and bearing inevitable administrative inconvenience but also understanding the needs of clients or customers. A digitalized workflow will allow the process to build around the users and their preferences.
- Instant gratification – A client will need an immediate response, feedback, and confirmation, onboarding will allow them to cut down the completion time. All the procedures are followed and also the validity is checked at the data entry.
- Simplicity – The information and the procedure involved is very easy to understand as well as easy to follow. This allows for better rearrangement, it is user friendly, interactive information and digital signatures.
- There is a new customer at the end of the process – The major advantage of client onboarding is the taken time and effort. Financial institutions actually get the chance to acquire new customers, by onboarding the customer and selling the products and services to the customers.
Read our blog – Why it makes sense for mid sized businesses to use CRM as a SaaS
Why maintain Customer Relationship?
- In a recent research it was stated that customers do not flip because of the change in the prices of the product once they have been a usual customer, but they flip to other products when they get a poor customer service. Thus, maintaining a good customer service becomes very important to retain your customers. When you make efforts to reach their expectations they will surely be satisfied and the chances of flipping to other products becomes less.
- The present vision of every business is to maintain a good relationship with their customers and satisfy them by reaching their expectations. As there is huge competition in the business world, every individual seeks for customer service.
- When you are successful in maintaining a good relationship with your customers, they will also end up maintaining an aspect of loyalty towards you. Which means they will repurchase your products every time.
- Retaining your present customers is more affordable as well as beneficial because all you need is these customers, in the long run.
- According to a research for about 13% of the clients will share their experience with at least 20 individuals. So, when you maintain a good relationship with your customers they, themselves will market your brand unknowingly.
- Lastly, customer satisfaction also leads to improve in your sales which therefore contributes to the increase of revenue and profit.
Read our blog – How Your CRM Helps You Align Your Sales & Marketing Strategy
Here are a few Online CRM practices to improve client on-boarding :
Follow up
When your clients first start using a new service or software they are bound to face a few questions and difficulty. So, follow up your clients on a regular basis and keep a check on the inconveniences (if any). When you put in efforts to make them feel comfortable it will create a bonding of trust between you and your client.
Know the present trend
As a service provider you must be familiar with the present trends and topics related to it. Intimate your clients about tips and tricks of your industry in order to make the user experience much smoother and better. Online articles, webinars are the best way to go about.
Do not just sell features, sell your success stories
You might have the best and latest features or your service may be the best of all, yet your customers are much interested in stories. Selling your success stories is a great way to generate trust and work performance in your clients. Create case studies about a few projects that you had, had before. And provide the information regarding the problem and how a solution was provided by your business concern. Make them understand the fact that your service or software can help them achieve their organisational goals at the end of all.
Talk to your churned client/ user
There will be clients who used your software or service but were not willing to continue using your service. Don’t you think you need to know why? Yes, you need to know why they stopped using your service or software. By doing so you will understand your client’s expectations and requirements. And these reasons will help you improve your services. Basically, mails are a standard form of asking your clients, on what went wrong?
Customers feedback is a must
Your customers might have had the best experience or the worst, but when you are connected with your customers you can listen to them. Your loyal customers will have specific expectations from you and when you tend to improve yourself through their feedback, they will remain loyal to you and it also creates a bond of trust between you and your customers. Focus on suggestions that can be implemented and if any of them simply cannot be implemented then let your clients know about the valid reason to it.
Good communication is a key to success
Your clients are keen to observe and learn more about your software or services in the initial days. They are open to ideas and discussions and explore new features and benefits. With a good communication strategy you get an opportunity to listen to their expectations and requirements, you can also suggest solutions if required. Thus, communication at the right time can help you retain them and satisfy them as well.
Conclusion
Even though you have created the perfect onboarding strategies for your business improvement, it’s important to focus come up with new and creative innovations to improve the process. Your clients and the business may be just a professional process but you clients too are humans who value good relationship and care. Focus on a few requirements like- a user friendly interface, an online user manual and the best customizations of features etc. There will be problems and inconveniences but all you need to do is listen to them and put in efforts to improve their experience.
In simple words, client ongoing is all about creating first impression. And you get just one chance to create that perfect first impression about your service or software. With the help of the CRM software, your employees can get an overall information in a single platform. You might have already known that cloud CRM software has become a trend in the present business world! There are various companies who have implemented cloud CRM software in their organisations irrespective of the size and industry type. Just make sure that you choose the right CRM system to explore its magic. If you wish to know more about the best CRM software, visit our website https://www.salesbabu.com/ and request for a free demo.
