[Updated Dec. 29, 2021]

How do you manage that moment when your sales team hands off a new client to start their onboarding process? How long is it taking for the transition to the customer success or onboarding team? How are you all communicating? Manual processes may be harming your client relationships in the long run. That makes it harder to keep clients from leaving once their current contract is up.

One of the biggest complaints from companies during onboarding is the time it takes from start to go-live. Being able to deliver a faster time-to-value and completing your onboarding on time can significantly improve your clients’ views of the entire onboarding process. Not to mention, it can also set the tone for the whole relationship you have with them.

Here are four ways you can expedite your client onboarding process.

1. Standardize the Process

The only thing worse than having bottlenecks slow down your onboarding process is not having an onboarding process at all. Having one in place is especially important as you grow your company.

You want people to have the same quality experience with every onboarding team without missing a step or having things fall through the cracks. If you have a standard onboarding process in place and you track where things go wrong, you can learn from the mistakes and build a stronger onboarding process for your customers.

2. Create Templates for Teams to Follow

Once you have your process in place, create an easy template or process task list that everyone can follow. When you have the right onboarding software, you can use templates as a starting point, then tweak it to get a customized experience for each new onboarding.

No two clients are exactly alike, so you don’t want it to feel like a cookie-cutter experience. However, you also need to have a structure for your team to ensure quality and consistency.

3. Use Digital Tools Whenever Possible

If your current process requires a lot of paperwork or manual data entry, you could honestly be saving a lot of time by automating some of those tasks.

For example, in the financial industry where you need copies of identification, paper applications, loan documents, etc; it can be difficult to track the process, what needs to be signed, when, and by whom.

While not everything can be digitized, there are a lot of tools available that allow for secure transfer of information and the ability to verify documents. Take the time to explore digital tools that give you more flexibility and streamline processes for collecting information. When you find the right tool, you’ll be using it for the long-haul.

4. Automate Reporting

Clients want to know what’s going on with their onboarding process. If you don’t have tools that help you automate that reporting, someone on your team is going to spend a lot of time compiling reports and sending them to the appropriate people. Instead, find a software solution that automates reporting to all the key stakeholders within the process ensuring everyone knows exactly where you stand and when it will be done.

Check out how GUIDEcx advances onboarding reporting.