How to onboard an automation client
  • This is my personal process. It's not the only way to get there—just what I did.
  • Take what makes sense to you out of this video and discard whatever isn't relevant.
  • No gatekeeping, I'll show you everything + build the onboarding automations in front of you.
Three problems that onboarding solves
  1. Buyers Remorse
  1. Client Expectations
  1. Logistics
We'll discuss each problem, and then I'll show you how to solve each of them—including building a few simple systems + templates—live in the next few mins.
Problem 1: Buyer's remorse
  • Somebody just sent you money
  • No matter how good your sales process is, this will create buyer's remorse
  • Your goal is to minimize buyer's remorse ASAP, and good onboarding helps you do this
Problem 2: client expectations
  • Biggest issue in all service businesses is managing client expectations
  • Fundamental paradox:
  • To grow your business, you have to win clients. Which incentivizes increasing expectations.
  • To grow your business, you also have to deliver projects. Which incentivizes reducing expectations.
  • Most people do the former a little too well because they want the deal. That means, when it comes time to deliver, they're screwed
  • Onboarding gives you an opportunity to frame expectations ASAP. Also lets you inoculate yourself against dozens of common gotchas (comms, timeline, working style, win conditions, etc)
  • Your goal is to give the client all the information they need upfront so they don't bug you later + they'll be satisfied when you deliver what you said you were going to deliver.
Problem 3: logistics (automation has a lot of moving parts)
  • Automation at its core usually involves integrating different platforms
  • To do work for the client you need access to these platforms
  • Gaining access can be a nightmare. 2FA, wrong subscription plan, credential sharing vs sub-accounts, etc
  • If you don't have all of this up front you
  • Your goal is to minimize friction and get access to everything ASAP. You should not need to ask the client for credentials, accounts, 2FA codes, etc days or weeks into the project, since it looks unprofessional
How do you solve these 3 problems?
  1. Buyer's remorse
  1. Transactional alerts,
  1. Gratitude,
  1. Perception of progress,
  1. Client expectations
  1. Define communication style + frequency,
  1. Set timeline (how long each step will take and what will happen at every step)
  1. Define win condition,
  1. Moving parts
  1. Itemizing platforms,
  1. Onboarding call SOP (solves 2FA),
  1. Secure credential mgmt,
We'll go into detail and/or build each.
Transactional alerts
  • Depends on your payment processor
  • In Stripe: customer emails → enable receipts → provides perceived legitimacy
  • Occurs within 30 seconds
Gratitude
  • I always express gratitude to my clients for even simple actions—thanks for reaching out, thanks for getting back to me, thanks for the call, thanks for the payment, etc
  • Makes you look professional
  • Can build a simple system that watches events or uses a webhook → sends an email from you
  • Occurs within 5 mins
  • I do this in a separate email because I want them to get a bunch of emails simultaneously
Perception of progress
  • Now that they've paid, essential that you provide the perception of "getting started"
  • Many people don't have a dedicated step here which significantly impacts the client experience
  • Can build a simple system that watches events or uses a webhook → sends an email from you
  • Occurs within 5 mins
  • At this point they've received 3 or 4 emails in a very short period of time, which makes them feel good—like you're on top of things—and establishes that the project is now officially "started"
Define comms & frequency
  • Most agencies and service providers never do this
  • But it's the simplest lever you can pull to eliminate literally 90% of problems
  • Just tell the client how often you're going to communicate with them and where
  • I.e
  • "I'll be available 12:00pm-2:00pm PT on Slack every day if you have any questions, and you'll get progress updates on Tuesdays and Fridays"
  • "I'll send you an email at the end of the day M-F summarizing where we're at, if I have any blockers, etc, to ensure we consistently make progress towards delivery."
  • The specifics really depend on you. There is probably an optimal communication style and frequency, but as long as you just stick to what you say you'll inoculate yourself against most issues
  • In the past I did once per week updates. I'd occasionally run into issues where clients felt like I wasn't keeping them in the loop. Now I'm doing 2x/wk with defined Slack availability and it seems sufficient
Set timeline
  • Another big problem with service providers: majority of projects are behind schedule
  • But for simpler automation projects, this is lunacy. You can usually do most of the work in a few hours
  • One of the simplest ways to retain automation clients:
  • Set a generous schedule
  • Exceed expectations by delivering ahead of it
  • Doesn't have to be complicated! I.e
  • Jul 19-22: Prompt engineering
  • Jul 23-26: Make.com scenario creation
  • Jul 27-30: Testing & delivery
  • When you deliver the final project on Jul 27, for instance, client will be extremely impressed. "I know we were supposed to deliver on the 30th but I wanted to nail this for you. Here's a video"
Define win condition
  • Make sure expectations are very clear around what constitutes a finished project
  • I.e if it's a lead gen project, you're not just "getting leads". Your deliverable is much more specific than that:
  • "On Jul 30, you'll have a completed Airtable that automatically populates with new positive responses from your Smartlead campaign. Your campaign will operate M-F from 7:00am-7:00pm using our best-in-class copywriting formula, and you'll get Slack notifications every time a new one comes in to minimize response time. You'll also get an SOP sheet that you can use yourself or to hire an outreach manager to do the response mgmt for you, as well as a video walking you through the system start to finish. OK?"
Itemizing platforms
  • Simple way of streamlining the onboarding call is itemizing all of the platforms that you need the client to sign up for and building a list of instructions they can follow in advance
  • You can send this in the above email or you can give it to them on the call—but either way you need to know what they need to do to make your onboarding call a success
  • Ex.
  • Make.com
  • Sign up with email/password (important—don't click "Sign Up With Google" because we'll have 2FA issues)
  • For "Hosting Region" select "US"
  • Etc
Onboarding Call SOP
  • In some circumstances, the client has signed up to a platform on their own using OAuth or similar, meaning they have 2FA
  • In others, clients don't understand the underlying technologies and struggle with things like giving access, credentials, etc
  • Simplest way I've found to eliminate the headache of dealing with all of this—while also providing a warm welcome to working with me—is an onboarding call
  • Takes ~15 mins, bypasses payment/2fa/credential bullshit, and lets them feel in control of their data and their security
  • By the end of the call you have everything you need and the client is excited to kick off
What to say?
I use this template. Take what you want, leave what doesn't make sense for you.
From there…
Crush the project!
You can do this yourself (or w a small team)
  • I grew my business with 1 VA
  • You don't need anyone with you to do this. Automation is the leverage
  • Nailing onboarding adds a "lift" to everything else in your business—your retention, your relationship, your ticket size, etc
  • If you want more hands-on help check bio (community & website)
Good luck ❤️
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