Is Your Client Onboarding Process Everything It Should Be?

Client experience is incredibly important. Often, it’s what impacts your interior design business the most—if clients aren’t drawn in, feeling communicated with, and effortlessly able to take advantage of all you have to offer, then they don’t stick around. And they don’t come back. And in worst cases, they will publicly claim their experience with you as “bad”. As a business owner, but perhaps especially as an interior designer, the client onboarding process is a huge part of your client experience as a whole. Encompassing everything from the form they initially fill out to the ease of signing the contract, the onboarding process is essential. Is your client onboarding process everything it should be?

Onboarding

This is where you set the tone. Yes, your potential client has found you and has been enticed enough from your marketing to reach out, but the onboarding process really tells clients who you are, and sets expectations as a company. 

• Are you organized? 

• Are you quick to respond? 

• Do you answer their questions with confidence?

• Do they have all the information they need to trust you with their project?

• Do they understand the design process stages?

• Do they know how and when to communicate with you going forward?

Onboarding is so much more than entering their name in your potential client Excel File. It’s what keeps you and your team on the same page and working smoothly, and it’s the first glimpse of the working relationship your client will have with you. 

So don’t neglect it. Let’s break down the onboarding process a bit to see if yours is everything it should be! 

One Port of Entry

My first bit of advice for your client onboarding process is to have one port of entry. One form, connected to all other software.  Essential to get clients in the first place, vital for your own organization purposes. What’s more frustrating than having information spread to the four corners of the Earth?

This is most likely going to be the contact form on your website. Place the contact form as many places as make sense (its own Contact page, the bottom of the home page, etc.) but be sure it is the same form that leads to all the same places. 

Make sure you build out a workflow for this form. Link this form to your CRM, email management, and project management software. There are lots of different software options out there, and it doesn’t matter which you choose. Use an integration software like Zapier to pull everything together and link all of the other software programs you use to the one form.

And no matter what, use the form. Even if someone calls you, even if they email you out of the blue, even if you meet them in person, plug all their information into that form so they are automatically integrated into the onboarding process you’ve already established.

Ideally, through the form, clients will automatically be added to your email list and start getting your welcome sequence emails. They’ll be added to your CRM and you can easily pull their information over into your project management software (Asana, ClickUp, etc.). That way you can easily keep track of who on your team has spoken to which client, who needs to follow up, and who might be ready to move on to the next stage of the process.

Templates

Do you have templates? Templates make your life easier as the designer/business owner. No retyping a scheduling email, no major editing for contracts, no recreating a stage-by-stage process in Asana. 

Simply duplicate your template, fill out any unique information, and you’re on your way! At the very least, you should have a template for:

• Emails

  • Your Welcome/Onboarding email

  • Follow up emails

  • Any pricing/general information emails

  • Scheduler emails

  • Offboarding email

• Your project management workflow

• Discovery call questions

• Meeting notes

• Contract (of course)

• Proposals

Templates also help automate the whole process. Plug in your templates to your CRM or email management platform and never have to worry if a potential client has received those first outreach touches. 

Finally, templates keep your process cohesive. Especially if you have a team of designers and junior designers, you’ll want templates available so everyone is gathering the same information, formatting workflows the same, and easily able to work through the different stages without anything falling through the cracks.

Welcome Email Sequence

If you don’t already, create a welcome email sequence. This can do some of the work for you in between a client initially finding you, and the discovery call. An email sequence can drive a client to scheduling a discovery call or can encourage them to purchase products or services.

The email sequence should be between 5 and 7 emails triggered immediately after hitting enter on the contact form, then spread out through a couple of weeks. Introduce your team, tell clients about your company, show them some past projects, give a glimpse of your process and what to expect, and encourage them with calls to action such as to engage with you by responding, scheduling their discovery call, or following you on social media. 

Welcome Packet

Create a welcome packet. It sounds easy, but might be a bit of a project. Hire a writer and/or graphic designer to help pull this together if you don’t have time to dedicate to this project. You can also take advantage of Canva templates. Either way, once a client has signed their contract, a welcome packet adds that extra bit of welcome and warmth that makes your client feel seen and a part of the team. 

Plus, welcome packets are a great place to lay down some rules (such as business hours, who to contact and how, etc.). Introduce your team, establish expectations, provide client-appropriate and project-related checklists, layout payment schedules, include a page for them to take notes and important information, and more. 

My Final Advice

Finally, I encourage you to make sure all the client-facing aspects of your process are user-friendly. Streamline every aspect of your process possible, both for your sake and your client’s—think through when you need what, and who from your team is in charge of it. And don’t skip talking about finances—when expectations are set during onboarding for when payments are expected and for what, it keeps the process smoother down the road when it’s time to invoice.

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Need help establishing a strong client onboarding process for your interior design business? Hire an OBM!