Transcript
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Hey, what is up?
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Wontrepreneurs and entrepreneurs all over the world it's Brian Lofermento here, host of the Wontrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast, and in this Action Saturday episode, I really want to focus on something that I think most entrepreneurs and, heck, even bigger businesses, just most businesses in general overlook this very crucial moment in a customer's journey and in a customer's experience, and that is in the onboarding sequence and when we talk about onboarding.
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Onboarding is obviously very important in so many different aspects in life.
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Obviously, we need to strike while the iron's hot.
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When somebody is fresh into anything, that's when things are exciting, that's when their energy is at an all-time high, and that's where we really get to set the tone we talk about first impressions matter.
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Well, when someone buys something from you for the first time ever, whatever happens in that moment, they're always going to remember that very first thing, and so a lot of times, when it's a physical product business, they think, okay, well, we really need to impress them in the moment that the package arrives at their door, which is true, but what I actually would argue kickstarts the entire customer journey and the entire customer experience is really the instant email or instant interaction that we all get, and so that's why, for this Action Saturday segment, rather than talking about all the things that we can do to optimize our entire onboarding sequence, I want this to be actionable and super direct for you, and that's why I am inviting you and challenging you to focus on your immediate and instant interaction as soon as someone buys your thing, whether it's a product or a service.
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Now, because you all, listening around the world, obviously have a wide variety and array of different products and services.
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It's hard to come up with one thing that applies to every single one of you, but I would argue that an instant email is an inevitable and essential step in every single buying process, and so if you sell a physical product, chances are somebody will get an email from you with that order confirmation.
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If you sell a service, even if you have no automations, by the way, I really want to zoom out in today's Action Saturday segment and point out that none of this stuff has to be automated.
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It can be a template that you have, it can be an outline, and you have to cater it because your services are super unique for everybody.
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I don't care if you're a roofing company, if you pave driveways.
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I don't care if you're a social media agency.
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I don't care if you're a life coach.
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Every single business needs to have something that, in that moment that someone says yes, or in that moment that someone whips out their credit card and actually pays you, you need to take control of that moment and that excitement and that energy in that moment and make it a positive experience for them.
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This is the first step of your onboarding sequence, and so what I'm challenging all of you to do in today's episode is to sit down and write an amazing instant email, and so, like I said, it could be an email when I say instant, it could come from some sort of automated systems that you have, or it could just be something that you copy and paste every time you get a new customer or client, but I want you to write something that really sets those expectations and sets the tone of what your brand feels like and what you want your brand to sound like, and I really want you, in that email, to say hey, we're super excited to be working with you.
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Here's what you can expect from here Now.
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Even from a logistics and operations perspective, this is an important part of your process, because if you need things from their end, then you can start to collect those things If you're organized.
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If there's something that's delayed for some reason, particularly in the case of services, you want to start setting those expectations.
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You want to sit down and ask yourself what are the questions that people always have when they buy from me, or what are the natural questions that someone might have when they buy a product or service like mine?
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Ask yourself those questions and build in something that answers those questions and really goes along and guides them in that journey.
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Starting with expectations, because I can tell you, as someone, that I buy a lot of things online.
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I buy different softwares.
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I buy, obviously, products just for my day-to-day life.
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I buy most things online, even if it is services.
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If I'm working with a graphic designer or whatever it may be.
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It would be amazing I see it so rarely, but it would be amazing if I got an email saying hey, here's who I am, here's what I stand for, here's how I love working.
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Here's what sets both of us up for success.
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Here's some of the frequently asked questions that I get.
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Here's what you can expect.
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Here's the timeline.
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Here's the best ways to communicate with me.
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Here's, you know, a few quirky things about me any and all of those things just deepen that relationship and deepen that bond.
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And what's really cool is that if there is no instant gratification because they do have to wait for a physical product to show up or they do have to wait for your services to begin or to schedule a kickoff call with you, whatever your arrangement looks like this actually does provide a little bit of instant gratification and, for sure, some dopamine and a lot of great relationship boosting.
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I don't know the chemicals, maybe it's serotonin but it goes a long way towards setting you all up for success.
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And so I think that this email is incredibly important.
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Like, like I said, it doesn't need to be automated, but it for sure needs to be well thought out in advance, which is why I hope this action Saturday segment is your kick up the butt, is that catalyst for you to sit down and put this stuff together, because I promise you, if you are organized in this way, not only is it going to benefit you in your own business operationally, but it's also really going to set your clients and customers up for success, for happiness, for repeat business, for referral business.
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It's just going to set them up with the right expectations, with the excitement with whatever it is that you want your brand and the experience to feel like this is your chance to set that tone, set that voice that you want them to feel from you.
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So it's actually a super simple Action Saturday, but it is a big task and it's an incredibly important task.
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And this is even for all of you freelancers.
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As someone who, historically, I've worked with a lot of freelancers over the past 16 years, if I got a PDF document that you create in Canva or anything, that's just like hey, I'm super excited to be working with you.
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Here's just some additional information and expectations and questions I get, and here's the timeline and all of these things that I've already mentioned in this episode.
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That would be amazing, even for short term engagements.
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So onboarding incredibly important, and this is the simplest and most instantaneous and most important step of that onboarding sequence.
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So get out there, take action.
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I'll see you right back here tomorrow.