08/26/2023

Onboarding Like a Pro

Here are five ways to retain good clients and staff

In my many years of running my own PR agency, I've experienced a lot of hiccups when it comes to onboarding. And if I'm being honest, I must admit I caused most of those hiccups. I'm just not particularly good at it — it's not one of my strong suits.

Though fine-tuning my onboarding techniques is a work in progress, it doesn't come naturally to me. Once I find a potential team member I like or I've got a hot lead on a potential client, my tendency is just to jump into the deep end, all enthusiasm and "we'll figure it out as we go along" and very little step-by-step processing that would pave the way for a mutually beneficial and lasting connection.

On occasion, the "winging it" approach might work. But usually, it doesn't. So I recently looked closely at my firm's onboarding procedures from the inside out, which yielded some interesting insights. Before I share them, it's important to note that the objectives here could not be more straightforward: Regarding internal onboarding, the goal is incorporating a new staffer into a welcoming and positive work environment. When it comes to external onboarding, the goal is as simple as keeping the client happy. That's it. That's the end game. Here's how to win it.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Entrepreneur.