Companies from all industries are embracing the important role of defining and implementing a winning customer experience (CX). Key to implementing the right CX is defining and mapping the customer journey.
As we outlined in the first installment of this series, the customer journey map is a visual roadmap of your customers’ interactions with your company and your brand. It is foundational to understanding and defining your CX.
A key element to the customer journey involves the initial process of onboarding new clients, which encompasses both implementing your service delivery workflows and integrating those workflows with their business operations. This is an early experience in your customer’s journey, so getting it right is critical.
Some best practices for onboarding include:
- Know as much as possible about the customer so you can tailor to their needs when possible.
- Make the experience as easy for them as possible, identifying and removing roadblocks they may face during the process.
- Provide multiple methods for them to complete the onboarding, allowing them to choose the experience that works best for them (e.g., phone, email, web, documents, in person or virtual training, etc.).
- Stay on brand during the process, emphasizing and reinforcing your brand position and brand values.
- Communicate, communicate, communicate to ensure your customer is aware of and understands your onboarding processes and what is required of them.
Adhering to these best practices means you have the backend systems and tools in place to ensure onboarding is simple and error free.
Don’t forget that while customer focus is critical, good onboarding also requires your internal team has everything they need to deliver this experience. These best practices should be turned inward too, to make sure your team is in sync and ready to deliver. Once again, two-way free flowing communication is imperative.
Rely on a good partner to help you develop and implement your onboarding process. Good luck on mapping and developing this important journey.
Tony Stout, CTO
CDG
Tony Stout joined PRTC in 2010 and serves as the company’s Chief Technology Officer. In his role as CTO, Tony is responsible for overseeing strategic direction for building and expanding PRTC’s next generation network infrastructure. In 2020, PRTC acquired CDG, a telecom OSS/BSS solutions provider. Tony was appointed CTO for CDG and oversees the company’s technology, software engineering, IT and technical support teams. Tony has more than 28 years of technology, business and management experience in various Telecom and Information Technology roles.
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