For many operators, signing a new member can feel like the finish line—the agreement is signed, the space is filled. But in reality, that moment is just the starting point. What happens in the days and weeks after determines whether a member feels like a customer or a community stakeholder who stays, grows, and refers others.
When I first acquired my Intelligent Office location, the member onboarding experience was little more than a piece of paper asking for the most basic information. That wouldn’t have worked for me as a new member; I would have wanted the location operator to spend time with me, asking detailed questions to help them understand my business and how I wanted incoming callers and potential customers to be treated. We knew we had to make significant changes, so that’s what we did. People are pleased with the changes, judging from the feedback.
That’s the key to a successful client onboarding experience: realizing that it’s really about the client onboarding you rather than the other way around. You must be 100% focused on being perceived as an employee for each of your clients, whether you see them every day in one of your spaces or you’re answering their phones for their virtual office.
For the first 30 days, the client will be showing you how they want things done. After that, they should be able to take care of the core elements of their business while you cover the secondary pieces like answering their phones, scheduling appointments, or other support services they’ve asked you to handle. Be sure they’re willing to take time to educate you on their expectations and understand you won’t know what they want unless they tell you.
You still drive the onboarding process. Here’s how to start on the right foot and stay on track throughout the member experience.
The Onboarding Process
- Day 1: Face-to-Face Introduction
Schedule a face-to-face onboarding orientation, either in-person or virtually, if you have remote clients, to introduce them to the staff who will be working for them. Get to know what their business is and ask specific questions. How do they want your team to answer calls (and how not to answer), how to fill out intake forms or handle scheduling? Ask explicitly: “Show me what you do. Walk me through this so that I can have a full understanding.” The result should be a standard operating procedure for each client to make sure each staff member is trained correctly — and can train new staff who join the team later. Procedures should include preferences for greetings, workflows, scheduling and communication style, and should be put in writing. - First-Week: Check-In
To ensure there are no issues and reinforce the message that you care about their company, send a friendly follow-up to confirm everything is working smoothly and ask for feedback. Keep it simple: Ask how their first week is going, what you’re doing right and what you could improve. Be sure they know you’re always available to serve them better. - 30-Day Review
Meet or schedule a call to make adjustments, refine processes and address any unmet needs. Go through your system and ask if anything has changed. What can you update, and how can you ensure you’re doing everything correctly? Does the client have any additional needs? Conduct this review as often as possible but be open to hearing from your client as issues come up; don’t make them wait for a formal review time.
Letting Go
One essential part of the onboarding process is handling the client who has trouble delegating. They’re used to doing everything themselves, and they’re sure that no one else can do any of it half as well as they do.
One client, a therapist, came to us after experiencing poor service from the call center she had hired. They weren’t doing what she needed, and she genuinely believed that only she could properly handle her patient calls. We asked her to let us learn her system with a 30-day “test drive” and said she could go back to answering her phones if she wasn’t happy at the end of the test. When the test was over, her practice had grown 100% — and 10 years later, she’s still with us.
We had another client whose wife forbade him from bringing his cellphone on their vacation. He asked us to answer his phone but was hesitant about letting us handle appointment scheduling. When he came back, he was pleasantly surprised to find a full schedule all ready to act on.
It can take some negotiating and some creative thinking, but if you show the client that you understand and care about their business, you can get them to release their grip and let you handle what they thought only they could do.
Keeping the Member on Board
When you let people know they’re important to you, and they can feel that through customer service, they’re going to stay with you. They’re happy; they want to be there. Show them you too want them to be there; not just to boost your occupancy rates, but because they add value to your community and the other people in it. Let them know they’re important to you. Show an interest in them. Remember their names, their families and what’s going on in their lives. “Hey — how was football camp for little Mikey?”
It’s all about service, rapport, and relationships. First impressions are important, and the ones you make on your clients can last a lot longer than your initial contact. It’s likely to go all the way to the day they decide whether they want to renew their membership. Much more than covering facts like parking policies and tech security, a successful onboarding experience is ultimately about whether you’ve shown that you care about your members and their business.
