Ep 219: The Key Onboarding Step You’re Missing
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The Key Onboarding Step You’re Missing
There is a key concept that most online program owners are missing from their onboarding process .
If you have an online course, membership, or group coaching program, chances are you are forgetting to do this.
And not only is it important.
It is the first step in your onboarding process.
You Can’t Just Onboard Your New Members
When we talk about onboarding, we usually think about new customers.
But you can’t just onboard your new members.
There are two other groups you need to onboard first:
Your team
Your existing community
If you forget them, everything else can unravel, no matter how good your onboarding process is.
This is especially important if you have a launch model .
1. Onboard Your Team
If you have ever been part of an online product launch, you know what happens.
Everyone goes all in for a couple of weeks.
They work overtime.
Then the moment the cart closes, they disappear.
But the launch doesn’t stop when the cart closes.
That is when you have just sold a whole bunch of people into your program.
Who is going to onboard them?
You have to make sure your team is committed to being part of the onboarding process and prepared to do so.
What Your Team Needs
There are three thoughts we want people leaving with at the end of onboarding:
I’m in the right place
This is possible for me
I know my next step
We want to create those same thoughts for our team.
They need to understand the value of onboarding to:
The long term health of the business
Retention
Reduction in refunds
Ascension into other products
Customer satisfaction
They also need to understand how onboarding will make their job easier.
Practically, they need to know what to do and how to do it.
That could look like:
Helping with customer support tickets
Auditing the members area
Adding to the frequently asked questions
Moderating in the Facebook group
Saying hello to new members
No matter what it is, there is something every team member can be involved in.
2. Onboard Your Existing Community
The second group is your existing community.
Whether you have course alumni or current members, you need to prepare them for welcoming new people into the community.
Adding a whole bunch of new people into a community can feel overwhelming.
It can disrupt culture.
It can change the flow inside the group.
When you onboard a whole bunch of new people, it often moves your community into a storming phase.
One way to lessen that is by onboarding your existing community into the idea of welcoming new people.
How to Prepare Your Community
Start by letting them know you are opening the doors and welcoming new people.
Then answer the question they will have.
What’s in it for me?
That could be:
New connections
Opportunity to mentor
New knowledge and wisdom
Then invite them to offer support.
Keep it simple.
Ask them to:
Watch the welcome post
Say hello to new people
Respond to basic questions
We want to make sure that no person goes unnoticed.
When someone posts for the first time and hears nothing back, they are less likely to show up again.
But when they feel welcomed, they are more likely to show up fully in the community from the beginning, which helps them get more results.
Do Not Forget These First Steps
The most important group you are onboarding is your new members.
But you do not want to forget:
Onboarding your team
Onboarding your existing community
If your team is not there to help, and your community is not there to support, you can have major issues with your onboarding process.
So before your next launch, make sure you start here.
And if you want help strengthening your onboarding process so your team is aligned and your community is ready to support new members, that is exactly what we do inside RETAIN.
Apply to join RETAIN at joinretain.com.
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