The onboarding sequence is a key business process for setting up new customer profiles, populated with the correct master data needed to make transactions flow smoothly and error free. Onboarding a new customer is very important to building a successful long-term relationship. It makes you easy to do business with and helps to build customer loyalty.
The onboarding sequence should be a continuous process that involves every area of your company that touches customer transactions and relationships. Getting new customer master data is essential, but onboarding should also:
- Provide information for contacts at your company that the customer may need including:
- Names and functions
- Email addresses
- Phone numbers
- Mailing and shipping addresses
- Make sure that customers know how to use your self-service portal for payments, profile management, reporting disputes, entering orders and any other automated functions.
- Ensure that your customers know how to use any other automated systems your company provides including your phone system.
- Provide customers with instructions on setting up user ID’s and passwords for the automated systems they will have access to.
When you’re getting customer master data upfront from your customers, you’re avoiding more pain later scrambling to get the key master data you need.
Automated Customer Communications
Automated customer communications can make onboarding new customers smoother. Automate your onboarding sequence with a series of emails including:
- Introductory email that welcomes the customer
- Email requesting information to complete customer master data
- Information email for contacts at your company
- Instruction email on how to use your self-service portal and other automated systems
- Follow-up email to see if the customer has any questions
Adding a phone call to see if the customer has any questions can be a nice personal touch to start building the personal relationship you may need in the future to help resolve collection issues and speed up collections.
Smooth Hand-Off
It is always a good idea to check the first few transactions with a new customer to make sure that there are no glitches caused by incorrect master data. Don’t wait until the customer makes an unauthorized deduction or notifies you of a dispute. Be proactive. The customer will appreciate it.
Successfully onboarding new customers for a smooth accounting hand-off is a continuous process starting with setting up the customer’s profile with accurate master data. Automated customer communications can help you accomplish a smooth hand-off. Automated credit and collection solutions can help you achieve your cash flow goals.
Lockstep Collect, a leader in cloud-based credit and collection platforms, can help you collect cash in 4 ways:
- Cloud-based solutions
- Automated customer communications
- Customer self-service
- Collections Activity Management
Lockstep Collect is an experienced software partner that can help you maximize your collections and cash flow in the new normal.
If you would like to learn more about how you can benefit from automated credit and collection solutions, please contact Lockstep Collect at www.lockstep.io.
