Onboarding Tips - Week 48

Week 48 | Idea 48 | The Pre-Kickoff Questionnaire

"I closed this really good customer yesterday, and I need you to do the Kickoff today. Can you help me? I had to push hard to close the deal on the 31st, and so the customer is sort of miffed that we haven't started onboarding them yet."

We've all been there, right? And our onboarding team has zero bandwidth to understand that customer's needs, and prepare themselves for a kickoff call that can actually be customised to help them with their goals and expectations.

Luckily, there's a way. Just a week after being in the same situation, I got this idea from a panel discussion with Mark Holland , Jeff Kushmerek , Meg Lovell , Dana Alvarenga , Shari McGrath , and Monica Trivedi in our latest Preflight Community Huddle event in Boston last week.

So how do you do this? Steps below:

1. Obviously, have a kick-ass Hand-off from Sales. Duh. We've covered that tip before.
2. Document your existing understanding and share it with the customer, but also create a form that the customer side POC needs to fill out that in order for you to do the kick off with great confidence around their priorities, timelines, and readiness. (This can also be done as a "Pre-kickoff call" rather than a questionnaire/form).
3. Explain to the customer that you need some inputs and work from them so that the kick-off can actually do what it is meant to do (covered in step 4), and that you'd want the time to make sure you prepare and deliver on a successful kickoff meeting.
4. Share with the customer the goals for your kickoff - align on goals, set expectations around the rest of the process, establish timelines and protocols, outline the work that needs to get done, and get their team excited to make it happen.
5. Collect inputs on goals for every key stakeholders who will be at the kickoff.
6. You can ask the customer to also provide any assets that are pre-requisites for you to actually start onboarding them. This could be data or process documentation that you require for set-up and implementation. Getting them to do this as "homework" could give your team that time that you need to actually prepare, customise, and do an amazing kickoff that sets things on the right path.
7. For any "homework" that needs some context and explanations, you can provide simple help content and simple videos (say a loom capture) in which you explain what you need from them, why, and how they can best provide that. Point to any resources you have as well.

That's it! Now you have the time and context to actually do a really good kickoff meeting that everyone finds useful, and to create the right momentum for the rest of the onboarding journey.

Have ideas or feedback? Leave them in the comments or DM us!

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