How to Design a Client Welcome Pack

Are you looking for ways to streamline your admin while also making your client experience better?

Let me introduce you to the client welcome pack.

The client intake process refers to whatever you do to "onboard" or welcome a new client. It's everything that happens between them saying "yes I'd like to work with you" to actually getting them into your world. My preferred way to do this is with a welcome pack.

The new client receives this at a certain milestone, and you get to decide when it makes most sense. Do you send it with your proposal? Do you send it after the deposit invoice has been paid? Do you send it after they’ve accepted your proposal?

So decide when they receive it, and then decide what's in it.

What to include in a welcome pack

A welcome pack might include:

• A welcome video
• The signed agreement
• A walkthrough of your process from here
• An intake questionnaire
• Information on asset management (Google Docs/Dropbox)
• An invitation to a briefing meeting
• A briefing template
• A screenshare introducing you to your project management tool

Most of these things are templates that need no or very little customisation. You may choose to record a custom welcome video on something like Loom, or a general video that you can send to all new clients.

Your agreement is definitely a rinse-and-repeat template. The walkthrough of your process is likely a formula or method, and used with all clients. Maybe you need one for a few different project types – websites versus a rebrand, for example. The intake questionnaire may also vary for different projects, but is a template you can create for each. A checklist or guide on asset management is rinse-and-repeat; the project management tool is too. And then your briefing or scoping template is probably the most customised thing – and even then, for some people it’s pretty standard.

All this to say that this is a bit of work upfront to create, but then it creates such a professional, hopefully seamless process and expectations between you and your clients.  I absolutely know that it’s annoying to stop and put together a welcome pack! It’s always going to feel like you don’t have time to do it, but the point of all of this is to develop consistency.

Why bother in a micro-business?

Consistency is how you build efficiency into your business while also giving your clients a better experience.

That’s because I promise you: it will take you less time the more you do these streamlined, consistent things – but here’s the thing: you’re not going to be charging less.

So you get better and quicker, your clients get a better experience, and now you can spend that time on something else. Another client, for example, or getting your nails done. You do you!

Of course you can always add personalised questions to your intake form, or customise your email template – but it’s still going to save you so much time to have a template in the first place. I’m not trying to suck the soul out of your business! Think of your systems as an opportunity to create more growth and sustainability in your business.

Systems run the business and people run the systems. – Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited

And no, a one-person business is not too small to rely on systems.

If you aren’t repeating things, you can’t get better at them. So many of us, we basically start from scratch every project, building something different for every client. The processes never get built, never get improved, never get streamlined.

Systems in your business keep the wheels in motion even when you’re busy. You know – when you're working with a current client so don't have time to drop everything to make sure the new client who starts next month feels really loved? You don't want either of them to have a bad experience or feel you're distracted.

Bonus welcome pack points for the overachievers

Now for the bonus points of your welcome pack – find some opportunities to surprise and delight – ways to really make working with you not just easy, but enjoyable. Fun. Delightful. Calming. Whatever it might be that you want your ICA to feel when working with you.

Maybe it’s a bonus or a gift they get when they sign up. Maybe it’s a Christmas or birthday present, so you need to make sure you get their birthday when you onboard them. Maybe it’s a personalised welcome video, telling them how happy you are to be working with them.

If you’re working with lots of repeat or retainer clients, how can you keep bringing some delight to those relationships? It doesn’t have to be about spending money or lots of time on things – it’s about being thoughtful. What are the things your ICA would really appreciate? What does the ideal version of this customer journey look like?

Over time, you will develop a welcome pack that delights new clients, streamlines a ton of your back-and-forth admin, and generates you referrals.

Surely that's worth the few hours of your time to invest in building out?

THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT WE TALK ABOUT IN MY COURSE, BUILD THE RIGHT BUSINESS. IF THIS SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING YOU WANT TO DIVE INTO DEEPER, YOU CAN JOIN THE WAIT LIST AT BUILDTHERIGHTBUSINESS.COM

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