5 Tips for Freelancers to Improve Your Client Onboarding Process

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With some knowledge and preparation, you can set up your projects for success before the work gets started. Onboarding can be the perfect opportunity to learn about your client’s goals, set expectations up front, and infuse excitement into the project. It's helpful to note too that this process doesn't just apply to your clients on Upwork.

To learn more about improving a freelancer or agency’s onboarding process, during a recent Upwork LIVE I spoke with two Top Rated freelancers to share how they onboard clients to start projects off right and nurture lasting relationships.

Here are the five tips I learned from William Miller of High Power Data and Design and Courtney Allen of 16x9.

1. Onboarding starts before the contract begins. Both Courtney and William will often have one or even two calls with clients before the contract is started. This is when you begin to build rapport with the client and start to establish how you’ll work together. Note: Prior to a contract being issued, calls such as these should take place via the tools provided through the Upwork platform to avoid violating the Upwork TOS.
2. Write out expectations, scope, and budgets. William and Courtney write out expectations, budget, and scope so that everyone is on the same page. This is often before any work is started and sometimes before the Upwork contract is even started. For William, it’s a service agreement to supplement which supplements the Upwork contract and outlines what’s included and how much add-ons will cost.
3. Every client gets the entire onboarding process. Even if every step doesn’t apply to every project, they still go through it all to ensure they don’t miss anything. William has a 9-step process that he shares around the 9-minute mark of the recording. It’s a checklist built into their new CRM tool. 
4. What questions should everyone ask? William’s included "what’s your budget and what’s your timeline". Courtney focuses on who the client is, what the audience (of the presentation is), how the client will be delivering the presentation, and where they are in the content creation process. For Courtney, it’s important to know where they are and what they expect of her. This gives her a strong understanding of whether it’s in her wheelhouse or not. 
5. Building trust and rapport. The onboarding process can set your relationship up for success or for a rocky road. It’s important to build rapport with your clients before the contract starts and throughout the onboarding process. William uses video calls and attaches a video to his proposals. Courtney uses video and adds personalization to every aspect of her profile, portfolio, proposals, and calls with her clients. 

Bonus tip: Continually iterate and improve your process. William jokes that it took his entire freelance career up until that point to build his onboarding process. Courtney shared that she’s currently working on building a new system to improve and automate the process. At each stage of their freelance business and with each new onboarding, they take note of things that works and things that need improvement. It’s okay not to have the onboarding process perfect but starting somewhere and improving seems to be a key to success.

This Upwork LIVE event was filled with terrific insights from both Courtney and William. I know my onboarding process has improved since this call but my biggest takeaway was that I shouldn’t stop improving. It’s important to listen to my current and prospective clients' needs, be a partner in their success, and listen to them. They may not clearly say "this needs to be improved" but by listening to their experience, I will see where I can make improvements to my onboarding process. Check out the event recording for more insight.

How do you onboard clients? Let me know in the comments below!