Conquering Workflows & Systems For Bookkeepers & Accountants | with Alyssa Lang (Workflow Queen)

How to Streamline Client Onboarding Using Automation with Brooke Swan

• Alyssa Lang • Season 1 • Episode 98

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Alyssa Lang interviews Brooke Swan, Owner of Clarity Bookkeeping & Consulting and The Aligned Self, on client onboarding systems. Alyssa and Brooke chat about the challenges of streamlining onboarding, utilizing tools like Content Snare for efficiency, and reimagining workflows to transform both team dynamics and client experiences!

In this episode you’ll hear:

  • What distinguishes your onboarding from your cleanup processes
  • How to visually map out processes for better clarity and workflow
  • Why separating onboarding and cleanup enhances operational efficiency
  • How tools like Asana and Content Snare streamline the onboarding experience

About our guest:

Brooke Swan is the founder and CEO of Clarity Bookkeeping & Consulting. She started her firm in 2018 with the goal of helping business owners not only understand their finances, but enjoy a better work-life balance and helping them build the business of their dreams. Through their advisory services and creative strategic approaches, Clarity has helped hundreds of business owners reach their goals!

Brooke operates her firm on a 4-day work week that values efficiency, collaboration, and positivity which also allows her team to enjoy a better work-life balance as well! Brooke has a burning desire to help others and has been coaching other bookkeeping business owners for years. She now exclusively coaches with Team Workflow Queen in their Breakthrough program.

Connect with Brooke Swan:

Check our her website: https://www.claritybkpg.com/ ****

Follow her on Instagram: @brookeashleyy_

Resources mentioned in this episode:

💻 Effortless Client Requests for Bookkeepers & Accountants

💻 Kickoff with Asana for Bookkeepers & Accountants

⚙️ Content Snare

📋 Large sticky notes for planning & processing mapping

Thanks for listening. If this episode inspired you in some way, take a screenshot of you listening on your device and post it to your Instagram stories and tag me, @workflowqueen

For more information about the Conquering Workflows & Systems for Bookkeepers & Accountants Podcast or interest in our programs or mentoring visit our resources below:

Visit our website: workflowqueen.com

Check out our courses: workflowqueen.com/courses

Follow the Blog: workflowqueen.com/blog

Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alyssa-lang-wq

Connect on Instagram: instagram.com/workflowqueen

Connect on Facebook: Facebook.com/workflowqueen

Podcast Publishing Tools we use:

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Alyssa:

If you've ever struggled with messy onboarding systems or felt overwhelmed, trying to gather everything you need from your clients. Today's episode is for you. I'm joined by the amazing Brooke spawn and one of my favorite humans. And also co-creative of our newest program, effortless client requests together. We're tackling one of the most common pain points in the industry, which is how to actually create a seamless stress-free onboarding experience that saves time and sets the right tone for your client relationships. In this episode, we're going to be diving into the key differences between onboarding and cleanup and why you need to be separating them as is such a game changer for your firm. How to automation tools like content snare can actually streamline your requests and make onboarding a lot faster and easy for both you and your clients. Real life, examples of how we've overhauled our onboarding systems to save time, improve client communication and build trust. And our sneak peak at our effortless client request program, where we're sharing the templates, tools and strategies we use in our firms for requesting and gathering information from our clients, whether you're just starting to document your processes or you're really looking to take your onboarding to the next level. This episode is packed with practical tips. That you can actually implement right away. Let's go ahead and get started. Hey everyone and welcome back to yet another episode with the lovely Brooke Swan. By this point you should probably know her and be almost her bestie just like me, from all the prior episodes that she's been on over the last couple of weeks as we've been featuring some new and fun things that are happening over here that me and Brooke are collaborating on. But today's topic is actually one that we find to be a really massive headache in the industry. It is something as someone who not only is running Breakthrough but, Brooke is also involved inside of our Breakthrough program, We get this question quite often, even though all the resources, everybody's onboarding system is a little bit different. Everybody has different ideas in mind of what onboarding is and versus what it's not. so we figured that in today's episode, we were just really deep dive into creating a really good onboarding system, in ways that can either be automated or non automated. It's truly up to you. But in today's episode, we're going to be deep onboarding versus a cleanup. So the difference between the two, what makes for a good onboarding system, how long we actually plan to actually onboard our clients. So we're going to be sharing both of our firms and our perspectives on this, even though me and Brooke are very similar in a lot of ways, we still have our own quirks and nuances about the ways that we do things. We're also going to be diving into the ways that we've automated our onboarding to make life a lot easier and also just really set the tone with our clients and create a better client experience. So I'm super excited to dive in today's episode. Just give a quick little tiny intro about yourself for just in case anybody has not caught any other episode with you, and then we'll kind of dive into today's topic.

Brooke:

Yes. All right. Hello. I'm Brooke. So I own Clarity Bookkeeping Consulting. We've been around for almost seven years. We work with over 70 clients. I think I have a team of seven. I think sevens are just all of the things right now. Um, I also own a business called, The Aligned Self , where we, work with people's human design. And, And, , yeah, I'm also a coach in breakthrough, and I would say that this is probably one of the things that gets asked most is definitely about onboarding. It's such a huge, I think, pain point for a lot of people. And I think honestly, this was like one of the last things that I personally got out of in my business because it was like, Onboarding is just such a beast and it that one took me so much time to like develop the process and the plan in order for me to actually pass that off to someone on my team.

Alyssa:

I would love to actually we didn't even have that on our list of things that we were going to cover and now that you started with that I'm actually going to start with that conversation because Like you same for me. it seems to also be the case for a lot of other people as well Is that onboarding for some weird reason is such a nightmare to really hand off i'll speak for myself and i'm sure that you can have some other things that you might bring up I think one of the big reasons why most people really struggle with getting onboarding off their plate is because they most likely have tied everything to either their email or their direct like client's logins that they provide them or like the direct access goes directly to their email. So they find that it's really hard to let go of this process, but there's also other pieces of that. So I'm curious to know too, what are some of the reasons why it's been such a freaking nightmare to get this out off your plate?

Brooke:

Yeah, I think that was part of it for sure, right? A lot of stuff was just solely connected to me, like to my personal phone number, to my inbox, like, and so I think that was the hard part. Obviously that was a big chunk of it. I think the other part was then I was like, well, how is someone going to know what to ask for? Like, you know what I mean? Like how are they going to do that? And plus there's so many things that we do when we onboard, right? Like so many different things that we ask them, like, how is someone else going to know this? Like, I'm the one talking to the client in the beginning, during that sales phase, during the consultation and all that, like, how is someone else going to know that, although here, spoiler alert, I don't know. that is, is a conversation. Like the easy solution to that is you just tell someone else what they need to ask for, like, you know what I mean? So anyways, I digress, and I think just because it's a big process, so it feels hard to get it off your plate for sure.

Alyssa:

Yeah, totally. I think it's definitely one of those things that most people struggle with. And I kind of want to bring up something that I feel like happens a lot. So whenever I'm hosting like one of our boot camps, I swear this is like one of the top things that people are like, Oh my God, Alyssa, like you almost gave me permission to like, let this go. So a lot of people, I think in the industry, as they started their firm, like we all didn't know what the hell we were doing. So like, give yourself grace for anyone listening who like is trying to beat yourself up. Like we weren't taught how to run the business. You might've taken a program to do it. Yeah. But someone can tell you all day, every day how to do it, but you kind of have to go through it yourself. You have to go through the ringer to really feel and understand what it's like to have to like tweak things and do all these things. But one of the big things that I see is that a lot of people assume that the onboarding is also the cleanup. And so they're assuming that, oh my god, it has to take like, How are, like I get this all the time, how are you onboarding people so quickly? And I always ask them, my first question back is, well, is your onboarding also you doing the cleanup? And a lot of the times the response is yes. That it also means cleaning the client up, like that means bringing them into your system, cleaning them up, and then finally moving into maintenance. So was that true for you too? Or did you always split up onboarding and cleanup just like me?

Brooke:

We always split it up because I think we always saw them as being two Separate things but you have to have the onboarding in order to start the cleanup, right? Yeah

Alyssa:

Yeah, totally and so for anyone listening like that's okay if that's ever been a thing It's also okay if you're conjoining the two it really it's different strokes for different folks You got to do whatever makes sense But at the end of the day those are two totally separate processes and the actions you would take in onboarding Are wildly different than what you would do in a cleanup however, I think a lot of people start to think that The onboarding can become the cleanup because maybe they're connecting bank accounts. But it doesn't mean like, and I think a lot of people get really tripped up too, and I'm sure you've seen this too, where a lot of people get really tripped up on the onboarding is they're already trying to gather information for the cleanup before they've even got into like actually starting the work.

Brooke:

So.

Alyssa:

When I first started, that's what I used to do. So I would like try to onboard someone. I'd be like, okay, so I did the diagnostics. So then we're going to need answers to these open invoices here during the onboarding. And it wasn't even like, we haven't even got them into our system. Do you know what I mean?

Brooke:

Yeah. Like you're trying to ask cleanup questions during the onboarding.

Alyssa:

Exactly. And I think a lot of people make that same mistake here in the industry too. It's like, Well, if I'm already asking all these questions, I might as well also compile all the cleanup stuff, but I first have to start the cleanup before I then understand what I need from them. And so that's why I always say, like, if you guys have the two kind of together, I really encourage you to really reevaluate the way that your onboarding is set up, versus your cleanup. So, really great example of this, not to just shamelessly plug my own stuff in here, but kick off with the sauna. onboarding project and the cleanup project totally separate and is very intentional in that way. So if that's something that you guys struggle with, I'll go ahead and link it below if you guys want to check it out. So for you, for your onboarding versus cleanup, what is the difference between the two in your, terms?

Brooke:

there's two main things. Like first it's that we're doing like totally separate things Like so onboarding is really like I feel like it's what it sounds like we are bringing this client into our systems What do we need in order to do that? Right? So like getting access to things maybe getting their most recent tax return. Like what do I actually need from this client? To get started with the books, right? Not actually doing the books, but like, what do I need from them? So that's the onboarding for us. And then the cleanup is what that sounds like. That's when we're like, someone's actually in the books themselves. They are, you know, cleaning up the past year, past years, they're getting the books caught up. They're reconciling or categorizing. And then they're asking those questions like, Hey, you have these three open invoices from 10 years ago. Yeah. So I'm trying to collect on them or, you know, whatever. Right. So I think that's how we differentiate it. Like one is like. getting access to the things we need to do our job. And then the other one is actually doing our job.

Alyssa:

Yeah, that's a good way. And it's like the simplest way to say it.

Brooke:

Well, thank you. Yeah. And then I think too, when you have that distinction, it also lets you separate, especially too, as you grow or depending on who you have on your team, like you don't, might not need the same person to do the onboarding that's doing the cleanup. Like you can actually have them be two separate people because that might be two totally different skill sets. Like, If I'm having someone do a cleanup, I want someone that has a ton of bookkeeping experience who knows how to, you know, do advanced like problem solving inside of QuickBooks. But for the onboarding, I just need someone who's really super organized and who knows how to ask the right questions.

Alyssa:

Yeah. Totally. And you totally nailed it on that one because I agree. I think a lot of people are also trying to get, like, their bookkeepers or even them as the owner. They always think, like, an assistant can't do this. Like, they need bookkeeping experience. I'm like, they don't need bookkeeping experience to know that they need tax return. But what they do need to know is, like, what type of tax return do they need based off the entity. But that's where you're giving them, like, examples. Like, if someone says that they're an S corp, this is what the tax return should look like. And that way they know like, okay, that's the right tax return, like, but if they're giving them the 1040, then like, that would be a whole different ball game if they're an escort. And I think that you kind of, I'm glad that you brought that up because yes, it's two totally different skill sets. I can totally have my assistant manage the whole entire onboarding process while the cleanup person is someone who is going to have a lot more of a skill set. And the assistant most likely isn't involved in the cleanup because. They don't have the experience to do that.

Brooke:

Correct. I almost think of it like, Oh, here's another example. This is fun. You want to hear it?

Alyssa:

Yeah. Love it.

Brooke:

Okay. So I don't know sports, but I do know like, you know, in volleyball, you know, like there's like that one person by the net that like, Like, like, that, like, like throws the ball up. The setter. Other, yeah, Other person comes in and spikes it.

Alyssa:

Yep.

Brooke:

Think of, like, the person doing the onboarding as the setter, and the person that spikes it is the cleanup person. Okay. I love that. That's comforting.

Alyssa:

I love that. I played volleyball, like, all throughout high school. I was on, like, varsity, I was on varsity all years. I love volleyball. But I'm like, I know exactly what you're talking about. You're talking about the setter and the spiker. Yes.

Brooke:

Good example,

Alyssa:

though.

Brooke:

All right, cool. I chimed in. That was all I had to contribute today. I'm going to go now.

Alyssa:

You did a great job. I thought you were for sure going to go down the conversation of F1 because I still am going back to your wedding day of you saying in your vows that funny line that you said about, I make sure to give you some space, Justin, so you could watch your F1, right?

Brooke:

Oh yeah, I promised to leave him alone on Sundays, because that's, that's one day. And I'm still upholding that, I would like to say. Yes, I'm a woman of my word.

Alyssa:

I'm so proud of you. What a, what a great thing. That's what I was like, she's going to say F1. She's going to say F1. And then you said volleyball. I was like, oh, you surprised me on that one.

Brooke:

Justin might actually listen to this episode though, if I brought in like an F1 reference.

Alyssa:

He's going to be like, I'm going to listen to the whole thing. So shout out to Justin. Thanks for being here and thanks for listening and thanks for being the best husband to Brooke. Um, anyways, now that we got a little off topic here, talking about F1 already in today's episode. So let's talk about what makes for a good onboarding system because I think a lot of people are just like, best way I could describe my onboarding before really having it nailed down is a freaking hot mess.

Brooke:

Yeah, I think that's the only way to describe it.

Alyssa:

Yeah, so like, I'm curious for you, what was your onboarding like prior to actually getting your **** together?

Brooke:

Um, I think we just used to like, so I know like in our, you know, we used to have sought out for proposals and payment, like first payment. And I remember like, it would send like a welcome email, right? Like a long welcome email. And I think it basically said, Hey, you're going to get another email from us or something like that. And then, uh, and then we would actually have to go manually, you know, send this email. Onboarding email basically asking for all the stuff that we wanted I think we gave them the option to book a call but like no one ever did and honestly I think I didn't want to at that time anyways, because this was at a time where I was also like at my Max capacity. So like, I really wasn't trying to have more calls. Like I'm trying to free up my time, not, you know, fill it. So yeah, I think we just used to send like an email, a really long email listing, everything that we needed. And I can only imagine how fun that was to read for a client. And then it was like a lot of. back and forth because like maybe the client would you know, send us this and then or they would send us something else and then so It was a constant headache of then trying to go back through like, okay We requested these eight things Which ones did we get and which ones did we not get? I think that was like my biggest headache was like always trying to figure out like, what, what do we still need? Like, what are we still missing? Did we get everything? Like, it was just, it was a hot mess express.

Alyssa:

I think we've all been there. I think we've all been to the place where it's like, we don't even know what's happening half the time. I don't think the client knows what's happening half the time. And that's not good. Like, it's okay if like internally you're. Obviously, it's not good that if you're like internally like falling apart, but let's just say that like at least externally, if you look like you're having **** together, that's like what matters the most because I think I see a lot of people also in the industry who beat themselves up over what they think their client thinks about them. And I'm like, they probably think you have your life together. So like, give yourself some grace. Like they don't know that you're internally you're crumbling.

Brooke:

Yeah, I might be too harsh there. I think that's more of my own perspective now having different systems, right? But.

Alyssa:

Oh, totally.

Brooke:

But yes, I, but still though, even if I was like that new client, like, I still think I'd be like, Oh, that's a long email. I don't want to read it.

Alyssa:

Totally. There's a lot of times where like, I don't want to email is one of the things. And I also think that like, this is just going back to in last episode, which we'll link below guys, if you haven't listened to all the other ones leading up to today's episode with we talked a little bit about how it's. Sometimes the things that we value at different parts of our business, we also have to recognize that some of our clients to really value time. That's why they hire us. And so any ways that we can eliminate it being this big mission. So going back to the onboarding thing, like I said, mine was hot mess. I don't even have to even explain it further. You kind of did a great job. It was like, ditto. but like, how is life now with onboarding? And I can't wait to like hear your perspective and share mine about like our onboarding systems now. So what's kind of changed and what's been updated.

Brooke:

Well, my most favorite part of onboarding is that I have nothing to do with it.

Alyssa:

I love that for you.

Brooke:

Yeah, that's my favorite part, but I couldn't like, that wouldn't have been doable, like using that the way I used to do onboarding, like through that email system. So yeah, I would say the fact that now we have like one, a very like automated streamlined process that. Let's us easily track what we have and what we don't have. The process also allows for anyone on my team to do the onboarding. Like anyone could step in and do it if they needed to. and I think we've created just like a better client experience. So all of the above. What about you?

Alyssa:

Yeah, I think for onboarding, it's definitely had its. changes over the years. I remember at top notch, it was so different than it is now. Also, there was so much different tech that I used then that now is like available and useful at this time. But now we have like way more things automated. So the very beginning, I just remember being like, everything was so manual. It was like all the manual lists and always trying to remember things. And then, uh, Asana came into the picture and Asana really helped with like being able to like task those things out, which was really helpful for me. And then over the years, I've just added more software and new changes and new things and more support. And right now, Mackenzie, my Ops girl, she's actually working with me on our onboarding because even after It's been pretty automated for quite some time. We're still improving on it. We're still making tweaks here and there. But I love, honestly, I think onboarding is one of my favorite other than client, the client experience system is my top. I would say client experience system is my top priority because that's like really important to me. I know that we share that same value that that's so important to me, but I think the onboarding is the funnest because it's got like a lot of the tech stuff, but it is one of those things that's a little bit hard to get off your plate, but it's not, it's really the hardest part is. Making sure that the team member who's receiving the information, can either tell the client yes or no, that this is not what we needed or hey, this is not actually what we wanted, or we actually wanted this over here. I think that's the hardest piece of the onboarding is making sure that they get the right things, not necessarily like just everything the client agrees to, you know?

Brooke:

Yeah, I think so. Like a big piece of that is like, and I know we're going to talk about it, but in what we use, right, which is content snare.

Alyssa:

Yeah.

Brooke:

The way that we have it set up literally Makes it one so clear to both the client and the person doing the onboarding what we're asking for So it's going to be super super easy and almost like doesn't even really need training Right to figure out if we got the right thing or not And I think that's what I love about it, too It took it took out a lot of that like thinking, you know what I mean? So it makes it easier as a whole.

Alyssa:

Yeah, totally, especially when like you're trying to get whatever you need from it and kind of going back to the whole like you don't have to do it as a business owner, but we will say that I think it's also another big, I don't want to say issue, but like problem that people face when trying to get onboarding delegated is the fact that like I could just do it so much faster because I can just like go set up all these things right now. Like I could quickly make the Google Drive so why would I bother or why would I wait because sometimes we all have this problem where we don't want to wait for someone because we have to wait a whole another day or another whole two days to finally get that thing to be set up. Because onboarding happens so fast and like just fires off so quickly. But yeah, a lot of our onboarding now is like, So automated, like I love the automations. I think we have like a 75 step zap that happens as soon as someone signs that contract. Like within Dubsado it fires off like pretty much everything, which we're gonna talk about later in the episodes and the automations that we have set up. I do wanna highlight something that you talked about, which is ContentSnare which is obviously our favorite thing, with this little series that we're doing. Yeah, we use ContentStare in the onboarding process. So essentially when someone's being onboarded, we send them over the ContentStare request to have them fill everything out. It helps us to gather the tax documents, also gives them instructions on how to add us as accountant users, like gives them pretty much anything and everything. And I know I got my onboarding system actually, or the onboarding requests from you specifically. So I'd love to talk about, you know, how you're using ContentStare and integration with your current onboarding system.

Brooke:

so I will say too that I know we talked, we talked a lot about team and having other people and I know not everyone might be that's listening might not have a team or have plans to have a team, and I will say to that when I. Like when we implemented this like it was I'm pretty sure it was just me at the time I maybe had like a va but like I was still like a one man band But even in that scenario like this will save you so much freaking time Like It gave me so much time back during the onboarding that I could like then do other things. I could actually onboard more clients faster too, which was nice. I, oh, I do this thing where I get sidetracked. What was your question, Alyssa?

Alyssa:

Uh Really great question because I don't remember what I asked you. This is like every day, but we, we scroll often guys. It is so much fun when you're around us. I promise we are not weird, but like, we like this. It's better. Cause like, I feel like you were flowing and I don't even remember what we were talking about, but I know we were talking about onboarding.

Brooke:

Yeah, yeah, we're at the time. We're good time. But yeah, we, you know, we like like a loose structure. We like, yeah, where the conversation takes us. That's totally. So I'll get

Alyssa:

us back on track to somewhere, but I don't remember what question I asked. But anyways, one of the things I did want to talk about is how long that it currently takes you to onboard versus how long it used to take you to onboard your clients. I'll kind of share, share mine. So for us, we strive for a two week onboarding process. So from start to finish, as soon as they sign that contract, then the onboarding process initiates. And that's two weeks for the clients to get us everything that we need, everything that we need to set up on our end to then be able to hand it off to the cleanup person. So before that, though, I would say it would, I would at least try for anywhere from four to six weeks. Um. And now it's like really fast. Like honestly, our clients actually onboard themselves very, very quickly. Like we, I don't even think we even hit the two full weeks. Like they're pretty good at like being on top of it. It could also just be like the system itself, but it also could be that my industry is very receptive to the online stuff. And like, I know some industries like construction might take a little bit longer. So there might be that. So I'm just curious what you guys strive for your plan for onboarding.

Brooke:

Yeah, I mean, I think we always strive for two weeks. Like I think that was like our optimal goal. But if we're being realistic, I think in the old ways that I we used to onboard like with some clients, it could take up to four weeks or you said even six sometimes like it was just it could just be a very slow, very dragged out process and so much follow up for those ones because you're like checking in once a week to be like, Hey, you know, whatever. But, Yeah. And then I'd say when we implemented it, I think we got it down to like, probably on average about a week. But yeah, I mean, sometimes we would do the onboarding in like a day or two. Like it was so fast. I mean, obviously that depends on the clients, but, Yeah, it drastically cut down not only the onboarding time, but the follow up time, the communication time, like all of that.

Alyssa:

Yeah. And so what are some of the ways, cause I know that we've talked a lot about in the, leading up to this episode, a lot about content there and how we use it within, our firms and how we're able to use it. I know for us, Content Star makes a lot easier to have those like automated emails to really nudge someone to like, Hey, we still need that document. Hey, we still need to get going. So what are some ways that you've sprinkled in things to help speed up that process for anyone who's like, Holy****, Brooke, you do it in like one week, two weeks, like, you know what I mean? So like, what have you been doing to do that?

Brooke:

Yeah. So I think it's all about the way we ask things and how, like, I have this, You know belief that the easier we make things for the client the more likely they are to get it to us So we try to make this onboarding request as simple and as easy and as clear as it possibly can be so that way like You ever ask a client a question or you ask them for something and like they send you a document But you're like no. No, I was just asking you a question, right like So in the way that we have this set up, like, we have it set up with the specific question types, because in Content Snare you can have different question types. So if I'm asking someone for, say, a tax return, I'll give them a file upload field. So that way they know, like, I'm asking you to upload something, right? Or if I'm asking someone, like, a this or that question, I can give them a dropdown. So that way they can only choose this or that. So that allows them to that eliminates that headache of like, oh shoot. They said the wrong thing Let me go back and respond and clarify it eliminates all that back and forth. So I think just in one Making it really clear to the clients like what we're asking for And also making it easy in a way that makes sense to them and why we're asking for it if that's needed I think that's helped a lot and also too because the platform like auto saves. So I think it helps the clients like because they can go in and do like little bits and pieces at a time rather than having to maybe like, you know, carve out an hour to go do everything. They might be like, okay, I can do this real quick for you. I can do that, you know, like later today. And so I think all of those things have, what has helped speed it up., and then, oh, last but not least, my most favorite part of, Content Snare, and we talk about this like in all the episodes, I think, is their ability to, do conditional questions. I had that written down.

Alyssa:

I was so excited to talk about that one too. No, go for it. I like, I love to chime in on this piece.

Brooke:

Yeah, so what the conditional questions is, it's basically like an if then, right? So if the client answers this way to this question, then do this. So the way that that helps in onboarding is like,

Alyssa:

Like payroll is a great example. Like if you ask someone like, do you have payroll? And they say yes, then it will spit off more questions. But then if it says no, then it's not going to show them other questions about getting access to their payroll provider. Like why ask all these questions if the client doesn't need it? That's always like my easiest example.

Brooke:

Yes, exactly. Or even another example with payroll too in particular is like, while sometimes depending on what payroll service they have, they might have online access, or if they work with like a local company, they might get like old school, like emailed reports from their company.

Alyssa:

Yeah.

Brooke:

And so, or they might not get reports at all. So when some, when we ask the question is, you know, do you have payroll? And they say, yes, then it spits off that next question of how do you access your payroll reports? And we give them the option to choose like online, online. You know, emailed from payroll provider or other and so depending on which answer they choose will actually dictate the next question they get and it's going to be very different because if they have online access. Well, then, hey, we're going to try to get online access. But if they have emailed reports, well, okay, now we need them to upload them to us, right? Or if it's other well, we need you to tell us more like Transcribed What is this other, right? So that's my favorite part, which I think also eliminates a lot of that back and forth time in onboarding because it's, you're pre empting the questions that you would ask depending on how they answer your questions, you know?

Alyssa:

And sometimes like, like you said, the clients don't know what we do and what we need and what we want. And sometimes like, I don't know how, if this is true for you very often, but like how many business owners have you talked to her? Like, I don't even know if we run payroll. They do run payroll and they, they, they do. And it's through a certain system, but like, they're just so oblivious to it. Not because they're trying to be oblivious or not because they're smart. It's because like, they're really busy and they've just trusted the firms that they've worked with that. Like, Oh, I don't know that I have a 401k and yet they are paying out to a 401k. Like. We usually can see those things and I think a lot of the times when we are asking clients these questions about like, let's just say payroll and then they say yes and they have all these other questions, it's like, they're going to also get confused if they see a bunch of questions about things that don't, aren't relevant to them because then they'll start second guessing themselves like, wait, Okay. Do I have that? Well, maybe they don't, and so then they start answering questions that are like, you actually don't even have this, and you were just like, guessing.

Brooke:

Yeah, yeah, they're like telling you they have payroll, but really they just write like checks to, to them. Yeah,

Alyssa:

themselves. Yeah, like little things like that are like the reasons why I like doing that, and then I think you touched on the piece, one thing I like too about our onboarding is, I have been onboarded by multiple different companies like over the years of just people I've worked with and sometimes they send me these forms that are done on this system that like guys if you are using a typo form is the one one that I literally will just throw my computer every time someone sends me a typo form typo form what I hate about it you don't know how many questions there are You have to first put in your email, your name, and then it spits out every single question individually on screen. Then you hit enter and the new one comes up. So you don't know how long it's actually going to take you. Sometimes I have seen, like, I recently started working with this guy and he sent me over that same typo form thing. The thing was like 50 questions and the reason why it was is because it was like a personal thing. It's like, he does like energetic work and stuff. And so he needed to literally learn my life story. But, however, like he did tell me that it was going to take anywhere from 15 20 minutes. That shit took me 45. So, let's be real. and I just remember like filling it out and with typo form you can't really save it and come back. You leave your, you just lost all your work. And it doesn't make it a really good experience for someone who might be on the other end of that. Who might, not have time I don't always have time to sit down for even 15 minutes to fill something out. Let alone, and then it turned into like 45 and at the very end I'm getting bitter. And now I'm sure my answers start getting bigger. Bitter, you know? Because I'm like, so angry because I gotta do these freaking things, like. And that's another thing I like about, you know, specifically content snare as we speak of that, or any software that any of you use that can allow you to save it, the business owner doesn't always also have the answer right away. They might have to reach out to their CPA or they might need to reach out to their office assistant who helps them. So it's really important to make sure that they also have that experience to be able to come back and revisit that form.

Brooke:

Yeah, totally. And you have to remember too, like your client just signed on with you. They just signed a contract. They probably just paid you a good sum of money. This is like their first real experience now working with you. And I feel like it can really set the tone. So I think when we have a better onboarding system, it lets us like, even though it's not technically like that first impression, but it really is the first working together. So I think, you know, set that a little bit higher, like, like, You know what I mean?

Alyssa:

Yeah, the client experience. It's all going back to like, these are just tiny little touch points that do make a big difference because if I'm going to be onboarded by someone who's giving me a 50, questions, I'm going to assume that everything in the future is always going to be 50, questions and that every time I have to set aside 45 minutes. And that's a lot. That's like exhausting to someone who's Like me who's trying to clear my mental space and not have to like worry so much. And I don't mind answering the questions. The other thing too that I find, which you are the reason why we started implementing the onboarding calls. It's so funny because I used to do them back in the day at Top Notch. Didn't want to do them at Magnetic mostly because like I didn't want to have to do them. To be honest, let's be real. But now we actually started doing them and Mackenzie's been popping in. She's been helping with the calls. We give it like as an option. Some people want it, some people don't. So if they want to take advantage of it, they can. But that's another thing too, and I can't tell you how many times I've been onboarded by someone. I'm like, hey, can I just give you feedback? Like, obviously you take it with a grain of salt, but it'd be really cool if you like, offered either a call or if you offered that we can submit a Loom video. Because sometimes I do that. Like, I did that with my ads agency. I sent them a massive Loom video. Literally answering every question because, like, I just didn't have time to write it all out and I just do better speaking. And they ended up changing their onboarding process to say, if you'd rather fill this out via video, like, either book a call or send us a Loom video, and they actually changed their process. Because I think sometimes people, like, learn, receive, and do things in different ways, so just having that option is really helpful.

Brooke:

Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I'm the same way. Like if I can just talk something out, I'd rather answer verbally than type it out. and I remember too, I feel like, this is from like BKX many years ago. And Ben Day said this and always lives in the back of my head, rent free,

Alyssa:

like Ben talking in the back.

Brooke:

Yeah. And he said something like to the effect of, Like, you know, all client issues are just issues in communication, you know? So it's like, I feel like the better, the better we can communicate with our clients or communicate on their level or give them options for, for them to communicate the way they prefer to communicate. The more likely we are to resolve the issues that we have.

Alyssa:

Yeah, totally. I mean, how many times have you tried to call a company and then they're like, it's automated only, and then you're just frustrated because you can't talk to a human or like you can't get support or you're stuck or you're overwhelmed or like you're waiting for a support ticket that takes like five days for them to respond to. It's the same thing. Like, I don't want, I'll leave a lot of companies that do kind of stuff like that. And I think that just goes to show going back to the client experience and just making sure that. And then for anybody who's like overwhelmed with like, well, where the hell do I start? Because it's such a hot mess right now. I would just say like, just take the time to just map out and it doesn't have to be writing down the whole process. It's just simply knowing and understanding what happens within your onboarding to say, where can we improve this? So maybe it's the improving like the communication between the client. Maybe it's setting a better tone at the very beginning because like you said, it really does establish the rest of the relationship is this onboarding system.

Brooke:

Yeah, yeah. And that, that could be really easy too, like, if, like, you know, if you're listening and you haven't, if you don't have anything in place, but you know it's a hot mess.

Alyssa:

Yeah.

Brooke:

Like, I'm a big, fan of getting these, like, giant, like, two feet long pieces of paper, and, like, markers, and then that's how I, like, will start to, like, kind of draw things and, like, map it out, like, okay, well, what am I doing now? Right. And then I'll go through it. And then maybe with like a different colored marker, I'll be like, okay, well, where am I feeling tension in here? Like, where is there a pain point? Like, You know, and so that can help you start saying like, Oh, here's where I can start with that. here's maybe where I should focus my intention. That way you're not like trying to solve all the problems at once. You just start with one little thing at a time, you know?

Alyssa:

Yeah, totally. You got me onto the whole big sticky note pieces of paper thing. Are your sticky notes too? Are they just paper?

Brooke:

They're just paper. You'll never buy

Alyssa:

sticky notes.

Brooke:

I know. I saw yours. Yours look cool.

Alyssa:

Yeah, they're like a big like sticky note poster board thing. You can also buy this little easel. I haven't gotten that crazy yet only because I'm currently traveling. If I wasn't traveling, I probably would have bought the easel. Um, for sure. I just have exactly have so much room in this lovely trailer of mine. But I, I love them because me and Serena recently did, an in person, like our own, like marketing strategy session that we wanted to do like a boardroom and bring all of our big sticky notes. And that was really helpful for us to be able to put on the wall. But this is where I always tell people, because I think everyone, like, is told just document processes, which I am obviously here for that. However, I think that's where people get overwhelmed because they're going into the, it's like the forest between the trees, like saying that the people say, I don't remember how the people say it, but they say it. But anyways, for me, it's so much easier for me to like, just high level, like draw out a map of the different steps and then getting granular later, because that will help you to see which parts of that. process you need to fix.

Brooke:

Yeah, exactly. Like the big things. Here's what we're doing. Not necessarily the how we're doing those things, but here we're requesting bank access. We're requesting payroll access. then you can go into the details later if you want to like, Oh, here's how we do that. Right.

Alyssa:

Yeah, totally. And to shamelessly plug, Breakthrough, we actually cover all of this. So we show you how to process map to document your processes, get everything in order. And that's just like one tiny sliver of what we really dive into inside the program. Me and Brooke are one of the coaches alongside Erica Painter. So you can also get support with us because this is a big topic that no matter how many times we talk about onboarding in the system, everybody's software is different. And that's how everyone's like, just give me the process. I'm like, it's not that easy because like, it's not always that way. It's not like I can just hand you something because you're going to use different systems, but you have to learn how to fix those things yourself too.

Brooke:

Yeah,

Alyssa:

totally. So before we end off today's episode, I want to just kind of talk about, making sure to keep track or how everyone is keeping, or how do you recommend that people keep track of information as you are requesting things from clients and the things that you are, Trying to gather and receive. What are some ways that you have tackled that throughout the years of making sure you get everything you need?

Brooke:

Ooh, yeah. So obviously the system we use now solves that. So it's not quite as needed. But if you're not using any kind of system like that, if you're still onboarding via email or maybe via call, a real simple thing that you could do to keep track of that is like, Create a spreadsheet, maybe create like a spreadsheet, create like an onboarding tab that's like a template of like typically the things because we ask for pretty much the same things all the time from the clients We tailor it a little bit for each client But generally we ask for all the same stuff right because we need the same stuff to get started and then maybe you could just have either like a different column or a different tab for each client And then you could like put a received column and then if they received it, you can do like a little drop down, but like a check mark, or you can put a yes, you know, whatever, if you don't want to get fancy with like the dropdowns, you can just put like simply yes or no. But that would be a good way to track it if you, or if you don't have a system that tracks it for you.

Alyssa:

Yeah, I love that. And so you're talking specifically about content snare, I'm assuming.

Brooke:

Yes, I am.

Alyssa:

Okay. Cool. Great segue into what I'm about to say. So as of this week, that means that as this episode is actually live and the first time you're listening to this, we have already released our lovely conjoined program that me and Brooke co created together. It's called Effortless Client Requests. If you are curious on how to create a better, you know, onboarding system while using these types of requests that we keep talking about. You can go to workflowqueen. com backslash content snare. It's going to be a program all about how to use content snare, how to do pretty much anything and everything with setting up the software. We're also going to include our whole entire onboarding template that you guys can use as far as the request side of things. So that means what do we ask for when we're onboarding the clients? What are the emails that we send to them that are automated? What does it actually look like? Pretty much all of those details. I'm super excited about it. We also don't just give just the onboarding template, which is so fun. Yeah. We also give all the other templates that we use within our own firm inside of Content Snare, how we have that set up, how we bring our team in, how we've branded it, so on and so forth. So if that's something that interests you, it is now ready to rock and roll for anyone who wants to join and get some full support from us. And you can go to workflowqueen. com backslash content snare. I'll also drop the link below this episode for you guys if you have any questions or anything. Is there anything that you want to share about this lovely effortless client requests program or anything that you want to share to the people? Bye

Brooke:

Yeah, so like you mentioned, right? Like, so there will be that onboarding template. So basically what that means is, like, we're literally giving you, like, here is exactly how we onboard our clients. Like, so you don't have to, I mean, obviously you can tailor it for your business, tailor it for your firm. We always recommend that. Like, you always want to make it but we're literally giving you like, here you go. Here are the keys to simplifying your onboarding process and save you guys so much time. And so we're super excited about that. I will say, I know, like we've mentioned before, but this is probably one of the most requested things. Even in breakthrough where, we did, I did like a mini kind of guest expert session on this long time ago, I would say the onboarding piece was the biggest piece that everyone used. And so it. It can really like streamline so much in the business. And there's also going to be other fun templates, like our month end template and year end and 1099 and all the things. So,

Alyssa:

yeah, we're so excited. Well, thank you everyone for tuning in today. We will link everything in the show notes below and then look out for next week's episode. We're going to be talking about how to keep track of missing info or requested info from, that you and your team have been trying to track. And not just in regards to onboarding, we're talking about just in general, how are we staying on top of that stuff. So look out for that episode. We're so excited. And thank you so much, Brooke, for being here.

Brooke:

Thank you for having me.