How do you onboard a customer as a customer success manager?

The first step to onboarding a new customer is to onboard yourself.

This starts with you accessing all the information your organization has about the customer and synthesizing this to create your organization's view.

You might look at MS Teams, SFDC, Wrike, O365 etc You would also pick up the phone and talk to the Salesperson and ask to look at the territory plan, also the presales consultant and ask to look at the Technical account plan, then reach out to Services to understand the projects delivered, and those inflight. Basically, try and talk to the key team members that have been involved with the customer.

The next step is to look at the information that is publically available such as ASX/NZX accounts, the website, any news articles, and Linkedin pages. With this, you build an external view of the client.

Mashing the internal and external view of the client you should understand at a high level the client's strategy and their experience with your organization to date.

Onboarding typically starts with a kick-off meeting where you meet the stakeholders for the first time. In this meeting, you can present back to the client what you know about them and start the discussion about what they want to do next.

By following this approach, you add value to your client from the very beginning of the engagement.