Having an easy payment experience for your clients is so important, especially when it’s the initial signup.

The best plan is to have the registration, payment, and onboarding simple for everyone so you can put all your energy into what matters most – helping your clients. 

There are several steps in most onboarding processes. There are many different apps you can involve, hopefully having them well integrated or finding a service that suits you that does them all. It depends on your personal processes needs. For my clients, it can depend on the coach’s favorite apps and the processes needed, such as coaching 1:1, a couple, or group coaching. 

Because onboarding processes are so important and touch the core of your processes, you need to break it down and ask yourself a lot of questions. In this article, I am breaking down the most common onboarding pieces and bringing up the beginning of several rabbit holes about your process and how your business is set up internally. This is a great thing! It’s likely been a while since you have thought about this or may you know it’s something you need to clean up. Either way, I hope this breakdown helps streamline your onboarding and overall business processes.

You may not have all these steps, or maybe they work out in a different order than what I have listed below – sometimes the overall flow works better another way depending on what apps you are using. 

Common pieces to an onboarding flow are

1. Discovery call
2. Link to product or package
3. Payment
4. Agreement
5. Intake form
6. Intake Session scheduling
7. Coaching sessions 
8. Prompt to repurchase

This process takes a variety of functionality when you look at the tech needed. So let’s look at those pieces and review the handy features to help automate the process and ensure the good experience you are looking for. 

I note several different services, and there are many more that could work. These are the ones that I have found work well for most of my clients because of their needs.

Discovery call

You’ll need a scheduling system with calendar integrations, that creates the meeting link for you (so integrates with Zoom or whichever video call service you use) and will embed into your website.

Apps I find helpful

It depends on your specific needs, but common scheduling apps are Calendly and Acuity/Squarespace. Sometimes all-in-one systems can simplify your need and few of them have scheduling functionality within them. One platform that does have scheduling, along with several other great features for coaches, is CoachAccountable. 

Link to the package-payment page

After your discovery call, you’ll want to quickly point your new client to the package which best fits their needs. For instance, if you offer a monthly payment plan and a pay-in-full option for the same package, you’ll want a system that can present multiple payment options.

I like to embed the payment into the website when possible making it easy to send them to the exact page they can register and make the first payment.

Apps I find helpful

You can often use your scheduling app to take payment – Calendly and Acuity both offer a payment-upon-scheduling option, and Acuity offers it for group classes. 

CoachAccountable works well for this, too, and a big plus for having the scheduling system to keep the process together. 

However, if you want to sell digital courses, you could choose an all-in-one platform like Kajabi, which does everything except scheduling. 

Agreement

Agreements are important, to say the least. Sometimes a checkbox on the terms and conditions will suffice. Or do you need a real signature? How many signatures do you need – do you do couples coaching? 

Apps I find helpful

CoachAccountable has agreements with signatures, I like their service a lot, but they don’t do multiple signatures. 

Kajabi just has the ToC checkbox, and it only works for a single person agreeing. 

I’ve used JotForm, which has a free version and is simple to use – but only for one signature.

If you need an app that will make each document professional, has a lot of integrations, and does multiple signatures like a pro, I like Docusign. 

Intake form and session scheduling

You’ve got to get to know your client before you start coaching them, so if you don’t have them fill out a questionnaire before you begin coaching them, you should.  Often the intake session is in addition to the 8 sessions of the ‘8-session package’, so you’re not cutting into the package yet in terms of tracking, right?

Apps I find helpful

I’ve mentioned JotForms already and have no problem going with it for almost any form needed. You could even use it to host the single-signer agreement and take the payment. After the form is submitted, send a notification with the link to the intake scheduling page.

CoachAccountable can bring this, and all the pieces mentioned so far together, except for a multi-signer agreement. 

Coaching sessions 

There are several aspects to this stage, and what tool(s) you choose is totally up to your priorities and preferences. 

• You’ll want to have sessions counted down automatically
• Do you want a more centralized location to keep notes?
• Do you want to give access to the session recording?
• Are there worksheets or homework?
• Do you need a shared agenda? 
• Engagement – Make sure they don’t go too long without scheduling the next session.

Apps I find helpful

You really need to go through and rate your priorities for this one. 

CoachAccountable handles a lot of this well in a 1:1 coaching scenario and can be set up to alert you and the client when it’s time to re-purchase. There are workarounds to make it work with couples’ coaching. 

Kajabi can handle a lot of this as well in a 1:1 setting through their coaching functionality and automations. 

I hope this breakdown helps! I know there are a lot of options, there are a lot of apps, and it can take a lot of questions, time, and planning to get the right setup. If you need to chat, let’s talk it out. I’m happy to do a free 15-min call to help you chat it out. 

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