Change your daily routine and you could start seeing the impact very quickly.
I’ve been working directly with a client struggling to keep their head above water with a very long task list.
It caused them a lot of stress every morning when they opened up their laptop.
Numerous notifications popped up, endless Slack messages, email replies stacked their inbox, escalations coming in from the week before, and last minute meetings appeared in their calendar.
And just like that, the day started in reactive mode.
They felt like they couldn’t progress effectively when being pulled in so many directions. They saw their clients suffer too.
Quite frankly, it’s draining.
We decided to look at their morning routine and how we could improve it. I wanted to share some parts of it with you.
So, grab a coffee and turn off those notifications for a few minutes. ↓
🧪 The Project: Onboarding Day Reset
Step 1: Create a 30-minute buffer
The most successful onboarding managers don't start their day with Slack or email. Resist the urge to open these up when you wake up or when you commute.
The moment you open anything that requires communication, you’re in reactive mode.
If you must do something before you sit at your desk, do this.
Give yourself 30 minutes to prep for the day.
Review customer dashboards or your task list for the day (which you should create at the end of the previous day).
Identify the 2-3 highest-impact activities you can accomplish.
Make a habit of this, set a recurring calendar item with a specific start and end time.
Step 2: Eat the frog!
When you do get to your emails, identify the two most critical customer communications within the first 10 minutes of opening your inbox.
This prevents the tendency to handle easy tasks first while letting important issues linger.
Have you heard of the idea, “Eat The Frog”?
Procrastination over hard tasks only compounds as they escalate and you start to run out of time.
It’s a skill to manage tasks like this but an important one.
Once you have identified these critical tasks, make a quick plan of how you are going to tackle them for the day.
Then get started.
Step 3: Schedule routine tasks
Don’t be tempted to scatter admin tasks throughout the day.
Instead, batch similar activities together in designated time blocks. This will keep you consistent each day and stop you from procrastination and distraction.
Examples:
Only check emails twice a day.
Change Slack settings to notify only on direct messages and review at set times.
Calls scattered throughout the day are disruptive. Try to group them in a morning or afternoon.
It needs to work well alongside your team and communication is key when you implement any changes to your working process.
Step 4: Allocate time for proactive projects
The most effective onboarding teams allocate time to improve internal processes.
This is why I’m such a big advocate for dedicated customer onboarding teams. When it’s the sole focus for a team to improve and maintain customer onboarding, the impact is felt across all departments.
Be proactive and structured with your projects. Decide on quick wins and larger problems to tackle.
Examples:
Create an effective feedback loop with the product team
Build out a knowledge base update process
Create a welcome video series for new customers
Create an onboarding survey for customers at completion
Build out an internal onboarding process for new starters
Work with sales to improve onboarding experience knowledge and handovers
Step 5: Be conscious of resource capacity
Visibility of team and individual bandwidth is important in customer onboarding.
Empower individuals to raise a flag when they are feeling overwhelmed or approaching capacity limits.
It’s important for team leads to manage the overall capacity of their team when it comes to assigning new customers for onboarding.
Often it’s the unforeseen that piles on top of that initial capacity.
Create a safe space to highlight struggles and work as a team to unburden the individual.
I have always found that my onboarding teams had such a strong sense of camaraderie that it was a no-brainer to help out.
Try to foster this in your team!
Step 6: Sum up and prep
At the end of your day, save some time to review your achievements and tasks.
We make a point of highlighting achievements to our customers, why don’t we do that for ourselves or our team?
Use this time to make a plan for the following working day. This means you can hit the ground running and feel mentally prepared for the upcoming tasks.
🤓 The Analysis
The effect of improving stress levels and personal productivity is evident in the customer experience you are able to deliver.
When you take control of your schedule and priorities, you become more strategic and results focused.
The added bonus is that you avoid burnout.
In all honesty, it took me a while to figure this out for myself in my career.
But, I still follow these rules today.
And my client?
They said, “I saved 3 at-risk accounts (& my sanity) with this routine. It’s so simple, but I was so snowed under. Now I don’t feel the morning dread every day!”
What you'll achieve with this project:
Individual and team productivity jumps up
Personal job satisfaction increases
Leadership sees onboarding as a strategic function not a cost centre
Faster and more impactful customer outcomes
