Hands up if you have spent countless days building out your customer onboarding process into a masterpiece?

✋

Did you notice a sense of dread creep in with the company announcement that you’re in growth mode now?

With growth comes some uncertainty for customer onboarding teams.

We have to transition (smoothly) from dedicated one-on-one consultation and guidance to a much broader way of working.

That’s where we can struggle to maintain our excellent reputation for onboarding.

But you don't have to choose between scaling fast and excellent experiences.

The secret lies in having strategic systems.

This means you can standardise processes, know what to automate, and most importantly, what to keep personal.

So, let’s do that, let’s get personal. ↓

🧪 The Project: Scale Your Onboarding Program

Each company has very specific customer types to match their very specific product. I have chosen a generic approach for my examples.

This should help to get the ideas across for your scenario.

Step 1: Segment your customer base

Analyse your customer data from the past 12 months. Look for patterns in implementation complexity, support needs, and revenue contribution.

Create segments that reflect meaningful differences in how customers need to be onboarded.

For example:

• Enterprise Complex - need custom integration, multiple stakeholders, high revenue, direct support

• Mid-Market Standard - standard implementation, some customisation, some support

• SMB Self-Serve - standard features, minimal customisation, low revenue

Document specific needs, common challenges, and desired outcomes for each segment.

This will inform how you allocate resources and attention.

Start simple with a few segments. You can always get more granular later on.

Step 2: Create a service blueprint

Aim to map out every interaction from contract signing to successful implementation.

I know that sounds like a lot of effort! But… you need to do it.

Start by identifying critical interactions that can make or break the customer experience.

These might include the kickoff call, first user login, or first critical product action taken.

Document the current process, required resources, and customer expectations for each touch point.

Evaluate each interaction similar to this:

• Must be human - complex decision-making, relationship building

• Could be automated - routine information sharing, status updates

• Hybrid approach - automated with human oversight

Create detailed process flows that show how these touch points connect and where handoffs occur.

This will help identify bottlenecks and opportunities for optimisation.

Step 3: Build your resources

Develop a resource tool kit that matches each customer segment's needs.

For enterprise clients:

• Dedicated onboarding specialists

• Custom training sessions

• Priority technical support

For mid-market:

• Group training sessions

• Standard documentation

• Scheduled check-ins

SMB customers:

• Automated welcome sequences

• Video tutorials

• Scheduled webinars

Map out which resources are available to each segment and under what circumstances.

Include guidelines for when to "upgrade" a customer to higher-touch service based on specific triggers or needs.

For more on this, check out my article about the importance of documentation. ↓

Step 4: Implement a trigger system

Create a dashboard of key metrics that indicate when your current processes are starting to strain.

For example:

• Time to first value exceeding a target

• Onboarding specialist utilisation above a certain point

• Customer satisfaction scores dropping below threshold

• Implementation backlog growing beyond capacity

Set clear thresholds that trigger specific actions.

So when your onboarding specialist utilisation hits 85% towards capacity, start a review or initiate hiring processes.

Step 5: Design your team evolution

Create an organisational design that evolves with your customer base.

Start by mapping current roles and responsibilities. Then project how these need to change as you scale.

Consider specialised roles like:

• Onboarding Strategy Manager: Oversees process development and optimisation

• Technical Implementation Specialists: Handles complex technical setup

• Customer Education Specialist: Develops and delivers training programs

• Onboarding Operations Analyst: Monitors metrics and identifies optimisation opportunities

These are advanced roles for when your customer onboarding program is also advanced.

It’s useful to have an idea of where your team can evolve and it gives team members an idea of career paths.

🤓 The Analysis

Scaling your onboarding process doesn't mean sacrificing quality. It means being smarter about how you deliver value.

Build a foundation that can flex and grow with your business while maintaining the essence of what makes an onboarding experience personal.

What to expect if you implement these ideas:

• Reduced onboarding time

• Strong data to back up decisions

• Smoother growth experience for internal team

• Expectation clarity for new customers