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Check-ins… (collective shudder)

Do your customer check-ins feel more like status reports than meaningful developments? Do your customers keep rescheduling the calls?

Check-ins are a highly valuable opportunity but we often fumble them during onboarding.

Why?

It’s usually an afterthought. Once the in depth product training is done we go into a maintenance phase.

But this passive approach can mask progress issues and fail to build the customer confidence necessary for long-term success.

When customers aren't fully engaged in demonstrating their progress, it becomes difficult to identify gaps in understanding or missed opportunities for optimisation.

Before you know it, they have already checked out of their check-ins and you are in an uphill battle.

What if we could build more valuable check-ins into your customer onboarding program that focus on progression and proficiency to enable high product adoption and knowledge?

I’m glad you asked, keep reading. ↓

🧪 The Project: Customer Led Check-ins

This can be developed in any direction to fit with your product and customer needs. Use this project as a basis for your ideas.

The key is to make it a customer led meeting where they are highly engaged and you are providing additional value based on what they are covering.

Step 1: Set the stage early

Frame this approach during the kickoff call as a collaborative journey rather than a traditional vendor-client relationship.

Explain that you do things slightly differently to what they may have experienced with other companies. This piques interest!

Tell them why you do it this way:

1. It’s a much better use of everyone’s time

2. They will see immediate value from the meetings

3. They will achieve their goals more quickly

Explain that future check-ins (beyond training) will be interactive sessions where the customer team demonstrates their progress.

Be sure to highlight that they will lead the calls with what they are working on within your platform.

This sets expectations and allows customers to prepare adequately.

Step 2: Create a progress template

Develop and share a structure for customers to follow during their check-ins.

Include sections for:

• A review of their last confidence level (more on this in the next step)

• Current status regarding tasks to be done

• Key workflows they've established since last check-in

• Challenges encountered and solutions discovered since last check-in

• Questions about optimisation opportunities

• Current confidence level (survey to be sent after call)

This structure ensures consistent and meaningful presentations while making it easier for customers to prepare.

Within each section you should add your own valuable insights, guidance, best practices, and some magic!

Step 3: Implement a confidence score

Send a brief survey after each check-in. Ask customers to rate their confidence level across different aspects.

For example:

• Overall platform understanding

• Ability to advise other users

• Comfort with advanced features

• Readiness to operate independently

You can refine these sections to be more specific to your product.

Track these scores over time to identify trends and determine when customers are ready to graduate from onboarding.

Highlight these scores at the beginning of check-ins to make the customer aware of their progress. It also allows for honest conversations if the scores drop for any reason.

Step 4: Make strategic observations

Your job during each check-in is to observe and provide knowledge. You will identify highly valuable cues if you put effort into observation.

You will be able to identify:

• Workflows that could be optimised

• Unused features that could add value

• Signs of workarounds that indicate missing knowledge

• Stress levels of a user struggling with complex software

• Insufficient internal customer communication between stakeholders

This is incredibly useful information to observe. This is proactive onboarding.

You will be noticing issues far in advance of them becoming a roadblock and will be able to strategically put solutions in place.

🤓 The Analysis

Forget dull check-in calls. Your customers will thank you for it.

Put the customer in the driving seat and create an environment where they can build confidence through action whilst receiving targeted guidance from you, the expert.

What you'll achieve with this project:

• Increased customer confidence & ownership

• Early identification of issues

• More efficient onboarding timelines

• Increased chance of long-term success