Guest Post: How to Create Massive Customer Surplus through Memorable Onboarding & Obsessive Service

This week we feature an article by Michael Becker, founder of  Scaling Sciences, a growth agency for coaches. He shares how organizations can gain loyal customers by providing an experience that exceeds expectations.

The stakes have effectively been raised, and they’ll continue to go up for product brands, service providers, and client-based companies alike.  

In 2022, and moving forward, simple fulfillment isn’t enough. Not hardly.    

Amazon does more than deliver packages — they “WOW.” And as a result, we’ve become addicted to the on-demand whatever-you-want immediacy, the ridiculously easy swipe-and-receive culture, plus the reassurance that comes with no-hassle returns. That’s worth $13 per month for my Prime membership, and I don’t ever stop to question whether it is. My service is so good that I stay and I pay.  

We’ve entered a new era of service where businesses that are serious about scaling and retaining their customers — especially small businesses using continuity models (e.g., payment plans or monthly subscriptions) — have no choice but to over-deliver at every turn (or risk losing customers to others who do). 

10x Treatment for New Clients

I’m in the coaching space so let me dive into what a 10x customer onboarding process may feel like. I’ll explain how you might choose to go above and beyond at each step.  

Step 1: A prospective client schedules a call with you. You read through their intake form, and instead of shrugging it off and passively waiting until the call, you dig through their website or social media and pull out 2-3 golden nuggets about what they’re doing that you can help improve upon or just complement.  Within 30 minutes of the scheduled call, you make them a quick self-recorded video thanking them and sharing your excitement. You send it over along with a link to a private recording of your inner circle VIP call plus an “ultimate guide” PDF they might find useful.  

Step 2: They show up for the call, and even though the meeting goes well, they mention they’re diligent and will see it through before they’re ready to get going. No problem. You offer them a free 14-day trial to your program and send them a hard copy of a great book that you mentioned on the call.  

Step 3: Due to your generosity, personalized advisory, and ability to identify and solve their problems for free up-front, they decide to sign up with you five days later. You immediately record another welcome video, this time screen sharing directions once insider plus expert hacks to help them get off and running. You email them the welcome video and a link to get scheduled with you for an in-depth call where you’ll outline a specific game plan with them. You give them your personal cell so they can text you anytime with any issues, big or small.  

Step 4: You assign your best client success manager on their account and ensure they’re scheduled for your monthly training workshops as a non-negotiable. You see what other freebies you can share to add additional value. You make a calendar note for yourself to proactively send them biweekly text message voice note check-ins.  

Step 5: You send a feedback survey plus a gift card after four weeks in the program to gauge where they’re at and see how it’s going. Meanwhile, the client is amazed at the depth and quality of your training due to your effort in putting together the most all-inclusive program on the market in your niche.  

Step 6: The client shoots you a text message with a quick question. You record an in-depth response leading to a 1-hour impromptu phone call where you can further connect on a 1:1 level and forge a much deeper relationship.  

Step 7: You plan a trip to visit the client in person for a two-day workshop to ensure success and implementation. You’ve prepared a 10-page booklet specific to them and their opportunities and a new, never-before-seen training video you wanted them to see before anyone else for feedback.  

This type of client engagement is one example of the almost obsessive customer centricity I’m talking about. At the end of the day, the client in the above scenario is going to feel incredibly “taken care of.” They’re going to feel like you did everything in your power (and then some) to propel them toward lasting results – that you want their success more than they do.  

Conclusion

Great customer experience today is all about 1:1 accountability and interaction, sweetening the pot at every touch point, and going well beyond anything that client has felt before.  

From a numbers standpoint, I believe that the real mark of successful businesses (or those poised to explode) is how effectively they can overdeliver while maintaining or even increasing margins and incurring very little added expenses. 

Delivering much more value than customers asked for is the only way to create the kind of coherence that leads to unfettered loyalty.  

We want clients to become raving fans so they feel as if they need us as badly as they need their sleep. Why? Because at the moment in which that level of satisfaction has been established, prices become mostly irrelevant, and you’re now playing an entirely different game based on devotion, emotion, and reciprocity… and that’s the long-term game where you win, the client wins, and you can truly create impact in the world.  

Michael Becker is the founder of the growth agency for coaches, Abundance Accelerators. He is a recognized thought leader in business automation and internet marketing.