The client onboarding process should be a seamless experience for new clients. However, without the right tools and strategies, what should be simple can quickly become chaotic and disorganized, leading to inefficiencies for both your team and your clients.
Despite all the complexities of onboarding — including numerous stakeholders, documents, tasks and timelines — many teams still rely on basic spreadsheets to get the job done.
While spreadsheets might seem like an easy solution, they often create more problems than they solve — leading to onboarding nightmares. (We’ve dedicated an entire session to these “horror stories” and how to avoid them during our upcoming Onboarding World conference.)
Here are seven clear signs that spreadsheets might be derailing your client onboarding processes.
1. Visibility Gaps Across Teams
When your team is managing onboarding with spreadsheets, there’s a lack of visibility into tasks and timelines. Spreadsheets are not designed to handle dynamic, multi-user environments, making it difficult for team members to see where each client is in the onboarding journey. It’s easy to overlook comments submitted within a spreadsheet, so unless your team is checking for updates throughout the day, they don’t know when it’s time to take action.
This creates blind spots that lead to missed deadlines and frustrated clients.
2. Version Control Nightmares
One of the biggest downsides of spreadsheets is the difficulty of maintaining a single source of truth. Different team members may work on separate versions of the same document, leading to confusion and errors. This can result in inconsistencies in client communication and deliverables, undermining the entire onboarding process.
3. Fragmented Client Communication
Clients expect clear and proactive communication throughout their onboarding experience. Spreadsheets don’t support automated notifications or real-time updates, leaving clients unclear about what happens next. If your clients frequently ask for updates, it’s a sign that your current process is not meeting their expectations.
4. Siloed Information and Disconnected Tools
Managing client onboarding with spreadsheets often means linking out to various documents and platforms. This scattered approach can confuse clients and make it difficult to track progress. A seamless onboarding process should integrate all necessary tools and documents into a single, accessible platform.
5. Bottlenecks in the Sales to Onboarding Handoff
A smooth transition from sales to onboarding is critical. Spreadsheets can exacerbate communication gaps between these stages. If your onboarding team frequently discovers discrepancies between what was promised by sales and what can be delivered, it’s a sign that spreadsheets are part of the problem.
6. Poor Accountability
Accountability is crucial in the onboarding process. Spreadsheets make it challenging to track who is responsible for which tasks and follow up with them accordingly. If your team regularly encounters issues with missed deadlines or missing information, it's a strong indication that spreadsheets don't provide the oversight and control you need.
7. Your Onboarding Team is Overwhelmed
Spreadsheets require manual updates and tracking, which can lead to time-consuming tasks and a greater likelihood of errors. When tasks consistently take longer than expected, it's often due to the absence of purpose-built tools. Additionally, spreadsheets don’t offer insights into task durations, making it challenging to plan and allocate resources effectively.
Aside from overwhelming your team, it also causes revenue forecasting challenges due to delays between the time your company sells a solution and when it actually becomes profitable.
Why Dedicated Client Onboarding Software Is the Answer
Spreadsheets aren’t built to handle the complexities of modern client onboarding. By switching to a dedicated client onboarding solution like Setuply, you can centralize all your data, automate routine tasks, and provide clients with a seamless experience from the moment they sign on.
Setuply offers tools that ensure visibility, streamline communication, and enhance collaboration across your team. Ready to see how Setuply can transform your onboarding process? Request a demo today