The client onboarding process is the first step in a customer-business relationship, so businesses need to make sure that the first impression is the best one. The moment a prospect becomes a client, a smooth and seamless customer onboarding process is crucial.
Unfortunately, complying with KYC and AML regulations has made this customer onboarding process incredibly tough and challenging for businesses. Since their first introduction in the 1970s, the total amount of laws and directives has increased significantly with annual updates. The regulatory bodies have been raising the bar for compliance, thus making the client onboarding process incredibly tough.
Under these circumstances, it’s more than important to onboard clients simply and seamlessly. Current onboarding practices, however, are often cumbersome, time-consuming, tedious, and frustrating. That’s why the importance of customer onboarding is growing which enhances customer experience.
In this article, we’ve mapped out why a business needs a simple and smooth client onboarding process and its benefits.
What Is a Good Client Onboarding Process?
One client onboarding survey found that banks themselves consider their onboarding process inefficient for the customers. Some banks and financial institutions even stated that they still rely on a paper-based customer onboarding process.
As customers are becoming technology-friendly, this process needs to be changed. Therefore, businesses need to understand the basic attributes that make for a “good” client onboarding process.
There are a couple of things that make for a good client onboarding process.
- Simple Process
- Smooth Process
- Seamless Process
A user-friendly process should be a priority while building a customer onboarding process. The ideal customer verification process sets the tone for a robust and long-lasting client relationship.
The client onboarding process should also comply with all the KYC and AML regulations. These regulations are also used to support risk assessment, it includes a long list such as Anti-Money Laundering (AML) practices, and Know Your Customer requirements. In an ideal customer onboarding process, compliance shouldn’t slow down the customer onboarding process.
A good customer onboarding process should be fast and with a quick response time. An average customer onboarding process often takes 2-3 weeks. This needs to be changed, and the client onboarding process needs to be replaced with the online customer onboarding process. This can be achieved by leveraging technologies such as online KYC verification software, online AML verification software, or online customer document verification process.
What’s The Importance of a Good Customer Onboarding Process?
There are 5 biggest reasons why businesses should have a seamless client onboarding process:
1. Demonstrate Own Value
First of all, the implementation of a smooth and simple client onboarding process allows for a company to build healthy and loyal customer relationships early on. A good customer onboarding experience goes a long way and it stays with the customers during their relationship. First impressions of these onboarding processes count, and missed opportunities to demonstrate your company’s value.
2. Exceed Client Expectations
This is a huge reason for building great customer onboarding experiences. The customer experience can be significantly improved by implementing a simple, smooth, and seamless client onboarding. Companies can make this happen by introducing a user-friendly process for onboarding. Customers are accustomed to tiresome and tedious processes and they can be pleasantly surprised when they experience a smooth operation.
3. Increase Efficiency & Revenue
This is another reason for banks and financial institutions to build an ideal customer onboarding process. Financial services companies should focus on enhancing their process as much as possible and make that visible for the client onboarding process. The drive for efficiency should enhance the customer experience.
4. Customer Satisfaction
If a business fails to build an impressive customer onboarding process, it’ll end up losing customers to businesses that offer better processes. There’s no business that wants to lose customers instead of acquiring them. A good customer onboarding process will bind your clients to your company.
5. Improve Regulatory Compliance
The final reason for building a smooth customer onboarding process should make sure that all parties comply with all the rules and regulations. This part isn’t actually easy. However, a smooth and simple client onboarding process with proper AML and KYC compliance can happen by leveraging technologies.
Benefits of Client Onboarding Process
The benefits of a good client onboarding process include a variety of considerations, such as:
1. Increase Efficiency
- Boost customer onboarding time by eliminating unnecessary touchpoints.
- Always stay compliant with the right set of requirements.
- Reduce costs by increasing efficiency
2. Enhance Business Potential
- Increase the scalability of business by understanding requirements across major jurisdictions.
- Minimize risks and misconduct by understanding the regulations.
3. Try to Boost Client Satisfaction
- A simple, smooth, and fast customer onboarding process is equivalent to limited interactions, which leads to increased customer satisfaction.
- Increases the reputation of the business by adding real value based on great customer experiences.
