If business processes were children, the offboarding process is the middle child for service providers. It is often overlooked, given minimal attention, and overshadowed by the golden child – the onboarding process. However, the offboarding process is just as important for coaches as the onboarding process and any other process in between. It is your coaching client’s final impression of your coaching business.
What Is an Offboarding Process
An offboarding process creates a clear end to your coaching relationship. When you have an offboarding process in place, it is like a picture-perfect breakup where you both leave with great things to say about the other. You calmly agree to end things, give each other your stuff back, and agree on how to deal with communication moving forward. The coaching relationship is tied up in a neat little bow.
When you don’t have an offboarding process in place, it’s like the messiest non-breakup. In some cases, the client may not be aware your coaching program has ended. It is the equivalent of:
And ending your coaching relationship on that note will not result in happy coaching clients who rave about you to anyone who will listen.
Your offboarding process can take many forms (see the How Does an Offboarding Process for Coaches Work section), but it will always happen at the very end of a coaching service. For example, it will happen at the end of each coaching program, even if the client has expressed a desire to work with you in the future. You’ll recap everything you covered in the coaching program, talk about how they can continue their progress, share any additional resources or coaching you offer, and more during a coaching offboarding process.
Essential Elements of an Offboarding Process for Coaches
Every offboarding process will look different because, just like any other business process, your offboarding process should be tailored to your coaching business. Here are some essential elements of offboarding processes for coaches that will help make your offboarding process as effective as possible.
Achievements
A great place to start an offboarding process is to remind your coaching client of everything they achieved during your coaching program. Celebrate their wins with them and recap everything they learned. This has the added benefit of reminding your client of their results immediately before they write a testimonial.
Look Ahead
After discussing what your client has achieved during coaching, look ahead to the future and discuss what your client wants to achieve in the next 6-12 months. Which results does your coaching client want to continue working on? What are they excited about for their future? Are there new areas that they want to explore now they’ve achieved their results?
Resources or Additional Coaching
Use this opportunity to point your coaching client towards any additional resources or coaching programs. You don’t have to hit the hard sale, just provide them with ways they can work with you in the future. This could be your membership program, coaching products, or even additional coaching programs. Where possible, tailor these recommendations to what your coaching client disclosed during your discussions about their future goals.
Testimonial and Feedback Request
Testimonials and feedback from coaching clients are powerful tools for growing your coaching business. You need to ask every single graduating client for feedback. Not every graduating coaching client may give you feedback, but you need to ask every single coaching client. It is very rare that coaching clients will volunteer a testimonial, so if you want testimonials to promote your coaching program, you need to ask for them. Read more about collecting feedback and testimonials here.
Referral Information
Referrals are one of the most powerful ways to generate leads for your coaching business. People trust their friends’ recommendations, so these leads will be red hot. Tell your graduating coaching clients about your referral policy.
Some coaches have a referral program where they keep their graduating coaching clients up to date with new programs and provide compensation for successful leads. This could be cash, gift cards, or other bonuses. Some coaches set up referral packages with information that people can send when referring a friend. This gives the coach some control over the sales messaging provided during the referral.
Additional Support
Be specific about the additional support you will provide and the duration of your support. For example, some coaches have graduate membership groups to allow graduated coaching clients to share their news and contact you. Some coaches allow clients to reach out via email or WhatsApp for a few months following coaching. Let your graduating coaching clients know what level of support they will receive, for how long, and how to contact you.
How Does an Offboarding Process for Coaches Work?
Offboarding processes can happen via call, in-person, via email, or any combination of the three. No matter if you run group or private coaching sessions, offboarding should be 1-on-1 to provide a final personal touch. It has the added benefit of increasing the chances of honest feedback.
The attention span of your coaching clients is particularly short at the end of your coaching relationship, so offboarding should be handled in a single instance. A call with a follow up email to provide useful links would be the ideal offboarding process. Otherwise, a single call or a single email would suffice. Multiple calls or multiple emails will dilute the effectiveness of an offboarding process. You want to respect both your and your clients’ time.
How to Create an Offboarding Process for a Coaching Program
Building an offboarding process for your coaching program requires equal parts strategy and trial and error. When we help coaches to create offboarding processes, we create an initial process and then review once clients have gone through the process. This allows us to refine the process based on insights gained during implementation.
Here is where to start when creating an offboarding process for your coaching program.
Step 1: Brainstorm the Information You Want to Communicate to Coaching Clients
Start with the information you want to communicate to your graduated coaching clients. Here are some prompts to get you started:
- What do you want the final impression to be?
- What support can they access now that the coaching program has finished?
- Which additional programs, coaching programs, or resources would be suitable as a next step?
- What is your referral policy?
Step 2: Brainstorm the Information You Want to Get from Coaching Clients
Next, brainstorm the information you want for your graduated coaching clients. Here are some prompts to get you started:
- Which results have been the most meaningful for them?
- Is there anything you could’ve done to better support them during the coaching program?
- What do they want to achieve in the next 6-12 months?
- How do they want to capitalise on what they achieved in the coaching program?
- What would be most helpful in supporting them to achieve their goals for the next 6-12 months?
Step 3: Outline an Offboarding Process
Third, start outlining your onboarding process.
- Does a call or email work best? Is a combination of the two the best option?
- What is the best flow for your onboarding process? (We recommend deliver value first and then ask for the testimonials and feedback)
- Do you prefer a loose script or talking points?
- How will you make the offboarding process a vital part of the coaching program?
- What parts of your offboarding process can you standardise, and which parts do you want to tailor?
Step 4: Write the Offboarding Email
Whether that the offboarding process all happens via email or this is the follow-up email after the offboarding call, create a loose offboarding email template. This will cut down the time it takes you to implement your offboarding process in the future.
Step 5: Add Your Offboarding into the Coaching Program Schedule
Make the offboarding process a key part of your coaching program rather than an optional extra. On your coaching program schedule, promote the offboarding call (don’t name it that) as an opportunity for the coaching client consolidate results, ask any final questions, and receive guidance on continuing their progress. Your offboarding process benefits your coaching clients; you just need to advertise those benefits.
Obviously, offboarding via call offers more benefits to your coaching client because it becomes a two-way conversation rather than a lengthy email with links. You’re more likely to be able to help your coaching client with their individual aspirations and receive detailed feedback for your testimonials. If you don’t usually record your coaching calls, make sure you record this one! (We want to be clear here that you cannot use the video as a video testimonial without your client’s permission.)
Step 6: Implement Your Offboarding Process and Collect Insights
Now that your offboarding process is live, collect data on its effectiveness. Here are some things to consider tracking to give you insights:
- Percentage of offboarding calls that go ahead
- Click through rate for links in the email
- Percentage of coaching clients who sign up for your referral program/click referral information links
- Percentage of coaching clients who give feedback
- Percentage of coaching clients who take advantage of additional support
- Responses to the offboarding email (if applicable)
Also, collect any follow up questions so you can see if you are missing out any vital information.