We all know the value of onboarding new clients to your nutrition coaching business, but what do you do when one of your clients has reached their goals? It’s a simple question with no easy answer. When our clients reach their goals, usually, two options come to mind. Either we let them go or try to encourage them to continue progress in a new area. However, you may be asking yourself, “How can I keep an ongoing relationship with this client?” or “What can I do to ensure the best off-boarding process possible?” Today we are going to talk about all things off-boarding and what you need to know for a smooth transition for your clients. But before we do, allow me to first introduce myself.
My name is Tony Stephan and I’m a dietitian business coach. I help RDs make more IMPACT and more INCOME through nutrition coaching. However, before I became a dietitian business coach, I was an RD nutrition coach. I served thousands of nutrition coaching clients over a time span of 12 years. My successful nutrition coaching business is what led me to where I am today. Now allow me to share with you about what to do when your client reaches their goals in your nutrition coaching business.
My Client Has Reached Their Goals–Is It The End Of The Road For Our Nutrition Coaching Relationship?
Absolutely not! In fact, it’s best if you continue to keep in touch with the people who worked well under you and achieved their goals for numerous reasons. Just because you’re done coaching them doesn’t mean that your relationship with them is over. Now that they have completed your program and reached their goals, they have become some of the BEST, FREE advertising for your nutrition coaching business. So when your coaching comes to an end, there are actually a lot of opportunities to strengthen your relationship with those as you offboard. We will give you 3 of our greatest tips for when a client offboards after reaching their goals.
Let Your Nutrition Coaching Client Know How Proud You Are
When a client goes through your entire program and reaches their goals, that’s no small feat! Don’t let them walk away without giving them the recognition they deserve! This client has crushed it, and you need to let them know just how proud you are of them. There are many ways to go about giving your client the recognition they deserve. So here we’ll give you some ideas on how you can express just how awesome it is that they accomplished their goal and also how you’re grateful that they stuck with you the entire time:
- Handwritten card: Who doesn’t love a personalized, handwritten card? This is a great, private way to say “thank you” and “good job” once a client has reached their goals and is ready to off-board. The great thing about a handwritten card is that you can keep the message as short as you want or make it as detailed as you want!
- Social media post: As stated before, this person is now some of the BEST, FREE advertising your nutrition coaching business could have. So why would you not celebrate their progress with others? Of course, you DO need consent from the client to share their progress. But once you have that, you can celebrate this client’s success AND show current non-clients what’s possible when they decide to work with you.
- Free gift: As stated before, not everyone makes it to this final step! So another way to show you care and that you’re seriously proud of your client is to give them a free gift. The great thing about gifts is that you can get super creative and thoughtful with these. You could send them a small gift card, business merchandise such as a T-shirt with your logo, a mini personalized gift basket, or something else entirely.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter exactly how you decide to show them your appreciation. What does matter is that you do it. When a client has reached this point, they have proven serious dedication not only to their goals, but also to your program. So make sure they are getting that well deserved affirmation of a job well done!
Ask For Referrals
This client who is about to offboard likely CRUSHED it in your program and achieved their goals. Don’t you want MORE clients like this person? Of course you do! And chances are, this person probably has some great potential client referrals for you. So you definitely need to ask, or else, how will you know? Asking for referrals can be an uncomfortable thing sometimes as we might feel as if asking for referrals is too direct or too “salesy”. The good news is that asking for referrals can be natural and not feel “salesy”.
Ultimately, it comes down to that you ENJOYED working with this client and that you’re looking for more people like themselves to work with. So make sure your client knows that you enjoyed working with them. It’s not a “numbers” thing. It’s personal! When it comes time to ask for referrals from a client who is about to offboard, you always want to keep it personal and emphasize how much you enjoyed working with them.
Get Their Feedback
Not only is this offboarding client now one of your BEST avenues for FREE advertising, but they also hold VALUABLE information from their experience after going through your program. So don’t let them go without getting feedback on how you can improve the client experience. You might find that they loved everything about your program or you might find that some tweaks could be made. Either way, it all is GREAT feedback that will help you continually improve your nutrition coaching business.
Something I often tell my coaching client is that failure is feedback. So if you find yourself in the position where an onboarding client gives you a plausible aspect of the program to tweak, that is great news for you! Because now you know what to tweak and what direction to go in to better help future clients. Getting this feedback could be as simple as creating a survey or asking verbally. Either way, this is something that can greatly enrich your onboarding process and improve your nutrition coaching business. It also gives you an opportunity to tie up any loose ends before they officially off board from your nutrition coaching program.
Bottom Line For Offboarding Clients In Your Nutrition Coaching Business
When it’s time to make an off boarding transition with a client, you want to make sure that you have protocols in place so that the clients who leave your program are leaving with such a great experience that they gladly and freely share their experience with others in the future! In addition, you also don’t want to fall off the face of the earth after working so closely with these clients you’ve offboarded. As a dietitian nutrition coach, you always want to be one of their biggest supporters!
If you’re looking to start your own nutrition coaching side hustle, you’re in the right place. We are so proud to be a part of the movement of dietitian entrepreneurs who are making more IMPACT and more INCOME! In the Dietitian Nutrition Coaching Certification, we teach our students how to set their dietitian nutrition coaching business up for success so that they can make the IMPACT they desire and the INCOME they deserve.
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