Bringing a new athlete onboard is always exciting, but it can also be overwhelming for them.
They’re getting acquainted with a new platform, learning new features, and beginning a new training journey with you, which is why creating a seamless onboarding process is so important.
When you give your athletes the tools they need to succeed from day one, it makes both of your lives easier and saves so much time and stress.
In this blog, we’re breaking down three onboarding tips that our top coaches swear by to empower their athletes.
Let’s dive in.
In order to make sure your athletes are as successful as possible, it’s essential to set them up for success.
After hearing from various coaches who onboard athletes constantly, there’s one thing they all have in common - they send an email with a detailed explanation of CoachNow and what to expect.
Not only does this help prepare your athletes for what lies ahead, it also eliminates a lot of the questions and back-and-forth that you’d have to deal with otherwise.
Giving them an overview of CoachNow as a platform in general, as well as what features you (and they) will be using, helps empower them to start their training journey with confidence.
Aside from these details, what you choose to include in the email is up to you; your expectations, contact information, words of encouragement, etc.
By prepping them beforehand, they’ll hit the ground running when their training actually begins.
Now that you’ve explained what CoachNow is and generally how you’ll be using it, you can create additional materials to prepare your athletes inside of the app by using Templates.
When you create a template, it will prepopulate in your Spaces. After you create a handful of posts, you can schedule them to send in advance or even build automated post sequences.
Some of our favorite initial posts to create are:
A Welcome Video: This will likely include most of the same content as the introductory email you sent, but offers a more personalized touch and the chance to go more in depth on any topics you want to highlight.
A Welcome Video (Created by the Athlete): This is a great opportunity for them to introduce themselves and become more familiar with creating posts in CoachNow.
The Athlete’s Goals (Written by themself): Having them clearly identify their own goals sets a solid foundation for their training journey and ensures you’re both on the same page from day one.
Since both you and your athlete have created these posts prior to your first session, you can now dedicate the time that would’ve been spent on these topics on actual training instead.
Not only does this save time, it also allows your athlete to ask questions that arose during their first time utilizing some of CoachNow’s features.
It’s important for your athletes to understand that using CoachNow is integral to their success. This is your chance to make your expectations as clear as possible - all communication should be done within the platform.
Inevitably, an athlete will still text or email you, so we suggest having a response prepared ahead of time. This can look something like “Thanks for your question! Please post it in CoachNow and keep an eye out for my response there.”
As tempting as it may be to quickly reply to an email or text, it’s important to stay firm in this communication boundary so that your athletes adapt quicker.
Additionally, take some time to show your athletes how to manage their notifications so they’re set up properly from day one.
If your athlete has questions about using CoachNow, you can direct them to our FAQs for Athletes, where we’ve compiled resources that answer our most common questions.
If you still have questions about getting started with CoachNow and onboarding your athletes the right way, we have some helpful resources on how to get started from creating a space, to adding people to that space, posting media, inviting athletes, and so much more.
Setting up onboarding correctly takes some time and effort upfront, but is so worth it in the long run.
By educating your athletes on how to use CoachNow and what you expect from them, you’ll start seeing results faster and avoid miscommunication.
You’re also setting the tone for a stronger coaching relationship, which is key to both of your success.
Send that first intro email and set up some templates to see the magic for yourself!