Client Onboarding Process

Not surprisingly, a business is doomed to fail if they alienate their clients. Without a proper onboarding process this is exactly what will happen; you'll either have a lot of unhappy customers, or they won't even know what your team is doing.

Hence why we here at Process Street cooked up this checklist for client onboarding for a marketing agency!

With this handy process, you'll never again need worry about losing clients because of a lack of onboarding - everything you need to both get them going and keep them coming back is within this checklist.

<== Click on "Collect Client Info" to get started. 

First, you need to record the lead's details and update their status.

This should be done in your CRM and passed to Process Street automatically via a Zapier integration, but you can also enter the data manually. In both cases, use the data to fill in the form fields below.

Remember to also add a follow-up task for 2 weeks! If you don't have a CRM, take a look at our list of CRMs we recommend for Small Businesses.

Next, select the required client package options. Choose the requested services from the sub-checklist below.

Next, send a welcome email and a cover letter. Store a copy of your cover letter using the form field below.

If you do not already have a cover letter set out, see below for a sample you can work from.

For a full breakdown of this cover letter, please see this article on About.com

Send the client a welcome package (digital) or prepare a welcome package for the initial kickoff meeting (hard copy).

There is no "one-size fits all" for your welcome kit, as every business has different objectives and budgets. However, there are some common features to new client welcome kits, so use this checklist as a jumping off point.

Introduction letter tips

Start by expressing appreciation for their business. Congratulate them on taking steps toward what they need. Provide a brief overview of your business and services and an outline of what is included in their welcome kit. This helps solidify to them that they made the right choice by hiring you. If they had any buyer’s remorse after signing up with you, this will help calm that emotion.

From there, consider highlighting anything in the kit you’d like them to pay special attention to. For example, you may want them to understand your office hours, holiday closures, how to handle appointment rescheduling, common turn-around times, who to contact on your team for certain things, best times to reach you, VIP/client-only ways to contact you and so forth.

If you have a referral program, consider including information about it, as clients will likely want to refer others to you. If there is an incentive for them to do so, all the better.

Now you should outline the agenda of the initial meeting, utilizing the form fields below.

You should construct a survey and send it out to your clients. You can do this via email or using a tool like Wufoo or Survey Monkey. Be sure to record a link to the questionnaire in the form field below.

The questions you ask will depend on your company but below is an example for a marketing agency.

Example Questionnaire for a Marketing Agency:

• What tools and platforms are you currently using in your marketing efforts?
• What are your goals? Is this leads, customers, or revenue?
• What is the lifetime value (LTV) of each customer? What is your LTV goal?
• Do you have customer personas? Who is your ideal client?
• How much does it cost you to acquire a customer?
• What ROI have you seen on your current marketing efforts? What are you currently investing in?
• What percentage of your customers is generated through online methods?
• What are the steps in your sales process? What are the common hesitations clients have?
• How do you currently find leads? Do you know what your cost per lead is? Do you know what your lead-to-conversion rate is?

Send them the full address with a link to Google Maps and any additional information they may need such as parking or public transport access.

Attach the contract so they can read and review it before the meeting. Use the form field below to record a copy of their individual contract.

This will help them sign the contract quickly when they come to the meeting and will allow them to prepare questions of anything they are unsure of.

Although ideally this should happen automatically with your calendar tool, you should alert the receptionist that a new client is coming in for their kickoff meeting (and that they should be extra nice).

Next up, you must clean the reception area and meeting room, ensuring that it is a client-friendly environment. This is a no-brainer and should be general business practice.

If your client has access to a portal or project tracking system, ensure they have proper access and are trained on how to log in and look at the appropriate activity.

You can either go over this in the kickoff meeting or schedule an additional training session online. Try using a webinar as an alternative to email communication to get this done remotely. 

Answer any questions and have the client submit the signed contract during the kickoff meeting. Once again, record a copy of the signed contract in the form field below.

Ask if they know anyone else you should talk to who is facing similar issues or runs a similar type of business.  Record any referred leads in the form field below.

The kickoff meeting is a great place to get some new business leads, and probably the second best place to the final successful project delivery meeting. Ideally, you should do both. 

Add notes to the agenda with the client's feedback and input. If recorded in the form field below, any notes can also then be pushed directly into your CRM - otherwise, copy them over manually.

Email to the client if appropriate.

This is a great touch that many companies have found success with; you need to send a handwritten thank-you note to each client. Once again, scan and record a copy of the note with the form field below.

If you don't believe us when we say how useful this step is, check out the posts below to change your mind.

• How 13,000 Handwritten Thank-You Notes Built A Thriving Business
• The Power of the Handwritten Note: When to Dust Off the Pen and Paper

Now you need to write up internal notes and to-dos for the rest of the team. Save a copy of the final meeting notes with the form field below, to ensure easy access and full records.

Include the agenda but put specific action points for team members to start working on. Also, add this to the CRM as things tend to get lost in email (again, this can be set up to happen automatically with the form field).

Don't forget to add everything to your CRM! Whilst this can be done manually, if you have utilized the form fields in the previous steps, this may have automatically occurred already.

Nonetheless, even if you have automated the process, you must check that the forms are there.

Also in your CRM, link interactions with this client to any other clients in your CRM. Use the form field below to note down previous roles/companies this client has worked at and see if you can use this to generate some additional business now or in the future.

Perform a “How’s it going?” call to touch base, and report on the progress of account consolidations. Record the date of this call below.

If you have not received the requested information from the client after 1 week, make sure to send a follow-up email chasing them down for the information. Utilize the email widget below whilst customizing it to your needs to do this easily.

To make it easier, we've used variables to push information from earlier form fields into the email widget - this means that the email will be sent using the email and name of the client you entered earlier, and sign off using your own name (that is, your Process Street username).

Send a follow-up survey to see how your client's first month has gone. Record both the original follow-up survey and a link to the client's completed response with the form fields below.

You can use the same tools but make sure you ask questions related to how their first month was and how you could improve your service to them.

Go over the client's account and make sure that their project is on schedule and that all money has been collected. Record both with the dropdown form fields below.

Ask the client via email if it's convenient to send over the project status update. Once you get client approval (recorded below), send over a link to the details (also recorded below).

For added security, use a Dropbox link that you can delete afterwards. 

Steff Green - Why is Client Onboarding Important for Your Agency?

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