Client onboarding template

Cover note to the client

Thank you for choosing [Agency name]. Your answers below help us start in the right place. Short answers are fine, and “not sure yet” is a useful answer too.

Please return this by [date] to [name, email]. We’ll go through it together on our kickoff call on [date and time].

• Client name
• Completed by (name and role)
• Date

Your business

• What does your business do, in one or two sentences?
• Which products or services bring in most of your revenue?
• Where do you operate: which towns, regions or countries?
• How long have you been trading, and how many people work in the business?
• Why do customers choose you over the alternatives?
• What is changing in your business in the next 12 months?

Your customers

• Who are your best customers? Describe them as you would to a new member of staff.
• What problem or need brings them to you?
• How do most new customers find you today?
• What questions do they ask before they buy?
• What stops people from buying, or makes them go elsewhere?
• Is there a kind of customer you want more of, or fewer of?

Goals and how we will measure them

• What do you want this work to achieve in the next 12 months?
• Which numbers will tell us it has worked?
• What are those numbers today?
• If only one thing went well, what should it be?
• What have you tried before, and what happened?
• Is there a date or an event driving the timing?

Guidance (delete before sending). If the client can’t give today’s numbers, finding them is your first task. You can’t report progress without a starting point.

Your current website and marketing

• Website address or addresses
• Platform and hosting company, if you know them
• What works well on the current website?
• What frustrates you or your customers about it?
• Which channels do you use now: search, ads, email, social, events, referrals?
• Which of those channels bring results, and how do you know?
• Who has worked on your website or marketing before, and are they still involved?
• Which tools do you use: CRM, email platform, booking, payments, stock or order systems?

Brand and content

• Do you have brand guidelines, logo files and licensed fonts? Where are they kept?
• Describe how your brand should sound, in three words.
• Name two or three brands or websites you admire, and say why.
• Is there a style, a word or a claim we should avoid?
• Who writes content on your side, and who approves it?
• What do you already have that we can use: photography, video, case studies, reviews?

Competitors and search

• Who are your three main competitors?
• What do they do better than you?
• What do you do better than them?
• What would you expect a customer to type into a search engine to find a business like yours?

Technical and legal

• Who manages your domain name, hosting and email?
• Which rules apply to your business: privacy, accessibility, regulated claims, industry codes?
• Who approves legal wording, such as the privacy policy and terms?
• Which languages and regions should the work cover?
• Which connections between systems must keep working?
• Do suppliers have to meet any security or procurement requirements?

Guidance (delete before sending). You’re only asking what applies. Advice on it comes from the client’s own legal adviser.

People and ways of working

• Who is our day-to-day contact?
• Who gives final approval?
• Who else needs to be consulted, and at what stage?
• How do you prefer to get updates: email, chat, a call, a shared board?
• How often would you like to hear from us?
• How quickly can you usually give feedback on a piece of work?
• Are there dates in the next three months when you are not available?

Budget, risks and anything else

• What is the budget for this project, and for ongoing work after it?
• Is that budget approved, and by whom?
• What could delay or stop this project?
• What have other agencies done that you would like us to repeat, or to avoid?
• Is there anything else we should know before we start?

How to share access

Where a tool lets you add users, please add [agency email address] as a user with the access level noted beside each line. You stay the owner of every account.

Where a tool has only one login, please share it through a password manager, never by email or chat.

For each line below, note who owns the account, the access level given and the date.

Guidance (delete before sending). Ask for the lowest level that lets you do the work, and raise it later if you need to. Remove lines for tools this client doesn’t use.

Domain, hosting and email

• Domain registrar
• DNS provider
• Hosting account
• CDN or firewall
• Email provider (for DNS records only)

Website

• CMS admin account
• Staging site, if there is one
• Code repository
• Theme, plugin and app licences, with renewal dates
• Form, CRM and payment connections

Analytics and search

• Analytics property
• Tag manager container
• Search Console property
• Business listing and maps profile
• Call tracking, heatmaps or other reporting tools

Brand assets

• Logo files, as SVG, in light and dark versions
• Fonts, with their web licences
• Colours and brand guidelines
• Photography and video, with usage rights
• Document and presentation templates

Content and data

• Current sitemap or list of pages
• Copy documents, approved or in draft
• Product, service or price data
• Case studies, reviews and testimonials, with permission to use them
• Legal pages: privacy policy, terms, cookie notice
• Past reports and audits

Days 1 to 2: welcome

1. (a)Contract and first invoice in place.
2. (b)Welcome email sent, with the questionnaire (Part A) and the access and assets list (Part B).
3. (c)Kickoff call booked for [date].
4. (d)Shared channel or project board opened.

Week 1: kickoff

1. (a)Questionnaire returned by [date], and read before the call.
2. (b)Access received and tested. Missing items chased.
3. (c)Kickoff call held. Goals, scope, timeline and review process confirmed.
4. (d)Kickoff summary sent, with decisions, dates and owners.
5. (e)Benchmark recorded.

Week 2: plan and first delivery

1. (a)Project plan or 90-day roadmap shared.
2. (b)Audit or discovery work finished, with findings in everyday language.
3. (c)First visible piece of work delivered: [what it is].
4. (d)First regular update sent on [day].

Weeks 3 and 4: working rhythm

1. (a)Work running to the plan, with updates on the agreed day.
2. (b)First round of client feedback received and handled.
3. (c)Any change to the scope raised, priced and agreed in writing.
4. (d)Open questions from the questionnaire closed.

Day 30: review with the client

A short call, booked in week 1. Bring the benchmark and what has been delivered.

• What has gone well in the first month?
• What has been slower or harder than expected?
• Is the way we communicate working for you?
• Has anything changed in your business that changes the plan?
• What are the priorities for the next 60 days?

Guidance (delete before sending). Write the answers down and send them back to the client. A day 30 review that changes nothing wasn’t worth holding.