When your client has questions or confusion, it is best to address them early on. This helps build trust and nips problems in the bud. Establish a consistent meeting and reporting cadence. Weekly written updates allow your clients to stay informed and provide a sense of accountability between you two.

1. Kickoff Call

This is the first meeting between your team and client, which serves to align project goals and expectations. It’s also a great opportunity to introduce your team members, ask any initial questions or concerns, and set up regular project check-ins.

During this call, you’ll also request essential information such as the client’s business details, their main point of contact and preferred communication method, and their desired project outcomes. This helps you tailor your services to their needs and deliver a personalized experience from the start.

To keep the kickoff meeting as organized and efficient as possible, consider creating an agenda and sending it to meeting attendants ahead of time. This will ensure everyone is on the same page, and no questions remain unanswered.

2. Welcome Packet

As a business owner, it’s crucial to share your client onboarding information in a way that is informative, easy-to-read, and visually appealing. Whether it’s through an infographic or an engaging video, this client onboarding process step allows you to showcase your professionalism and set clear expectations for your clients.

Include a table of contents that highlights the different sections of your welcome packet so that clients can navigate through the document quickly. This will help them to get acquainted with the information you provide and reduce the number of questions they have for you after reviewing the materials. Aboard vs onboard are synonymous, and they have mutual synonyms.

If you have team members working with your clients, add their photos and short bios in this new client welcome kit so that they can easily recognize them. This will also allow them to grow personal relationships with your team members and boost their confidence in choosing your company.

3. Contract

Once a client has agreed to work with your agency, it’s time to formalize the relationship. The contract outlines the scope of work, delivery schedules and milestones for the project. It also lays out specific responsibilities and accountabilities for the agency and client.

The onboarding process is the first step in establishing a happy, healthy and productive working relationship for both the agency and the client. It helps reduce churn, ensures satisfaction and lays the foundation for a long-term partnership. It’s a crucial step that shouldn’t be overlooked.

4. Account Manager

Account managers must be comfortable connecting with high-level clients and preparing sales reports. Often, this means meeting ambitious individual and team-wide sales quotas. It’s important to set up meetings and reporting cadences that will work for the client. This includes determining the frequency of meetings, setting up an internal point of contact, and providing weekly written updates that outline progress made with their account.

Creating a strategy for strategic account management is crucial to reduce churn and foster loyalty with your clients. That could include identifying key accounts, and deciding which of these should receive an additional layer of service. This may require a more involved onboarding process or even hiring an additional account manager. Ultimately, this will help your business achieve the success it’s looking for.

5. Introductions

A well-rounded client onboarding process aligns clients with agency deliverables and expectations, ensuring clarity on service value and project timelines. Regular communication and defined processes reduce the potential for misunderstandings, scope creep, and delays, which in turn leads to greater outcomes, better client satisfaction, and long-term loyalty.

Gathering essential information about a new client allows agencies to personalize the onboarding process and provide tailored solutions. It also helps them communicate what the client can expect from them during and beyond the onboarding phase, reducing customer churn by managing client expectations.

Once this information is gathered, it needs to be organized and accessible for both parties. Consider a centralized productivity platform like ClickUp to make it easy for all team members to access and review important documents.

6. Questionnaire

Questionnaires can be used in many ways, but for client onboarding they are an invaluable tool. It is important for agencies to formally collect feedback and gain a better understanding of their clients’ goals, objectives and expectations. By using a questionnaire that can be easily turned into reports, agency teams are able to turn data into results.

Having an effective client onboarding process is critical for both new and existing marketing agencies. It reduces the risk of client churn by aligning expectations, providing clarity on deliverables and timelines, and ensuring that clients’ needs are always met. With these strategies in place, agencies can deliver a high-quality onboarding experience for their clients and ultimately build long-term relationships. This is a crucial step in increasing client satisfaction and gaining more referrals.

7. Check-In

In short, check-ins are one-on-one conversations between managers and employees. This allows for an open discussion about work, goals, and welfare — and it’s crucial to employee happiness. Without regular communication, employees may feel dissatisfied and leave.

One of the strengths of check-ins is that their egalitarian structure encourages every team member to speak up. This prevents miscommunication, which can be one of the leading causes of project failure and ruinous business relationships. The meetings also provide an opportunity for team members to give feedback on one another’s performance, which is a great way to motivate everyone. Ultimately, these discussions address a fundamental human need that often goes unfulfilled in the workplace: to feel heard and valued. The more this is fulfilled, the more engaged and happy your team will be.