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The first week of a client relationship sets the tone for everything after it. A client who starts with three login emails, a confusing shared folder and a kickoff call about access will expect the rest of the project to feel the same.
It doesn't have to take a week. With a little preparation, you can onboard a new client in one afternoon – and have them feel looked after from the first day.
The first week sets the tone#
New clients are paying close attention. They've just signed, they're a little nervous about the decision, and they're looking for signs that they chose well.
Those signs are small. Did the welcome email arrive quickly? Is it clear what happens next? Do they know who to talk to? Can they find things without asking?
When onboarding is slow or messy, clients compensate by asking more questions, scheduling more calls and checking in more often. That isn't because they're difficult. It's because they don't yet trust the process, and the only way to build trust is to show them it works.
So treat onboarding as the first deliverable. It deserves the same care as the work itself.
The kickoff portal: what goes in it#
The easiest way to make onboarding feel organised is to give the client one place where everything lives from day one. For us, that's the client portal; for you, it might be a shared space of some other kind. What matters is that it exists before the kickoff call, not after.
Here's what we recommend putting in it before you send the link:
- A welcome note – two or three sentences on what this space is for and what the client can expect
- The project timeline – milestones and dates, even rough ones
- Who's who – the people on your side, with what each one does
- The first thing you need from them – brand assets, access, a questionnaire
- The signed proposal – so nobody has to search their email for it
A client who opens the link and immediately knows what to do is a client who's already starting to trust you.
Who's who on the client side#
Most onboarding problems that show up later are really about people. The person who signed isn't the person who reviews. The person who reviews isn't the person who approves. And the person who pays is somewhere in finance, never mentioned.
Use the kickoff to map the client side. You need to know:
- Who approves deliverables – ideally one person per area
- Who gives feedback, and whether their feedback needs to be agreed internally first
- Who receives invoices
- Who to contact if the main person is away
Write it down in the portal, so it's visible to everyone. It's a small thing, but it prevents the most common delays: review requests sent to the wrong person, and invoices waiting in someone's inbox while they're on holiday.
Setting the review rhythm#
Clients don't know how your review process works until you tell them. If you don't, they'll invent their own, and it usually involves feedback by email at 9 pm on a Friday.
Agree the rhythm at kickoff. How many rounds of revisions per deliverable? How long does the client have to reply? How will they send feedback, and how will they approve?
Then make it easy to follow. If clients comment in the portal and approve with a button, show them how in the kickoff call – it takes two minutes. If you use email, give them a template.
A regular rhythm helps both sides. The client knows when to expect work, and your team can plan around review windows instead of reacting to feedback whenever it arrives.
The first deliverable, early#
One more thing makes a big difference: get something small in front of the client in the first week. A mood board, a sitemap, a summary of the research so far. It doesn't need to be finished. It needs to show that work has started.
New clients often feel a gap between signing and seeing anything, and that gap fills with questions. An early deliverable answers most of them, and it gives the client a chance to try the review process on something low-stakes before the important work arrives.
Templates for recurring project types#
If you onboard more than a couple of clients a month, you're probably doing the same setup each time. Turn it into a template.
A good onboarding template includes the portal structure, the welcome note, the standard timeline for that project type, the questionnaire and the kickoff agenda. When a new client signs, you duplicate the template, change the names and dates, and send the link.
Agencies that do this tell us onboarding goes from a few days of scattered admin to a single afternoon. More importantly, it becomes consistent: every client gets the same good experience, whoever on your team is running the project.
Templates also make onboarding easier to improve. When something goes wrong with a new client – a missing question, a step done out of order – you fix it once in the template, and every future client benefits.
Start with your most common project type. Write down what you do for the next new client, step by step, and turn it into a template. The second time will be faster, and by the fifth it'll take an afternoon.
