How To Onboard a New Client: Step-by-Step Guide

Whether you’re an independent freelancer or engage clients through an agency, effective onboarding can help you make a positive first impression each time you begin a project or engagement. Rather than starting onboarding from scratch with each client, developing a standardized process can help save time and resources, successfully begin new projects, and drive client satisfaction.

In this step-by-step guide, learn about the importance of new client onboarding, key steps for success, and top onboarding challenges and solutions.

Understanding client onboarding

Client onboarding is the process of welcoming new clients; aligning on goals, processes, and workflows; and setting expectations once a new contract is signed and before officially beginning a project. Structured onboarding is essential to establishing positive, lasting relationships with new clients.

According to a survey of 216 individuals conducted by Wyzowl, 86% of respondents are more likely to stay loyal to a business that invests in onboarding content that welcomes and educates them after they purchase.

Specific benefits of effective client onboarding include:

• Increased client satisfaction
• Enhanced project efficiency
• Streamlined project communication and collaboration
• Aligned expectations
• Stronger customer retention and loyalty and reduced customer churn
• Improved risk mitigation

How to onboard a new client

Developing and implementing a streamlined client onboarding process can set you up for a smooth start each time you work with a new client. The following steps can help you seamlessly onboard a new client and initiate a positive working relationship.  

Steps to onboard a new client include:

1. Prepare for onboarding
2. Welcome your new client
3. Schedule a kickoff meeting
4. Implement the work plan
5. Monitor progress and provide ongoing support
6. Collect and implement feedback
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1. Prepare for onboarding

Taking the time to prepare for onboarding can show new clients that you’re organized, proactive, and eager to deliver results for their business. Following the same preparation approach or a client onboarding checklist can also simplify the process of beginning new projects or engagements.  

Consider the following tips to proactively prepare for new customer or client onboarding:

• Gather essential information. Review the contract, project scope, agreed-upon project deliverables, and any important notes you took during the sales process and proposal stage. This can help ensure you’re ready to discuss the project with the client in more detail.
• Create client onboarding materials. Produce a standardized welcome document that highlights your team members, contact information, services, processes and other essential information. Also build a detailed project brief or presentation that defines the scope, objectives, deliverables, and expectations, so you can be prepared to discuss further during the kickoff call.
• Conduct research about the client and their business. You likely completed research about the client to prepare an initial proposal. As part of onboarding, conduct additional research to learn more about the client and their mission, vision, values, target audience, business objectives, and competitors.
• Develop a list of questions and requests for the client. Once you complete thorough research, determine a list of questions you’d like to ask the client in the welcome email, through an intake form, or during the kickoff call. Questions may relate to their overall goals, processes, expectations, or other details. Also gather a list of resources you’d like to request from the client to support the project, such as brand guidelines and strategic business goals.  

2. Welcome your new client

Successful freelancers and agencies send a welcome email after a contract is signed to outline next steps and show enthusiasm for the partnership with new clients. Key goals of the welcome email include maintaining the excitement clients had during the sales or proposal process and setting expectations for the engagement.

The client welcome email should be professional, friendly, and concise, as you’ll cover additional details during the kickoff meeting and in other communications. Developing a general welcome email template and customizing the email for each client can help you save time and ensure you don’t miss any important information.

Here are some suggestions to write an engaging welcome email for new clients:

• Personalize the email with the client's name and a detail or anecdote from a previous interaction
• Share your excitement and eagerness and thank the client for choosing to work with you
• Provide a quick overview of your business, mission, and expertise, along with reiterating how your services align with the client’s goals  
• Highlight next steps in the onboarding process, such as the kickoff call
• Attach the initial proposal, contract, and any other relevant documents
• Request additional information from the client, such as messaging documents, brand style guides, technical business requirements, or other resources you may need to begin the engagement
• If applicable, introduce the client to other members of your team and provide contact information for each individual who will be working on the project
• Encourage the client to reach out at any time if they have any questions or need clarification

3. Schedule a kickoff meeting

A formal kickoff meeting helps set the stage for a successful project or engagement with your new client. During the meeting, you have the opportunity to collaborate with the client either face-to-face or virtually and gain alignment on the project scope, timeline, deliverables, communication plan, and other important aspects of your partnership. The kickoff meeting helps you build trust, rapport, and excitement about the project to keep the client engaged.

Depending on the scope of each project or number of people involved, your kickoff meetings may vary in length or format and you may spend more time focused on certain agenda items than others. For short-term or small projects, you may quickly connect with clients to align on goals without necessarily hosting a detailed, formal kickoff meeting.

Below is an example of an agenda for an hour-long kickoff meeting.

• Welcome and introductions (5 minutes). Take time at the beginning of the meeting to thank clients for joining, introduce yourself and your team (if applicable), highlight your experience, and give client team members the opportunities to introduce themselves.
• Roles and responsibilities (5 minutes). In addition to high-level introductions, discuss the roles and responsibilities of each individual on the call. This also gives you the opportunity to establish a primary point of contact on each side to ensure streamlined collaboration throughout the project.
• Project overview (20 minutes). The project overview section is the most important part of each client kickoff meeting. During this time, you’ll discuss the scope, goals, deliverables, and any milestones along the way. Ensuring everyone is on the same page about the project overview can help the project stay on track and decrease the risk of delays, scope creep, and other challenges.
• Communication and collaboration (10 minutes). Establish a client communication plan that highlights how updates will be shared, the frequency of meetings, and preferred communication channels. For example, you may use a combination of project management tools, email, direct messages, and video conferencing meetings. Project management software may be updated each day, while more formal check-in meetings are held once a week. Communication preferences may vary from one client to the next, such as one client preferring email and another preferring direct messages.
• Open discussion and questions (15 minutes). Leave time for the client to ask questions or clarify any details about the project. Addressing questions or concerns right away can help avoid roadblocks or misunderstanding down the line.  
• Next steps, action items, and thank you (5 minutes). Thank the client for their time and summarize key takeaways, action items, and upcoming deadlines for both your team and the client. For example, your team may have action items to schedule a recurring meeting and grant the client access to your project management software, while the client may have an action item to share additional background information about the business. Send a follow up email after the meeting sharing next steps and action items in writing.

4. Implement the work plan

After your team and the client align on the project or engagement during the kickoff meeting, you’ll be ready to implement the work or project plan. Keep in mind, while the work plan acts as a guide to keep the project on track, the plan should be seen as a living document and may alter slightly over time.  

Here are some initial actions you can take to implement the work plan:

• Refining and sharing an updated plan based on any changes that may have been discussed during the kickoff meeting
• Breaking down each deliverable into tasks and milestones to measure progress and stay on track
• Including time for review, feedback and necessary updates for each deliverable
• Adding the project plan, deliverables, tasks, and other details to a project management platform
• Granting the client access to any necessary project management platforms, collaboration tools, or documents for the project
• Asking the client for access to any resources your team needs to begin the project
• Getting started on initial tasks or deliverables

5. Monitor progress and provide ongoing support

Onboarding is only one of many essential elements to supporting a positive customer experience. Following onboarding, monitoring progress and staying in close communication with clients can help projects stay on track.

Providing ongoing support can also drive engagement and satisfaction by making clients feel valued. According to a survey of 403 individuals conducted by Project.co, 95% of respondents believe knowing where things stand with their purchase or project—such as exact status or deliverables—is important.

The following best practices can support a successful client experience after onboarding.

• Using project management software. Utilize project management tools such as Asana, Hive, and Trello to monitor progress, update clients regularly, and adjust the plan as needed based on feedback shifting timelines. Project management software enables everyone involved to track tasks and deliverables within a project, stay on deadline, and minimize meeting time for incremental project updates.
• Embracing asynchronous communication. In addition to using project management software, encourage asynchronous communication with clients through emails, direct messages, and comments in shared documents. This type of communication is helpful for collaborating on feedback, answering simple questions, and sharing quick updates that don’t require an immediate response.
• Quickly responding to client communications. Each time a client reaches out with a question or update, do your best to respond in a timely manner. While you may not be in the same time zone or work the same schedule as your client, set expectations or make a commitment to respond within a certain time frame, such as within one business day.
• Scheduling recurring check-ins. Depending on the scope and complexity of the project, you may schedule recurring weekly, biweekly, or monthly check-ins with your client. Before each meeting, send an agenda that highlights which project updates and any other items you’ll discuss. Also leave time for the client to ask any questions or address concerns and follow up with a written recap after every meeting, including a list of action items or next steps.
• Offering additional services. As you continue to build a positive reputation and relationships with clients, you may notice opportunities to offer additional services or expand the project scope. Develop a strategy to identify and share upsell opportunities by highlighting how your services can benefit the client without coming across as overly pushy from a sales perspective. Also consider asking top clients for referrals to other businesses that may benefit from your services.

6. Collect and implement feedback

Following onboarding, ask clients to share feedback about what worked and key areas for improvement in the process. The research cited above from Wyzowl found that 90% of respondents believe companies they buy from could improve how they onboard new users and customers. Asking for and implementing specific feedback can help you adapt and improve the onboarding process over time.

Rather than reaching out to clients over email or asking them to provide input during a meeting, developing a simple, standardized client onboarding questionnaire or survey can help streamline data collection and identify trends and insights across your client base.

Questions to consider asking in the survey include:

• How satisfied are you with the client onboarding experience?
• Did you feel welcomed and valued as a new client throughout the process?
• Did the onboarding process help you clearly understand our services and processes?
• How effectively were project goals, timelines, and deliverables communicated during onboarding?
• Did the kickoff meeting provide a clear roadmap for the project?
• Were all your questions or concerns addressed during onboarding?
• What did you find the most useful or beneficial about the customer onboarding process?
• What are the top areas for improvement in the onboarding process?
• Based on the onboarding experience, how confident are you in our ability to successfully deliver your project?
• How likely are you to recommend our services to others based on your onboarding experience?

Common challenges and solutions

Establishing relationships and building rapport with new clients can take time. Understanding common challenges related to onboarding and building client relationships can help you quickly address them and maintain client satisfaction. The research from Project.co highlighted above also found that 66% of respondents have stopped working with a company and moved to a competitor due to poor business communication skills.

If you’re new to freelancing or starting an agency on Upwork, joining the Upwork Community can help you learn from experienced freelancers and access resources about onboarding best practices, how to address challenges, and other relevant topics.

We’ve outlined some top onboarding and client management challenges, along with related solutions, below.

• Unclear expectations. Misaligned expectations can lead to roadblocks and frustrations during the onboarding process and throughout client relationships. During initial onboarding, reiterate the terms of the contract and address any questions. Also clearly define the project scope, deliverables, timelines, and responsibilities of all involved upfront. If applicable, identify relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) or metrics at the beginning of the project to effectively manage expectations and track progress over time.  
• Miscommunication or misunderstanding. Virtual communication can be tricky at times, especially if you’re working with a frustrated or difficult client who may not be the right fit for your business. Challenges, concerns, or emotions can be misinterpreted in an email or direct message. Rather than attempting to resolve a misunderstanding through back-and-forth messages, schedule a meeting to discuss the issue in real time, either virtually or in person and reach a quicker resolution.
• Scope creep or requests for additional work. Outline specific deliverables at the beginning of each project and clearly state that deliverables outside the original scope will require an additional charge. When clients request more work than the items outlined in the contract and project plan, reiterate your initial agreement and discuss potential options to expand the scope and budget.
• Delays in receiving client deliverables or feedback. The strongest relationships between clients and independent professionals or agencies require collaboration and input from both slides. Set clear expectations that both parties need to align with project timelines and milestones to stay on track. For example, ensure clients understand that if they share feedback on a certain phase of the project a week late, this may push the entire project timeline back by a week.

Easily onboard clients with Upwork

Onboarding new clients is an exciting milestone and positive sign that your business is growing. While attracting new clients and developing an engaging onboarding process may seem daunting, Upwork can help simplify the process for you.

Through Talent Marketplace™, you can access a diverse range of jobs across specialties, including web development, artificial intelligence, finance, digital marketing, customer service, and other in-demand skills. Essential information, including communication, contract details, and secure payments, are centralized in Upwork, which streamlines the process of onboarding and collaborating with clients. Get started growing your business on Upwork—sign up for a freelancer account.