AGENCY CLIENT ONBOARDING SOP ============================== From SoloStack | solostack.madethis.app/resources/freelance-agency A complete client onboarding standard operating procedure for agencies. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ OVERVIEW ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Client onboarding is the most important phase of any agency engagement. Research consistently shows that client retention is decided in the first 30 days: clients who feel well-onboarded stay longer, pay more, and refer more. This SOP covers the complete onboarding lifecycle from signed contract to stable monthly operation, including the kickoff call, Week 1 setup, ongoing communication standards, monthly rhythm, and offboarding. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SECTION 1 — PRE-KICKOFF CHECKLIST ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Complete ALL of these before the kickoff call: CONTRACTS & LEGAL □ Contract fully executed (signed by both parties) □ Scope of work clearly defined and included in contract □ IP assignment clause confirmed □ Revision terms stated in contract □ Cancellation/termination terms confirmed FINANCIAL □ Deposit invoice sent and payment collected (Standard: 50% upfront, 50% on delivery OR first month paid in advance for retainers) □ Billing contact confirmed (who receives invoices?) □ Invoice method confirmed (email to who? Bill.com? ACH/wire?) □ Payment terms agreed (net-15 or net-30 standard) COMMUNICATIONS SETUP □ Client Slack invite sent (or preferred communication tool confirmed) □ Client added to project management tool (if applicable) □ Primary client contact confirmed (name, email, direct line) □ Secondary contact / escalation contact confirmed □ Client's preferred communication hours confirmed (timezone, availability) INTERNAL TEAM SETUP □ Project created in PM tool □ Sub(s) assigned to project □ Sub briefed on project overview, client background, key context □ Sub confidentiality obligation confirmed (NDA covers client) □ Internal deadline set (must be earlier than client deadline) WELCOME EMAIL □ Welcome email sent within 24 hours of contract signing WELCOME EMAIL TEMPLATE: ─────────────────────── Subject: Welcome to [AGENCY NAME] — next steps for [PROJECT/ENGAGEMENT NAME] Hi [CLIENT NAME], I'm thrilled we're working together on [brief project description]. Here's what to expect over the next few days: What's happening right now: • Our team is reviewing your project brief and preparing • I'll send a full kickoff call agenda before our meeting on [DATE/TIME] • You'll receive a link to our shared project space at [TOOL NAME] What I need from you before our kickoff call: • [Specific item 1 — e.g., "access to your Google Analytics account"] • [Specific item 2 — e.g., "any existing brand guidelines or style references"] • [Specific item 3 — e.g., "a list of 3 competitors you admire"] Your kickoff call is confirmed for: [DATE] at [TIME] [TIMEZONE] Call link: [LINK] If anything comes up before then, you can reach me at [EMAIL] or via [SLACK CHANNEL]. Looking forward to it, [Your name] [AGENCY NAME] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SECTION 2 — KICKOFF CALL AGENDA (90-MIN VERSION) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Use this agenda for engagements valued over $5,000 or any ongoing retainer. For smaller projects, adapt to a 45-minute version by compressing sections. PRE-CALL PREP □ Send agenda to client 24 hours in advance □ Prepare 3–5 specific questions based on their brief □ Have shared project doc open and ready to take live notes □ Record the call (with permission): "Mind if I record this for our notes?" ───────────────────────────────────────────── KICKOFF CALL AGENDA TEMPLATE ───────────────────────────────────────────── [COMPANY NAME] × [AGENCY NAME] — Project Kickoff Date: _____________ | Duration: 90 minutes 0:00–0:05 | WARM WELCOME (5 min) • Introductions (agency team members on the call + client stakeholders) • Quick overview of the call agenda • Confirm recording consent 0:05–0:20 | CONTEXT & BACKGROUND (15 min) • "Walk us through where you are right now with [area of work]" • "What's worked in the past? What hasn't?" • "What changed that made you ready to invest in this now?" 0:20–0:40 | THE 8 DISCOVERY QUESTIONS (20 min) QUESTION 1: What does success look like in 90 days? (Get specific. Push for measurable outcomes, not vague goals.) QUESTION 2: What would make this project a failure? (Surfaces fears and non-negotiables they may not volunteer.) QUESTION 3: Who is your ideal customer/audience for this work? (Be specific — demographics, psychographics, what keeps them up at night.) QUESTION 4: What's your competitive differentiation? (What do you do that competitors can't easily copy?) QUESTION 5: What does your approval process look like? (Who needs to sign off? How many rounds? Timeline between submission and approval?) QUESTION 6: Are there any constraints we should know about? (Legal, brand, regulatory, internal politics, prior bad experiences with vendors.) QUESTION 7: What does your team need from us to stay happy? (Communication frequency, proactivity level, tone, what frustrated them with past vendors.) QUESTION 8: What would a long-term relationship with us look like? (Plants the seed for expansion; tells you their retention appetite.) 0:40–0:55 | STAKEHOLDER MAPPING (15 min) □ Identify all stakeholders who will interact with or be affected by this work □ Assign role to each: - DECISION MAKER: Final approval authority (we speak to them directly) - CHAMPION: Your internal advocate (day-to-day contact, routes information) - INFLUENCER: Has opinions but not final call (their input matters, not their approval) - INFORMED: Receives updates, doesn't need to weigh in Stakeholder Map: Name | Role | Decision-Making | Primary Contact? [NAME] | [TITLE] | Decision Maker | Yes / No [NAME] | [TITLE] | Champion | Yes / No [NAME] | [TITLE] | Influencer | No [NAME] | [TITLE] | Informed | No □ Confirm who we send deliverables to □ Confirm who we copy on status updates □ Confirm who gets the invoice 0:55–1:10 | SUCCESS METRICS AGREEMENT (15 min) Work through these together and document in your shared project doc: PRIMARY METRIC (the number that matters most): Metric: ____________________________________ Current baseline: __________________________ Target at 90 days: _________________________ How we'll track it: ________________________ SECONDARY METRICS (2–3 supporting indicators): 1. Metric: _____________ | Baseline: _______ | Target: _______ 2. Metric: _____________ | Baseline: _______ | Target: _______ 3. Metric: _____________ | Baseline: _______ | Target: _______ HOW WE'LL REPORT: [Monthly report / Dashboard / Call] REPORTING CADENCE: [Monthly / Bi-weekly] 1:10–1:20 | NEXT STEPS & CLOSE (10 min) □ Review deliverables and timeline from contract/SOW □ Confirm internal deadline for first deliverable □ Confirm client review timeline (when will they give feedback after delivery?) □ Set next scheduled touchpoint □ "Is there anything we haven't covered that's important for us to know?" □ Thank them for their time and confirm you'll send a kickoff summary POST-CALL ACTIONS (within 24 hours) □ Send kickoff summary email with key decisions and next steps □ Update project management board with confirmed timeline □ Brief internal team with any new information from call □ Add success metrics to shared project doc ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SECTION 3 — WEEK 1 SETUP ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PROJECT MANAGEMENT BOARD TEMPLATE ──────────────────────────────────── Board columns: INBOX → BRIEFING → IN PROGRESS → INTERNAL REVIEW → CLIENT REVIEW → APPROVED → COMPLETE Card template (for each deliverable): ───────────────────────────────────── DELIVERABLE: [Name of item] CLIENT: [Client name] ASSIGNED TO: [Sub name] INTERNAL DEADLINE: [Date — before client deadline] CLIENT DEADLINE: [Date] STATUS NOTES: [Last update] BRIEF LINK: [URL] REVISION ROUND: [Current round #] ───────────────────────────────────── COMMUNICATION RHYTHM AGREEMENT ──────────────────────────────── Document this in your welcome/kickoff materials: ASYNC COMMUNICATION (default) Platform: [Slack / Email / Other] Response time: Agency responds within [1 business day] during business hours Response time: Client reviews deliverables within [3–5 business days] Status updates: Every [Friday] via [Slack/Email] SYNC COMMUNICATION Standing call: [Monthly / Bi-weekly / Weekly] on [DAY] at [TIME] Duration: [30 min / 45 min] Who attends: [Agency owner + client champion] Agenda template: sent 24 hours in advance ESCALATION PATH Routine questions → [PRIMARY CONTACT at agency] Concerns about scope or timeline → [AGENCY OWNER, within same business day] Urgent issues (deadline emergency) → [AGENCY OWNER, mobile/direct line if applicable] Billing questions → [AGENCY OWNER or ADMIN CONTACT] REVISION POLICY (confirm at Week 1) Standard deliverable includes: [X] rounds of revisions Additional revisions: Quoted separately at $[XX]/hr or per deliverable What counts as a revision: Changes within agreed scope What triggers a change order: New scope, new direction, additional deliverables COMMUNICATION STANDARDS DOCUMENT ──────────────────────────────────── Send this to the client in Week 1: ───────────────────────────────────────────────── [AGENCY NAME] × [CLIENT NAME] COMMUNICATION STANDARDS How we communicate: • We default to async — Slack or email for most communication • We respond to messages within 1 business day • We'll send a status update every [day] via [platform] Who you'll hear from: • Day-to-day: [OWNER/PM NAME] for project communication and deliveries • Deliverables: Come from [OWNER NAME], reviewed before sending • Billing: Invoices from [NAME] Standing meeting: [DATE/TIME/LINK] For anything urgent: [Direct email or Slack DM to owner] How we handle revisions: • Your project includes [X] rounds of revisions on each deliverable • Please consolidate feedback into a single response (not multiple rounds of small edits) • Revision turnaround: [X] business days from feedback received • Changes outside original scope are handled via a change order ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SECTION 4 — CLIENT COMMUNICATION STANDARDS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WHO SPEAKS TO THE CLIENT ───────────────────────── OWNER SPEAKS TO CLIENT: □ Discovery and sales calls □ Kickoff call □ Scope change discussions □ Budget and pricing conversations □ Relationship-critical conversations □ Any escalation or complaint □ Significant strategic decisions PM/SENIOR TEAM SPEAKS TO CLIENT: □ Status updates and weekly check-ins □ Deliverable submissions (after owner review) □ Scheduling and logistics □ Routine revision feedback collection □ Project management questions SUBS DO NOT SPEAK DIRECTLY TO CLIENTS: □ Subs are named internally; client may know they're part of the team □ All deliverables routed through owner or PM before client submission □ Exception: If sub is a recognized specialist brought in as a named resource for their expertise (e.g., legal reviewer, photographer), direct client communication may be scoped appropriately APPROVAL PROCESS ───────────────── Internal draft complete → Owner/PM reviews → Revisions if needed → Approved internally → Submitted to client → Client review period → Client feedback → Internal revision if needed → Final delivery Note: Never submit to client anything the owner hasn't reviewed. The sub's deadline must be at least 2–3 days before the client submission date. REVISION POLICY IN PRACTICE ───────────────────────────── Round 1: Client receives deliverable. Review period = [3–5 business days]. Round 2: Agency revises per feedback. Turnaround = [2–3 business days]. If additional rounds needed: Flag before proceeding. Script: "We're at [round X] of revisions. Our standard scope includes [X]. Happy to do an additional round — I'll send a quick quote for the extra work. Does that work?" ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SECTION 5 — MONTHLY RHYTHM ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ MONTHLY CHECK-IN EMAIL TEMPLATE ───────────────────────────────── Send at the beginning of each month. Keep it short. Subject: [MONTH] Update — [CLIENT NAME] × [AGENCY NAME] Hi [NAME], Quick update on [CLIENT NAME] as we head into [MONTH]: LAST MONTH IN REVIEW • [What was delivered/accomplished] • [Notable result or metric] • [Any issue and how it was resolved] THIS MONTH • [What we're working on] • [Key deliverable and expected date] • [Any decision needed from the client] UPCOMING • [Anything to flag for next 30–60 days] Standing call is [DATE] at [TIME] — [LINK]. Agenda to follow. Let me know if anything's come up on your end. [Name] CLIENT HEALTH SCORECARD (5 METRICS) ────────────────────────────────────── Run this internally at the start of each month. Score each 1–5 (5 = excellent). METRIC 1: RESULTS DELIVERY Are we hitting the success metrics we agreed to at kickoff? 1 = Missing targets badly | 3 = On track | 5 = Exceeding targets Score: ___/5 METRIC 2: RELATIONSHIP QUALITY How is the working relationship feeling? Are communications positive and productive? 1 = Strained/difficult | 3 = Professional, functional | 5 = Strong partnership Score: ___/5 METRIC 3: SCOPE HEALTH Is scope clear and stable? Or is creep a recurring problem? 1 = Constant scope issues | 3 = Occasional minor creep | 5 = Clean, defined scope Score: ___/5 METRIC 4: PAYMENT RELIABILITY Do they pay on time, without chasing? 1 = Chronic late payer | 3 = Occasional delays | 5 = Always pays on time Score: ___/5 METRIC 5: EXPANSION POTENTIAL Is this relationship likely to grow? Are there signals of additional need? 1 = No expansion likely | 3 = Possible | 5 = Clear expansion opportunities Score: ___/5 TOTAL: ___/25 20–25: Excellent — proactively invest in this relationship 15–19: Good — stable, monitor for improvement opportunities 10–14: Caution — address issues before they compound Below 10: Review whether to continue the engagement QBR TEMPLATE (QUARTERLY BUSINESS REVIEW) ────────────────────────────────────────── Run QBRs for clients on retainers of $3,000+/month or 6+ months tenure. [CLIENT NAME] × [AGENCY NAME] — Q[X] BUSINESS REVIEW Date: _____________ | Duration: 45–60 minutes AGENDA TEMPLATE 0:00–0:05 | WELCOME & AGENDA OVERVIEW 0:05–0:20 | QUARTER IN REVIEW • What we set out to accomplish (from last QBR or kickoff goals) • What we accomplished (with metrics) • What we're proud of • What didn't go as planned and what we learned 0:20–0:35 | METRICS DASHBOARD Review all agreed KPIs from success metrics agreement: Metric 1: [NAME] | Start: ____ | Target: ____ | Actual: ____ | Trend: ▲/▼/→ Metric 2: [NAME] | Start: ____ | Target: ____ | Actual: ____ | Trend: ▲/▼/→ Metric 3: [NAME] | Start: ____ | Target: ____ | Actual: ____ | Trend: ▲/▼/→ 0:35–0:50 | NEXT QUARTER PLANNING • Goals for the next 90 days • Any scope adjustments? • Any new initiatives or projects on their roadmap? • Any upcoming changes (team, budget, strategy) we should know about? 0:50–0:60 | RELATIONSHIP HEALTH & OPPORTUNITIES • "What could we do better?" • "What's been most valuable this quarter?" • "Are there other areas where we could be helpful?" • Contract renewal (if applicable) POST-QBR ACTIONS □ Send QBR summary document within 24 hours □ Update internal health scorecard □ Note any expansion opportunities in CRM □ Schedule next QBR ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SECTION 6 — OFFBOARDING SOP ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Whether a project concludes naturally or an engagement ends, a professional offboarding builds the relationship and generates referrals and case studies. 4-STEP WRAP-UP ─────────────── STEP 1: FINAL DELIVERY & REVIEW (Week -2 to Final Day) □ All deliverables submitted and approved □ Final invoice sent (and payment confirmed before handoff of final assets) □ All final files organized and named clearly □ Access/credentials transferred or revoked as appropriate STEP 2: KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER (Final Week) □ Create a "Handoff Document" including: - Summary of what was built/created - How to use/maintain it - Any ongoing recommendations - Contacts and resources □ 30-minute handoff call if needed for complex deliverables □ Confirmation that client has everything they need to operate independently FINAL DELIVERABLE CHECKLIST □ [Primary deliverable] — submitted ✓ and approved ✓ □ [Secondary deliverable] — submitted ✓ and approved ✓ □ Source files / editable files delivered (if applicable) □ Login credentials transferred (if applicable) □ Documentation / handoff doc delivered □ Final invoice marked paid □ Project closed in PM tool STEP 3: RELATIONSHIP CLOSE (Final Day) Send a closing email (template below). CLOSING EMAIL TEMPLATE: Subject: It's a wrap — thank you for a great [project/partnership], [CLIENT NAME] Hi [NAME], We've officially wrapped on [PROJECT NAME] and I wanted to take a moment to say thank you for trusting us with this work. Working with [COMPANY NAME] was [specific thing you genuinely valued — a great brief, fast feedback, a challenging but rewarding problem to solve]. The [specific result or outcome] was exactly the kind of work we're proud to put our name on. I've attached the final handoff document which covers everything you'll need going forward. If any questions come up down the road, please don't hesitate to reach out. [REFERRAL ASK — TIMING: 1-2 weeks after great project close] If you know anyone in [similar industry/role] who could use help with [your core service], a referral from you would mean a lot. I work with a small number of clients at a time and nearly all of my best relationships have come from introductions just like that. Again, thank you for a great [project/year/partnership]. [Name] [Agency] STEP 4: CASE STUDY REQUEST (2-3 weeks after close) Best time: After the client has had time to see results in the wild. CASE STUDY REQUEST EMAIL: Subject: Quick favor — a case study on our work together? Hi [NAME], I've been thinking about the [result/outcome] we achieved on [project] and wanted to ask — would you be open to being featured in a brief case study on our website? It's about 200 words covering: what the situation was before, what we did, and the result we achieved together. I'd send a draft for your review and approval before publishing anything — you'd have full editorial control. If you'd prefer to keep it anonymous (just the industry, not your name), that works too. It genuinely helps us show prospective clients what's possible. No pressure at all if it's not a fit. [Name] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ RESOURCES • Agency guide: solostack.madethis.app/resources/freelance-agency • Client communication guide: solostack.madethis.app/resources/freelance-client-communication • Retainer guide: solostack.madethis.app/resources/freelance-retainer • Full template library: solostack.madethis.app/lp/freelance-templates © SoloStack. Free to use and share.