Web design client onboarding: the steps from yes to kickoff

What are the steps in a web design client onboarding process?

The steps run in this order: agreement, first payment, welcome note, access, and then the kickoff meeting. The questionnaire goes out with the welcome note, and each other step waits on the one before it.

Ask for logins early, since a missing one can stop work on the first day. For the list of files and logins to collect, see the checklist of what your client supplies.

What happens in the web design client process after the contract is signed?

Once the contract is signed, you send the first invoice, then a welcome note that tells the client what comes next. The questionnaire goes out with that note, so the client can start on it right away.

A good welcome note answers the questions a new client has on day one:

• who their contact is, and the best way to reach you
• the date of the kickoff meeting, or a way to book it
• what they owe you, and the date each item is due
• how drafts will reach them, and how they send notes back

Keep the client talking to one person: you. With DeskTeam360, for example, the agency stays the client's contact and carries their notes, while the team does the work out of sight behind the agency.

Set the kickoff date in the welcome note, and hold it once the answers and logins are in. For running the meeting itself, see how to run the kickoff meeting.

What should web design client onboarding settle before work starts?

Onboarding should settle who signs off, what the client sends and by when, and how feedback reaches you, all before any design or build work starts. An open question here can turn into a delay later.

Before work starts, get a clear answer on each of these:

1. Who on the client's side gives the final yes on the design and the site.
2. Which words, photos and brand files the client sends, and the due date for each.
3. Which logins you need, such as the domain, the host and any tools the site links to.
4. How feedback comes in: from one person, in writing, in one place.
5. How often you'll send updates, and in what form.

Write the answers down and send them back to the client, so both sides work from the same list. The written questions themselves belong in the client questionnaire, which the client fills in before kickoff.