The Ultimate Guide to Client Onboarding for Web Development Agencies

People don't just purchase a service from your agency; they invest in a relationship. When customers have a positive onboarding experience, it reassures them that they've made the right decision by selecting your agency for their web design project.

Client onboarding is a lot like hosting a dinner party. You warmly welcome your guests, make a round of introductions, ensure they are all comfortable, and then seamlessly serve each course throughout the evening, from the appetizers to the dessert.

All of these actions are intended to leave a memorable impression on your guests. So it is with onboarding a new client. Done well, a good client onboarding process lays the groundwork for a productive and positive working relationship and ensures you give your web design project a strong start.

What Is Client Onboarding, and Why Does It Matter?

Client onboarding is a series of steps you take to welcome a new customer, formalize your working relationship, and get them ready to work with your agency. This process also allows you to get to know your new customer better, understand their needs and challenges, and familiarize them with your agency's services and processes.

It is where you really get the chance to make a strong first impression, lay out the project details, establish expectations, and create the framework for your whole client relationship. If you pull it off, a successful client onboarding process can reap several benefits for your agency.

It Builds Client Confidence and Trust

A great client onboarding process helps build trust in your service, reassures clients, and makes them feel confident about choosing your agency. And the more your clients trust and support you, the more likely they will become loyal customers. According to research, 86% of customers are more likely to stay loyal if a business provides onboarding content that educates and welcomes them.

It Sets Realistic Expectations

The client onboarding process provides your agency with an excellent opportunity to find out exactly what the client expects for their website. In turn, the client gets a clearer idea of what you can deliver. This ensures that you and the customer are on the same page from the start. In addition, if your customers know exactly what they'll be receiving and when, it can cut down on the unnecessary back and forth that can slow down your work.

It Establishes an Efficient Workflow

A solid onboarding process sets you up for efficiency. Heading into a project with all the assets and information you need and clearly established timelines and milestones ensures fewer roadblocks and challenges ahead and increases your project's success rate. Plus, when you have a streamlined client onboarding process, you can easily replicate that with other clients. This brings consistency to your work and is something you can monitor and track, making improvements as needed.

It Creates Brand Advocates

A huge plus of a solid client onboarding experience is the brand advocates you can gain. Clients who are happy with their onboarding experience will begin to trust your brand sooner and spread the word, which can bring you more referrals.

It Builds Strong Client Relationships

A good client onboarding process ensures that the client’s experience with your agency begins on a great note and sets the tone for a long-standing positive partnership. Customers who have had a good onboarding experience with your agency may even be more open to upsells and cross-sells further down the line.

It Increases Your Business’s Bottom Line

An effective onboarding process leads to a lower churn rate (the rate at which customers stop doing business with your agency). It can also boost your agency's customer lifetime value (how much revenue you've made from your client throughout your working relationship). The combined result is a positive return on your investment in your client onboarding.

6 Steps for Client Onboarding Success

The key to creating a successful client onboarding program is to get your clients to the point where they see the value in your service as soon as possible. This is known as the "Aha!" moment.

To ensure this happens as quickly and as smoothly as possible, we've developed a checklist of six best practices to consider when developing your client onboarding plan.

1. Officially Welcome Your Clients on Board with a Welcome Package

After the contract is signed, it's time to onboard your clients formally with a welcome package. This is an email with documents you send to the client to thank them for choosing you, guiding them through your process, reviewing the terms of your agreement again, and setting expectations before you commence work. In essence, the welcome package should make the client feel excited about working with you and reassure them that they've made the right decision in hiring your agency.

2. Understand the Customer’s Needs

One of the most crucial aspects of a successful onboarding process is learning and understanding your client's needs, pain points, motivations, goals, and frustrations. A solid understanding of your client's needs will help you create a website that is uniquely tailored to them.

To gather all this information, you should create a questionnaire with onboarding questions for your clients to answer so that you can dig deeper into the real reason why a new website or redesign is needed. Creating a list of questions for your clients also helps you nail down the look and feel of the website and create a better user experience (UX) for their target audience. For example, if your client's goal is to generate more sales for their online store, then you'll want to structure the website in a way that makes it easier for visitors to make a purchase by putting the products front and center on the site's home page.

3. Align Expectations with the Client in a Kickoff Call

Many client-agency relationships suffer because of misunderstandings and miscommunication on expectations and deliverables. In fact, while 79% of agency owners feel confident about landing new clients and closing deals, 23% of them are unable to meet their clients goals and expectations. That's why it's essential at the beginning of the partnership to set realistic expectations and ensure that everyone shares a common vision of the project. This can be achieved by conducting a kickoff meeting.

The project kickoff is the initial meeting that consists of the project's team and the client. It's an opportunity to set expectations and ground rules for working together effectively and discuss project milestones and timelines while being transparent about the potential roadblocks you might encounter. A well-executed kickoff meeting keeps everyone informed, motivated, and focused. It also gives everyone involved a clearer idea of what success looks like and what needs to get done to get there.

4. Document the Entire Process in a Design Brief

Based on all the information you gathered about the client from the questionnaire and kickoff meeting, you'll next need to build a design brief for the project. This is a short document that lays out the details and plans for the website, such as the proposed site map, content goals, target audience, milestones, and deliverables. It is usually created by the project manager in close consultation with the client. Having this information compiled into a cohesive document will streamline the creative process and enable your team to not only focus on providing unique solutions for the website but also ensure everyone is on the same page before launching the project.

5. Select and Onboard Your Team

There are many moving parts involved in the process of developing a website. That's why teamwork is vital. The number of members on your team will depend on your agency's size, the project's complexity, and the client's budget. However, typically, the average web development team consists of the following key members:

• Project manager: The project manager focuses the team on their various projects and acts as the bridge between the client and the agency. They manage the budget, handle client communication, keep track of the project deliverables, and assign tasks to the team.
• Developers: Web developers are responsible for creating and maintaining the websites and web applications. Depending on the project's needs and characteristics, the average development team consists of one to two frontend and one to two backend developers. Backend developers write the code that controls what's displayed on the website, while frontend developers write the code that tells the browser how to display the page visually. There are also full-stack developers who can develop both the frontend and backend.
• UX/UI designers: Designers work on how the website looks and feels. They decide where and how all the information, data, content, etc., will be placed on the website or application. Good UX designers require a solid mix of graphic design, coding, and marketing.
• Quality assurance/tester: The person in this role tests the website and ensures that it meets the project specifications and doesn't have any bugs before it is released to the public.

When assigning team members to the project, it's important to provide all of the necessary client details from the brief and additional context from the kickoff call. It's also good for the client to be familiar with the team of experts working on their website, but make sure the client is clear on who the single approved point of contact is. For example, you wouldn't want the client to go directly to the UI designer with revision requests but rather to the project manager, who can check that revisions and requests are within the defined project timeline and scope.

6. Keep an Open Line of Communication

After all the work you've done to onboard your clients, what really counts in establishing a long-term relationship with them is open, transparent, and regular communication. That's where scheduled check-ins can make a big difference. Checking in often with your clients will help you identify and deal with hurdles and prevent any problems before they escalate.

For example, you can grab 30 minutes each week to run through the big-picture items, flag any issues, and get their feedback and input throughout the process. Even Slack updates can go a long way. Regular and transparent communication in this manner also ensures that your team doesn't end up siloed and emerge months later with a website that is not what the client was expecting. Keeping your client in the loop throughout the process is also the best way to make them feel at ease and in control and allow the project to evolve based on their needs. Your company will also build a reputation for being open and transparent, which is a massive step in getting the client to trust — and recommend — you.

Even after your customer is fully onboarded and your team has delivered their website, it's important to continue following up. Keeping in touch with customers can score many customer loyalty points and keeps the door open for future business.

For example, you can send a follow-up email to ask about their experience, whether they’ve had any issues with their website or if they would like to consider any additional services you provide, such as content marketing or regular site maintenance.

Set Your Clients Up for Success with Storyblok

A streamlined client onboarding process can save you and your potential clients a lot of time. It's key to helping clients understand your process and what they should expect when working with you.

Storyblok can help you through every step of the way. Through our Partner Program, we can help you generate leads, and then once you have landed your client, we can offer you the resources and support you need to seamlessly onboard them and create strong relationships from the get-go.