Client Onboarding Checklist — First 7 Days
The first week sets the tone for the entire client relationship. Move fast, communicate constantly, deliver early. Most churn happens because of poor onboarding — set expectations, exceed them, and you lock in the relationship.
Pre-kickoff (immediately after they sign)
Within 1 hour of contract signature
- Send welcome email (template in
02-email-sequence.md"after they sign up") - Send Stripe payment link for first month
- Add to CRM as "Active Client" with kickoff date
- Block time on calendar: 4 hours over the next 48 hours for build
- Send intake form (template below)
Within 24 hours
- Verify first payment cleared (chase if not)
- Receive intake form back (chase if not after 24 hours — text them)
- Check domain status:
- If they own it: get registrar access or DNS panel access
- If they don't: register it on their behalf under their account (or your account, transferred to them)
- Check existing brand assets (logo, colors, fonts) — note what's missing
Day 1–2: Build the real site
- Spin up the project from your template (use the
mixed-greenssite as a starting point — duplicate, rename, replace assets) - Replace placeholder content with their real content from intake form
- Replace placeholder images with their photos (or curated stock if needed)
- Update colors / fonts to match their brand (or improve if they don't have one)
- Configure metadata: title, description, OpenGraph image
- Set up Google Analytics 4 + Google Tag Manager (optional but recommended)
- Deploy to a preview URL (e.g.,
clientname-preview.your-agency.com) - Run Lighthouse — must hit 95+ on Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, SEO before sending
- Test on actual mobile device (not just dev tools)
Send the preview
- Email + text: "Here's your site. Walk through it on mobile and desktop. Send me notes by [Day 4]."
- Include the preview link, a 60-second Loom video walking them through what to look for, and a numbered list of "things to check"
Day 3–4: Revisions
- Receive their feedback (chase if not received by Day 4 morning)
- Apply revisions in one batch (don't ping-pong — accumulate and apply once)
- If they have major changes (new copy, new structure), reset expectations: "Got these — pushing the live date 2 days. Cool?"
- Re-deploy to preview URL
- Email: "Here's v2 — final review. Anything else, lmk by tomorrow EOD."
Day 5: Pre-launch
- Final approval from client (text or email is fine, log it)
- Set up domain DNS:
- A / CNAME records for the domain
- Wait for propagation (can be 1–24 hours)
- SSL certificate provisioned (auto with Cloudflare Pages / Vercel)
- Google Search Console: verify ownership, submit sitemap
- Google Business Profile: add the new website link, verify it crawls
- Set up monitoring (UptimeRobot or BetterStack — free tiers work)
- Set up the recurring billing in Stripe (subscription, not one-time)
Day 6: Soft launch
- Push to live domain
- Test from multiple devices and networks (your phone on cell data, not wifi)
- Test all links, all forms, all phone-tap, all map links
- Test that contact form actually sends an email (real test, real inbox)
- Have client test from their own phone — confirm they can see it
- Take screenshots of the live site for portfolio
Day 7: Launch + close
Launch announcement
- Send "you're live" email with:
- The live URL
- Lighthouse score screenshot
- 5 things they should do today (post on FB, update GBP, tell customers, etc.)
- The recurring monthly schedule and what to expect
- Schedule a 15-minute "everything good?" call for Day 14 (this prevents silent churn)
Internal cleanup
- Update CRM: status to "Live", launch date, plan tier, any notes
- Add them to your monthly reporting list
- Add them to your monthly "do they need anything?" outreach
- Move project files to long-term storage / archive (keep one canonical copy, delete preview)
- Add to portfolio (if they consented per agreement Section 4.5)
Intake form — copy/paste into Google Forms or Tally
Send this immediately after they sign. Most clients fill it out in 10 minutes if you keep it short. Don't try to gather everything — you'll figure out the rest as you build.
Section 1 — The basics
- Business legal name
- "Doing business as" / display name (if different)
- Address (street, city, state, ZIP)
- Phone number you want listed publicly
- Email you want for contact form replies
- Hours of operation (per day)
Section 2 — Domain & accounts 7. Do you already own a domain for this business? (yes / no / not sure) 8. If yes: what is it, and who is it registered with (GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.)? 9. Do you have an existing website? (yes / no — if yes, link) 10. Do you have a Google Business Profile? (yes / no — if yes, what name)
Section 3 — Content 11. In one paragraph, how would you describe your business to a brand-new customer? 12. What do you sell / what services do you provide? (bullet list, prices if comfortable) 13. What's special about your business? Why would someone pick you over a competitor? 14. Do you have customer reviews or testimonials we can use? (paste a couple, or link to your Google reviews) 15. Anything important to mention (allergens, certifications, awards, hours quirks, etc.)?
Section 4 — Brand & visuals 16. Do you have a logo? (upload, or "no") 17. Brand colors / fonts you like or use? (or "no idea, you choose") 18. Photos: upload at least 5 of your space, products, food, team, work — phone shots are fine. (Or: "no photos yet — use stock for now, I'll send real ones in 30 days") 19. Anyone whose website you really like? (paste links — gives me direction)
Section 5 — Goals 20. What's the #1 thing you want this website to do for your business?
The week-2 check-in call (5–10 minutes)
Calendar this in advance. It's the single highest-leverage thing for retention.
Open with:
"Hey, just checking in — site running OK on your end? Any feedback from customers? Anything you wish was different?"
Listen. Take notes. Action items get applied that week, no charge (for Growth and Pro tiers).
End with:
"Cool. I'll send you your first monthly report at [end of next month]. Anything in particular you want me to track?"
This call is also where you sometimes upsell from Starter to Growth, or Growth to Pro. Don't push — listen for signals ("I wish we showed up on Google more" → Pro tier opportunity).
Month 1 deliverables (set expectations on the kickoff call)
- Site live by Day 7 ✓
- Week-2 check-in call ✓
- Google Business Profile claimed/optimized
- First monthly report (template in
08-pricing-rationale.md)
After that, the cadence becomes:
- Monthly: report + 1 content update + GBP refresh
- Quarterly: site refresh / SEO audit / strategy call (Pro tier)
- Annually: full re-design conversation (most clients say "no, leave it alone, but here's a referral")
Red flags during onboarding
If any of these happen, slow down and address before launching:
- Client doesn't respond to the intake form for 5+ days → you're going to have a chasing-them-for-content problem forever. Get on a call.
- Client wants to renegotiate price the day after signing → bad start. Hold the line. Reference the agreement.
- Client wants to add scope ("can you also do my Instagram?") → quote it separately, never absorb.
- Client is rude to you in writing → polite firmness now > resentment later. "Hey, just want to make sure we're on the same page on tone — happy to help, but I work better when we're respectful both ways. Cool?"
Tools you'll want set up Day 1
| Need | Recommendation | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Email sending | Google Workspace at your domain | $6/user/mo |
| Cold sequencing | Instantly or Smartlead | $30–60/mo |
| CRM | Notion template (free) or Pipedrive | $0–25/mo |
| E-signature | Stripe Atlas Documents (free) or PandaDoc | $0–35/mo |
| Payments | Stripe | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Scheduling | Cal.com (free) or Calendly | $0–12/mo |
| Hosting | Cloudflare Pages (free for unlimited) | $0 |
| Domain registration | Cloudflare Registrar (at-cost) | ~$10/yr per |
| Uptime monitoring | UptimeRobot | Free up to 50 sites |
| Phone (separate from personal) | OpenPhone or Google Voice | $0–20/mo |
Total fixed cost to operate this business: ~$50–100/month until you have 20+ clients. Margin at $197/client is brutal-good.