Onboard a new client

Client onboarding is the same five steps every time. Doing them in this order means you never have to redo a prompt set because the profile was wrong.

What you'll learn

• What to collect before you touch the platform
• The five setup steps, in the order that avoids rework
• The checklist to run before you show the client anything

Before you start

Collect four things from the kickoff:

1. The trading name customers use. Not the legal entity. This is what the judge model matches against.
2. The primary domain. Plus any other domains they own that should count as theirs.
3. Markets. Cities, regions or countries. For a local business this is most of the value.
4. The three questions they wish they won. These become your first prompts, almost verbatim.

Also ask who the report goes to, and whether the client wants access. Both are easier to set up now than later.

Step 1: Create the workspace

One workspace per brand. Name it as the client's brand. Add the profile: name, website, category, markets.

If the client has two brands, that is two workspaces. A single workspace holding both produces citation data you cannot separate later.

Step 2: Add prompts

Start with the three questions from the kickoff, then fill out to around fifteen:

• two or three buying prompts
• two or three comparison prompts, including ones naming the category's usual suspects
• local prompts if place matters
• a few informational prompts where the client should be the obvious authority
• one or two branded prompts for reputation

Never put the client's name in a non-branded prompt. See your first prompts.

Step 3: Add the competitors they name

Add the rivals the client listed in the kickoff. Do not try to be complete: the judge records every business named in every answer, so the real competitive set arrives on its own, and the difference between the two lists is often the most useful thing you will show them in month one.

Step 4: Set branding and reporting

Apply your agency branding, or a client override if their team is the audience. Set the report schedule and recipients, then send yourself the first one and read it as the client.

Step 5: Wait a cycle, then set expectations

Before the first client call, run this check yourself:

• Do the covered surfaces have rates, or are some excluded? An exclusion is not a zero, and you want to be the one who explains that first.
• Are there verbatim sentences in Proof? One real sentence is worth more than the whole first report.
• Does Readiness show a level 1 or level 2 failure? If so, that is your first piece of work and it is usually the highest-leverage one.

The checklist

Try this in Outercite

Onboard your best-documented client first and keep that workspace as your template. Every later onboarding is faster because you already know what a good prompt set looks like in your niche.

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