Agency client onboarding playbook

This is the client-facing version of onboarding: what happens on which day, and what the client sees at the end of the week. Run it the same way every time.

What you'll learn

• The five-day sequence, and what the client receives
• Which promises to make and which to avoid in week one
• How to end the week with something provable

Why a fixed sequence

Two reasons. The client experiences competence rather than improvisation, and you find out on day two rather than day twenty that their site blocks the crawlers that matter.

Day 1: Kickoff and setup

With the client: the trading name customers use, the domains, the markets, and the three questions they wish they won. Ask who receives reporting and whether they want access.

After the call: create the workspace, set the profile, add the three questions plus a mixed set to about fifteen prompts, add the rivals they named. See onboard a new client.

Client sees: nothing yet. Say so, and say when.

Day 2: Readiness, before any data arrives

Run the readiness grade. It does not need citation history, which is why it belongs on day two.

If there is a level 1 or level 2 failure, you have found the most valuable thing you will find all month, and you can report it before the first citation has been counted. A blocked crawler or a site that renders only with JavaScript is a concrete, cheap, high-impact fix.

Client sees: a short note naming the first fix. This is the moment the retainer justifies itself.

Day 3: First answers

Read the first cycle yourself before the client does:

• Which surfaces have rates, and which are excluded
• Whether any verbatim sentences exist yet
• Whether the discovered competitor list already differs from the client's own

Client sees: nothing formal. Prepare for day five.

Day 4: Approve the first change

Take the readiness finding or the top row of the plan, approve it in the ledger, and get it into the client's dev queue. Approving before shipping is what captures the control, and without it the result cannot be scored later.

Client sees: the specific change, and what you expect it to move.

Day 5: First report

Send the first report with three sentences of commentary: where they stand, what you found, what you approved. Include one verbatim sentence from Proof with its date and surface.

Client sees: a branded report with a finding, an action and a piece of evidence, five days in.

What to promise, and what not to

Promise: measurement on seven surfaces, a graded site with a named first fix, and every change tracked to observed or confirmed.

Do not promise: a citation rate by a date, a rank, or anything derived from a projected lift. The projections are prioritisation aids and they carry no measured error band.

The exit criterion for week one

One change in the ledger at Attested or better, with a control captured, and a client who can repeat back what you are measuring. Both matter: the first makes month two provable, the second makes the renewal easy.

Try this in Outercite

Run this playbook on your next client and note where it broke. The breakage is usually day 2, because the readiness finding needs a developer the client has not allocated. Fix that in the contract, not in the playbook.

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