How to Build a Client Onboarding Form for Your Agency

What is an onboarding form?

An onboarding form is a form you send during the onboarding process. Once a payment is complete, and between the onboarding call and any follow up steps, you want the client to complete it so you collect information about the project and about the client.

The concept is simple. The complexity depends on your services. Rather than one fixed template, use the concept below to build the form that suits your niche and your model.

What should an onboarding form collect?

There are two halves. The first is project information: anything essential for you to start work. For a marketing agency that might be the ideal customer avatar, the service offering, the profit margin and the break even point, or creators they already work with. For a lead generation or content agency it might be social media accounts, any long form content, links and branding such as logos and colours.

The goal is to get the client a win as soon as possible, so collect everything required to start. Following up after the form is complete to ask for more information looks a bit unprofessional and does not give the client confidence that you have done this before.

The second half is client information. You need the basics: name, email, address and phone number. But this is also a chance to build a real connection. You can ask about their favourite sports team, hobbies or clothing size, and add the answers to your CRM. Those answers can power retention tactics, such as surprise and delight gestures like branded merchandise.

How can you use personal answers to keep clients?

Imagine a client signs up and completes the form. A few days later they receive custom merchandise, such as a hoodie, a shirt or a mug, and a handwritten note from the founder that mentions their favourite sports team. That is a one to one experience few competitors will match.

It also helps when you make a mistake. An apology alone is rarely enough. If you use what the form told you, such as their favourite team or hobby, you can make a gesture that goes above and beyond. The idea is to move an unhappy client past neutral to happy. These tactics do not replace results. If you are not delivering results, none of this works. Good results plus a good experience is the combination that matters.

A related tip: have the customer success manager make a short introduction call. They mention the closer by first name, repeat the biggest pain point and desire the client gave on the sales call (recorded in the CRM), explain the form and the next steps, and link those steps back to why the client signed up.

Six ways to improve your onboarding form

1. Stress its importance early. On the sales call, or on the thank you page after payment, explain that the form is the next step. A thank you page can include a short video that says thanks and explains why the form matters. Link it to the outcome the client wants.
2. Follow up. Not every client completes the form straight away. Set up automated follow ups that check whether it was completed and then send an SMS or email, or prompt the customer success manager to call. Link the form back to their desired outcome when you do. Delays on their side become delays in your delivery.
3. Offer an incentive. Lock a gift or bonus until the form is complete, and make it something the client cares about. A guide relevant to a roofing business owner suits a roofer better than a generic AI prompt pack. A good incentive can remove the need to follow up.
4. Take action on the answers. Spend about 10 minutes before the onboarding call reviewing the form and mention the key points. Asking clients to repeat themselves makes the form feel pointless.
5. Optional: add a personality test, so you can match each client with a customer success manager whose style suits them. This is more useful where there are many managers, and less important for B2B services.
6. Optional: make the form interactive. A long Google Form can feel boring. A tool such as Typeform shows one question per page with multiple choice options, so it feels quicker and more enjoyable even if it takes a similar time.

How does the onboarding form connect to automation?

The onboarding form is a small part of the onboarding process, but it is the easiest trigger to start from. When a client completes it, you can update the CRM, start creative work, send a welcome message or unlock the gift you promised.

You can also use AI with the answers to create a first draft of creative work, so you start from a templated version rather than a blank page. That is more complicated to set up. Once your form is built, automate what happens before and after it, because anything in onboarding is the client's first impression of you.