The start of a new client/agency relationship is a very exciting time for both parties. The client is excited that they’ve located and vetted the right agency, and the agency is excited about tackling a new project with new goals, challenges, etc.

At CM, we take the client onboarding process very seriously. The responsibility of effectively onboarding new clients and getting projects kicked off smoothly falls completely on us, so we’ve spent a lot of time building a process that sets the relationship up for success. Setting clear expectations is a critical component of any new relationship, so we thought it would be helpful to publish an A to Z guide of what our client onboarding process looks like.

Let’s Get Started

To start at the beginning, let’s assume you are a business seeking an agency and you are about to call CM for the first time:

1. The first person you’ll talk to will be one of our Strategy Consultants. Our Strategy Consultants will spend time with you getting to know your brand, your challenges, and your goals. They can also walk you through our capabilities, successes we’ve had with other clients, and answer any questions you have about CM. Assuming that there’s a fit, this person will build a custom scope of work built around your needs, along with a detailed proposal and contract.
2. After signing the contract, you can email it or efax it to the address provided by your Strategy Consultant – this marks “go time” on our side. We officially kick-off the onboarding process internally.
3. You will be contacted by our Accounts Payable team within two business days to set up billing information.
4. Your Strategy Consultant will meet with our Director of Project Management (yours truly!) to discuss your business, goals, and the scope of work that’s been defined. Based on this, we work together to assign team members to your account whose skillsets and personalities will be the best fit for you.
5. The new team is then assembled, and all information is shared with everyone who will be working on your account. This includes the initial conversations with your Strategy Consultant, as well as everything that you have discussed with the CM team since signing the contract. We want to ensure every team member has a well-rounded view of you, the client and your expectations.
6. The Project Manager assigned to your account will contact you to schedule a kick-off call (typically happens within 2 business days of getting billing settled). This is usually a 1-hour phone call in which we do formal team introductions and discuss the first steps of the project.
7. Regularly occurring phone meetings are set up to discuss campaign progress, recommendations, next steps, etc. (Depending on scope of work, these meetings can range from once per month to multiple times per week)

From this point forward, your Project Manager will serve as your primary point of contact. Your original Strategy Consultant will remain available as needed, but your PM will be running the day to day operations of your campaign and is best suited to answer questions or talk strategy once the campaign is up and running.

Have questions? Feel free to call us at 1-800-610-7265 to talk more about this process, or contact us here.