Customer onboarding checklist for account managers
Customer onboarding is where an account manager takes over what sales promised and turns it into a working relationship: scope confirmed, the delivery team briefed, and the first piece of work under way. When the handoff is loose, the account manager spends the first month rediscovering the deal, chasing the customer for access nobody requested, finding a discount in the contract nobody mentioned, and explaining a timeline the customer heard differently in the sales cycle.
This customer onboarding checklist covers the work from a signed contract to the first delivered milestone and a 30-day review. It is written for the account manager who owns new customers after the sale, alongside the salesperson handing the deal over and the team delivering the work.
Frequently asked questions
How long should customer onboarding take?
Aim for the first delivered milestone within 30 days of signature and a formal review at day 30, with 60 to 90 days for complex or multi-team accounts. Customers count from the day they signed, including any quiet week while you set up internally, so the welcome email and kickoff belong in week one.
Should the salesperson or the account manager own onboarding?
The account manager, from the day the contract is countersigned. The salesperson joins the handoff and the kickoff call so context and relationships carry over, then steps back. When sales keeps running the account informally, commitments accumulate that the delivery team never hears about.
Does onboarding end after the kickoff call?
No. The kickoff call produces the plan, and onboarding ends when the first milestone in that plan is delivered and reviewed with the customer, usually around day 30. Closing onboarding at kickoff is how accounts arrive at the first renewal conversation with nothing shipped and a customer who remembers a good meeting and little else.
What should you do when a new customer stops responding?
Chase twice in one week through the agreed channel, then escalate to the sponsor who signed the contract with a specific note: what is blocked and how the timeline moves. Keep delivering anything that does not depend on them, and log the gap in [your CRM]. A customer who is silent in month one is a renewal risk worth flagging early.
Is a CRM enough to run customer onboarding?
A CRM holds the account record, and the onboarding steps still need owners and deadlines: the welcome email on day one, the asset list the customer owes you, the invoice check in week two. Run those as a shared checklist per new customer. Chaser turns each step into a Slack task and chases the owner until someone marks it done.
