A good customer onboarding process asks for the right documents once, tracks what has arrived and what's missing or expired, files every item and ends with a named person saying yes. Draft reminders keep it moving, so nobody has to nag.
What should a customer onboarding process collect?
A customer onboarding process should collect exactly what you need to trade safely with a new customer, and nothing more. Write it as a list, one list for each type of customer.
Say you run a wholesale bakery supply business. A café opening an account needs company details, a delivery address and a trade reference. A big hotel group also needs a credit form and insurance papers. Two types, two lists.
Most of the pain comes from not having the list. Without it, you ask for things in pieces, find a gap a week later and send another email.
Keep the list honest. If you never actually use a document, drop it. Every extra item slows the customer down, and slows you down too.
Start by asking what has gone wrong in the past. If a customer once went bust without a credit check, that check goes on the list.
A typical list holds things like these:
- Company name, registration details and tax number.
- A contact person and a delivery address.
- Bank details, if you'll be paying them or being paid.
- Certificates or insurance, with their expiry dates.
- Signed terms of trade.
How do you ask for everything once?
Send one clear request with the whole list, a simple way to reply and a date. Documents go to one mailbox or folder, not to whoever the customer happens to know.
Picture a small factory taking on a new buyer. The sales person emails a friendly note: here are the six things we need, send them to this address, we'd like them by Friday. Before, the same factory sent six separate emails over three weeks.
We can prepare that request as a draft from your list, so it's ready to read and send. That's client onboarding automation in plain terms: the writing is done, you check it.
This is built to order. It isn't running for a client yet.
How do you spot missing and expired documents?
Every document that arrives is checked against the list. A register shows, for each new account, what's in, what's missing and what has an expiry date coming up.
Think of an online shop that adds a new supplier. The supplier sends company papers but forgets the insurance certificate, and a bank letter is a year old. The register shows two gaps at a glance.
Reminders then name the exact items. 'We still need your insurance certificate and a bank letter from this year' gets a faster answer than 'please send the rest'.
Out-of-date items are a bigger risk than missing ones. A missing paper is obvious. An old one looks fine until someone checks the date.
Expiry dates are logged too. When a certificate is about to run out, a reminder goes to the right person, not months later when someone happens to notice.
Say a customer's insurance runs out in June. In May a short note goes out: 'Your certificate ends next month. Please send the new one.' Nobody at your end had to remember.
How smooth is your onboarding today?
Think of the last few business customers you took on. Tick each statement that is true of your process today.
How are documents filed and tracked?
Each document is filed under the customer or supplier with a clear name, and one register row says what it is and where it lives.
The register is just a sheet your team already uses. Open it and you see every new account, its status and its next step. No more asking 'did Marco's company send the bank letter?'
Anyone covering for you can find things too. A holiday no longer means a mailbox mystery.
Here's what the register typically shows:
- The account and who is looking after it.
- Each document: received, missing or expired.
- The date it arrived and the date it runs out.
- The next reminder.
- The status: waiting, ready to approve, approved.
Who says yes to the new account?
A named person approves every new account before the first order. No delivery and no credit until then.
Say a plumber's merchant is opening an account for a building firm. The paperwork is complete, the register is green, and the manager reads the file and says yes. Only then does the first order go through on credit.
It also makes the approval quick. The manager reads one file, not ten emails.
For us, that's the one rule that runs through everything: every step starts with your approval, then you choose when it goes automatic. The approval of a new account is a step you'll likely always keep.
The same route works for vendor onboarding. When a new supplier joins, you collect their company, bank and insurance details the same way. A person approves the new record before anyone pays them.
How do you make it easy for the customer?
Make it short, clear and friendly. The easier it is to send the documents, the faster the account opens.
Tell people what you need, why, and how to send it. A phone photo is fine, as long as it's readable. Say what happens next, so they know when they can start ordering.
If you onboard both customers and suppliers, supplier onboarding and customer onboarding can share the same route with two different lists.
People trust you more when you explain why. 'We ask for this so we can set your credit limit' is friendlier than a bare list.
A short, friendly note beats a form full of fields. People respond to what looks easy.
Our AI employees are rented by the month and work with your own mailbox, folders and sheets. The files stay in your accounts. If you stop, the workflow stops, and every document stays where it was filed.
Tick the list below to see how smooth your own process is today.
Questions
What is a customer onboarding process?
It's the steps from a new customer saying yes to their account being ready to trade: collecting documents, checking them, filing them and approving the account.
Can it also do supplier onboarding?
Yes. The same route works for suppliers, with a different list of documents.
Does it approve accounts by itself?
No. A named person approves each new account. Nothing ships and no credit is given before that.
Is it running today?
Client and supplier onboarding is built to order. It isn't running for a client yet.
Where do the documents go?
Into your own folders, under each customer or supplier, with a row on your register.
Tell us your workflow. We will build it around you.
Tell us how many new customers or suppliers you onboard each month and how long each one takes. Write to [email protected] and we'll tell you plainly what fits.
Talk to us Related service: Client and supplier onboarding
