SOP: New Customer Onboarding

1. Purpose

Use this SOP to provide every new customer with a consistent onboarding experience that:

• Confirms goals, scope, stakeholders, and measurable success criteria
• Configures the customer account correctly
• Trains users to complete essential product workflows
• Identifies and resolves risks early
• Measures progress and agrees on next steps at the 30-day check-in

2. Scope and Timing

Start this SOP within one business day after all three trigger conditions are met:

1. The customer contract is signed and the opportunity is marked Closed Won in the customer relationship management system (CRM).
2. Payment or purchase-order requirements are confirmed as complete by Billing/Operations.
3. Sales has submitted the approved implementation scope and customer handoff.

Onboarding ends only when:

• The completion criteria in Section 8 are met and onboarding is marked complete; or
• A recovery plan is approved with owners, due dates, a revised completion date, and an escalation path.

3. Definitions

• CRM: The system used to store customer, opportunity, contact, and activity records.
• CSM: Customer Success Manager.
• Business day: A normal company working day, excluding weekends and company holidays.
• Critical issue: An issue that prevents account access, creates a security or data risk, or blocks an essential customer workflow without an acceptable workaround.
• Essential workflow: A product task the customer must complete to achieve an agreed onboarding goal.
• Success criterion: A specific, measurable result used to determine whether onboarding is successful.
• Approved secure channel: A company-approved intake form, encrypted file-sharing platform, credential manager, or other channel listed in the company security policy.
• Change control: The company process for reviewing work requested outside the signed scope.
• Customer acceptance: Written confirmation from an authorized