The Perfect Client Onboarding Questionnaire (examples & tools)

Does your client onboarding process feel like a never-ending game of broken telephone between your team and your customers? 

It’s time to meet the client onboarding questionnaire.

Blink twice if this sounds familiar:

Your Sales team gathers intel from the customer and passes it onto the Onboarding team—who then grills the client again, only to realize key details got lost in translation. 

Then, Customer Success scrambles to finish a puzzle that doesn't have all the pieces. 

So not only will this result in your team facing endless meetings with minor clients and leaky Sales-to-Success handoffs, a staggering 74% of new clients will churn if you fail to make a great first impression. 

That's a huge loss of revenue and a missed opportunity to build trust. 

The solution? A streamlined onboarding process powered by a well-designed client onboarding questionnaire. 

No more miscommunication. No more wasted time. Just a smooth, enjoyable onboarding experience that sets the stage for a successful client relationship.

What is a client onboarding questionnaire?

A client onboarding questionnaire gathers key business intelligence from new clients, including their requirements, success metrics, key stakeholders, and goals. 

This helps you create aligned expectations, a needs-focused action plan, and a single source of truth to point back to throughout the customer relationship.

Most onboarding teams use form-builders like Google Forms or Typeform to create their questionnaires—or use Dock to include the form as part of their onboarding hub.

Why use a client onboarding questionnaire?

Why bother with a questionnaire? Wouldn't meetings and calls be easier?

An onboarding questionnaire might seem oddly impersonal as part of a high-touch onboarding process when you’re already frequently interacting with clients. 

However, it proves invaluable when you want to:

• Scale: A tech-touch or scaled customer success model demands efficiency. A questionnaire lets you gather essential client information at scale without overwhelming your team—and your new clients—with meetings.
• Save time: Many aspects of customer onboarding can be done asynchronously. Clients can answer questionnaires at their convenience, including uploading data or identifying stakeholders—instead of providing on-the-spot answers during calls.
• Create alignment: Using a questionnaire helps you and your client make sure you're on the same page right from the get-go. 

And clients actually want more involved onboarding. Over 90% of customers feel the “companies they buy from could do better” when it comes to onboarding new clients.  

At the discovery stage, your clients are picturing all the amazing things they'll accomplish with your solution and how it’ll work for them. But here's the catch: they haven't actually gotten their hands dirty yet.

This is where Richard Oliver's “Expectation Disconfirmation Theory” comes into play.

The theory explains the gap between a client's expectations and the reality of using your product. The wider the gap, the greater the danger of churn. 

And if they can’t shake off the disappointment? New clients might feel let down, frustrated, or even have buyer's remorse. 

Companies with a solid customer onboarding process experience a 50% higher new-client retention rate than those who don’t. This makes the client onboarding process—and a great intake form—one of the most critical revenue-generating strategies.

What to include in your client onboarding questionnaire 

While there’s no one-size-fits-all client questionnaire, the right questions are crucial for providing a smooth onboarding experience.

Only ask your new clients questions you can't answer from your own research or from the information passed off from Sales. And aim for relevant, action-driven questions that trigger directional responses.

Onboarding questionnaires for B2B SaaS clients, for example, usually cover seven key categories. Let’s review these sections with sample onboarding questions. 

💡Pro Tip: If an onboarding process takes more than 20 minutes, 70% of customers will abandon it. Therefore, it's ideal to have fewer than 15 questions in your questionnaire. 

1. Contact information & billing details

Start by confirming the general information about your client’s business. This includes the main points of contact, as well as billing procedures:

• The primary point of contact and their contact information, including email, phone number, and other necessary contact details. 
• The client’s preferred method of communication and when they're available.
• The billing address, the accountant's email address for invoices, and the point of contact for billing issues.

You may want to include a question about preferred names and pronouns. This small gesture can be a powerful way to show respect and build trust.

2. Key stakeholders

A crystal-clear definition of roles and responsibilities is essential when onboarding a new client, especially for complex SaaS implementations. 

For this section, you may want to take inspiration from the RACI matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed) to determine who’s doing the work, who’s approving it, who’s providing feedback, and who’s simply keeping track of everything.

Here are some example questions:

• Who is the final decision-maker in this project?
• Who are the executive sponsor(s) overseeing this project?
• What department heads or team leaders will be directly affected by our solution?
• Who will be responsible for the day-to-day management of our solution?
• Who is the best technical or IT contact for integration and setup questions?
• Who can represent the end-users and provide feedback during the implementation process?
• When it comes to changes or escalations, who has the authority to approve them?

The goal here goes beyond just learning names—you’re systematically increasing the chance of successful adoption within the organization. And eliminating a messy chain of follow-up emails.

3. Use cases

A personalized onboarding experience depends on understanding how your clients want to get value out of your product. Avoid showing them all the bells and whistles and instead focus on features that directly address their primary use cases, thus accelerating their time-to-value.

These questions include:

• Which specific problems are you looking to solve with our solution?
• Can you describe your ideal workflow using our product?
• Are there any particular features you're most excited about implementing?

This way, you can anticipate challenges, prioritize features, and align on success metrics—setting the stage for a lasting relationship from day one. 

4. Business goals and needs

Let's shift gears to your client’s goals, needs, and expectations. The purpose of this section is to explore the motivations and challenges that brought the client to your doorstep. 

While some of these can be asked during live calls, getting the answers in writing can serve as a single source of truth throughout the project life cycle for referencing milestones and goals.

Among the most important questions to consider are:

• Six months from now, what does success look like for your team?
• How are you measuring the success of our partnership?
• What are the expected timelines for this project, and the details of the specific deliverables?

SaaS-specific questions might include:

• What workflows or operations are currently inefficient or challenging for you?
• Do you need assistance migrating your data from your previous system?
• Are there any customizations or features you’re looking for?
• Do you have any existing processes or workflows that you'd like to replicate or improve with our product?
• What regulations, compliance requirements, or security standards must our solution meet?

💡 Pro Tip: Ideally, a lot of this information should be collected during the sales process. If your sales team uses Dock as a digital sales room to create a shared workspace with the client during the sales process, this can save your success team from having to re-ask these questions during onboarding.

5. File uploads

Instead of exchanging files over email, ask clients to upload files directly to your onboarding questionnaire. Getting files uploaded to one central location streamlines the onboarding process.

When onboarding a new SaaS client, you might need files like:

• A team member spreadsheet to create company-wide accounts or manage permissions.
• Data import files. Make the migration from other tools seamless by requesting data files in advance.

In addition, you might also request specific marketing assets like: 

• The client’s style guide that outlines fonts, colors, and logo usage guidelines. 
• Data from market research or customer demographics that can educate your approach.

6. Tech stack & integrations

The better you understand your client's existing technology ecosystem, the more value your product will offer. Get everything you need from the client before the project kick-off to facilitate a hassle-free journey.

Here are some questions you can ask:

• Can you provide a brief overview of your current technology stack?
• How do you think our product might replace some of the tools you’re using?
• What existing systems or platforms will our solution need to integrate with?

This lets you proactively address potential integration roadblocks upfront, thereby reducing the risk of downtime and workflow interruptions. 

7. Additional information

Finally, don't forget to account for unexpected details. 

New clients may have specific billing preferences or unique work schedules that could affect communication. Imagine a client with a 4-day workweek—knowing this upfront saves you from sending those "gentle reminder" emails on their days off.

Here, you can also include quick questions about their successful marketing efforts, digital marketing strategy, and ideal customers to learn more about their business.

Client onboarding questionnaire template

While every client's needs are unique, Dock allows you to create a customizable questionnaire template for your onboarding process. 

Here's how:

1. Start by creating a standardized client onboarding questionnaire template in Dock.
2. Add this questionnaire to your customer onboarding template.
3. Create an onboarding workspace for each new client and share it with them.
4. When the client fills out the questionnaire, you can share the answers back with them in the workspace.

Let's walk through a hypothetical onboarding questionnaire for a B2B SaaS company—built using Dock.

1. Include a welcome message

A good customer onboarding questionnaire should feel like a friendly welcome mat at the door of your business. You want it to be warm, easy to read, and give your new clients a sense of what to expect.

Give it a clear name, a quick description of what it's for, and an estimated completion date.

Include the estimated time it’ll take to complete the questionnaire, a deadline, and a point of contact in case they run into trouble. 

2. Gather contact and billing details

If you've already established a strong relationship with your primary point of contact, feel free to skip this section. 

But when it comes to new clients or situations where roles aren't clear, gathering this information ahead of time is a must to avoid workflow disruptions. 

Ask:

• Who is the primary point of contact for this project?
• In case of an emergency, who will be our backup contact?
• What is your billing address?

3. Identify key stakeholders

Next, we’ll identify key stakeholders (beyond our main PoC) from our client’s side. We want to know who's making decisions, who's using the product, and who needs to stay in the loop.

It helps to ask this question from a few different angles to unearth any hidden stakeholders.

You should also identify all the teams that need to be involved in implementation and onboarding.

Ask:

• Who has the final say on this project?
• Which teams will be using your SaaS solution daily?
• Who are the point people for training and support?
• Who should receive product/project updates?

4. Determine the project's requirements

As a B2B SaaS company, we’ll clarify the scope, expectations, timelines, and resource constraints for implementation.

You should ask about objectives both from a "soft goals" and hard KPIs perspective.

We'll also request details about their current technical infrastructure and get an overview of their workflow. 

Ask:

• What are your primary objectives for using our solution?
• What are your key performance indicators (KPIs) for success?
• What is your expected timeline for realizing those goals?
• Please provide an overview of your current tech stack, including key software and systems you use.
• Are there any specific pain points or bottlenecks you're looking to address in your workflow?
• Are there any specific industry regulations, data privacy laws, or security requirements that we should be aware of when implementing our SaaS solution?
• How frequently would you like to receive progress reports and performance updates on the implementation and usage of our SaaS solution?

🧠 Pro tip: Match the field type to how much detail you want from the client. Questions about target audiences and bottlenecks warrant a "Long answer text" field to allow for detailed answers. While multiple-choice questions are better suited for getting standardized answers (e.g., the frequency of progress updates).

5. Request relevant documents

Next, we’ll collect any assets we need to implement the solution. This could be employee lists, branding assets, or any other files you need from them.

Note that not every client has all the documents readily available. Mark these fields as optional so that they're not blocked from completing the survey.

6. Ask for open-ended comments and feedback

As a last step, the client should be welcome to add any additional requests or feedback to the questionnaire. The following section is entirely optional, acknowledging the value of their time—but giving them the space to add any other general information. 

Client onboarding questionnaire best practices

First impressions matter. And a great first impression starts with a clear, concise, and specific client onboarding questionnaire. 

Here are some best practices for customer onboarding questionnaires—so you can kick off things on the right foot with your new clients.

The Goldilocks Zone: when to send onboarding questions

Timing is everything. Given too soon, an onboarding questionnaire can overwhelm new clients. Too late, and you've missed your chance to tailor their experience.

There are two points in the sales process for onboarding new clients—

• Shortly after they become a paying client: This is the typical playbook in SaaS—seal the deal, send the list of questions, and pass the baton from Sales to Customer Success. It's the official kick-off, setting the stage for a lasting relationship.
• During a sales discovery session: It's a bold move, but if done well, it can pay off. You're showing them you're proactive and invested in their success. A marketing agency, for example, would likely take this approach, where guaranteeing a perfect fit between services and clients is paramount.

Aim for clarity and accessibility

Ask simple, open-ended questions so that onboarding doesn't get bogged down with analysis paralysis.

Give clients clearly worded open-ended questions to get a better understanding of their needs and expectations. The questionnaire should be written in easy-to-understand language, formatted logically, and accessible to clients with disabilities.

Add context to your onboarding questions

Even if you think your questions are self-explanatory, add context for your busy clients—so they have a launchpad for their answers.  

Consider this example.

• Without context: What is your current tech stack? 
• With context: Please provide an overview of your current tech stack for smoother integration. This includes any key software or platforms you currently use that our product might need to interact with.

The second request clearly explains why the information is needed, provides guidance, and emphasizes problem-solving rather than mere data collection.

Offer support

Keep your clients feeling supported throughout the questionnaire. Make sure they know they can get help if there are any tricky parts. 

This could be as simple as including a point of contact for them in the survey itself, so they know whom to reach out to—like in our example template above. 

Personalize the experience

Make sure every new client feels valued and understood by customizing the questionnaire. 

Make the experience more personalized by adding their logo to the header, embedding it in a personalized workspace, or skipping irrelevant questions like time zones for local clients. 

Best onboarding questionnaire tools 

Most teams go one of three routes to make their client onboarding questionnaires:

1. Standalone form tools: Typeform and Google Forms, for example, offer a familiar, straightforward approach to creating client onboarding questionnaires.
2. Project management tools: Airtable, for example, lets you connect a form to a project management database.
3. Customer onboarding workspaces (with forms included): Dedicated client onboarding software like Dock includes the ability to embed a customizable form.

Here are a few of our favorite tools that can help you with onboarding new clients. 

1. Dock

Best for: Embedding forms into your onboarding portal

Dock’s form builder has all the basics, like checkboxes, dropdowns, file uploads, multiple choice, text answers, and links.

But the beauty of Dock is that you can embed these questionnaires into your Dock onboarding workspace—a shared digital hub that allows you and your clients to collaborate in real time from one place.

Here’s where Dock’s forms really shine: you can easily share these responses back with your client in one click. No more hunting down emails or sorting through jumbled notes. 

The clients can review their own responses, allowing both of you to refer to them throughout the onboarding process. This creates a single source of truth for all stakeholders involved, creating greater alignment from the very beginning.

Dock also gives you a big-picture view of all the responses to a particular survey, so you can see summarized answers and the overall completion rate of all your onboarding forms.

🧠 Bonus tip: If you still prefer other client questionnaire tools like Google Forms or Airtable, Dock gives you the option to embed these into your shared workspace—so you get the best of both worlds. 

2. Typeform

Best for: Media-rich forms

A popular form builder, Typeform allows you to create forms with smart flows, logic jumps, and quizzes. These aren’t strictly necessary for onboarding, but they can add a touch of interactivity if you wish, making your process more dynamic and engaging.

Similar alternatives: Jotform, SurveyMonkey, Fillout

3. Google Forms

Best for: Low-cost, familiar forms

Google Forms is a basic, effective, and free way to gather client information. A handy feature of the system is the automatic copy of responses sent to you and your client.

But Google Forms for client onboarding? It's a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, designing a questionnaire is easy. On the other, the platform lacks that premium feel you might want for welcoming high-value clients. 

It's worth noting that the tool’s primary users are in education and student services—not the enterprise B2B SaaS market.

Similar alternative: Microsoft Forms

4. Airtable

Best for: Connecting with other platforms

If you’re using a project management tool like Airtable to manage clients, it only makes sense to use their built-in form capabilities.

One nice feature with Airtable is that you can pre-populate certain fields for the client if you already have that information in your database. It’s also easy to connect Airtable to other systems with their built-in integrations or Zapier.

Similar alternative: ClickUp

Create a frictionless client onboarding experience with Dock

A client onboarding questionnaire shouldn’t overwhelm your customers with a volley of questions. Far from it. Two goals are at stake: ensuring mutual success and accelerating asynchronous processes. It's all about efficiency, not bureaucracy.

You'll also have the chance to gather information that might not naturally come up in conversation, so you have a complete picture of the client's business.

Dock's intuitive form-builder makes it easy to create custom onboarding questionnaires and seamlessly integrates them into the client's comprehensive onboarding hub. The onboarding experience is all in one place, from initial questions to ongoing resources. 

And the best part? You can create this all-in-one onboarding process without writing a single line of code.

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