Customer Onboarding Template

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Customer Onboarding Template

Customer Onboarding Template Walkthrough

Make a great first impression with this customer onboarding template. Share success plans, intake forms, training materials, and more.

Who this template is for

Customer success teams, CSMs, account managers, and implementation specialists who need a simple way to standardize and scale their client onboarding process, keep stakeholders aligned, and ensure a smooth transition from sale to implementation. This template is especially useful for SaaS teams managing new clients, helping them create a seamless onboarding experience.

What this template is for

This customer onboarding template helps teams provide a consistent, professional onboarding experience for every client. It’s designed to clarify roles, set expectations, and guide new customers through the onboarding process with ease—without messy spreadsheets or clunky project management tools.

This free template also helps create a smoother sales-to-success handoff. By streamlining communication and organizing resources throughout the customer journey, the template ensures your clients feel supported and confident from day one, improving their overall customer experience and reducing churn. This client onboarding process not only sets the tone for a successful relationship but also helps with long-term customer retention and better metrics like customer lifetime value.

How to use this template

  1. Sign up for a free Dock account.
  2. Create a new workspace and select the customer onboarding template to get started.
  3. Customize the template to fit your onboarding process—add milestones, onboarding tasks, due dates, and resources specific to your product or service.
  4. Save your version as a reusable template for future clients.
  5. Share the workspace with your client—walk them through the plan during your onboarding kickoff call.
  6. Update the plan as needed to reflect changes, track progress, and keep all team members and stakeholders informed.

What’s in this template?

Section 1

Introduction

The first page of this workspace template includes a high-level overview of onboarding progress and what’s to be found in the rest of the workspace. It includes a table of contents, implementation progress timeline, contact cards of the onboarding team, calendar embed, and space for call recordings or webinar links.

Section 2

Customer Success Plan

This page includes a high-level customer success plan for rolling out the solution within the client’s organization. It includes an executive summary with key launch dates, metrics, milestones, deliverables, and login information. It also includes key stakeholders and points of contact, product roles, tech stack information, key metrics, current vs. future state, and a timeline of key project milestones.

Section 3

Intake Form

This page includes two possible formats for a customer intake form or onboarding questionnaire. It includes questions about stakeholders, roles, tech stack, pain points, file uploads, and more.

Section 4

Admin Setup

This page includes a customer onboarding checklist for your client’s admins. It includes several onboarding checklists, action-item CTAs, and tutorial videos.

Section 5

Project Plan

This page includes a multi-phased implementation plan. It includes a four-phase sample implementation timeline, complete with onboarding tasks at every phase.

Section 6

Product University

A series of video walkthroughs, documentation, and slides for how the client can get started with your product. It includes placeholder sections for PDF guides, links, embedded tutorial videos, and more.

Section 7

Resource Center

This sample resource center is a place to store all your client-facing guides and documents. It includes a sample admin setup guide, PDF tutorials, employee guides, manager guides, workflows, video clips, links, and more.

Section 8

End-User Enablement

This page includes a change management plan for onboarding the client’s entire company or user base. It includes a list of change management initiatives, guides for new users, tutorial videos, and other resources.

Why use Dock’s Customer Onboarding Template?

Dock’s customer onboarding template is the easiest way to deliver a seamless and repeatable onboarding process while still personalizing the experience for each client.

Client onboarding is often where the relationship with your customer is truly cemented. With Dock, you can create a customized workspace that not only introduces your client to your product or service but also sets them up for success. The template organizes everything into one shared space—milestones, onboarding tasks, docs, and timelines—so both your team and your clients know exactly what to expect.

Unlike traditional tools like spreadsheets or email threads, Dock offers a centralized platform that’s easy for clients to access and navigate. Your onboarding team can embed training videos, welcome emails, product tours, or links to support docs directly into the workspace. Plus, Dock’s engagement tracking gives you real-time visibility into how clients are interacting with the plan, so you can proactively address questions or roadblocks.

Simplify and streamline onboarding

  • Clearly outline milestones, onboarding tasks, and due dates for your onboarding process.
  • Provide clients with all the resources they need in one accessible location.
  • Keep everyone on the same page with real-time updates and easy collaboration.

Personalize the onboarding experience

  • Tailor the template to each client by adding customized goals, action items, and resources.
  • Embed tutorials, case studies, or welcome messages specific to their use case.
  • Save customized onboarding plans as reusable templates for future clients.

Improve customer engagement and retention

  • Use Dock’s engagement tracking to monitor client activity—see which resources they’re accessing and where they may need help.
  • Proactively follow up on incomplete steps or address roadblocks before they escalate.
  • Build trust and ensure customer retention with a consistent, organized onboarding experience.

Make onboarding easy for everyone

  • Eliminate the need for spreadsheets and static documents with a live, interactive workspace.
  • Give clients instant access to their onboarding plan—no logins or extra steps required.
  • Empower your customer success team to deliver a smooth onboarding experience that drives client satisfaction and retention.

Dock’s customer onboarding template simplifies the process for your team and your clients, creating a great first impression and helping you establish a strong foundation for long-term success.

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The Dock Team

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Customer Onboarding Template FAQs

How do I use this template?

Sign up for Dock for free, create a new workspace, and choose the client onboarding template. Customize it for your onboarding process, save it as your own, and share it with clients to guide them through onboarding.

Is this template free?

Yes, Dock is free to try for up to five workspaces. All paid plans include unlimited template and workspace usage.

Can I modify this template?

Yes, you can make your own copy of the template, adjust it to fit your onboarding process, and modify the onboarding checklist template for each client as needed.

Can I personalize this template for every client?

Absolutely. You can customize milestones, tasks, and resources in the template to reflect each client’s unique onboarding needs.

Can I share this template with my team?

Yes, you can share templates across your team in Dock. You can also control visibility and decide whether templates are private or team-wide.

What is a client onboarding template?

A client onboarding template is a pre-built framework that helps teams onboard new clients efficiently and effectively. It includes sections for tracking milestones and key touchpoints, assigning tasks, and sharing resources, so your team and clients can work together in a structured way. The goal is to set clear expectations, reduce friction, and ensure clients feel confident using your product or service.

What is a customer onboarding process?

A customer onboarding process is the series of steps a company takes to guide new customers through adopting their product or service. It typically includes clear timelines, onboarding tasks, and resources to ensure new users achieve their goals quickly and effectively.

Why is a customer onboarding strategy key to reducing churn?

A well-defined customer onboarding strategy ensures new customers feel confident and supported from the start. By proactively addressing pain points, providing clear steps, and following up on progress, you increase customer satisfaction, minimize the risk of churn, and increase long-term customer retention.

How can a client onboarding template improve the customer experience?

A client onboarding template ensures your onboarding process is clear, organized, and consistent. Clients get a professional experience with defined milestones, clear responsibilities, and access to the resources they need to succeed. This not only improves the buying experience but also builds trust and sets the tone for a long-term relationship.

What should you include in a customer onboarding template?

  • Milestones and timelines for key onboarding stages.
  • Action items and assigned responsibilities for your team and the client.
  • Links to important docs, training materials, or setup guides.
  • Space to track progress and updates in real-time.
  • Contact information for your onboarding team.

When should you use a customer onboarding template?

Use a customer onboarding template anytime you onboard a new client or customer. It’s especially helpful for teams managing complex products, large accounts, or clients with multiple stakeholders involved in the onboarding process.

What’s the benefit of using Dock over spreadsheets for onboarding?

Spreadsheets lack the collaborative features and dynamic updates that Dock offers. Dock’s client onboarding template provides a live, shared workspace where you can track progress, share resources, and collaborate in real-time. It also eliminates the hassle of managing version control or email threads when updates are made.

​​How do I track progress in the client onboarding template?

Dock allows you to track progress in real-time by updating milestones and tasks within the workspace. Engagement tracking also lets you see what resources your clients are accessing, so you can identify where they might need extra support.

How does this template reduce churn?

By ensuring your clients feel supported and confident from the start, this client onboarding template minimizes the chances of miscommunication or unmet expectations. A strong onboarding experience increases client satisfaction, accelerates time-to-value, and reduces churn rates.

How does this template integrate with my CRM?

Dock integrates with the HubSpot and Salesforce CRMs, so you can connect your onboarding workspace to your existing client records. This makes it easy to align your sales and customer success teams, track onboarding progress, and keep client information in one place.

Can I embed resources like training videos or documents into this template?

Yes, Dock allows you to embed videos, documents, links, and more directly into the onboarding workspace. This makes it easy for clients to find everything they need in one place, whether it’s a training video, setup guide, or support doc.

Customer onboarding best practices & tips

  • Keep it simple: Focus on what clients need to know to get started quickly.
  • Stay proactive: Use engagement tracking to identify where clients need support.
  • Set clear goals: Define success criteria early and align with your client on measurable outcomes.
  • Update regularly: Adjust the plan as needed to reflect progress or changes in scope.

Customer onboarding mistakes to avoid

  • Overloading clients with information: Share only what’s immediately relevant to avoid overwhelming them.
  • Skipping milestones: Ensure every step is covered to prevent miscommunication or delays.
  • Failing to follow up: Regularly check in with clients to ensure they’re on track and address concerns.

How to share a customer onboarding template internally

Dock allows you to save onboarding templates for team-wide use. Share the template with your team and train them on how to customize it for their specific clients.

How to share a customer onboarding template with clients

Share the onboarding plan as a Dock workspace link. Introduce it to your clients during your kickoff meeting, walk them through the key milestones, and explain how they can use the workspace to track progress. You should also link the onboarding plan in your onboarding email templates. Follow up regularly to ensure they’re engaging with the plan.

Can Dock’s onboarding template help with automation?

You can automate the creation of Dock workspaces by triggering a new workspace to be created every time a deal hits a certain stage in your CRM. For example, when a deal is marked as “Closed-Won”, you can automatically create an onboarding workspace for a client.

Can Dock’s onboarding template help with automation?

You can automate the creation of Dock workspaces by triggering a new workspace to be created every time a deal hits a certain stage in your CRM. For example, when a deal is marked as “Closed-Won”, you can automatically create an onboarding workspace for a client.

What integrations does Dock have for client onboarding?

Does has CRM integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot so you can sync the status of your onboarding plans back in your CRM. Dock also integrates with video apps and tools like Gong, Zoom, and Loom, so you can embed client calls or walkthrough videos. 

Your Dock workspace can also be connected with Slack, so you can get real-time updates when customers complete a task.

Finally, Dock also integrates with project management tools like Asana, ClickUp, Jira, and Linear—so you can bidirectionally sync your client onboarding checklist tasks between both platforms and avoid updating tasks in two places at once.