Client Onboarding Automated: 9.4 Days to Live, Down to 2.1

Three clients signed in the same week. A dental group, a plumbing firm, a care-home operator. Every one was onboarded the same way: a delivery lead emailing for documents, following up when she remembered, holding the status of all three in her head.

It worked, in the sense that clients did eventually go live. It took about nine days, most of it waiting. And it failed quietly in two ways. The chasing depended on one person having a good week. And nobody except her could answer "where is that client up to?"

We mapped the five stages between signature and live: signed, kickoff booked, documents, configuring, live. Then automated everything between them. The contract countersigns and a workspace appears, built from the plan they bought. The kickoff books itself against the delivery lead's calendar. The document request goes out the moment the call ends, then chases itself on a ladder. First reminder, second reminder, third reminder, and only then does a human get involved.

That last part is the design decision that matters. The system is allowed to be persistent so a person does not have to be. By the time the delivery lead sees a client's name, three polite reminders have gone unanswered and the situation needs a phone call.

Every step is labelled by who does it, so the board answers "where is this up to" without anyone being asked.

Median time to live went from 9.4 days to 2.1 across 38 clients. 214 reminders went out and none were sent by a human. The number we care about more: documents are now collected before configuration starts, every time, which is what removed the rework.