Clients may welcome new contacts every once in a while. This may seem like a minute change that Managed Service Providers or MSPs and the clients can easily adapt to. However, aligning new contacts with your MSP team and processes may unknowingly disrupt workflow, clarity, and communication. If no efficient onboarding strategy is in place, it could lead to lost trust and missed expectations.
A structured MSP client onboarding is essential to mitigate possible implications by ensuring that every new contact is welcomed, informed, and aligned. MSPs should proactively guide these stakeholders into the relationship, equipping them with clarity, access, and confidence. To learn more about this approach, we have created this guide that you can apply each time you need to align new client contacts with your processes.
📌 At a glance:
Onboarding phases | Purpose |
| Onboarding stages and actions | To guide new client contacts step by step, set expectations early, and build a strong working relationship from the start |
| Tooling and automation | To streamline onboarding with scripts, workflows, and reminders that ensure consistency and save time |
| Best practices for relationship-centered onboarding | To personalize engagement, establish trust, and maintain smooth communication even during staff changes |
| Governance and evolution | To track progress, collect feedback, and continuously improve the onboarding process as client needs evolve |
| NinjaOne integration | To automate onboarding tasks, attach resources, and provide visibility with dashboards and reminders |
Onboarding stages and actions
To acclimate new client contacts, you must understand each step and guide them through your processes. Here are the phases to start building and strengthening a smooth working relationship from the very beginning.
Internal ready state
Your team should be aligned before new client contacts to prevent mixed messaging. This also ensures that the new stakeholder receives consistent and calibrated information from your team. Here are some tasks for this step:
- Briefing: Meet with the new client contact and share background on goals, tools, active projects, and escalation paths.
- Contact role mapping: Know your new contact by identifying their responsibilities, authority levels, communication preferences, and backups.
Welcome phase
To commence the new client contact’s onboarding journey, ensure you’re setting a positive tone for the upcoming relationship. Here’s what you can provide your new client contact for the welcome phase:
- Personal message: Give a warm and enthusiastic welcome to your new client contact by emailing them acknowledging their role.
- Welcome packet: Provide a short guide containing information about your support teams, ticketing systems, documentation, dashboards, SLAs, and FAQ.
Kick-off alignment meeting
Schedule a meeting with the new client contacts within the first week of onboarding. The meeting should be around 45-60 minutes, and cover:
- Introduction: Properly introduce key members from both sides. This should help align on services, expectations, upcoming projects, and communication norms.
- Goal orientation: Review services, ongoing projects, and how success will be measured. You should also establish escalation paths and communication channels with the new client contacts.
- Meeting closure: Conclude everything with action items and agreed next steps.
Follow-up touchpoints
Onboarding might be perceived as an introductory process, but it’s an ongoing operation of relationship reinforcement. Here are some tasks that should go on beyond the initial onboarding phase:
- 24-hour recap: Send the meeting notes highlighting responsibilities and next actions.
- 30-day check-in: Confirm with your new contacts about access, comfort, and clarity. This is also a good time for you to answer any open questions they may have.
- Ongoing engagement: Continue connection via QBRs or stakeholder updates. Apply the same onboarding approach when new contacts are introduced.
Tooling and automation
Several tools that provide automation functionalities can streamline the onboarding process. These functionalities are vital to new client contact alignment, especially for maintaining scalability to growing teams.
For example, PowerShell scripts can automatically send a welcome message to new client contacts:
| $contact = @{ Name=”Alex Smith”; Email=”[email protected]” } $subject = “Welcome to Your MSP Support Team” $body = @” Hi $($contact.Name), Welcome! You’ll shortly receive tools access info and a kick-off invite. Best, Your MSP Team “@ Send-MailMessage -To $contact.Email -From “[email protected]” -Subject $subject -Body $body -SmtpServer “smtp.yourdomain.com” |
Workflow automation suggestions include:
- The utilization of reliable PSA or CRM tools to trigger welcome emails, onboarding tasks, and kickoff invites when a new contact is added
- Automation of reminders for 30-day check-ins
Best practices for relationship-centered onboarding
Keep your relationship with client contacts future-proof by following these practices:
- Apply role-based customization: Enable tailored messaging and resources to the contact’s role. Configure messaging based on roles, whether they’re executive, manager, or technical lead.
- Implement access governance: Enforce security by ensuring applicable permissions and clarity on system access are set up properly.
- Establish communication cadence: Set expectations through weekly IT syncs or quarterly business reviews.
- Include redundancy planning: Always include a deputy or alternate point of contact in case the new client contact is unavailable.
- Deliver humanized automation: Curate personalized automated messages that don’t feel like they were auto-generated or not written by a human.
Governance and evolution
Clients’ expectations and needs may evolve over time, and the onboarding process should be adaptable to these changes. To guarantee long-term efficiency, you must:
- Use a contact onboarding tracker to monitor who’s been onboarded, when, by whom, and when to follow up.
- Schedule quarterly feedback Reviews to capture new contact experiences and improve the welcome process.
- Refresh the Welcome Packet based on feedback and evolving client needs.
NinjaOne platform integration ideas
A platform like NinjaOne can ease the complexities of aligning new client contacts with your MSP team and processes.
| NinjaOne service | What it is | How it helps with onboarding new client contacts |
| Automated workflows | Triggers onboarding tasks when a new contact is added in NinjaOne’s PSA | Ensures every new stakeholder receives a consistent, timely onboarding process |
| Resource attachments | Attaches welcome guides, FAQ, and kickoff invites to the contact’s record | Provides immediate access to key resources, reducing confusion and setup delays |
| Role-based tagging | Tags and filters contacts by role (e.g., Executive, Tech Lead, CISO) | Enables tailored communication and engagement strategies for each stakeholder type |
| Onboarding dashboards | Visual dashboards track each contact’s onboarding stage (not started, in progress, complete) | Gives MSPs clear visibility into onboarding progress and ensures no steps are missed |
| Automated reminders | Creates tasks or tickets for 30-day follow-ups in NinjaOne | Strengthens relationships through timely check-ins and ongoing engagement |
Optimize onboarding for new client contacts
Onboarding new client contacts is a foundation for trust, clarity, and long-term collaboration. Following a structured and people-first approach to the process can help MSPs set the tone for a long-term, healthy relationship with their clients, old and new. When MSPs take a structured, people-first approach, they
By following the framework outlined above, MSPs can:
- Foster better alignment and trust from the start
- Clarify roles, reducing misunderstandings
- Encourage proactive communication
- Build continuity even amid turnover
A thoughtful MSP client onboarding process reduces friction and ensures new stakeholders feel welcomed, supported, and aligned with the MSP’s processes.
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