Congratulations! You’ve won a new account! Now comes the hard part – ensuring a successful onboarding process so that you make a good first impression and set the tone for a long and mutually beneficial relationship with your new client.

At Domus, the first step actually takes place before we are awarded an account. During the process when we are pitching a new account, we take every opportunity offered by the prospect to interact, so when we are fortunate enough to win a new account, the basis for a relationship has been started. By design, Domus is a collaborative company that believes in leveraging collective strengths in order to provide our clients with the very best solution and maximum return on investment.

As soon as the announcement is official, we begin the onboarding process. Since each client is unique, Domus’ Executive Management will review our process and customize it to each client’s desires, objectives and input. This may include such tactics as: discovery meetings with key stakeholders; secondary research; best practices analysis; content analysis of client-provided research and resources; a needs/gap analysis; a strategic planning session; a review of current projects and immediate needs, roles and responsibilities; short-term and annual budgets; official project list with priorities, key milestones and timing; reporting mechanisms including weekly hotlists, weekly conference calls/meetings, decision reports and all measurement and reporting.

Domus has successfully onboarded dozens of new accounts over our 19-year history. During that time, we have developed a proven onboarding process that has been effective in starting client relationships at Domus that have lasted up to 17 years (and still going strong!).

Joanne Michael is an Executive Vice President at Domus, Inc., a marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia. For more information, visit http://www.domusinc.com. For new business inquiries, please contact CEO and founder of Domus, Inc. Betty Tuppeny at betty.tuppeny@domusinc.com or 215-772-2805.