Case study

Restructuring client onboarding to eliminate friction and drive retention

Multi-year | Client Success Manager | High complexity

Newsletter publishing

Cross-functional coordination

Client relationship management

Process documentation

Stakeholder management

200+

clients in portfolio

100+

client onboarded

teams coordinated

Summary: When 200 clients move through a process that was never designed to scale, confusion becomes the default.

What was happening

New clients arrived into a fragmented experience with multiple contact points and an unclear owner. Newsletter specifications changed at the last minute, and the consequences landed on everyone. Training was informal, when it existed at all. Existing clients had little clarity on how to reach the right person or request changes. Information about contracts, specs, and client history lived across five separate teams with little connecting them together. That disconnect between editorial, client success, ad sales, tech, and accounting created delays, errors, and frustration. Frustrated clients are clients who leave.

What I did

The first move was becoming the single point of contact for the full 200-client portfolio. That clarity alone changed how clients experienced the relationship from day one. I personally onboarded 100+ clients, new acquisitions and re-onboarded accounts moving to enhanced services. A shared documentation system brought client specs and contract terms into one place, accessible across all five teams. New welcome packets and informational brochures gave clients a structured introduction to what they were signing up for. I introduced key stakeholders early in each relationship to build trust before it was needed. Then I led every client meeting for existing accounts and upsell conversations.

What changed

A fragmented onboarding process became a repeatable system capable of managing 200 clients year over year.
Centralised documentation eliminated last-minute surprises and cross-team confusion for every active account.
Five teams moved from siloed to aligned, with shared access to client specs and contract terms across the full portfolio.
Clients arrived into the relationship with confidence, clear contacts, and a training pathway they could actually use.

Reflective: Clarity about who to call is a small thing that turns out to matter enormously.

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