A signed customer and a slow start
Sales has closed a new account: a manufacturer sending a dozen pallets a week. They want to start Monday. The office needs their trading details, collection address and opening times, who to call at the yard, which services they want, their rate card, whether they will book on the network portal or by email, and whether they can print labels.
It all happens by email. Some answers come back, some do not. The portal login is set up, but the customer cannot print labels on their printer. The first collection goes ahead with handwritten labels and a booking that is half right, and the new customer's first impression is a phone call about a missing weight.
Onboarding has no owner and no list
Setting up an account touches sales, the office, the warehouse, invoicing and the network. Each person does their piece when they notice it needs doing.
- There is no single list of what a new account needs.
- Details are gathered by email and retyped into several systems.
- Nobody checks whether the customer can actually book and print before the first collection.
- Collection details like dock times and forklift availability are found out by the first driver.
Each step is simple. The trouble is that nobody is responsible for all of them together.
What a slow setup costs
The first weeks set the tone for the account. Early mistakes make the customer nervous and more likely to try another depot at the first delay. Office time goes on chasing details that could have been collected once.
Missing details also cause problems later: a missing invoicing contact delays payment, a wrong collection time wastes a driver's trip, and a customer who never learned to print labels becomes a relabelling job every evening.
And every setup is slightly different, because it depends on who in the office handled it. Two customers who started in the same month can end up with different information on file, different contacts in the accounts package and different notes for drivers. Tidying that up later is harder than getting it right on the first day.
How we turn setup into one checklist
- The customer receives a single online form, branded for your depot, asking for trading, collection, contact and invoicing details in one go.
- Collection questions include dock times, vehicle restrictions, forklift and tail lift needs, so drivers know before they arrive.
- The form creates the account in your own system and your accounts package, such as Xero or Sage, where they have APIs.
- A checklist shows everything else: rate card agreed, network portal access requested, label test print passed, first collection booked.
- The customer does a test booking and label print, and the office sees the result before the first real collection.
- The account moves to live when the checklist is complete, and sales and the office both see the same status.
| Item | Collected by | Stored in |
|---|---|---|
| Trading and invoicing details | Customer form | Accounts and your system |
| Collection details | Customer form | Driver app notes |
| Rate card | Sales | Rate card table |
| Label test | Customer, checked by office | Checklist |
Anything that must be done on the network's own systems is still done there. The checklist just makes sure it is done.
A better first week for new accounts
New customers fill in one form instead of answering twelve emails. The first driver arrives knowing where the dock is and when it closes. Labels work on day one. And sales can see exactly why an account is not live yet, instead of asking around.
Recognise your onboarding?
- New account details are collected by email.
- The same details are typed into several systems.
- First collections go wrong on basic details.
- Nobody checks label printing before the first booking.
- Sales cannot see where a new account is up to.