Boom Media
Boom Labs · Product Builds

Client onboarding playbook

Every step to take a client from signed to fully live across the Boom stack. Fill in the name and domain below and the snippets fill themselves in. Progress saves per client, so you can run several onboardings at once and come back to any of them.

0 of 0 complete
Required vs optional. Required steps apply to every client. Restaurant steps only when the type is set to restaurant. Optional steps are sold add-ons — skip what they have not bought.

1 Paperwork & accounts

Signed agreement and deposit received Required
Nothing below starts before this. Every step after costs time or spend.
Client record created Required
Add to the portal so invoices, requests and deliverables have somewhere to live.
Access collected and stored in the password manager Required
Domain registrar, existing host, Google Business Profile, social accounts, current email provider. Never in email or chat. Missing registrar access is the single most common thing that stalls a launch on go-live day.
Monitoring disclosure signed, if staff will be tracked Optional
Only when the engagement includes employee time tracking. Written notice, before day one.

2 Domain & DNS

Export the existing DNS zone before changing anything Required
A CSV export from the current registrar. This is not bureaucracy — a zone was deleted once and took the site and every app down with it, and the rebuild was done from screenshots.
Point apex and www at the host Required
Both. Apex and www are separate endpoints — one of ours served a 503 behind an untrusted certificate for weeks because only www was configured.
Check SPF — exactly one record Required
Multiple SPF records silently break deliverability. One client zone had six, of which one was valid.
Certificate issued and valid on both hostnames Required
Load both in a browser. A default proxy certificate means the domain was never registered with the host.

3 Site live

Site deployed and reachable Required
robots.txt and sitemap.xml serving Required
Sitemap lists every page you want indexed. Pages reachable by link but missing from the sitemap get found late or not at all — an audit found 31 such pages on one site.
Preview deployments blocked from indexing Required
Protected preview URLs report to Search Console as "Blocked due to unauthorized request (401)". Serve disallow-all on any non-production deployment.
Contact form tested end to end, with a spam guard Required
Submit it yourself and confirm the email arrives. Honeypot at minimum — every unguarded form we have shipped has attracted bots within days.

4 Monitoring — do this before launch, not after

Monitors added in Compliee Required
Two monitors minimum — apex and www, because they fail independently. Compliee checks uptime, response time and certificate expiry every five minutes.
Certificate expiry alerting confirmed Required
An expired certificate takes a site down behind a full-page browser warning. It is the most preventable outage there is.
Accessibility scan run and baselined Optional
Compliee scans and reports issues. Never described to the client as making the site compliant — that claim has FTC exposure.

5 Apps & embeds

Replyee chat widget installed Optional
Create the bot first, then paste this before </body>:
<script src="https://www.replyee.online/widget.js"
        data-bot-id="YOUR_BOT_ID" async></script>
Replyee knowledge base loaded Optional
Upload the client's real pages, menu or policy documents. The bot answers from these — an empty knowledge base produces a bot that cannot answer anything, which is worse than no bot.
Quick Questions set on the bot Optional
Up to six openers. Put the questions that convert in front of visitors instead of an empty box.
Lead routing wired Required
Chat leads and handoffs must land somewhere a human checks — the client's portal, or SureContact.
Boom Online Ordering tenant created Restaurant
Admin → Restaurants → New. Slug, name, email, tier. BOO is multi-tenant — this is a row, never a fork. slug.boomonlineordering.com resolves immediately.
Ordering embed on the client site Restaurant
<script src="https://boomonlineordering.com/embed.js"
        data-slug="YOUR_SLUG"
        data-mode="floating"
        data-label="Order Online"></script>
Menu loaded and a test order placed Restaurant
Place a real order end to end and confirm it reaches the kitchen. Do not launch on an untested checkout.

6 Search & analytics

GA4 property and data stream Required
Full steps in the GA4 & Search Console setup guide.
Search Console verified and sitemap submitted Required
DNS verification is easiest. Link it to GA4 while you are there.
Google Business Profile claimed and accurate Required
Name, address, phone and hours must match the site character for character — Google uses the agreement between them.
Rankee audit run and keywords tracked Optional
Track city-level, not country. "personal injury lawyer" across the whole United States tells you nothing about whether a Palm Beach client ranks.
Local listings and reviews set up in Localey Optional
Citations and review collection. Never gate reviews by rating — that is an FTC problem.

7 Handover

Client portal access sent Required
They request work, watch it move and see what they are paying for. This is what stops the "any update?" emails.
Walkthrough call done Required
Fifteen minutes: how to request work, where reports arrive, who to contact. Recorded if they want it.
Billing live Required
Recurring charge created and the first invoice sent. Confirm it actually charged.
First weekly report verified Required
Wait for the first automated report and read it as the client would. The recurring email is what makes the retainer feel like something — check it looks right before they see it.
Backup confirmed and a restore tested Required
A backup you have never restored is a hypothesis. Prove it once, at onboarding, while nothing is on fire.
The five that actually cause launch-day problems. Registrar access not collected, DNS zone not exported, apex left unconfigured, the contact form never submitted end to end, and checkout never tested with a real order. Everything else can be fixed the following week.