Which customer onboarding track should I use?

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    "name": "Which customer onboarding track should I use?",
    "public_slug": "cs-onboarding-track",
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    "description": "Determine which onboarding track a new customer should follow based on their contract size, technical profile, and implementation complexity. Routing a customer to the right track from day one directly impacts time-to-value, adoption rates, and long-term retention. Use this tree as soon as a deal is closed and before the kickoff call is scheduled.",
    "mode": "decision",
    "entry": "Q1",
    "tags": [
      "customer success",
      "onboarding",
      "implementation",
      "customer experience"
    ],
    "image": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1531497865144-0464ef8fb9a9?w=1200&q=80"
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  "questions": [
    {
      "id": "Q1",
      "text": "What is the customer's annual contract value (ACV)?"
    },
    {
      "id": "Q2",
      "text": "Does the customer have strong technical sophistication—meaning their team includes engineers, IT administrators, or dedicated operations staff who will own the implementation?"
    },
    {
      "id": "Q3",
      "text": "Does the implementation require integrations with existing systems, data migrations from another platform, or custom configuration beyond standard out-of-the-box setup?"
    },
    {
      "id": "Q4",
      "text": "Is the customer's ACV above $150,000, or do they have more than 200 users who will need to be onboarded and trained?"
    }
  ],
  "outcomes": [
    {
      "id": "SELF_SERVE",
      "label": "Self-Serve Onboarding"
    },
    {
      "id": "GUIDED_ONBOARDING",
      "label": "Guided Onboarding (CSM-Led)"
    },
    {
      "id": "HIGH_TOUCH",
      "label": "High-Touch Implementation"
    },
    {
      "id": "ENTERPRISE_PS",
      "label": "Enterprise Onboarding with Professional Services"
    }
  ],
  "dsl": "dag: Which customer onboarding track should I use?\nversion: 1.0.0\nimage: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1531497865144-0464ef8fb9a9?w=1200&q=80\ndescription: Determine which onboarding track a new customer should follow based on their contract size, technical profile, and implementation complexity. Routing a customer to the right track from day one directly impacts time-to-value, adoption rates, and long-term retention. Use this tree as soon as a deal is closed and before the kickoff call is scheduled.\ntags: customer success, onboarding, implementation, customer experience\nentry: Q1\n\nQ1: What is the customer's annual contract value (ACV)?\n  hint: Contract value is the primary proxy for the level of onboarding investment your company can sustainably provide and what the customer expects based on what they paid. Higher ACV customers typically have more complex use cases, larger user populations, and stronger expectations around dedicated support during onboarding. Use the exact ACV from the closed-won opportunity in your CRM—not an estimate—to ensure the routing is accurate. If the customer is on a month-to-month or pilot arrangement, use their projected annual spend.\n  A: Under $10,000 -> [SELF_SERVE]\n  B: $10,000 – $75,000 -> Q2\n  C: Above $75,000 -> Q3\n\nQ2: Does the customer have strong technical sophistication—meaning their team includes engineers, IT administrators, or dedicated operations staff who will own the implementation?\n  hint: Technical sophistication determines how much hand-holding the customer will need during the configuration and integration phases of onboarding. A technically strong team can follow structured documentation and complete most setup tasks independently with asynchronous support, while a non-technical team typically needs synchronous guidance and more frequent check-ins to avoid stalls. Assess this during the pre-kickoff discovery call by asking who will own the technical implementation and whether they have experience with similar SaaS tools. When in doubt, assume less sophistication and route to a higher-touch track.\n  yes -> Q3\n  no  -> [GUIDED_ONBOARDING]\n\nQ3: Does the implementation require integrations with existing systems, data migrations from another platform, or custom configuration beyond standard out-of-the-box setup?\n  hint: Integration and migration requirements are the single largest source of onboarding delays and early-stage churn. Even a technically sophisticated customer will struggle without structured support if they need to connect your product to a CRM, ERP, data warehouse, or identity provider. Ask the customer to enumerate every system they expect your product to connect with and whether any historical data needs to be migrated. A \"yes\" here does not necessarily mean Professional Services—but it does mean the onboarding plan must explicitly account for integration complexity with milestones, owners, and acceptance criteria.\n  yes -> Q4\n  no  -> [GUIDED_ONBOARDING]\n\nQ4: Is the customer's ACV above $150,000, or do they have more than 200 users who will need to be onboarded and trained?\n  hint: Large user populations and very high ACV contracts typically require a coordinated implementation program that exceeds what a standard CSM can run alongside their full book of business. At this scale, customers expect a dedicated implementation manager, a formal project plan with executive sign-off, change management support, and often customized training materials. Failing to staff onboarding appropriately for these accounts is one of the most common causes of executive escalation in months two through four. If the customer's contract is large but their user count is low, consider whether complexity and integration requirements warrant Professional Services involvement anyway.\n  yes -> [ENTERPRISE_PS]\n  no  -> [HIGH_TOUCH]\n\n[SELF_SERVE]: Self-Serve Onboarding\n  color: #22c55e\n  description: This customer is well-suited for a self-directed onboarding experience supported by your product's in-app guidance, documentation library, and automated email sequences. Send a curated onboarding email sequence within 24 hours of account activation, with direct links to the top five resources that drive fastest time-to-value for this use case. Schedule a single optional 30-minute orientation call at the two-week mark to surface any blockers and confirm the customer is progressing. Monitor product activation metrics in your analytics platform and trigger a proactive outreach if the customer has not reached key milestones within the first 14 days.\n  code: CS_OB_SELF_SERVE\n\n[GUIDED_ONBOARDING]: Guided Onboarding (CSM-Led)\n  color: #3b82f6\n  description: This customer will benefit from a structured, CSM-led onboarding program with a defined kickoff call, a milestone-based success plan, and regular check-in cadence over the first 60–90 days. Schedule the kickoff call within five business days of contract signing, and arrive prepared with a draft success plan that includes the customer's stated business goals, key milestones, and a timeline to first value. Run biweekly check-ins during the active onboarding phase and document milestone completion in your CRM for internal visibility. Transition the customer to a standard ongoing engagement cadence once all kickoff milestones are achieved and confirmed in writing.\n  code: CS_OB_GUIDED\n\n[HIGH_TOUCH]: High-Touch Implementation\n  color: #f59e0b\n  description: This customer's contract value or implementation complexity warrants a dedicated, high-touch onboarding program with a structured project plan, defined RACI, and weekly steering cadence involving both technical and business stakeholders. Deliver a formal implementation plan within five business days of kickoff, covering workstreams, owners, dependencies, and a go-live target date with clear success criteria. Maintain a shared project tracker that both your team and the customer can update in real time, and escalate any milestone slippage immediately rather than absorbing delays silently. Conduct a formal go-live review call to confirm the customer has achieved their initial success criteria before transitioning to steady-state account management.\n  code: CS_OB_HIGH_TOUCH\n\n[ENTERPRISE_PS]: Enterprise Onboarding with Professional Services\n  color: #7c3aed\n  description: This is a large, complex implementation that requires a dedicated Professional Services engagement alongside the CSM to ensure the customer reaches go-live successfully and on schedule. Engage your PS team during the pre-kickoff period—before the customer kickoff call—so the implementation scope, pricing, and resource allocation are agreed internally before commitments are made to the customer. Create a full implementation workbook covering technical requirements, data migration plan, training curriculum, and executive governance checkpoints. Maintain weekly executive sponsor alignment on both sides and establish a clear escalation path within the PS engagement so issues are surfaced and resolved before they impact the go-live date.\n  code: CS_OB_ENTERPRISE_PS\n"
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