Creating a Positive Onboarding Experience for Your Clients

First impressions matter more than we realise - especially in a health and wellbeing business, where clients are placing their trust (and often their health) in your hands.

Client onboarding is all about inspiring trust, saving time, and strengthening relationships from the start. It’s the process of introducing new clients into your business and setting them up for success. Whether you work online or in person, a strong onboarding process helps clients feel cared for, reduces admin time, and reinforces your professionalism from day one.

Why First Impressions Count

For many clients, reaching out for support is a big step. They may be dealing with health issues, uncertainty, or past negative experiences, which can be a vulnerable time.

That’s why your onboarding process must build trust early. It’s your chance to show that you’re reliable, prepared, and committed to supporting them.

By setting clear expectations, offering a warm welcome, and handling practicalities with ease, you’re not just being efficient - you’re laying the foundation for a strong client-practitioner relationship.

The Core Elements of an Effective Client Onboarding Process

A thoughtful onboarding process doesn’t need to be complicated. These four elements are a great place to start:

• Clear communication: Send a warm welcome email or message with everything your new client needs to know - what to expect, how to prepare, and how to get in touch.
• Clarity and consent: Include client agreement or policy documents you need to share for working with you. I use a “Fair Play Agreement” in my mastermind, which outlines mutual expectations and creates healthy boundaries.
• Supportive resources: A short video, PDF guide, or checklist can help clients feel prepared and reassured.
• Expectation setting: Help your clients understand how the process works and how to get the most from working with you.

You don’t need fancy tech to make this work. A simple Word doc or email template can save hours over time. Just personalise and send.

One of my practitioner colleagues used to write each email individually. When I shared my templates, she saved herself at least an hour a day – what could you do with five extra hours a week?

Onboarding Ideas for In-Person Wellness Businesses

When I worked as a practitioner offering in-person sessions, I included directions, parking options, and local recommendations in my welcome pack - especially useful for clients travelling to London to work with me. It made them feel looked after and reassured before they even stepped through the door.

Here are a few low-cost ways to make in-person onboarding smooth and welcoming:

Create a Calm and Comfortable Welcome

Your space should reflect the care you offer. Good signage, refreshments, and a tidy, calming atmosphere can go a long way.

Prepare a Simple Welcome Pack

This could be a printed document or PDF sent in advance with session information, helpful resources, policies, and what to bring, so they know what to expect. This can then be personalised with a covering note or email.

A new reflexology practitioner felt embarrassed telling a client she would be cleaning their feet before the start of their treatment. By providing a simple fact sheet, she pre-framed the cleansing as a normal part of the session, and no one questioned it.

Borrow from the Digital World

If you have an assessment or intake session, offering additional in-person time can carry extra costs, such as room hire. Instead, you might use pre-recorded videos or online forms to handle general information ahead of time. A Zoom call is a great way to meet someone and answer their questions online, and when you start the main work, do that in person.

Onboarding Strategies for Online Health Practitioners

If you work online, elements of your onboarding can be automated, but still feel very personal.

Automate Your Welcome Workflow

Tools like customer relationship management systems (CRM), like PracticeBetter, or HubSpot, help you to keep in touch with people and provide the right information at the right time.

Schedulers like Acuity and TidyCal (the scheduler I use) will allow people to book directly into your diary, complete forms if required, and send reminders of appointments.

A project management system (I use Asana) is a great way to streamline your process and administration and stop you from forgetting any important steps.

A good starting point is to write out your process and the information provided at each step, and recognise the elements you repeat. Automating these is where you will start to see big time savings.

Use Video to Build Trust

A friendly welcome video helps put a face to your name and makes the experience feel more human. Video is one of the best ways to build trust in the digital world.

Offer a Guided First Step

Consider sharing a resource like a meditation, journal prompt, or mini training to help clients to prepare and feel supported before their first session.

Part of my welcome pack when I worked as a practitioner was a list of resources that would help them make the most of working with me. These included book recommendations, videos by different experts that were aligned with my practice, a podcast series I recorded with a colleague, and links to articles on my website.

These helped build trust, positioned me as an expert, and prepared my clients for our work together.

Blending the Best: Hybrid Onboarding Ideas

Many practitioners now blend online and in-person elements. Here’s how to create a seamless hybrid experience:

Combine Digital Tools with Personal Touch

My mastermind onboarding includes a welcome email with links to a short survey on a Google form, giving me valuable insight into each client’s goals and needs. I also provide links to book 1:1 calls through TidyCal, the Zoom links for our regular calls, and let them know I will be inviting them to the WhatsApp group for members.

I use my email marketing platform (Kajabi) to send out information to my group to save me from sending individual emails from my inbox, but it still allows me to address it to each individual personally.

As a little something extra, I send a small physical welcome gift, which is a lovely way to surprise and delight people, to create a memorable and caring first impression. I have personally received mugs and notebooks from masterminds in the past, and they’re a nice touch in a digital world.

Follow Up with Personalised Check-Ins

After onboarding, check in with a short message, voice note, or personalised email. It shows you’re paying attention and care about your client’s progress.

Tools and Templates to Save Time

You don’t need to be “techy” to streamline your onboarding. Try these:

• Acuity or TidyCal for bookings, payments, and forms
• Google Docs, Word, or Canva saved as branded PDFs for creating simple welcome packs and client agreements.
• Email templates to cut and paste your welcome messages
• Asana or a simple checklist to ensure you stay organised and don’t forget any step of onboarding your clients.
• Zoom or Teams for video calls.

Start with what you already have, then polish and improve over time.

Final Thoughts

Your onboarding process isn’t just admin; it mirrors the experience people perceive they will receive and reflects your values, your professionalism, and your care.

You don’t need to do everything at once. Start with one improvement, a better email, a clear agreement, or a thoughtful extra touch, and build from there.

If you’d like support to refine your onboarding (alongside your wider business and marketing foundations), the Holistic Hub Mastermind starts in September, exclusively for eight health and wellbeing professionals. Learn from your peers and gain the guidance you need to make your marketing work for you.

If you need help marketing yourself confidently to make money, create an impact, and thrive, check out the full details here.