Checklist
Answering service onboarding: the 14-point checklist
Most onboarding failures happen in the first 72 hours because 3–4 of these are missed. Print it, tick it, and you'll be live cleanly on day one.
Before go-live
1) Business hours + after-hours ring plan. 2) Forwarding rule tested from a blocked line. 3) Emergency triage script signed off. 4) Pricing floor documented. 5) Service radius map. 6) CRM field mapping. 7) Calendar integration & buffer times.
Week 1
8) Daily call review — 10 min. 9) Missed-call recovery loop tested. 10) SMS confirmation templates verified. 11) Escalation trigger words tuned.
Month 1
12) Weekly call scorecard. 13) Booking-rate baseline set. 14) Quarterly review calendar invite created.
The overlooked one
Everyone forgets #4 — the pricing floor. Without it, callers get quoted rates below your minimum service call.
By Richmond Agyekum