Onboarding Checklist: What to Send Before Your CS Team Starts

How fast a good onboarding goes depends less on who's taking over the operation, and more on how organized the material you hand off actually is. This checklist covers the essentials so your CS team can start responding with real quality from day one.

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1. Platform access

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‍Login (or user invite) for Gorgias, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Shopify, PayPal, Stripe, whatever applies to your setup.

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2. Refund and return policy

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‍A clear document with timelines, conditions, and exceptions. If this policy still only lives in your head, it's time to write it down before any outsourced support starts.

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3. Brand tone of voice

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‍Examples of how you want the brand to sound more formal, more casual, with or without emojis. Without this, every agent decides on their own, and inconsistency shows up fast.

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4. Real frequently asked questions

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‍The questions you get most today: delivery timelines, tracking, exchanges. This dramatically shortens the agent's learning curve.

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5. Supplier / fulfillment contact

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‍If support needs to escalate a shipping or product issue, who should be contacted, and through which channel (Slack, Discord, WeChat).

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6. Difficult cases you've already handled

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‍If you've had tricky disputes or repeat problem customers, sharing that history prevents the same mistake from happening again.

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Why this matters so much:

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The more complete the starting package, the shorter the gap between "hired" and "support actually operating at real quality" the difference between days and weeks usually lives here, not in the technical skill of whoever's answering.

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