Free template · CC0
Agency SOP: client communication
One page your account managers can actually follow, so every client gets the same experience whoever is handling them. Adjust the response times to your own SLA before you publish it — the numbers here are a starting point, not a standard.
How to use it. Put it where the team will see it: your wiki, your portal’s internal notes, your onboarding doc. Then do the part that makes it real — agree the response times with the people who have to hit them, and make sure the client-facing version of those numbers matches what your contracts promise.
Purpose: consistent, predictable communication with every client. Owner: the account manager.
Channels
- Project updates, files and approvals: the client portal or project tool — the single source of truth
- Quick questions: the agreed chat channel; decisions get logged back to the portal
- Urgent issues: phone first, then a written follow-up
Response times, in business hours
| Kind of message | Respond within |
|---|---|
| Urgent — site down, campaign broken | 2 hours |
| Normal questions | 1 business day |
| Change requests | Acknowledge in 1 business day, estimate in 3 |
Adjust all three to your own SLA.
Cadence
- Weekly: a short written status update — done, next, blocked, needs the client
- Monthly: the report, plus a review call
- Quarterly: a strategy review
Rules
- Confirm every decision in writing.
- Out-of-scope requests get a written estimate before any work starts.
- Bad news early, with a proposed fix.
- Every action item has a named owner and a date.
- Log holidays and out-of-office ahead of time, with a backup contact.
Escalation
Account manager → project lead → agency owner. Record the issue, the resolution and the follow-up.
Rule 2 is the one that protects margin. An out-of-scope request answered with "sure, we will fit it in" is the single most common way a profitable retainer stops being profitable.
Licence
Released under CC0 1.0. Change it, rebrand it, republish it, charge for the service you deliver with it. Published by the ClientOS team and deliberately tool-agnostic.
The other three templates
Client onboarding checklist
Everything that has to be true before work starts, in the order it has to be true. Most onboarding goes wrong in the gap between "they signed" and "we have what we need" — this list closes it.
Read it →Project kickoff questionnaire
Fifteen questions that between them prevent most revision rounds. Send it with the kickoff invitation, not after the call — a client who has answered question 12 in writing is a different client on the call.
Read it →Monthly client report
Eight sections, in the order a client reads them. The summary goes first because for many clients it is the only part they read — which is also why sections 5 and 7 have to be in it.
Read it →See it working before you decide anything
The instant demo emails you a login to a live ClientOS — the full agency admin and client portal with sample data. Read-only, so you can click anything. Your login works for 3 days. No call, no card.