Customer Kickoff

A customer kickoff is the formal first meeting between the customer and your implementation or customer success team after the contract is signed. It anchors the onboarding plan.

What to cover

1. Why you bought it — customer recaps the problem they're solving (anchors success criteria)
2. Stakeholders — exec sponsor, project owner, end users
3. Success criteria — measurable outcomes for 30/60/90 days
4. Implementation plan — milestones, owners, dates
5. Communication cadence — weekly standup vs biweekly vs Slack
6. Risks + dependencies — IT involvement, data access, change management

Common pitfalls

• Skipping the "why you bought it" recap → drift toward features
• No exec sponsor identified → escalation path is unclear at first hiccup
• Vague success criteria ("better collaboration") → impossible to declare value

How BlueHill helps

Kickoff templates clone with relative dates; kickoff agenda + meeting notes live in the customer interaction timeline; action items become tasks with owners and due dates in one click.

Related: Onboarding · Implementation · Success plan