Journey Inventory and Baseline Capture (Onboarding)
A checklist with 8 steps: Count every live journey, trigger, and integration before proposing scope.
By InnovaAI ResearchPublished
What are the steps?
Journey Inventory and Baseline Capture (Onboarding)
- 01
Count every live journey, trigger, and integration before proposing scope
Pull the client's active workflows from the platform and list each one with its trigger type, channel mix, and owner. A count of 14 journeys with 6 integrations prices differently than a single welcome sequence.
- 02
Reconcile the CRM fields each workflow reads and writes
Map required fields against what the client's CRM actually stores. Missing or inconsistently populated fields are the most common cause of silent automation failure after launch.
- 03
Record the current baseline for each journey
Capture open rate, click rate, conversion rate, and unsubscribe rate for the trailing 90 days. Without a pre-automation baseline, no later optimization claim is defensible.
- 04
Document exception paths for failed sends, bounced contacts, and duplicate records
Write down who gets notified, how fast, and what the fallback action is. Exception handling is where most agency deployments quietly break.
- 05
List every approval gate the client requires before a message ships
Legal review, brand review, or a single stakeholder sign-off each add turnaround time. Approval count belongs in the statement of work, not discovered in week three.
- 06
Confirm data-processing terms and consent records for each channel
Email, SMS, and WhatsApp carry different consent requirements. Confirm opt-in evidence exists before any broadcast goes out under the agency's management.
- 07
Price the retainer against journey count, integration count, and maintenance load
A workflow with four integrations and two approval gates needs more monthly upkeep than a single-channel nurture. Tie the fee to the inventory, not to an assumed recurring figure.
- 08
Hand the client a one-page inventory they can sign
The signed inventory becomes the scope boundary. Anything added later is a change order rather than an argument.