Our Operations and Sales teams are constantly arguing over who should own the client onboarding process. Both claim they have too much on their plate to handle it properly. How do we resolve this operational hand-off on our Accountability Chart?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When two departments are arguing over who owns a process, it is usually because the hand-off is poorly defined on the Accountability Chart. To end this turf war, you must look at the natural flow of your business and assign complete accountability for client onboarding to a single seat.

Start by mapping out the exact steps of the onboarding process, from the moment a contract is signed to the first successful delivery. Ask yourself which department is best equipped to deliver a world-class customer experience. Typically, onboarding belongs under the Operations seat, as it is the first step of service delivery.

Once you decide where it belongs, update that seat's roles on the Accountability Chart to include client onboarding. This means that seat is now solely accountable for the onboarding metrics on your Scorecard and must resolve any issues that arise.

The other department must respect this boundary. If Sales was previously doing parts of the onboarding, they must hand those tasks over to Operations. If Operations claims they do not have the capacity, you must address this as a capacity issue rather than leaving the accountability muddy. Having one clear owner ensures a smooth transition for your clients and eliminates internal finger-pointing.