Customer Onboarding and Lifecycle

Overview

This chapter defines the complete B2B customer lifecycle for the Membership platform -- from the moment a prospective client discovers the product through acquisition, provisioning, configuration, data migration, training, go-live, ongoing health monitoring, churn prevention, and expansion. The lifecycle model is designed for a 4-person team, which means every phase must be automated or templated to the greatest extent possible. Manual intervention is reserved for Enterprise-tier clients and escalation scenarios.

The lifecycle follows seven phases:

1. Discovery -- Prospect learns about Membership through marketing, referrals, events, or outbound sales
2. Evaluation -- Prospect attends a demo, reviews documentation, compares competitors
3. Purchase -- Prospect selects a tier, accepts terms, provides payment information
4. Onboarding -- Tenant provisioned, admin account created, configuration wizard completed
5. Adoption -- Customer configures plans, imports members, trains staff, goes live
6. Renewal -- Annual or monthly renewal, usage review, satisfaction check
7. Expansion -- Tier upgrade, feature adoption, additional locations, referral program

Target metrics:

Pricing tiers:

No zero-euro strategy. Every user must have a billable account. The Starter tier at EUR 0.99/month validates payment credentials and creates a commercial relationship from day one. A 14-day Trial Studio (full features, no payment required) replaces the traditional freemium model. All prices net (plus applicable VAT).

Starter and Team tiers are entirely self-service: sign up, provision, configure, go live -- all without human interaction. Professional and Enterprise tiers include assisted onboarding with scheduled calls, personalized configuration, and optional data migration services.

Customer Scenarios

Every new customer falls into one of three scenarios. The scenario determines the onboarding path, the wizard steps presented, and the level of migration effort required. All three scenarios use the same self-onboarding flow with scenario-specific variations.

Scenario A -- Founder

The Founder is starting from scratch. They may not yet have a registered business (Gewerbeanmeldung), a business bank account, or insurance. The onboarding flow includes a Founding Checklist that guides them through these prerequisites. Founding support can be provided by the Franchise (if the customer is joining a franchise network) or directly by Membership One (for independent founders). The Franchise can customize their founding support package for their studios/clubs.

Scenario B -- Expansion

The Expansion customer already operates one or more locations and is adding a new one. During onboarding, they select their parent organization, which enables inherited branding and configuration, staff sharing across locations, and consolidated cross-location reporting. The new location is provisioned as a child entity under the existing parent.

Scenario C -- Migration

The Migration customer is switching from a competitor system (easyVerein, ClubDesk, Magicline, SPORTSCLUB, or another platform). They have existing members, contracts, and financial data that must be imported. The onboarding flow includes a dedicated Data Import step with source system selection, CSV upload, dry-run validation, and execution. A parallel operation period allows the customer to run both systems simultaneously until they are confident in the migration. Financial reconciliation ensures no billing gaps or double charges.

Acquisition Funnel

Funnel Diagram

Lead Sources

Sales Process

Demo scheduling: Every qualified lead is offered a 30-minute video call (Google Meet / Zoom). The demo follows a standardized script tailored to the prospect's organization type (club vs. studio vs. franchise). Key demo modules:

1. Member management and self-service onboarding (5 min)
2. Contract and billing automation with SEPA (10 min)
3. Check-in and access control (5 min)
4. Mobile app and member portal (5 min)
5. Pricing and next steps (5 min)

Trial period: 14 days with full feature access and a 50-member limit. Trial accounts are provisioned on the Professional tier (all features unlocked) so the prospect experiences the complete product. The 50-member limit prevents abuse while allowing meaningful evaluation. Trial accounts that are not converted are automatically archived after 30 days and permanently deleted after 90 days.

Proposal: Personalized pricing based on the prospect's member count, number of locations, and required features. The proposal is generated from a template (PDF) and sent via email with a digital acceptance link. Proposals expire after 14 days.

Contract: The contract closing uses an integrated contract bundle that covers three parties in a single signing process:

The customer signs once -- digitally, no physical signature required. Membership One orchestrates the downstream contracts: upon the customer's acceptance, My-Factura and CashControl agreements are activated automatically through Membership One's integration layer. The bundled contract is stored as a PDF in the document management module and linked to the organization entity.

Contract Signing Methods

Multiple signing methods are supported to accommodate different customer segments, regulatory requirements, and contract values. The signing method is selected during the proposal/contract closing phase.

The default flow for Starter and Team tiers is Click-to-Sign or In-App Signature. Professional and Enterprise customers can optionally enable Adobe Acrobat Sign or QES. All signing methods generate a tamper-proof audit trail including: signer identity, timestamp (UTC), IP address, document hash (SHA-256), and the signature itself. Signed documents are stored in the Document module with immutable versioning.

CRM Pipeline Stages

Tenant Provisioning

Self-Onboarding Principle

Self-onboarding is the default for ALL three customer scenarios (Founder, Expansion, Migration). The platform is designed for maximum automation -- the customer drives the entire process themselves, from signup through configuration to go-live.

Key principles:

• Customer-driven: The customer completes every step at their own pace through the web interface. No back-office intervention is required at any point.
• Human assistance available, never required: Professional and Enterprise tiers include optional training calls and assisted migration, but these are supplements to the self-service flow, not prerequisites.
• Scenario-aware automation: The Configuration Wizard adapts its steps based on the selected scenario (A/B/C). Scenario A customers see a Founding Checklist, Scenario B customers select a parent organization, and Scenario C customers get a Data Import workflow -- all within the same self-service wizard.
• Franchise-provided founding support: For Scenario A (Founder), the Franchise organization can provide customized founding support packages for their studios/clubs. This may include guidance on Gewerbeanmeldung, recommended banks, insurance partners, and initial equipment suppliers. Alternatively, Membership One offers a standard founding support package for independent founders.
• Target: Zero-touch provisioning in < 60 seconds. Time to go-live < 7 days for self-service customers across all scenarios.

Provisioning Sequence Diagram

Provisioning Steps (Detail)

Each step is executed sequentially within a single transaction (steps 1-3) or as idempotent operations (steps 4-8) that can be retried independently.

1. Create Organization - Generate URL-safe slug from organization name (e.g., turn-verein-muenchen-1860 from "Turn-Verein Muenchen 1860") - Set typeCd based on industry template selection (CLUB, STUDIO, FRANCHISE, UMBRELLA, MUNICIPAL) - Set tierCd from contract (STARTER, STANDARD, PROFESSIONAL, ENTERPRISE) - Initialize settings JSONB with tier-specific feature flags - Set statusCd = PROVISIONING (transitions to ACTIVE after wizard completion)

2. Create Admin User - Create User record with roleCd = ORG_ADMIN, statusCd = PENDING_VERIFICATION - Generate magic link token (UUID v4, 72-hour expiry) - Magic link sets password + verifies email in a single step (no separate verification flow) - Assign all permissions for the ORG_ADMIN role (see Chapter 07)

3. Default Configuration - Currency: EUR (default, configurable) - Locale: de-DE (default, based on country detection from IP or explicit selection) - Timezone: Europe/Berlin (default, configurable) - VAT rates: 19% standard, 7% reduced (German defaults) - Accounting standard: SKR03 (for DATEV integration) - Password policy: minimum 10 characters, 1 uppercase, 1 number, 1 special character - Session timeout: 30 minutes (configurable per tier) - Billing day: 1st of month (configurable)

4. My-Factura / CashControl Integration - Create Consumer entity via My-Factura Public P2 API: POST /api/public/p2/v1/consumer - Payload: [{firstName: "<orgName>", type: "ORGANIZATION", IdExternal: "<orgId>"}] - Store returned Id as externalBillingId on the Organization entity - Configure webhook endpoint for payment status callbacks - My-Factura handles invoicing and billing; CashControl (cashcontrol.info) handles SEPA direct debit collection and Inkasso/collections on behalf of My-Factura - Failure handling: if My-Factura is unreachable, mark step as PENDING and retry via scheduled job (every 5 minutes, max 3 days)

5. Branding Setup - Default logo: Membership platform logo (replaced by customer in wizard) - Default colors: primary #1976D2 (blue), secondary #424242 (dark gray) - Email templates: 6 default templates (welcome, password reset, payment confirmation, payment reminder, contract confirmation, newsletter) - Landing page: default template with organization name and placeholder content

6. Membership Templates - Create 3 default membership templates based on industry:

   • Basic (e.g., EUR 19.90/month for studios, EUR 5/month for clubs)
   • Standard (e.g., EUR 39.90/month for studios, EUR 10/month for clubs)
   • Premium (e.g., EUR 59.90/month for studios, EUR 20/month for clubs)
   • All templates set to statusCd = DRAFT (published by admin in wizard)
   • Billing interval: MONTHLY (default)
   • Minimum term: 1 month (Basic), 6 months (Standard), 12 months (Premium)
   • Auto-renew: enabled by default

7. Sample Data (Optional) - 5 fictional members with realistic German names (Max Mustermann, Erika Musterfrau, etc.) - 2 contracts linked to default membership templates - 1 past billing run with sample transactions - Clearly marked as sample data in the UI with a dismissable banner - Auto-deleted after 30 days or when the customer adds their first real member

8. Welcome Communication - Email to admin with: magic link (set password + activate account), quick-start guide PDF attachment, link to knowledge base - Calendar invite: optional 30-minute onboarding call (for Team+ tiers) - In-app notification: setup wizard prompt on first login - SMS notification: optional, if phone number provided during signup

Status Tracking

Every provisioning run is tracked as a ProvisioningJob entity with per-step status:

Target: < 60 seconds from message publish to welcome email sent. Each step logs its execution time. Steps 1-3 are expected to complete in < 1 second (database operations). Step 4 (My-Factura API call) is the most variable (typically 2-5 seconds). Steps 5-7 are < 2 seconds. Step 8 (email delivery) depends on the mail provider but should be queued within 1 second.

Error Handling

Configuration Wizard

After the admin clicks the magic link and sets their password, they are guided through a scenario-aware configuration wizard. The wizard begins with scenario selection (Step 0) and then presents 5 core steps plus scenario-specific steps. It is designed to be completable in under 15 minutes. Every step can be skipped and revisited later from Settings.

Wizard Flow

Step 0: Scenario Selection

The first screen presents three clear options with icons and descriptions:

The selected scenario is stored on the Organization entity (onboardingScenario field) and determines which additional wizard steps are shown after the core steps.

Step 1: Organization Profile - Organization name (pre-filled from registration) - Legal name (for invoices and contracts) - Address (street, zip, city, country) - Phone and email - Logo upload (drag-and-drop, max 2 MB, PNG/JPG/SVG) - Business type (dropdown: Fitness Studio, Sports Club, Dance School, Martial Arts, Youth Organization, Other) - Website URL

Step 2: Membership Plans - Pre-populated from industry template (3 default plans) - Each plan: name, price, billing interval, minimum term, auto-renew, description - Add/remove plans, reorder via drag-and-drop - Preview landing page for each plan - Publish toggle (draft vs. published)

Step 3: Payment Setup - Bank account: IBAN, BIC (auto-detected from IBAN), account holder name - SEPA Glaeubiger-ID (creditor identifier, required for direct debit) - Billing day of month (1-28, default: 1) - Payment methods to accept: SEPA Direct Debit (default), Bank Transfer, Cash (manual recording) - Automatic SEPA mandate generation: enabled/disabled - Connection test: verify My-Factura API connectivity with a test ping

Step 4: Communication - Sender email address (verified via confirmation email) - Organization display name (for email From field) - Email signature (rich text editor) - Welcome email template (preview and customize) - Reply-to address (if different from sender)

Step 5: Team Invitation - Table with columns: Name, Email, Role (dropdown: Admin, Manager, Trainer, Receptionist) - Bulk invite via CSV upload (name, email, role) - Each invited user receives a magic link email - Minimum: 0 (admin can be the only user) - "Invite later" button to skip

Scenario-Specific Wizard Steps

After the 5 core steps, the wizard presents additional steps based on the scenario selected in Step 0:

Scenario A -- Founding Checklist (shown after Step 5 for Founder scenario)

A guided checklist of business founding prerequisites. Each item has a status (done / not done / not applicable) and links to relevant resources:

• Business registration (Gewerbeanmeldung) -- Link to local Gewerbeamt finder, document templates
• Business bank account -- Recommended bank partners, link to online account opening
• Business insurance -- Recommended insurance types (liability, inventory, business interruption)
• Tax registration (Finanzamt) -- Steuernummer application, USt-IdNr. if applicable
• Premises lease or ownership -- Checklist for lease review (utilities, renovation rights, hours of operation)
• Equipment procurement -- Recommended suppliers for studio/club equipment

The Franchise can customize this checklist for their network (e.g., preferred bank partners, insurance providers, equipment suppliers). For independent founders, Membership One provides a standard checklist.

Scenario B -- Parent Organization Selection (shown after Step 0, before Step 1 for Expansion scenario)

• Search or browse existing organizations in the customer's account
• Select the parent organization to link the new location under
• Inherited settings preview: branding, payment configuration, membership plan templates, staff roles
• Option to override any inherited setting at the new location level
• Cross-location reporting is automatically enabled upon linking

Scenario C -- Data Import (shown after Step 5 for Migration scenario)

• Source system selection: Dropdown with pre-built migration templates (easyVerein, ClubDesk, Magicline, SPORTSCLUB, Generic CSV, Excel)
• CSV upload: Drag-and-drop file upload area, supports multiple files (members, contracts, billing history)
• Column mapping: Auto-detected for known source systems, manual drag-and-drop mapping for generic imports
• Dry-run validation: Execute import in preview mode -- shows success/warning/error counts, sample of first 10 records, duplicate detection results
• Execute import: Confirm and run the actual import with progress bar and real-time status
• Post-import summary: Total imported, skipped, errors, with downloadable error report

Industry Templates

Skip and Resume

• Every wizard step has a "Skip for now" button in the bottom-left corner
• Progress is saved after each step (even partial input within a step)
• A persistent banner appears on the admin dashboard: "Setup is X% complete -- Continue setup" with a link to the next incomplete step
• The wizard can be re-entered at any time from Settings > Setup Wizard
• Completing the wizard is not required to use the platform, but certain features are gated:
• No published membership plans = members cannot self-register via landing page
• No bank account = billing runs cannot generate SEPA files
• No verified email = automated emails use platform default sender

Automated Data Enrichment

The onboarding wizard and general data entry workflows are enhanced with automated data enrichment features that minimize manual input, validate data in real-time, and ensure data quality from the first interaction. This ensures fully automated lead generation and onboarding at all levels -- from individual member to studio to enterprise group -- via both website and mobile app.

Company Data Auto-Extraction

When onboarding an existing business (Scenario B or C, or any new customer with an existing legal entity), the user only needs to enter the company's homepage domain (e.g., fitnessstudio-power.de). The system then automatically extracts and populates company data:

Step 1 -- Impressum Scraping: 1. Fetch the homepage URL and common Impressum paths (/impressum, /legal, /kontakt, /about) 2. Parse the Impressum (legal notice) page using HTML extraction and NLP 3. Extract structured data: - Company name (Firmenname) - Legal form (Rechtsform: GmbH, e.V., GbR, Einzelunternehmen, etc.) - Managing director / authorized representative (Geschaeftsfuehrer / Vorstand) - Street address (Strasse, PLZ, Ort) - Phone number - Email address - VAT ID (USt-IdNr.) if present - Commercial register entry (Handelsregister: HRB/VR number, Amtsgericht)

Step 2 -- Handelsregister (Commercial Register) Lookup: 1. If a Handelsregister entry is found in the Impressum, query the Handelsregister API (handelsregister.de or offenesdatenportal.de) 2. Extract additional data: - Official company name (as registered) - Registration number (HRB/VR) - Court of registration (Amtsgericht) - Authorized signatories (Vertretungsberechtigte) and their signing authority (Einzelvertretung / Gesamtvertretung) - Share capital (Stammkapital) for GmbH - Date of registration - Business purpose (Unternehmensgegenstand) 3. Identify the persons authorized to sign contracts on behalf of the organization

Step 3 -- User Confirmation: 1. Present extracted data to the user in pre-filled form fields 2. Highlight any fields where extraction confidence is low (yellow indicator) 3. User reviews, corrects if needed, and confirms 4. Confirmed data is stored as the organization profile

Address Autocomplete

As the user types an address in any address field throughout the system (organization setup, member registration, billing address):

1. Autocomplete suggestions from OpenStreetMap/Nominatim data appear after 3 characters
2. Automatic validation and formatting: Addresses are normalized to the country-specific format
3. ZIP code / city cross-validation: If the user enters a ZIP code, the city is auto-filled (and vice versa). Mismatches are flagged with a warning
4. Country-specific address format enforcement: - Germany: Strasse Hausnummer, PLZ Ort (5-digit PLZ) - Austria: Strasse Hausnummer, PLZ Ort (4-digit PLZ) - Switzerland: Strasse Hausnummer, PLZ Ort (4-digit PLZ) - Other EU countries: respective national format
5. Geocoding: Validated addresses are geocoded (latitude/longitude) for use in location-based features (nearest facility search, member map)

Phone Number Validation

All phone number fields use Google's libphonenumber library for comprehensive validation:

1. Format validation and normalization: Input is parsed and validated against country-specific phone number rules
2. Country code detection: If no country code is provided, the system infers it from the organization's country setting
3. Mobile vs. landline identification: The system identifies whether the number is mobile or landline, which is relevant for SMS/WhatsApp messaging capabilities
4. International format standardization (E.164): All phone numbers are stored in E.164 format (e.g., +4915112345678) for consistent handling across the system
5. Display formatting: Numbers are displayed in the national format for the user's locale (e.g., 0151 1234 5678 for German users)
6. Duplicate detection: Warns if the same phone number is already associated with another member or organization

Email Verification

Email addresses are validated at multiple levels:

1. Syntax validation: RFC 5322 compliance check (immediate, client-side)
2. Domain MX record check: Verify that the email domain has valid MX records (server-side, async)
3. Disposable email detection: Check against a maintained list of disposable/temporary email providers (e.g., guerrillamail.com, tempmail.com). Disposable emails are blocked for admin accounts and flagged with a warning for member accounts
4. Typo correction suggestions: Common domain typos are detected and suggestions offered: - @gmial.com -> "Did you mean @gmail.com?" - @gogle.com -> "Did you mean @google.com?" - @outllok.com -> "Did you mean @outlook.com?"
5. Deliverability check (optional, for critical emails like admin accounts): SMTP handshake verification without sending an email (checks if the mailbox exists)

Integration with Onboarding

These enrichment features integrate seamlessly into the onboarding wizard:

• Step 1 (Organization Profile): Company data auto-extraction is triggered when the user enters a website URL. Address autocomplete is active on all address fields. Phone and email validation run in real-time.
• Step 5 (Team Invitation): Email verification runs on all invited team member emails.
• Scenario C (Data Import): Imported member data is validated through phone and email verification. Invalid entries are flagged in the dry-run report.
• Member self-registration: When members register via the landing page or mobile app, address autocomplete, phone validation, and email verification ensure data quality from the start.

Data Migration Playbook

Note: Data migration applies primarily to Scenario C (Migration) customers -- existing businesses switching from another system. Scenario A (Founder) and Scenario B (Expansion) customers typically start with zero members and do not require migration. However, any customer can use the CSV import functionality at any time to bulk-import member data.

Assisted migration as a service: The Franchise can offer assisted migration to its studios/clubs as part of their onboarding support package. Alternatively, Membership One provides assisted migration as a paid service (included in Professional tier 1x, available as add-on for other tiers). This allows non-technical customers to hand off the migration entirely while still using the self-onboarding wizard for all other setup steps.

Migration Paths

Competitor Migration Templates

Pre-built mapping templates for the most common competitor systems reduce migration effort from hours to minutes.

Validation Rules

All imported records pass through validation before insertion. Errors block the record; warnings allow import but flag for review; info messages are logged for reference.

Migration Service Tiers

Training Strategy

Self-Service Resources

All tiers have access to self-service training materials, maintained as part of the product documentation lifecycle:

Live Training Matrix

Go-Live Checklist

Checklist Items

The go-live checklist is displayed as a progress tracker on the admin dashboard. Each item shows a green checkmark when completed, a yellow circle when in progress, and a gray circle when not started.

Dashboard progress indicator: "Your setup is 5/8 complete (63%)" with a progress bar and "Continue setup" link.

Pass/Fail Criteria

Customer Health Model

Health Score Algorithm

The Customer Health Score (CHS) is a composite metric calculated weekly (every Monday at 02:00 UTC) for every active organization. The score ranges from 0 to 100 and drives automated interventions.

Calculation:

healthScore = (loginScore * 0.25)
            + (featureScore * 0.25)
            + (memberScore * 0.20)
            + (paymentScore * 0.20)
            + (supportScore * 0.10)

Each dimension score is calculated on a 0-100 scale: - Green zone: 70-100 (linear interpolation within zone) - Yellow zone: 40-69 (linear interpolation within zone) - Red zone: 0-39 (linear interpolation within zone)

Feature adoption tracking counts distinct feature areas used in the past 30 days:

Score Visualization

The health score is displayed in two locations:

1. Internal admin dashboard (Membership One team only): Table of all organizations sorted by health score, with traffic light indicators (green/yellow/red dot), trend arrow (up/down/stable compared to last week), and sparkline showing the past 12 weeks.

2. Customer admin dashboard (organization admin): Simplified "Account Health" widget showing the overall score as a circular gauge, with actionable tips for improvement (e.g., "You have not used billing in 30 days -- run your first billing to improve your account health").

Lifecycle Automation

Email Sequences

Automated email sequences are triggered by lifecycle events. Each email is sent from the organization's verified sender address (or the platform default if not configured).

Trigger Rules

Churn Prevention

Early Warning Signals

Intervention Playbook

Save offers (presented on cancellation page, one per customer, non-stackable):

Win-back email sequence (after confirmed cancellation):

Expansion and Upsell

Usage-Based Triggers

Feature Gate Definitions

Cross-Sell Opportunities

Features that are available in the customer's tier but not yet adopted represent cross-sell opportunities. Detection and outreach are automated.

Customer Journey Map

End-to-End Journey

Journey Touchpoints

Metrics Dashboard

The customer lifecycle dashboard (internal, Membership One team only) tracks the following KPIs:

Implementation Notes

Database Entities

The customer lifecycle introduces or extends the following entities (see Chapter 11 for full schema):

API Endpoints

RabbitMQ Events

Scheduled Jobs