Every question a new client asks in week one is one you could have answered before they asked it. When does my program arrive. How fast do you reply. What do I do if I miss Thursday. You answer them one at a time, over chat, slightly differently for each client, and the ones nobody asks out loud turn into assumptions that break in month two.
The welcome packet answers them in advance. This is what goes in it, section by section, with wording you can adapt.
The packet exists to prevent disappointment, not to look professional
Most welcome packets are built as a first impression: a branded PDF, a photo of the coach, a paragraph about the journey ahead. That version is decoration.
The useful version is a specification of the service. It states what the client gets, when, and what happens in the situations that go wrong — all of it while the client is still excited, because that is the only moment they will read a rule as information rather than as bad news. A client told in week one that you are off on weekends files it under how this works. The same client told in month four, after four months of Sunday replies, files it under something has been taken away. The timing argument is covered in full in setting boundaries with online coaching clients; the packet is where those rules get said the first time.
A packet nobody reads is a design problem, not a client problem
The most common failure is length. Fourteen pages sent to someone on their phone the day they paid does not get read, and an unread document sets no expectations at all.
Treat brevity as the whole design constraint. Eight sections, a few lines each, readable in about three minutes on a phone. Short headings a client can scan back to at 6am on a Tuesday. No paragraph of welcome at the top. Anything that genuinely needs length — the full agreement, the waiver, a technique library — goes in a separate document the packet points to.
| Section | The week-one question it kills | Length |
|---|---|---|
| What happens next | "When does my actual program arrive?" | 4–6 lines |
| How to reach me | "Why hasn't he replied?" | 4 lines |
| What I need from you | "Was I supposed to be doing that?" | 5 bullets |
| How progress works | "Why hasn't the scale moved?" | 5–6 lines |
| Using the app | "Where do I put my weight?" | 4 bullets |
| When it goes wrong | "I've missed a week, do I say something?" | 4–5 lines |
| Billing | "How do I pause if I travel?" | 4 lines |
| What I do and don't cover | "Can you look at my blood test?" | 3 lines |
What happens next, and when
Put this first, because it is the thing they are actually wondering the hour after paying. Dated steps, not a description of a process.
Two rules. Give real day numbers, never "shortly". And promise nothing here you do not do for every client — this is the section they will hold you to, and rightly.
The sequence itself, and why the first session lands before the full program does, is in how to onboard online coaching clients.
How to reach you, and how quickly you reply
The first of three sections coaches routinely get wrong, and the failure is always the same: a sentiment instead of a number. "Message me any time, I'm always here for you" reads as generous and functions as a trap, because the client's expectation is then set by whatever you happened to do last week.
Say the number, name the days off, and say what to do when it cannot wait:
Getting hold of me Everything goes in the app chat — not Instagram DMs, not text, because I'll lose it. I reply within 24 hours, Monday to Friday. I'm off on weekends; a Saturday message gets answered Monday. Check-in feedback comes back on Tuesdays. If something is urgent and training-related — a lift that felt wrong, a sharp pain mid-session — call me on [number] rather than waiting for the window. If it takes more than two messages to explain, ask me for a fifteen-minute call instead — it's faster for both of us.
Then reply inside the window rather than beating it. Answering in four minutes at 9pm rewrites the document, whatever the document says.
What you need from them each week
Clients who have never been coached online do not know what their job is. Write it as a list of obligations, with the day attached where there is one.
Your side of it Log every session in the app as you do it — sets, weights, reps. Not from memory that evening. Weigh in on the same three mornings a week, after the toilet, before food. Submit your check-in by Sunday night so I can have feedback back to you Tuesday. Tell me when you miss a session. A one-line message is enough. Ask before you swap something out, unless it's an injury — then swap it out and tell me after.
The last two pay for themselves. A client who knows that reporting a missed session is expected will report it. One who does not will hide it, and you find out from the data three weeks later.
How to use the app
Not a manual — four lines covering what they will otherwise message you about in week one.
The app Your program is under Training. Tap into today's session and log each set as you finish it. Weight, photos and measurements go under Progress. Your check-in appears on Sunday and disappears once you submit it. Anything I've written for you — this document, guides, videos — is in the Files tab.
Name the tabs as they appear on the client's phone, not on your dashboard. The two often differ, and a client hunting for a tab that does not exist assumes they have done something wrong.
How progress actually works, and what the first month looks like
The second one coaches get wrong. Most avoid it, on the theory that a low expectation makes the coaching sound worse. What it actually decides is whether the client is still there in month three, because the first month rarely looks like the sales page and they have nothing to compare it against.
Be specific about the shape, and name what you will be measuring when the headline number stalls:
What the first month looks like Weeks 1–2: mostly learning the movements and building the habit. You'll probably feel sore and won't see much change. That is exactly on track. Weeks 3–4: the sessions start feeling like yours. Weights go up before anything else does. Your weight will bounce around by a kilo or two day to day — that's water and food, not fat. I look at the weekly average, and so should you. A realistic first three months for your goal is [X]. If it comes faster, great, but I'm not planning on it. Some weeks nothing visible happens and everything is still working. Those weeks are the job.
Fill the bracket with a real number for that client and their goal. A range you would defend in month three is worth more than an optimistic one you have to walk back.
What to do when they miss a session or a week goes badly
The third one, and the most valuable section in the document. A client who has fallen behind goes quiet until they feel caught up, which never happens — they miss a week, feel embarrassed, avoid the app, miss another, and cancel six weeks later without ever saying anything was wrong. You cannot fix that afterwards. You can pre-authorise it:
When you miss a session, or a whole week You will miss sessions. Everyone does, and it doesn't mean anything about how this is going. Don't try to make it up by cramming three sessions into two days. Pick up the program where it is. If you miss a week, message me. Don't wait until you feel back on track — that is the exact moment I most need to hear from you, and it's never the moment you feel like talking to me. If you go quiet for two weeks I'll check in. That's not me chasing you, it's part of what you're paying for. If your life has changed and three days a week is no longer real, tell me and I'll rebuild it around three. That's a normal thing to ask for, not a failure.
Say the last one plainly. Clients assume the program is fixed and they are the variable.
Billing, pausing and cancelling
Vague billing terms do not protect you. They produce the awkward conversation later, usually when someone is already annoyed. State the mechanics:
Money $[X] per month, charged on the same date each month, automatically. Minimum commitment is three months, then it rolls monthly. You can pause for up to four weeks a year — holidays, illness — with a week's notice. Billing stops for the pause and picks up when you're back. To cancel, message me before your next billing date. No form, no exit interview.
Cancellation being easy is not a risk. Clients who feel locked in leave anyway and tell people it was hard to get out. The binding terms — payment failures, chargebacks, unused sessions — belong in the agreement, and what a personal training contract should cover sets those out.
What you cover, and what you refer out
A client who does not know the edge of your scope will ask you about their thyroid results, and the moment to define that edge is before the question, not in the reply.
What I do and don't cover I coach training, general nutrition and the habits around them. I'm not a doctor, dietitian, physio or psychologist. Anything medical, any injury that needs diagnosing, and anything to do with disordered eating or mental health goes to the right professional — I'll help you find one and keep your training working around it. Keep training while you're pregnant, injured or on new medication only with your doctor's sign-off.
The signed liability waiver is a separate document and still required. This is the plain-English version, for the client who skimmed the legal one.
Where to put it so it gets found again
A packet emailed on day one is read once and then buried in an inbox. The client who needs the billing line in month five will message you instead of finding it, which is the failure the document existed to prevent.
Put it where their other coaching content lives. In Fitsly that is the Vault — share a welcome pack with a client and it appears under their own Vault tab in the app, and an onboarding flow can share it the moment a new client activates their account, so it is waiting on their first login.
Then revise it once a quarter. Every question a client asks you twice is a section the packet is missing or has written badly. Where the sections sit in the first fortnight is in the client onboarding checklist.
