Email Accounts for Social Media Agencies: Client Access and Handover

Let the client retain the recovery relationship

For client-owned brands, establish a client-controlled owner and recovery contact wherever the provider supports that arrangement. The agency can then receive the access it needs for the engagement without becoming the client’s permanent single point of failure. Agree who approves recovery changes and who receives important security notices.

Do this during onboarding, not after an account problem. A simple responsibility sheet should identify the client approver, agency lead and backup contact. It should also say what happens if the main contact leaves. A mailbox purchase by itself does not grant the agency permission to manage the client’s profiles.

Keep an inventory, not a spreadsheet of secrets

An inventory should help a colleague find the responsible person without exposing the credentials. Store secrets separately in an access-controlled password manager. Do not copy one client’s recovery details into another client’s workspace just because the same employee manages both campaigns.

• Client and brand name, with the mailbox’s purpose.
• Mailbox owner and the person responsible for monitoring messages.
• Provider, sign-in method and location of the approved credential record.
• Platforms that depend on the mailbox, without recording their passwords.
• Recovery contact, last review date and expected handover date.

For example, a three-client agency could keep three separate inventory records even when one account manager reads all three inboxes. That separation makes the end of one engagement easier to handle without disturbing the other two.

Assign access by the work someone performs

A colleague replying to partnership enquiries may not need access to password-reset messages. A content scheduler may need a platform role but no mailbox credentials. Where supported, prefer individual delegated access and platform team roles to distributing one shared login across the whole team.

Check the actual provider and subscription capabilities before making that design a promise to a client. A basic consumer mailbox is not automatically a managed business inbox with access logs, delegated roles or administrator recovery. If those features are required, compare business email services rather than assuming a bulk mailbox package includes them.

Buy against an onboarding specification

If additional mailboxes are appropriate, specify access format and recovery requirements before comparing package quantities. Verify the delivered fields on a small initial order. Keep the order evidence separate from client secrets, and use the current listing for included features rather than copying claims from an old purchase.

Budget for monitoring and maintenance as well as acquisition. Ten inexpensive inboxes still need named owners, message review and a process when a client changes agency. Do not use account count as a substitute for a staffing plan. Review provider and platform terms for the intended arrangement before relying on transferred access.

Make offboarding a short, testable procedure

At the end of the engagement, review the inventory with the client. Confirm their access through the official provider, check the recovery contact and remove agency permissions that are no longer needed. Review forwarding destinations, connected applications and retained credentials where those controls are available.

Record completion without recording the new secrets. If an agency-owned domain is involved, agree the transition before terminating hosting or abandoning an address. A final client sign-off should confirm that security notices reach the right person and that no unrelated client’s access was affected.

Frequently asked questions