“ Top performers have a culture of onboarding excellence . Everybody understands and takes pride in the process , nobody takes shortcuts , and they have the documentation and the references to prove it .” - Paul Cissel
and sticking to a budget for the resources they expect to devote to onboarding , reaping at least 50 % margins .
Further , they require all new customers to be compliant with their tech stack within 12 months — no exceptions .
Their onboarding schedule outlines what happens when , and the onboarding team is held accountable for that .
MSP Pyramid Of Excellence
7 . Growth
6 . Budgeting
5 . Account Management
Top performers do not hand off a new customer to the help desk until onboarding is complete and the help desk manager reviews the documentation and accepts the customer for support . Until that time , either the outgoing MSP or the
PRO TIP
onboarding team handles reactive tickets . This will make the onboarding team work harder to get it done !
Customers pay for onboarding . Even if a customer on a three-year contract exits early , they will be charged the time and materials for the onboarding .
Finally , top performers have a culture of onboarding excellence . Everybody understands and takes pride in the process , nobody takes shortcuts , and they have the documentation and the references to prove it .
How Can You Get Started Like A Top Performer ?
Once you ’ ve signed a customer , follow these steps :
1 . Hold an internal kickoff meeting – Have the sales team share everything they know about the account with anyone who will be working with the account ( finance , techs , account manager , etc .), including the expectations that may have been set during the sales process .
2 . Assign a project coordinator – This person is now the point of contact for all customer communications .
3 . Collect information about the customer ’ s environment – Have your lead project tech use the lowest cost resources , doing as much as possible remotely . The top performers usually take a week or two to get a firm baseline .
4 . Begin onboarding – Expect the process to take four to six weeks . PRO TIP Do not take on other projects for the customer during onboarding . It dilutes the effort , confuses the customer and your team , and puts onboarding on a “ forever ” track .
5 . Hand off to the service manager or lead tech – Your service manager should review all the documentation to ensure everything is in place to support this customer . Note that the SLA is not in effect until onboarding is complete .
6 . Hold an on-site meeting and hand off to the account manager – Your account manager , project lead , and lead tech will present the customer with the assessment or roadmap that was created during onboarding plus a budget for the projects
PRO TIP you prioritized to reduce their risk and help them grow . Schedule four QBR periods out at the meeting .
7 . Have a post-mortem – Survey every user and examine if you delivered on time and within budget .
The Payoff
4 . Onboarding
3 . Standard Technology Stack
2 . Target Market & Customer Profile
1 , Shareholder Value Creation & Acceleration
Foundation Of Rhythm , Accountability & Best-In-Class Metrics
Source : Growth Caddie
You only have two chances to make a great first impression . One is when your salesperson closes the deal . The other is during onboarding .
Done right , you ’ ll end up with great documentation , better service efficiency , happy customers , happy techs , and — most important — you ’ ll improve your service gross margins as well as the overall value of your company .
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