Great question @lydiaanderson!!! The fact that you want to celebrate completed milestones with your customers tells me you’re building a sweet onboarding experience that your customers are lucky to go through!

This is something that I’m relatively new to because I focused on checking boxes in a previous life, not creating an experience. However, that being said I know there are tools out there like GUIDEcx that makes this super simple (say hi to milestone completion messages!). 

Here are couple things I’ve learned so far:

1. Who do you send them to? All customer and internal team members (this helps them keep a pulse on project progress). 
2. When do you send them? Ideally, you send these out at the end of each MAJOR milestone. Think of it like encouraging them along a difficult hike. After you complete major milestones (halfway, data migration, integrations, etc) it’s good to congratulate them.
3. What do you say in them? The emails should contain words of encouragement and praise. This is a basic way to help them stay motivated and find joy in the journey! The best milestone completion messages I’ve seen also set the stage for what’s to come! 

Here’s an example milestone completion message:

“Great work on completing your data migration! 🥳 We’re excited to be able to have all that connected now. That’s definitely the hardest part of getting set up, but we got it done (couldn’t have done it without your help). To ensure we are still good to go live at the end of this month, the next step is to get your team trained! Stay tuned for an email with my scheduling link!”

@willpatterson @Casey Wilt @casongreen what would you add/take away?

I love this and want to incorporate this into our processes.

We’re a GuideCX shop, and we make use of the milestone completion messages in most of our templates.

We use them to simply hype up the client team for crossing off a major milestone. For example, one i saw in my inbox today was…

CONGRATS!!

You’ve just made it through the hardest part of the implementation journey - your custom cost database has been deployed!

I know there is more work to be done - but take a second and celebrate this win with your team! 

We have 300+ tasks in our implementation plans for large customers, so the milestone completion message has zero actionable words, just celebration. I always made a point to brag on the client team in the next working session / call FIRST THING on the agenda, before moving on to the next milestone.

I haven’t played around with the milestone messages in a long time, but it would definitely be fun to format them so they really stand out from the noise.

@lydiaanderson love the topic!

@emaynez, amazing best practices!

@Casey Wilt love how intentional your celebrations are, even with a large process. It’s so important to take a moment and recognize those accomplishments.

A strategy that has always resonated with me is when a Project Manager takes the time to give credit to the achievements and contributions of client stakeholders. What's even more impactful is showcasing how these victories play a key role in attaining value, which aligns with their desired outcomes. And it doesn't stop there – it's like giving a nod to the higher-ups, allowing them to shine in front of the whole company. The essence here is to create an atmosphere where client stakeholders feel like they are a hero (which in many cases, they are) for ensuring a successful implementation/onboarding.