I love this question and it is because of onsite implementations that I am so passionate about onboarding and collaboration. I started my career as a Consultant/CSM/Implementation Lead and I am a big proponent of the model. I did implementations for 5 years (2010-2015) and over that time I saw the model adapt and mold based on needs of the business. I will share briefly and can elaborate and continue the conversation as needed. Our core product was a CRM, but there were additional add-on products that could be implemented as well. Here was our basic flow:
Prior to Onsite:
Sales closes a deal and then an onboarding manager or project manager was brought in who would then run point in getting preliminary system configuration all setup. This would include adding users, data imports, building out any custom reports, and working with integration partners. This was usually a 2-3 week process and this is the time when I was notified as the lead to start booking flights and hotels for me and my team members.
Onsite:
Fly out on Monday, time could vary because team members were located across the US and were traveling in from different regions.
Be at the client from 9 AM to 5/6 PM Tuesday through Thursday.
Wrap up meeting at 3 PM on Friday and depart from the client at 4 PM. The wrap up meeting was crucial to our success because it gave us the opportunity to set future expectations, make sure stakeholders were informed about the progress throughout the week, and help create the feeling of partnership we desired. Throughout the week there were various training sessions, lots of testing of integrations, customization of alerts and notifications, one on one sessions with power users and going through a variety of implementation checklists.
Post Onsite:
After the implementation the CSM that would be managing the account long term would reach out within the next week to setup two touch points:
- 30 Day Call - This was a video conference call to see how adoption had been going and start to understand what pain points had started to surface since the implementation week.
- 45 Day Visit - This was an onsite visit from the CSM who would be at the client for the entire day to address concerns raised during the 30 day call, provide additional training, etc.
Overtime we adjusted this process to introduce a 2 day install similar to what @Casey Wilt described. This was reserved for smaller clients that were at a lower price point or simply smaller in numbers and didn’t require as much onsite time. We also adopted new technologies at the time like Webex Hands On Labs where you could offer one on one training via a digital experience and be able to offer a robust course list that users could register for as needed. I will stop here because this comment is already too long, but happy to discuss further :)
