5.2 Business Onboarding & Expectations
Businesses interested in participating in course projects are encouraged to apply through the Client Application Form.
Once selected, community partners will be expected to actively engage with the student teams, providing them with relevant data, resources, and guidance. Partners will be given clear instructions for submitting project proposals and defining their marketing needs. Expectations for businesses will involve supporting the students throughout the project, valuing their ideas and contributions, and actively participating in project reviews and presentations. The consultancy course allows community partners to gain insights from the students’ fresh perspectives and market knowledge.
Onboarding Process
Once a client is selected to join a project start time, we ask them to submit an Onboarding Questionnaire that details their company information and marketing needs.
Client Onboarding Questionnaire
Clients then are scheduled to attend a 20-minute virtual Client Introduction meeting with the students to discuss their overall marketing challenges and goals. This step is important in ensuring we match a client’s requirements with the right student teams.
Once teams have been assigned, we pass over the projects to students to take the lead.
Community Partner Expectations
Regular communication is an important part of helping students stay on track of project milestone due dates. Please respond to student emails within 48 hours and provide resources as needed.
Clients are asked to attend a 30-minute student final presentation where students will have the opportunity to present their slide deck of strategy and recommendations. Clients are then encouraged to ask questions.
Once students send out the final deliverables to clients, we ask clients to provide constructive feedback to our student groups through the Client Feedback & Evaluation Survey.
The total time commitment on behalf of the community partner is usually between 1-3 hours.
Community Partner Testimonial
“Working with the students in the Business and Marketing programs at Fanshawe College was very beneficial to our small business. They were able to dig into details and data and come up with solutions to problems we didn’t even realize we had. Their fresh eyes, ingenuity and dedication to the project brought about quite a few business and marketing solutions that we were able to implement to create a better user experience for our customers and to reach a larger customer base. I highly recommend working with this program and would happily do it again”.
Jessica Bax, Sales & Marketing Manager
Guess Where Trips
Favourite Trip: Markets to Mountains
