The shopper onboarding course of might be a very powerful stage of the client lifecycle. Whereas it comes proper at the beginning of their journey, it units the tone for his or her entire relationship along with your product and firm.
Buyer onboarding has a big affect on whether or not a buyer retains utilizing your product long run or churns after just some months. Completed nicely, it units your clients up for achievement and clearly demonstrates the worth of your product. Completed poorly, it leaves clients questioning why they signed up within the first place.
Under, we’re diving into six essential steps of your buyer onboarding course of. You may discover actionable finest practices that will help you set your latest clients up for achievement, plus examples from corporations with actually efficient onboarding at every step to encourage you when your individual onboarding course of.
Buyer onboarding is the method that new customers undergo to get arrange and begin utilizing your product. It covers the entire journey: from preliminary sign-up to product activation and first use. Buyer onboarding goals to ship worth to your buyer as early as attainable — of their first use, if attainable.
Why is buyer onboarding necessary?
Buyer onboarding is so necessary as a result of it units the tone for the continuing relationship your buyer has along with your product.
An excellent onboarding course of will:
Hold your clients engaged. Serving to them clearly perceive and expertise the worth they’ll get out of your product will imply they begin utilizing it efficiently, however extra importantly, it’ll give them a motive to log again in and use your product time and again.
Enhance trial conversions. In the event you supply a free or discounted product trial, buyer onboarding is the place your trial customers get to expertise the worth of your product. In the event you can display actual worth within the onboarding course of — proper at the beginning of their trial — you’ll make it extra doubtless they’ll convert into paid clients.
Good buyer onboarding units your clients as much as get worth from utilizing your product instantly and repeatedly for so long as they proceed utilizing it.
The shopper onboarding course of: Steps, finest practices, and examples
Listed here are six necessary steps of your buyer onboarding course of with finest practices and suggestions for every that will help you set your latest clients up for long-term success along with your product.
1. Signal-up course of
It’s tempting to assume that buyer onboarding doesn’t begin till a buyer has really signed up to your product. However we imagine the sign-up course of is step one of that journey.
Heap performed a survey of 79 SaaS corporations and located that the common conversion price for his or her sign-up course of was 36.2%.
Whereas each firm is completely different, if you happen to’re seeing the next than common drop-off price (the place customers begin signing up however don’t full the method), it suggests you’re asking for an excessive amount of data too quickly.
Signal-up course of finest practices
Hold your sign-up course of as brief as attainable. You need to make it as simple as attainable for folks to join your product. How a lot of the data you ask for is nice-to-have quite than important? Ask for the data that you could get the client arrange and utilizing your product, then ask for extra data later when it’s wanted.
Want a number of data to enroll? Break up it over a number of pages quite than asking for all the pieces on one. Heap discovered that asking for sign-up data throughout a number of pages correlated with a modest enhance in conversion charges. So if you happen to want a number of data out of your clients once they join, make it really feel like much less by splitting it throughout a number of pages.
Make it simple to enroll with a service they already use, like Google, Slack or social media. This removes nearly all of the friction from the sign-up course of and means new clients can join in a single click on, which is a large profit, in line with Heap: “When folks have the flexibility to enroll with one click on utilizing a service they already use like Google or Slack, the signup charges improved by 8.2 share factors.”
Instance: Twilio’s sign-up web page
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Brief kind: It doesn’t ask for plenty of data earlier than clients can check out the product.
No bank card required.
Brief, scannable bullet factors alongside the shape, reminding clients of the worth they’ll get once they join.
Instance: Trello’s sign-up web page
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There’s only one kind discipline to fill out to get began, preserving it as brief as attainable.
It additionally provides clients the choice to enroll with different instruments they already use.
2. Welcome e-mail
After a brand new buyer indicators up, the following step in your onboarding course of is to ship them a welcome e-mail. This e-mail ought to direct them straight again to your product to allow them to begin utilizing it and getting worth from it.
Welcome e-mail finest practices
Say thanks! They’ve taken the time to join your product, so it’s necessary to let your new clients know that you simply worth them.
Share assets that’ll assist them get began. This might embody a product tour video, hyperlinks to assist middle articles, or product FAQs.
Ship them again to your product. Whereas it’s useful to share further assets, the principle focus to your welcome e-mail is to get your new buyer to click on by and log in to your product. This must be essentially the most distinguished hyperlink and call-to-action in your welcome e-mail.
Instance: Luminary’s welcome e-mail
Supply: Actually Good Emails
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Retaining it brief and easy.
A single, distinguished call-to-action button to get clients again into the product.
Instance: DocSend’s welcome e-mail
Supply: Actually Good Emails
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One distinguished call-to-action button.
This welcome e-mail teases the beginning of their onboarding course of, sharing three steps the client might want to take to get began.
3. First log-in
They might have already seen a product demo, watched your product tour, and seen a ton of screenshots. However the first time they log in is your buyer’s first actual impression of your product.
At this stage, you need to get them arrange and able to begin utilizing your product. This usually features a guided tutorial or set-up wizard to take your clients by every step of the set-up course of.
First log-in finest practices
Don’t make your buyer guess! After they first log in, your new buyer shouldn’t discover themselves confronted with a clean display screen. Whether or not you begin off with a welcome pop-up or a set-up wizard, it’s necessary that you’ve got a solution to present your clients round and assist them begin utilizing your product.
Give your buyer a fast win. Getting clients to expertise significant worth out of your product requires ongoing exercise and engagement. The extra they use it, the extra worth they’ll get from it. However reaching small milestones or fast wins reminds them that they’re not off course and offers a psychological enhance to maintain them engaged. This might be so simple as finishing your product walkthrough or inviting a colleague to collaborate.
Instance: ClearBrain’s first log-in
Supply: ReallyGoodUX
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This tremendous clear overview of the account set-up course of.
Optimistic, partaking call-to-action copy, motivating the client to get began.
4. Integrations, invites, and information imports
For B2B merchandise, the onboarding course of doubtless entails greater than merely studying how one can use the product. Your product is now a part of your buyer’s know-how stack, and it doesn’t exist in isolation. Prospects might must arrange integrations with different instruments they use, import information from different sources, or invite their crew to get essentially the most worth out of your product.
Integrations, invites, and information imports finest practices
Automate as a lot of the method as attainable. Organising an integration between their advertising and marketing automation platform and your product — or importing information from one instrument to a different — could be a problem. In the event you can automate as a lot as attainable, it removes any sticking factors that may cease the client from getting worth out of your product.
Make it non-obligatory. Not all of your customers might want to arrange integrations, invite colleagues, or import information from different instruments, so don’t make this a obligatory a part of the onboarding course of.
Present loads of help. There’s nothing extra irritating than attempting to combine two instruments you utilize on daily basis and it’s simply not working. Many enterprise SaaS corporations have a devoted onboarding crew that helps new clients get arrange, and information imports and integrations are a vital a part of that function. In the event you’re not offering a devoted onboarding service, make it simple to your clients to contact help if they should.
Instance: monday.com’s person invite
Supply: ReallyGoodUX
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That is the final step within the sign-up course of. That is acceptable because the buyer will expertise way more worth when utilizing it with their crew.
There are two alternative ways to ask crew members — by including their e-mail or by sharing a hyperlink — which makes it simple to ask particular folks or to ask a big crew abruptly.
5. Product walkthrough
A product walkthrough takes your buyer by the steps that they should take as a way to get arrange and full key duties inside your product. The best and most impactful manner to your clients to study your product is for them to start out utilizing the product:
“…walkthroughs stand out as a result of they educate not by displaying the person what to do, however by getting the person to really do.”
Product walkthrough finest practices
Make it attainable to skip all or a part of the walkthrough. Your new buyer might already be acquainted with your product. Maybe they used it at a earlier job or have seen different folks utilizing it rather a lot. A walkthrough that you would be able to’t skip could be a barrier for patrons who appear new however really aren’t.
Make it simple for folks to come back again to it later. Not everybody will need to undergo a product walkthrough the primary time they log in. Make it simple to your new clients to come back again to your product walkthrough at a later date — both as a result of they skipped it the primary time, or as a helpful refresher on completely different options.
Make it simple for patrons to seek out further help in the event that they want it. For some customers, the walkthrough might not be sufficient to get them began along with your product, and so they may want extra help. Be sure that that is clearly seen and accessible inside the walkthrough, for instance, by offering contact particulars to your help crew or having a reside chat help characteristic.
6. Comply with-up emails
The aim of your onboarding course of is to maintain your clients engaged so the method doesn’t finish after your buyer has logged in that first time.
After your welcome e-mail, it’s possible you’ll need to ship further follow-up emails, providing suggestions and pointers to assist your buyer make use of your product and prompting them to log again in.
Comply with-up emails finest practices
Share useful suggestions and assets. This might be hyperlinks to your assist middle, tips about utilizing explicit options, or product updates. You need to be sure that every e-mail you ship your buyer provides worth, helps them obtain their targets along with your product, and makes them need to log again in.
Share little and infrequently. Sending brief follow-up emails extra usually helps hold your clients partaking along with your product and content material. It additionally means you’ll be able to deal with one characteristic or use case per e-mail quite than attempting to cowl a number of topics in a single go and risking complicated your clients.
Take into account sharing some social proof. Buyer quotes and testimonials aren’t only for advertising and marketing. Take into account sprinkling in a few buyer quotes or hyperlinks to case research into your follow-up emails. These will remind your buyer of the worth of your product and what impressed them to enroll within the first place.
Instance: Zapier’s follow-up e-mail
Supply: Actually Good Emails
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Together with a video to interact clients and present them how one can get began.
Hyperlinks to Zapier’s assist documentation in case clients want further help.
One distinguished call-to-action button directing them again to the product.
What’s the aim of your buyer onboarding course of?
Your buyer onboarding course of comes proper in the beginning of your buyer journey, but it surely lays the foundations to your entire relationship. An excellent buyer onboarding course of helps not solely with buyer activation (getting them utilizing your product), but additionally with buyer retention.
It’s simple to assume that the principle aim of your buyer onboarding course of is to assist your clients begin utilizing your product, but it surely’s a lot greater than that. The last word aim of your onboarding course of is to set your clients up for long-term success along with your product, proper from the very begin.
The truest measure of a profitable buyer onboarding course of is whether or not your clients log again into your product within the days, weeks, and months after that first use.