Customer Onboarding
Customer onboarding defines all the activities that introduce a new customer to your company’s product or service. Onboarding tells your client how to make the most out of your product or service. Onboarding should not be a formality, but an experience, where the customer gets all their questions answered and knows about the product or service, they are investing in. Onboarding should gradually show the customer all that your company has to offer. As they say, first impressions last long. Hence onboarding can impact the entire customer journey positively or negatively. A positive onboarding experience makes a customer believe they have made the right choice and ultimately helps you retain them. The difference between the user of your product and a satisfied user of your product comes down to the experience they have while using your product. A seamless customer experience is the primary touchpoint of any customer onboarding strategy.
Why is customer onboarding so important?
The goal of any business is to keep your customers happy so that they come back for more. Successful onboarding is a key determiner of that goal. Customer onboarding ensures that a customer receives the output promised to them when they made a purchase. This will help you –
- Retain a customer that comes back for more. Loyal customers are a great asset to the business.
- Spread the good word about your business as the satisfied customer tells people all about their wonderful experience.
- Control the avoidable churn where you save the people who fit into your business model but don’t understand your business.
When does customer onboarding take place?
Customer onboarding happens when the sale is made. The sales process does not end after the customer becomes a user. Even though you might have a separate sales department and onboarding department, the entire sales process flows from selling to onboarding. If your product or service does not offer the customer what it has promised, did you truly make a successful sale? Customer onboarding includes understanding the value each new customer expects from the company after purchasing their product. When you figure out their desired outcome, you can move on to build a pathway to achieve it.
How to create a customer onboarding strategy?
Firstly, you need to decide on a goal. Keep your objective defined within the boundaries of what your product or service provides and your customer base. Next, use the information you gathered from the sales and marketing processes in your initial stages of onboarding. Finally, remember these three key retention goals:
- Get your customers to use your product more than once in a short time.
- Establish that pattern of usage.
- Make your product indispensable for your customer.
Combining these three strategies will allow you to provide an excellent customer onboarding experience.
What are some important points to keep in mind regarding customer onboarding?
- A successful customer onboarding experience means profit to your business –
The more early wins you achieve, the happier the customers are. As a result, they’ll desire to use your product again and again. If you make a bad first impression, the customers will not be loyal to you when you make an update or upgrade. They will be reminded of the bad experience they faced and will not believe in the new solutions your product update provides. Most businesses focus on customer acquisition more than customer retention. What they fail to realize is, customer retention is a much easier task provided you put in a little effort. And these loyal customers are the ones that keep your business running. Sustaining a profitable business can be done best by creating the right customer onboarding experience. - Deeply understanding customer goals is the best and only way for customer retention –
Customer onboarding techniques can put a lot of focus on putting your product or service in the forefront and making a customer informed about all the features. There should be a balance between putting your product on the pedestal and putting the customer on the pedestal. Tell your customers that your product has features that can help them reach their goals in a timely fashion. Your team should have a shared understanding of your target audience, their core problems, and their thought process. - Your product design should be user-centric so that it fulfils customer goals –
To make a user-centric product design, follow these rules:Clear feedback – A customer always wants to know when and by how long they will be able to install a product. A good user quickstart guide or well-written installation procedure motivates customers to finish that process.Simplify and educate – Create step-by-step tutorials to do certain activities. Use other creative tools or formats to teach the customer how to use the features in your product.
Stick to essentials – Streamline questions and ask them to your customers to understand their goals
- Gather feedback to go beyond product installation and address every touchpoint –
You can realize that customer onboarding is not limited to sales, but it is also not limited to the successful installation of the product. The customer onboarding process lasts as long as the product does. Continuous feedback from customers can help you solve issues at every touchpoint and create a holistic customer experience.
Thus, customer onboarding is a key piece in the puzzle of the customer journey. A lot of big organizations ignore this basic idea and despite having a functioning product, they do not have satisfied customers. Customer onboarding is not overly complex. You can make it simple and streamlined. Follow the core principles of understanding customer goals and taking regular feedback. A happy customer will not only be a loyal one but also be a spokesperson for your product. Besides, customer acquisition can cost up to seven times more than selling products to existing customers. These simple steps will ensure customer retention and give you a profitable business.
