So you’ve made the sale and that’s great. But what next? For SaaS businesses, a conversion is just the beginning of the journey that the customer will have with your brand. It should lead seamlessly into onboarding, where you introduce customers to your product and the value it can provide (as promised by sales and marketing).
SaaS companies who implement the process with a customer onboarding checklist are at risk of losing their new customers to churn. Just as you would welcome a new visitor to your home, so too do SaaS companies need to welcome new customers, ensure they understand where everything is, and exactly how to use it.
For SaaS companies in particular, a customer’s renewal is contingent upon their satisfaction with the product. That’s why onboarding is the key to transitioning customers from newbies to regular users of your product.
What Does Customer Onboarding Mean?
Customer onboarding is the process that your business goes through when welcoming new customers to your SaaS applications. Onboarding teaches customers the basic features of your software, how to get set up, and how to get the most out of your SaaS. During onboarding, SaaS companies frequently collect basic information about their customers so they can tailor the onboarding experience.
Why Customer Onboarding Is Important
Customer onboarding is important because it’s one of the key ways you can fight churn. Customers who understand the value of your product and how it can help them are far more likely to stick around than those customers who are scratching their heads about why they’re paying your subscription.
Customer onboarding is your big chance to make a great first impression and show customers you value them. It’s the hand-off between sales and customer success, so you need to make sure this process is seamless for the customer. Eight out of ten users say they have deleted an app because they didn’t know how to use it, so you know that onboarding is key to product adoption. This makek it imperative to have an customer onboarding checklist to streamline your process.
Customer Onboarding Checklist
Now, let’s get right to the customer onboarding checklist!
1. Conduct a formal takeover of the client from sales
In order to avoid precious customers falling through the cracks, conduct a formal takeover for the customer from sales. This means the responsibility for helping the customer goes from your sales rep to your customer success manager, and there is no disruption to the experience of the customer who simply wants to use your product.
2. Welcome customers with a call
Not every SaaS company has the capacity to do this, but a great way to greet your new customer can be with an onboarding call. This means you schedule in a time with the customer where you can go through their goals for the software and how to get set up properly.
3. Create customer success plans based on client goals
If you have properly onboarded your customers, you will be aware of their unique goals and aspirations. Then you can construct a customer success plan based on their needs that will lead them towards product adoption and success. Each plan must be tailored to the desires of the customer rather than being a generic template.
4. Choose the onboarding model
Now, choose an onboarding model that best suits the type of customer you want to attract.
Self-Service Onboarding
Self-service onboarding means that your customer will onboard with your software with very little help or intervention from your success team. Using getting started guides, walkthroughs or tutorials, customers learn to use your relatively simple product on their own.
Low-Touch Onboarding
Low-touch onboarding is when customers get started with the product using resources such as product tours and walkthroughs, but have some access to human support if they need it. They don’t have a dedicated account manager but simply reach out to your customer success team when they need it.
High-Touch Onboarding
At the other end of the spectrum, high-touch onboarding is where a specific member of your customer success team holds the hand of the customer as they learn the function of a relatively complex product. Customers have access to customized onboarding plans and dedicated meetings.
5. Conduct training sessions with new clients
Next, your checklist should include conducting customer success training sessions with new clients to ensure they know exactly how they should use their new product. These training sessions can be held one-to-one, live webinars, or pre-recorded videos for self-service customers.
To gain deeper insights into Churn360, we recommend setting up a demo with one of our experts for a detailed walkthrough
Book a demo
6. Provide self-help tools and tutorials
Even high-touch customers can benefit from self-help tools and tutorials which enable customers to learn your software on their own. During onboarding, it can be easier for customers to consult a self-service knowledge base rather than reaching out to a member of your team. This particularly enhances the customer experience when customers are empowered.
7. Conduct regular check-ins on implementation, training, and goals
Throughout the onboarding process, don’t make the mistake of forgetting about your customers if you don’t hear from them. Conduct regular check-ins to check that customers are moving smoothly through onboarding and record their progress in a customer success tool like Churn360.
Wrapping Up
Successfully onboarded customers are likelier to adopt your product and face a reduced churn risk. Whether the onboarding process is fully automated or you implement the human touch. Every customer needs to be guided through the first stages of setting up and learning your product.
For the customer success team, onboarding is the beginning of your relationship with the customer. And your chance to prove to them that your product was the right decision. If customers are neglected during the onboarding stage. This could lead to doubts about the suitability of your product as a whole. Having an customer onboarding checklist and So start as you mean to go on. Welcome customers with a mixture of self-service and personal onboarding resources and watch them flourish with your product. Keep churn at bay and cultivate happy, loyal customers.
