Customer onboarding is the process that users go through when they start their journey as the customers of the products or services of your online business. It is often considered as the most important stage of the customer lifecycle as it defines how the rest of the customer journey or the relationship with your business will be. Also, this very first step decides whether your customer is going to take your products or services for long or will churn shortly.
Simply put, the customer onboarding process gives your business a scope to establish your brand value, business credibility, and overall customer experience. And these all help you retain your customers and establish word-of-mouth promotion of your business in the long run.
“The first impression is the last impression.” – And it is applicable to your online business where the relationship between your business or brand and customer begins with the customer onboarding process. Most of the time it is considered as the simple process of customers signing up for your products or services for the very first time. But in reality, it holds more value and importance than just being a mere process.
Let’s take a simple example – suppose you have just signed up on an OTT platform and subscribed for a basic plan but there is no update afterwards regarding your sign up or plan details or further instructions. This will not only create a negative impression about the brand, but will reduce the probability of you taking their service in the long run.
The customer onboarding process can be the very first marketing tool to improve the whole customer lifecycle if done right, as it helps in-
Unless your customers find your brand or business credible enough, chances are they will stop taking your subscriptions of products or services. And the onboarding process gives you a chance to establish credibility from the moment a new customer turns up!
If your business offers free trial to the first time users, then that is where you need to apply the onboarding strategies to convey the brand values, customer support, exclusive benefits and all other perks your business offers. So, they can be more likely to convert to your paid customers than stopping abruptly as soon as the free trial ends.
The first impact of your brand or business is probably the strongest one, and a good one often drives word-of-mouth promotion of your business. As customer on-boarding defines the starting point of the customer lifecycle, it’s worth putting your effort in making it the most effective one!
Here we have chalked out the A to Z of customer onboarding strategies or tips to not only improve the process, but make every customer an asset to your business through it!
So, this is the very first opportunity to impress your new customers or better to say, gear them up for a long-term professional engagement!
This being a common part of customer on-boarding for every online business, needs your attention to become fast and unique. How? Let’s see!
No one wants a lengthy sign up form which takes several minutes to complete! Keep it simple, comprehensible and brief- user name, email id, mobile number, and password will do the work!
Unless it is mandatory (i.e. they are signing up for a paid plan or so), don’t ask for confidential details such as credit card. If you are offering a free trial, you can make the payment details optional as they will automatically take your services if they are convinced during the demo!
A recent survey by Gigya stated that more than 80% of the U.S. consumers prefer to sign up using their social media. So, always keep multiple options on your sign up page such as sign up with Google, Facebook, Twitter etc.
Don’t assume that your job is done once the customers have signed up! The next step is to make them feel welcome and at the same time give a glimpse to them about how smooth and interesting their journey is going to be!
A few tricks to make your welcome emails more fruitful than ever-
The first log in of your customers should be hassle free and fast.
A few things to keep in mind to make it a cakewalk-
Also Read: Customer Retention- Unique Strategies Your Business Should Use
Data imports and integrations are a vital part of the customer onboarding stage for B2B or B2C SaaS businesses and you must ensure that no disappointment follows for the customers.
Some pointers to make this step as simple as the rest of the onboarding process-
Be it integrating multiple tools or importing data, lack of support may turn these tasks tiresome and frustrating. And you don’t want your new customers to face these issues. Keep your support team ready in case the help articles or guides don’t suffice for the customers!
Try to automate the complex parts of integrations and data imports as much as possible so that there are less overheads for your customers.
The best practice is to define and keep track of all the customer on-boarding metrics such as-
etc.
Once you have a clear picture of such metrics, take the necessary actions to make the on-boarded customers your permanent ones!
Lack of customer engagement is one of the top reasons behind the high churn rate. Keep them engaged from the very beginning. Also, keep in mind that overdoing it or doing it wrong may give the opposite result.
Some useful ways to keep your customer engagement high without spamming them-
Also Read: Customer Retention- Unique Strategies Your Business Should Use
While every business puts their efforts in increasing customer lifecycle values, the customer onboarding process often remains overlooked. But in real time, it is the most important part and instead of investing extra for customer retention or acquisition, doing it strategically may help your business in all ways over the long term. Sending timely notifications from day one is pivotal for any business as it helps in engaging with your customers in the right way. And once you can differentiate the thin line between improving customer engagement as well as customer experience and sending redundant emails or texts to turn them off, you will discover this effective marketing tool to nurture your customers from the very beginning of their life cycles. A notification management tool is a must-have to help you achieve success.
Muvi Notification Engine Konviare lets you trigger and manage multi-channel event-based notifications easily letting you take your entire customer onboarding process to the next level. Personalizing bulk notifications to segregating and managing audience lists from the day of customer onboarding- you can do it all with Konviare through a few button clicks!
Take a 14-day free trial today and get 100 notifications completely free!
Written by: Ishita Banik
Ishita is a Content Writer with Muvi Marketing Team. Apart from business writing, she is also an acclaimed author of three best seller romantic thriller novels. In 2020, she got featured in The Hindustan Times, a leading news portal as an inspirational Indian author.
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