Top 3 Benefits of Successful Customer Onboarding Software

Customer onboarding software is now the norm for many companies, helping customers understand how to use products and services while getting the most from them moving forward. Successful SaaS onboarding requires a customer onboarding platform that saves preparation time, reduces back and forth with CSMs, and makes a positive first impression that leaves clients feeling they’ve made the right choice.

Onboarding client software not only helps smooth a customer’s journey but can also improve your organization’s customer retention and conversion rates.

The B2B Customer Onboarding Process

A recent report found that over 60% of B2B respondents don’t adequately onboard new users. Unsurprisingly, the same number of B2B customers abandon the onboarding process because it takes too long, requires too much information, or is too complicated.

Businesses that don’t use the digital methods their customers prefer during the onboarding process create unnecessary customer friction and significant dropout. They can ease the frustration by including four simple components when designing their onboarding platform:
1.     Speed
2.     Digital
3.     Flexible
4.     Paperless

It’s vital for companies that want to avoid losing customers and boost their company’s overall performance to provide customers with an onboarding process that’s fast, 100% digital, and achievable on any device from any location.

Common B2B Onboarding Missteps

Customers expect to learn about your products and services quickly, simply, and securely, all while gaining immediate value from their investment. Unfortunately, many B2B companies see the onboarding process primarily as a way to reduce SaaS churn. But that’s a short-term goal that doesn’t necessarily signify long-lasting customer loyalty.

Common mistakes businesses make in their SaaS onboarding include:

·       Multiple elements battle for attention at the start of the process. Product tours, how-to videos, CTA buttons, pop-ups, and numerous emails with links are just too much for any customer to handle in one go.

·       Not focusing on core features first. If you want customers to feel they’ve made a smart investment, help them use your product or service to solve the problem they came seeking help for.

·       Limiting feedback to the end of the onboarding process. Including occasional “was this helpful?” buttons reduces customer frustration and lets you know if you’re helping people achieve their goals.

Many companies also fail to analyze user behavior to learn why their customers aren’t completing the onboarding process. Tracking helpful customer onboarding metrics like net promoter score (NPS) determines the efficiency and effectiveness of your onboarding process and helps you understand what your customers like and dislike.

3 Benefits of Client Onboarding Software

The faster your customers find success with your SaaS onboarding solution, the more likely they are to continue using your product or service. Three significant ways a successful customer onboarding experience benefits your business include customer engagement, retention, and adoption.

Elevated Engagement

The quickest way to increase user engagement during the customer onboarding process? Make it interactive. The last thing you want are customers fiddling around trying to figure out things on their own and missing key features. Elements like clickable tutorials help you “cut to the chase” and immediately prove your product’s value, especially when you personalize the experience to your customer’s specific needs.

To eliminate boredom and make the process more engaging and appealing, you can also include elements like checklists, progress bars, and animated effects. If your business offers complex solutions that require a longer onboarding, you can incorporate “rewards” like badges and bonuses to make things more interesting. For instance, the file hosting service Dropbox awards its users additional free storage space once they complete the onboarding process, which helps the company increase retention rates.

Increase Retention

Attracting new customers can cost your business up to seven times as much as retaining the ones you already have. Lowering churn rates, then, is always preferable to trying to replace lost customers. If you want to convince customers to stay, you must keep them satisfied.
A well-designed user onboarding process facilitates a customer’s rapid mastery of your product or service. Once a customer feels they’re adept at using your product, they’re much less likely to abandon it for another one.

Improve Product Adoption

Unless your offerings are highly specialized, you’re probably competing with other companies that offer similar products and services to yours. Many of those competitors also use digital solutions to offer new features and provide more value.

A satisfying onboarding experience gets customers accustomed to using your product more quickly, improving the odds they’ll stick around, even if you haven’t yet introduced new features your competition has. Because they enjoy using your solution, they’re willing to wait and sometimes even pay for your upgrades.

Another benefit to a seamless onboarding process is that it lowers customer support costs, as customers are less likely to need assistance in navigating obstacles or resolving difficulties. This means you can keep your customer support team to a minimum of qualified professionals who still deliver great customer service when and if your customers need it.

Onboarding Software That Provides Exceptional Customer Experiences

Designing and implementing a successful customer onboarding process isn’t as tricky as you might think. There are platforms and solutions that make it easy to create engaging and interactive user onboarding processes, delighting your customers from the moment they sign on.

EverAfter is a customer-facing, automated customer onboarding solution that helps your business reduce churn, elevate customer engagement, and boost product adoption. It works seamlessly with your existing tools like CRM, calendar, and support systems and helps customers throughout their entire journey. It includes a broad range of interactions and engagements with your brand, enhancing the customer experience and encouraging ongoing relationships.

Ready to invest in customer onboarding software that improves communications between CSMs and customers while saving you time and increasing retention? Talk to us about getting started today.