Why Customer Success Teams Run Customer Onboarding

Customer success managers are the main owners of the relationship with the customers — granting them responsible for retention and value-led revenue growth. Logically, the customer success teams should be the one defining and running the onboarding process, whose goal is centered around customer retention.

The customer success onboarding process will ultimately dictate the customer success journey’s continuity, on multiple fronts. If customers are not onboarded correctly — they’ll be deprived the opportunity to see the product’s added value, and will often eventually churn as a result. 

If the opposite happens, meaning they experience a successful customer onboarding plan where they can fully grasp and experience the value of your product — this will lead to a continuous, fruitful relationship.

One of the biggest advantages of having the CS team own the onboarding of new clients is that it will enable them to grow and nurture their relationship with their customers. This is made possible when the team provides the customer value and a tailored service since the beginning of their journey.

There are many more advantages to having your CS team own the customer onboarding process.

Let’s find out what some of those advantages are.

Why is the customer success team your best candidate for client onboarding owner?

When it comes to SaaS customer onboarding, having the customer success team as its owner brings multiple advantages, primarily because CS professionals are:

• Product Experts
  Leading B2B SaaS organizations train their customer success managers to become product experts enabling them to understand all the nuances of how the product works, how to personalize it as much as possible and tailor the product offering to the customers’ pain points, and finally — empower the CSM to facilitate a complete and ample training. Cohesive product training within the onboarding process is essential to transform every customer into a product expert, which then ensures retention and drives stickiness.
  

• Strategic Advisors
  The CSM’s relationship ownership also suggests the time frame of when the CSM-to-customer relationship should begin: early on in the customer journey. This setup fosters the CSM’s understanding of what the customer’s product goals are — and the guidance they need to fulfill these objectives. It’s the CSM’s job to position themself as the customer’s strategic advisor and this fits right into the initial stages of the customer onboarding journey.
  

• The experts in lead the customer journey from A-Z
  The seasoned CSM’s clear vision and understanding of what needs to happen in order to successfully onboard new clients is built upon proactivity and strategic thinking. 
  This awareness materializes according to the onboarding stage the customer is in, and is what fosters the CSM’s knowledge of what’s required to pave the direction towards retention and growth. 
  Accordingly, the work being done during onboarding requires the CSM’s parallel awareness and preparation for the customer journey’s next stage — to then take advantage of upcoming growth opportunities.
  

• Desired outcome
  On a personal level, the desired outcome is the most important milestone of all. This outcome combines the delivery of required outcomes, made possible through an on-point onboarding experience within the customer journey. 
  The CS team should be constantly determined to provide a “wow” experience from the get-go, not only in terms of value but also in terms of making the customer feel that, from day one, they’ve had a human resource accommodating their needs, all with the right intent. 
  If executed well, the onboarding foreshadows the customer’s future experience with you and your company and there is no better fit person to undertake this critical task than the CSM.
  

The customer journey’s final destination

Onboarding is one of the most essential stages within the customer journey; where your customers experience their first time to value and learn everything about your product offering. 

Essentially, when the CS team defines, builds and leads the onboarding process, customers will be grateful for the human factor guiding them through their business growth pains and challenges they can solve by investing in your product.