HOW TO CREATE SIMPLE, USER-FRIENDLY CUSTOMER ONBOARDING PROCESSES FOR YOUR PRODUCT

You know that exciting feeling after you create say a mobile application or web application, then you notice a lot of app downloads & visitors on your web application, you see thousands of prospects but only less than 100 have actually completed their user onboarding or even interact with the application.

Oops!

Something may just be wrong with your customer onboarding. Don’t fret, this is fixable.

Customer Onboarding is simply the process of welcoming and engaging prospects on your application. It is a way of helping them get familiar with your product & its features. Your first customer onboarding experience could make you win those prospects or lose them. It is a very important part of your product development, sometimes overlooked by some teams.

I’ll do a simple breakdown on this article on why you need to have a user-friendly customer onboarding & how to go about setting it up for increased customer sign-ups, revenue, etc.

WHY YOU NEED TO HAVE A GOOD CUSTOMER ONBOARDING:

Customer onboarding is an integral part of creating an awesome customer experience. Here are some reasons why you need to pay attention to some of your customer onboarding:

• Reduces Churn Rate: The better your onboarding experience, the more likely you are to turn a prospect into an active user/client. A high percentage of prospects according to research shows that customers who can easily understand the uses & features of a product, after going through an easy-to-signup are more likely to stay as lifelong customers compared to customers who experience difficulty in signing up to a product platform.
• Minimize Customer Acquisition Costs: You are more likely to experience a 3x customer retention rate when you create a product that aligns with the lifestyle of your target market which in turn saves you a huge amount in CAC (Customer Acquisition Costs). A well-onboarded customer would stay and continue doing business with you because they feel you understand the problems they have better.
• Get Free Product Evangelists: People will always spread the word of a good experience to either those close to them or to the public, the same goes for a good user experience & customer onboarding. With great customer onboarding experience, you indirectly create a strong word-of-mouth consumer community. Users of your products are more likely to make referrals for your product when they experienced many happy moments while interacting with your products which is great for you marketing-wise.

5 GREAT WAYS TO ONBOARD A CUSTOMER TO YOUR PLATFORM

The best kind of practice comes with gaining clarity/understanding. Here are some of the things you need to know to create a great customer onboarding process:

1. Know Who Your Customers Are

Understanding your customer is extremely important to know how to focus your product solution, and who to target. You need to be able to create a persona for your target market, create buying styles, interactions..this helps you know how best you can get them onboard on your platform.

It is easier to come up with a customer persona when you have an understanding of the problem you are trying to solve, and the people you are solving it for. Everyone is not your customer!

2. Be Clear With Expectations

When selling a solution you have to be clear and concise with exactly what problems your solutions are solving. You need to ensure that you do not oversell, you don’t mention anything in your services that you don’t offer. Be clear with timelines, feedback processes, etc.

3. Personalize the Process For Each Customer You Onboard

Every potential customer who interacts with your product has unique needs. Using things like forms, questionnaires can help you understand how to serve them better. Outline simple questions to know what they expect to gain by interacting with your platform.

4. Create a Self-Serving Product Walkthrough

Make your product interaction so easy to understand that people who sign up with you can see what they need to do, what the next steps are, and find a way to help them see their progress as they go. Not everyone might need hand-holding, try to create a user experience that makes your customer feel like they can connect quickly with the platform.

5. Measure Customer Satisfaction

Find ways to request feedback, offer help. Input integrations that help you measure areas that customers interact with most and those they interact with well. Identify places they have problems with and keep your communication lines open.

Some Key Customer Onboarding Components

• Sign Up / Sign In
• Onboarding Tutorials.
• Emails; Welcome emails, product description emails, etc
• Customer Service & Follow-Ups

Once you can successfully create amazing customer onboarding experiences for your product you are halfway into making a steady revenue stream, customer retention rate & product evangelists. Add a great overall product to it and you’ll build a global community of active users.

This is only the beginning of building something exceptional. You and your team would need to constantly evaluate the new trends of customer onboarding so you can continually improve your product structure in ways that help you serve your clients, better.

Thank you for reading.