Customer Onboarding: Ultimate Guide You Won't Miss

Are you looking for a method that increases the revenue of your product or service? Are you worried about the churn rate? Let customer onboarding help you solve everything.

In this post, we would like to show you all the basic information about customer onboarding as well as some real-life examples.

What Is Customer Onboarding

Customer onboarding is the process of making new customers aware of your products or services. Moreover, with this process, customers will understand the value of products as well as how to use them effectively.

Besides, successfully completing customer onboarding also helps you get a large number of loyal customers.

Benefits of Customer Onboarding

Honestly, customer onboarding is very essential in business. That is because it will help customers understand clearly the core of products or services. When you do well, your customers will not regret buying or selecting your products. Otherwise, they would wonder about the reason why they should choose that item.

Here are 6 outstanding benefits of customer onboarding that you should take notice of:

• Attract customers and keep their loyalty.
• Reduce the number of customers who want to leave your brand.
• Get more profits and lifetime value of the product (LTV).
• It is a method of marketing (Worth-of-Mouth).
• Many customer issues can be avoided.
• Save money on other forms of advertising.

Customer Onboarding vs. Customer's First Impression

Some people are confused when mentioning customer onboarding and customers’ first impression. Although they have the same purpose of making customers know about the product, they are still different in some aspects.

Similarities

Both of them share the same purpose of attracting new customers for the product or service. In that way, the revenue from selling will be higher. Another similarity between them is that they support the marketing strategy that the business is going to conduct.

Differences

Check this table to know the differences between these two processes:

Customer Onboarding Completed Process

As usual, there are 9 stages of a customer onboarding process. In some cases, the product managers can reduce one or two stages if they are unessential.

#1: Greeting Email

Your initial communication with your new consumer should be positive. Congratulate them on their recent purchase. Thank them for choosing you over the other candidates and express your delight at having them on board.

#2: Messages

You can demonstrate an in-app welcoming message that greets users on their initial login and encourages them to take the first step in setting up their account.

This message is different from the email on the first element. It's better to only ask customers to do one thing. For instance, guide them to change their password or enable email notifications. You should make a video to guide them on what they need to do.

#3: Product Setup

Make a step-by-step guide or setup process to help your consumers through the setup procedure. This guidance should be brief and optional. When there are several phases or when they must be completed in a specific order, a guided setup is most often required.

#4: Empty Space

There will be functionalities without any data or "empty space" when a consumer first logs into their site. You should fill in the blanks with instructional and actionable information that explains the feature, demonstrates its usefulness, and encourages people to use it.

In customer onboarding, this filling is always needed to arouse curiosity and attract buyers to make a trial. Let’s take an example with DSers!

When you click on the bulk order on their website, you can easily see the way to take advance of this feature as well as the reason why you should not miss it.

#5: Featured Quotes

Use a tip banner to direct consumers through the product and highlight any key aspects they should be aware of. The banners are intended to serve as an introduction rather than a replacement for a tutorial.

#6: Interactive Walk-Through

Showing your consumers how to utilize and derive value from your product is the most crucial element of the customer onboarding process. It’s a great approach to instruct customers by allowing them to understand and utilize the product.

An interactive walkthrough is similar to a feature quote that appears as the user completes one task, showing them how to complete the next. Therefore, you should make sure to include contextual suggestions that explain how to execute a task.

#7: Knowledge Base

A knowledge base or resource area is a great place to start for frequently asked issues because it allows users to fix issues quickly and independently.

Another wonderful choice is a chatbot, which adds a customized touch and assists consumers in fixing things without having to search your website for a solution.

#8: Routine Check-Ins

Check-ins should be a part of your onboarding process, even if they are more of a best practice than a step. Your new consumers should have the impression that you are concerned about their growth. Check-in regularly to see where they're stuck and how you can assist them to get far more out of your product.

#9: Mini Celebrations

Do you recollect all those customer-centric milestones you set? You can share these with your new consumers to get them enthused about getting closer to their objectives. This can be done by an in-app notification, an email, or a fast phone call. In either case, they will be more invested in your idea if they believe you're concerned about their success.

Customer Onboarding Template

But, which way should you choose to go? This is what many people have concerned about customer onboarding. Luckily, we will share with you a template that helps you to conduct in the right way.

Step 1: Collect Essential Information

You have to determine the target you want to reach before conducting your customer onboarding. Just ask yourself some questions below and find the answers:

• Who do you need to contact?
• What is the best way to get in touch with them?
• What made them choose you?
• What do they want out of this relationship?

You can write all the information on paper or in your notebook and begin to research to determine the target customers as well as their habits.

Step 2: Send a Welcoming Email or Message

At this stage, you need to write and prepare a welcoming message that will be effective with the users. This email should include your store or company’s name along with information that the users can contact in emergencies.

Of course, when you finish the content, you need to send them to your customers. The tip for you is always to follow up on the email that you sent to ensure you won’t miss any response from your buyers.

Step 3: Call to Understand Customer’s Attitude

Depending on your service and product, you can choose to send an email or call your buyers to know what they think. If you select the calling option, you have to prepare a hotline team that will take responsibility for that mission.

Moreover, a calling script has to be done to ensure all calls are beneficial to your product and service’s revenue.

Step 4: Note & Improve

It is difficult to ensure that all of your customers are completely satisfied with the product or service you provide. So, you should take note of all the feedback and improve the drawbacks of that product as soon as you can.

Last but not least, update your product, celebrate webinars on training monthly or weekly if necessary.

This is a template from DSers. You can research or find more templates to decide which one is suitable for your product and service.

Real-life Customer Onboarding Examples

There are so many examples when mentioning customer onboarding. You can see these 3 outstanding real-life cases. Moreover, we also show you some great tips to conduct your user onboarding perfectly.

DSers

DSers is an official partner of AliExpress dropshipping. When you access to DSers website, you can see everything about dropshipping and the guidance from signing an account to getting profits on this website. Besides, DSers has many functions that help newbies understand and learn about dropshipping.

Duolingo

And about Duolingo, they introduce users to how to resign and learn with a friendly interface. They guide step-by-step and it will be great for newbies because they do not feel confused when using it.

Canva

Canva is not an unfamiliar website for many people. On this website, users will experiment with four quick steps to create a great advertising photo. Plus, they also highlight what the users should notice to finish what they need.

Best Tricks for Customer Onboarding

Creating a great customer onboarding experience from the beginning to the end is not simple as baking a cake. However, with some tricks in this part, we think that you are able to conduct and achieve what you desire.

The Right People - The Right Solution

You should focus on the experimentation of the users on your website. That is because each person will have their demand. Therefore, the best way for you is to conduct a survey and try to improve the process that meets the demand of your customer.

Always Side-by-side with Customers

If any users meet problems, you should be there and give them help. In that way, they feel your website is really helpful and understand its value. In case you are owning a selling website, it is ideal to organize small meetings between newbies and professionals.

Keep the Relationship with Mini Celebrations

Highlight every achievement and keep updating them on your website. Moreover, do not forget to celebrate with small prizes and gifts for the users after reaching each target.

How about Customer Onboarding Metrics

You know, the result is always the most essential part of any process or strategy. You should measure the result at the beginning of the process and evaluate whether it is successful or not.

You should consider a tool that helps you to measure your process exactly without much effort. See this photo below as an example:

FAQs

Time to ask and answer! We have received some common questions from friends and other newbies. If you have any wonderings about customer onboarding, keep reading and find the answer!

Who will take responsibility for customer onboarding?

From the beginning to the end, the product manager is the person who ensures the customer onboarding will be completed successfully. In contrast, some companies or groups can divide this mission into two or more people.

What is digital customer onboarding?

The process of using online technologies to get new customers familiar with, comfortable with, and ready to utilize your products and services from wherever they are, rather than in your store or offices, is known as digital customer onboarding.

How do you know your customer onboarding is successful?

Keeping your users interested is the greatest approach to ensure a successful customer onboarding experience. Give customers a cause to return to your website and make a purchase. Otherwise, they'll become buried in other digital marketing campaigns and completely forget about your business.

How long does a customer onboarding last?

Normally, this process will happen around 30 days to 90 days. But, it can be longer depending on other factors. To know exactly how long it takes, you should create a detailed timeline.

Final Word

Customer onboarding will help businesses to have a large number of loyal users. Besides, a great strategy is also a useful step for any marketing method.

You should know that it can begin with a product, a service, or even a brand. DSers hopes that you are able to gain more information and know what to do with our post.

Lastly, do not forget to share with your friends and relatives if you feel our post is useful in any aspect. Good luck!