Customer onboarding is a simple process where users are offered value in a quick and simple way, encouraging them to sign up for your product and use it again. As a startup, customer retention is especially important as you’re just starting to build your customer base. Successful customer onboarding is when you have repeat customers who come back to use your app (not other similar apps in the market) when they need the service you provide.
How to ensure successful customer onboarding?
-
Offer a tutorial
For first time users, offer a step-by-step guide through the entire application (interactive is always better for mobile apps), with pop-ups explaining what each element on the screen does and how to move from one screen to another. Throughout the flow, subtly remind the user how useful your app can be by adding examples. This will make your app easy to use, and will slowly introduce all its features without overwhelming the user. Make sure to keep your tutorial short and provide an option to skip it if users already know how to use the app. Also include an faq, a live chat or video tutorials in case users need more help. This step is essential for a good user experience, especially if you have a complex app.
To make tutorials for your app, check out Appcues, WhatFix, Hopscotch (for developers), Tour My App etc. -
Stay connected to your users through Trigger based emails
Trigger based emails are sent at certain events, or from data collected about the user experience.
– A welcome email with a brief description and a link to getting started will make it easy for customers to access your service and try it.
– Additional info/reminder emails for customers who show a special interest in some features containing information about updates on the features and ways to use the feature.
– Helpful emails with additional information on how to use a feature if you know the user has had trouble in that particular area of your app. This is great way to pull customers back in.
You can use tools such as Autosend, Kickofflabs etc. -
Stay up to date with your customer needs and problems
Send out customer satisfaction surveys or incorporate a simple rating bar for each new feature to communicate better with your users. Set up contact forms/live chats or other easy ways for customers to let you know if they need help or want to send feedback. Get back to your users as quickly and in the most personalized way possible as it will strengthen your customer relationship and keep users involved. This feedback can shape your product design to provide better user experience and help you decide on marketing strategies to expand your customer base. You can use tools like Qualaroo, Webengage, Hipmob (for mobile apps) etc.
-
Use a good analytics tool
A customer analytics tool is crucial to refining your onboarding process and figuring out what your customers are looking for. Customer analytic tools couple customer behaviour and the traffic on the app to give you an overview of the market trends and customer response. These can tell you where customers dropped off, which features are more attractive to customers, the amount of time customers are willing to spend, and which market is most interested in your product. There are many customer analytics tools like Kissmetrics, Intercom etc.
You can use popular analytics tools like Kissmetrics, Intercom, Google Analytics etc.