In a world of instant gratification, keeping up with customer onboarding trends is essential for building long-lasting relationships. These trends showcase how early value demonstration is critical in convincing customers that your solution can meet their expectations, helping them unlock its full potential.
But setting up an effective customer onboarding process is more than just a one-and-done thing. Growth-focused software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies are notorious for making customer onboarding updates, forcing everyone else to play catch-up.
To help you navigate the ever-evolving customer journey, we share the latest onboarding trends and examples from leading SaaS businesses. Let’s dive in.
The onboarding process is one of the first meaningful interactions a customer has with your brand after making a purchase. It’s your chance to make a strong impression, build trust, and show them the value of your product.
Focusing on customer onboarding helps improve satisfaction and builds the foundation for fruitful relationships. A clear and consistent onboarding process gives customers the tools and support they need to get the most out of your offer, starting from day one.
The big question is: How can you make customer onboarding smooth, helpful, and memorable? Understanding how it affects customer happiness and loyalty is the first step to getting it right.
Here’s a look at recent customer onboarding stats to help you understand why customer onboarding is important.
The customer onboarding journey is complex and requires a lot of planning and optimization. However, the benefits you get make it worthwhile. Here’s a high-level overview of the most essential benefits of onboarding your customers:
The fierce competition among businesses has raised the bar, so keeping up with customers’ expectations is harder than ever. Customers today are no longer just comparing you to your competitors but rather to the best experience they’ve ever had. The only way to remain relevant is to optimize customer onboarding and stay on top of trends.
Businesses constantly seek ways to create a consistent and seamless onboarding experience. Here’s where automation comes in handy. Automating standard onboarding steps can help you save time and resources, allowing you to focus on other critical aspects of the process.
Automating interactive walkthroughs, video guides, customer education, and step-by-step checklists can simplify the process of getting started. However, it is important to find the right balance between automation and a human touch.
💏 While you can leave repetitive tasks on autopilot, remember that customers also value human support and interaction. Analyze insights to spot repetitive processes that help improve your time to value.
Loom uses step-by-step customer onboarding checklists to help customers get started with the tool. This way, Loom automates the onboarding and allows customers to go through the steps necessary for using the tool to its full potential.
Image source: loom.com
Personalization is no longer nice to have — it’s a must. 89% of leaders consider it a critical factor in achieving their business’s success in the next three years.
Customers are also raising the bar, with 73% seeking better personalization and 65% expecting businesses to evolve with their changing needs.
🤝 Using personalization during onboarding gives you insights into customer preferences. You can use this knowledge to engage users, create deeper relationships, and increase retention rates. The goal is to tap into user motivation and deliver a more relevant experience.
Notion starts its onboarding process by asking customers how they plan to use the tool with additional questions about their work and role to personalize the onboarding experience.
Image source: notion.so
The customer journey has evolved. Users switch between multiple channels when interacting with a brand and want a unified experience across touchpoints. As reported by Retail Touchpoints, 90% of customers expect a seamless omnichannel experience from brands.
The same is true for your customer onboarding experience. Limiting users to a single channel can create frustration. Your job is to create a top-notch experience and meet customers wherever they are throughout the onboarding process.
Miro guides customers through its onboarding process regardless of channel. The interactive walk-throughs empower customers to use the tool, whether they sign up using the desktop version or the mobile app.
Image source: miro.com
Removing friction points during the sign-up experience will result in more logins on your platform and, ultimately, higher customer satisfaction. Businesses today invest a lot of time optimizing the sign-up process.
Offering multiple ways for customers to sign up, such as using their Google and Facebook accounts, providing new password recovery options, and decluttering your sign-up form are just some steps that can simplify your sign-up experience.
Trello gives customers a myriad of options when signing up. Whether customers want to use their email or sign up with Google, Microsoft, or Apple, they can easily create a Trello account.
Image source: trello.com
Artificial intelligence (AI) has changed the way companies do business. Tech-savvy brands are already building smart experiences leveraging the power of AI. With AI solutions, your products and services are more accessible and easier for your customers.
Incorporating AI in your customer onboarding process, such as chatbot, data analysis, and predictive modeling, can enhance the experience and reduce customer dropouts.
🌐 The potential AI holds is yet to be explored. However, being aware of the latest trends is essential for staying ahead of the wave.
Demio simplifies onboarding by allowing customers to join a webinar to explore different features, such as sharing slides and managing the chat box. In addition to this lifelike experience, customers can also ask the chatbot questions or talk to a customer support representative.
Image source: demio.com
The modern customer is flooded with information every day. As a result, the first impression you create is crucial for the success of your onboarding process. If you want to capture customers’ attention, you must create an engaging experience that keeps them involved all the time.
From the moment customers click the signup button, it’s up to you to get them through all the necessary steps and reassure them that they’ve made the right decision.
Grammarly has tailored a very thoughtful onboarding process. Besides offering customers a step-by-step onboarding checklist, the AI-powered digital writing assistant has a demo document, allowing them to learn by doing.
Image source: grammarly.com
With attention spans getting shorter, “micro-onboarding” transforms how companies introduce new product users. Instead of presenting everything at once, micro-onboarding divides the journey into small, easy-to-understand steps, delivering guidance exactly when needed.
This spaced-out learning process improves user satisfaction and increases the likelihood of product adoption over time.
Slackbot introduces users to key Slack features like channels through a guided, step-by-step tutorial. It focuses on one task at a time, ensuring that users aren’t overwhelmed by too much information upfront.
Image source: goodux.appcues.com
Including educational resources right inside the product is now a top priority in customer onboarding. This “learn-as-you-go” style simplifies the onboarding process, letting users pick up key features and skills right when they need them.
In-app tips, step-by-step guides, and other resources allow users to move forward naturally and independently.
Canva integrates brief in-app tutorials that demonstrate how to use its design tools. As users work on their projects, these helpful tips appear to guide them, making it easier to learn key features without leaving the platform.
Image source: canva.com
Businesses finally realize the power of following up for successful onboarding. Whether your customers signed up for a free trial that expired or didn’t finish the onboarding process, following up is a crucial step for re-engaging them.
Following up is not just the last step of onboarding. Checking up with customers to share tips, examples, and best practices should be a regular part of the onboarding journey.
After the 14-day free trial period, Squarespace reminds customers why they signed up and offers them a discount to encourage them to proceed.
Image source: squarespace.com
The shift towards community-led learning is creating more dynamic and interactive onboarding experiences. Instead of just relying on official content, users can connect with others to share knowledge and solve problems together. This approach encourages collaboration and deeper engagement.
The Atlassian Community encourages users to connect and learn as they complete challenges, earn badges, and give kudos to one another. It creates a space where members can share ideas and help each other out.
Image source: biworldwide.com
Considering the latest customer onboarding trends, the next step is to evaluate your process’s performance. Here are some of the best tools to help you evaluate and optimize your onboarding strategy.
Image source: rocketlane.com
Rocketlane is a customer onboarding software designed for high-touch, collaborative onboarding and software implementation projects.
👍 Best for: SaaS companies, IT services, system integrators, and marketing agencies looking for an all-in-one solution to manage complex customer onboarding processes.
🌟 Unique selling point: Streamlined onboarding with a unified workspace for live collaboration.
Image source: dock.us
Dock is a customer onboarding platform that enables you to build collaborative, self-service workspaces using customizable templates.
👍 Best for: Startups and small businesses aiming to create a seamless and scalable customer onboarding process.
🌟 Unique selling point: Customizable onboarding that allows teams to monitor customer engagement across onboarding workflows.
Image source: planhat.com
Planhat is a customer success platform designed to help you manage complex onboarding and implementation for tech products.
👍 Best for: Mid-market and small businesses.
🌟 Unique selling point: A data-driven platform tailored for managing sophisticated customer journeys.
The competition in the SaaS space is cutthroat, and every nuance in the experience makes a huge difference. Whether you already have a solid customer onboarding process or are just getting started, the trends and best practices in this article will help you take your business to the next level.
Adopting the latest customer onboarding trends is a surefire way to turn customers into lifelong brand advocates. Are you ready to engage customers and futureproof your onboarding experience?
Iustina is a curious copywriter with an analytical mind and a demonstrated history in the advertising industry. She likes mixing words with data and is passionate about human behavior. When she's not at her work desk, you'll probably find her enjoying refreshing tea flavors, spilling stories on paper, or binge-watching true-crime documentaries.
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