Customer onboarding is a crucial component of customer experience to get right. How you on board new customers is a big deciding factor in whether or not they will stick around. Because the first user experience establishes the customer’s perception of your business and your service, software or product, it’s crucial to establish a great relationship from the get-go. Here are seven strategies to revitalise your customer onboarding:
Personalise Your Customer Welcome
Just as in daily interactions with others, greetings initiate further conversation and interest, the same goes for online exchanges. Make your customers feel welcome right from the start with personalised onboarding. To make your customers’ first interactions meaningful and memorable:
- Use customers’ names in messaging if this data is available
- Mention their city or their company if either data points are known
Show How Your Product Works
It can be overwhelming to start using new software or a new product if you have no idea how it functions. New customers are unlikely to know all your service’s features, so educate your customer during onboarding. A video tour and prominent placement of your FAQ page will help. Prioritise showcasing sub-features that have historically proven to yield the best conversions.
Create Customer Onboarding Milestones
First, understand what customers hope to achieve by using your service. Ideally, gathering this learning can be incorporated into the sign-up page and process, otherwise use a survey. From here, create logical, convenient steps that will take your customer to their objective in the shortest possible route. Help customers not only meet but surpass their goals.
Offer Support And Guidance
Your onboarding phase is an opportunity to show your customers just how wonderful your customer service is. Include in-app support or live chat assistance so that customers can get lightning fast responses to their qualms and queries. Integrate social media channels too so that help is a few clicks away from wherever your customers are engaging with your brand.
Incorporate Useful Content Into Onboarding
It’s crucial to not merely sell your service or product during the onboarding phase. This can come across as desperate or unconcerned about the customer’s own needs. Instead, showcase content that solves customers’ lesser problems, without the solution being your paid solution. This will build gratitude and a spirit of reciprocity that is essential for sales persuasion.
Shout Your Success Stories From The Rooftops
Make sure that voice-of-consumer customer testimonials are prominent during the onboarding process. In order to build trust, you need to make sure potential customers can see how you’ve solved similar problems for prior customers. Case studies of how individuals or companies have used your product or service to find success are effective for building your brand’s authority and trust rating. Periodically ask happy, engaged customers for feedback via surveys. Not only does this provide useful snippets for testimonials – it also gives insights into what is working and what could use improvement.
Check in Regularly
Customers who feel cared for and seen are for more likely to stick around, which means improved customer retention. For this reason, check in regularly on new customers, following up on their concerns, desires and requests. Thank you notes and gifts for onboarding new customers, as well as discounts for your most loyal customers, work well for improving retention.
These customer onboarding strategies will help you provide customers with an unforgettable first experience that establishes and grows trust, appreciation and loyalty.
If you need help honing your customer experience, get in touch with Interact RDT today.