What is Customer Onboarding and Why is it Important in 2022?

Several companies are at fault for not having appropriate procedures in place for onboarding. Most sales reps will invest all their energy and efforts in closing the sale with customers.

After the customer has given the signature on the document, a sales representative may send an invoice and make small talk but move on to talking to the next prospect quickly.

When it comes to workers, it is almost the same – HRs usually put in their efforts and time in hiring and interviewing but not onboarding. 

What is customer onboarding?

This term is usually used to portray the process users go through, from the beginning of their expedition to becoming a customer and beyond.

It includes a range of interactions and engagements with your brand, usually created to improve the customer experience and influence your customer’s continuing relationship with your brand and product. In simple words, onboarding is the process that businesses set up to take on new clients. 

Onboarding processes talk about the working of a product or service. This process highlights the worth of your solution and shows how you partner with your customers. 

Things that the onboarding process involve

As the primary objective of the onboarding process is to get the customer set up to use your product, the components will be, for the maximum part, educational. For software companies particularly, onboarding generally includes the following:

• Activation of account
• A welcome email sequence
• Video tutorials
• Introduction of the app

In the case of enterprise-level installation, the procedure involves IT personnel assistance to get the system running.  

The onboarding procedure also includes the data onboarding process based on whether the customer had any pre-existing system in place. Data onboarding refers to the process of transferring the customer’s existing data onto the new system. 

The Benefits of Smooth Onboarding Process

Whether it’s 2022 or 2032, customer onboarding will remain relevant even after a decade. Here’s why

• Increases the Chance of Referrals 

If your customers prefer your product or service, they are more likely to refer it to their friends and family.

Word-of-mouth marketing is the most effective mode of marketing. Providing a superior customer onboarding experience can result in them turning into your brand advocate. 

• Helps Build Trust 

The whole purpose of the onboarding process is to help your customer get familiarized with your product or service.

In short, it helps solve any difficulties they might be facing in using your product. Right onboarding assists the customer know the features and processes well and builds trust with your brand. It also sets the tenor for your overall relationship with your clients.

·   Reduces Customer Issues and Queries

Providing your customers with step-by-step advice and instructions on how to succeed with your product or service will decrease the number of messages received by your team.

This can reduce your overheads greatly and assist in freeing up your team’s time to manage other, more complex customer queries. 

Also, your customers do not want to spend time on the phone waiting for a reply to a straightforward set-up question or wait around in a line for live chat. With onboarding, you can drastically reduce your customers’ woes during the early adoption period. 

• Creates a Foundation for Customer Loyalty

Acquiring new customers is five to 25 times costlier than retaining your existing customers. However, with a great onboarding experience, you can increase the chance of retention by providing the maximum value that they can get using your product or service. This also creates an opportunity for upselling and cross-selling, resulting in increased revenue. 

All in all, it simply does not matter how many new customers you obtain without a smooth onboarding process. Your churn rate will soon surpass your growth rate.

• Helps you Understand Your Customer’s Needs Better

The onboarding procedure gives you the opportunity to interact with your customers closely and get to know them. Knowing your customers allows you to better improvise your product or service and grow your business. This is how companies benefit by conducting a short survey during onboarding. 

You can improve your customer onboarding experience by connecting to your customers on a personal level and the best way to do this is ask them good questions which can break the ice.

Conclusion

Customer onboarding is an essential stage in the customer journey. The attention, at this stage, is to get new users set up with the product.

It involves transferring their data from their existing software onto the new system and providing necessary training and guides to help them get started. 

This is essential as it decreases churn rate, one of the excellent metrics to determine your success. Remember that a booming onboarding procedure lays the ground for a thriving customer understanding.

Thus, ensure that the customer onboarding experience is less complex, smooth, and addresses all of your customers’ requirements.