SaaS customer onboarding is the journey of driving users from sign-up to successful product adoption. Any SaaS client onboarding aims to make users quickly understand and derive value from the software.
SaaS customer onboarding methodology is of utmost importance today as it sets the stage for the success of SaaS providers and customers. It is essential for achieving higher customer satisfaction, reducing churn and increasing product adoption in the SaaS industry. More than 60% of customers claim boarding to be key to subscribing to a product.
The SaaS onboarding is a critical phase as it sets the tone for the user’s entire experience with the software. The goal of the customer onboarding journey is to help users understand the value proposition of the product, familiarize themselves with its features and eventually integrate it into their workflow effectively. Let’s take a more detailed look at SaaS user onboarding below!
SaaS customer onboarding process refers to the process of integration and familiarization of new customers with software as a service application. The primary goal of the SaaS industry is to provide customers with a smooth and practical experience during the use of software. The ease of use leads to higher customer satisfaction, reduced churn and increased product adoption.
A successful SaaS onboarding provides healthy and productive product growth. It could be done in two ways:
● Increase active users as it improves the retention rate of customers.
● Training product advocates to increase the number of qualified leads.
Onboarding is not a magic bullet for product growth. It is rather a stage where the companies have to focus on whether they want to reduce the churn rate and increase the product adaptation rate.
The SaaS client onboarding process will look different for each product, but the eventual goal will be the same: improve product growth. Most onboarding processes involve steps like product tours, tutorials on using features and tasks to accomplish. Some products need this to extend for days or months, whereas few achieve it in minutes.
Customer experience is evolving and their demand for better services is increasing. An onboarding process is as important as the quality of the product now. Let us take a closer look at more SaaS customer onboarding benefits below:
Increase customer retention: Successful SaaS client onboarding helps customers identify the real value of different products. It results in reducing the churn rate of the respective company. 74% of potential customers will switch to other solutions if the onboarding process is complicated.
Improve customer satisfaction: When the onboarding process is on point, it ensures the customer experience is positive resulting in better satisfaction. The satisfied customers act as advocates and refer products to others.
Increase customer lifetime value: The better the onboarding process is, the lesser will be time that the customer will take to start obtaining value from products. It means there will be a quicker return on investment along with better outcomes for the business.
Enhance product adoption: An impressive SaaS customer onboarding framework encourages customers to explore the SaaS product along with its features. Increased product adoption results in more comprehensive use of products, making the customer understand the use of the product completely.
Reduce customer support burden: An onboarding process cannot be deemed effective if it doesn’t address the common questions or doubts of new customers. The practice will reduce the load on the support team by allowing them to focus on unique customer needs.
Companies and the way their workforces work are changing at a rapid pace. The boarding process is likely to face several challenges. Let’s go through some of the common SaaS customer onboarding process challenges and understand how to overcome them:
1. The absence of SOP for customer onboarding
is done in two distinct ways – make it simple, automated and unoptimized. The other one is high touch, without a standard operating procedure. The first way can be useful as it reduces workflow, but it can instantly become a detractor for customers if the product does not fit well. The second way is the case when there are high-value accounts along with different CSMs in charge.
Solution: A SaaS customer onboarding framework will be useful for your organization as well as customers. The onboarding strategy involves resources and a checklist consisting of activities that must be covered during the early stage of the customer journey.
2. Poor and Outdated Onboarding SOP
CSM sometimes receives a “present” at the start of a new job. It is called “ bad customer onboarding flow”. It is typically a combination of inconsistent processes, sometimes done by multiple people, without any real thought. It leads to a poor customer experience.
Solution: Review all dysfunctional processes and pause them whenever possible. If you are a high-touch SaaS, connect with personalized onboarding calls to prioritize account size and complexity.
3. No tracking setup
Hard and unverifiable data is the main showstopper for optimizing the SaaS customer onboarding template. Nowadays it has become the most common case, especially for startups and bootstrap companies.
Solution: Establishing customer success operations is a simple approach to CS Ops. Typically a CS representative solves the tracking issue and also ensures all the data that is required.
The steps of the onboarding process vary on various factors. No matter how brilliant the product might be, having a SaaS customer onboarding framework in place is of utmost significance. Let us take a look at the best ways to implement the process:
Signup’s main focus is to set up users for product success. It is one of the main touchpoints where customers get fully engaged and exist to use the product. Get a kick start in the signup process by identifying customers’ expectations and goals. The information will help you to segment the customers based on expectations.
The signup process for the accounting tool Vemo Sales does well by asking customers questions related to their business. The form will obtain information such as company and domain name. The answers are used to tailor software based on customers’ needs.
Sign Up best practices
● Identify the goals of the customers.
● Make sure you don’t over-request for customer’s information.
● Push the customers towards the most important step for signup.
The welcome email is the first step of contact a business has with their customers outside their product. Welcome emails achieve an impressive click-through rate of 26.9% . Use the welcome email to drag back customers inside the product highlighting certain features or next steps of the process.
The key point of the welcome email is to focus on the most important steps that customers can perform at the stage of onboarding. The example below of veemo support is a good example. It contains simple information related to the trail and logging in to the account. The email also has a link that redirects users back to the product to make it convenient.
Welcome email best practices
● Redirect users from email to the product.
● Provide clear step-by-step instructions.
● Focus on a single task that is crucial and can lead to success.
A Product tour and feature callout is an instinctive way to highlight key features of the product and teach the users the way to use the product. Companies must automate both product tours and feature callouts as the customer navigates through the product. One of the most important bits to remember when creating a product tour is not to make it large.
Product tours primarily focus on teaching customers how to use products’ primary features. Once they get familiar with the primary features try to teach the secondary features. Veemo support has a good product tour that highlights features based on the information provided by the customers during signup. It is easy to understand and provide all the information required.
Product tour best practices
● Do not overwhelm customers
● Focus on products’ primary features
● Prepare the tour based on segments
Importing user data is one of the important parts of the SaaS customer onboarding process feature. It works tremendously well to insert tools in customers’ workflow. Although importing is an important process, it could be a barrier to smoother onboarding. The flipside of importing is that once the data gets imported, it will reduce the chance of churn.
The CRM software Veemo Sales has a simple wizard that helps customers to import existing contact lists. It provides an easy way either by uploading a CSV file or uploading a list. Once the list is uploaded and organized, it becomes easier to communicate with contacts.
Data import best practices
● Provide multiple importing options
● Simple process for importing
● Wherever necessary offer help with setup.
Most SaaS businesses have a tech stack with multiple tools. Many of these tools require integration to work more effectively. Integrations are very important nowadays and are at the center of the onboarding process. It is the first step that businesses guide users to perform. The integration process is generally a simple step and can be done in one click.
The integration process is typically designed to be user-friendly and straightforward. The simplicity is intentional, as it aligns with the overall goal of providing the best SaaS onboarding experiences. Users appreciate the convenience of easily connecting their SaaS solution with the tools they already use, as it minimizes disruptions and accelerates the time it takes to derive value from the new software.
Integration best practices
● Make the integration process as simple as possible
● Put integration as early as possible
● Use the most relevant options
Effectively onboarding other relevant team members on the product and setting it in the organization of the user is a key step for most SaaS businesses. Encourage the person who signed up and ask them to invite other members, such as the product team or sales team. Once the members receive their invitation link, clicking on it takes them to the page where they can sign up for the company workspace.
Effectively managing team invites not only streamlines the onboarding process for individual users but also contributes to the overall success of the SaaS product within the organization. It facilitates a collaborative environment where team members can quickly become acquainted with the tool, share insights and collectively leverage the full potential of the SaaS solution.
The team invite best practices
● Make it easy to share the invite link.
● Make the signup process simple.
● Use team invitation earlier in the onboarding process
The SaaS customer onboarding checklist focuses on the primary activities customers must complete while setting up. Show customers the activities that are completed with tick marks. Checklists can be used to break down complex onboarding processes into smaller and manageable steps.
The checklist is often designed to be interactive, allowing users to click on each task to access relevant resources or tutorials. The approach ensures that users have the necessary guidance and information at their fingertips, making the onboarding process not only efficient but also educational.
Checklists best practices
● Add the most important task at first
● Break the complex task into subtasks
● Show onboarding progression to customers.
Customer onboarding metrics help to understand how a SaaS product has been performing. It helps in analyzing and pointing out the areas of improvement. Here are some of the top SaaS client onboarding strategy metrics to measure:
When it comes to SaaS products churn occurs when a customer does not renew their subscription to a product. The churn rate is the percentage of customers who have not renewed their subscriptions within a specific period. the churn rate should be analyzed by taking into account the period of the first 90 days. If there is high churn during this time range then a change in customer onboarding approach is necessary.
CSAT helps to identify how much customers have liked the product and how much they are satisfied with the product. Companies can embed CSAT surveys in their onboarding journey to get more insights into customer expectations. It helps to find areas of improvement from the perspective of the customers. Businesses can use customer feedback to improve the onboarding process.
CES helps to measure the amount of effort that a customer needs to apply for onboarding. Companies can ask questions to customers like “How easy was the process”. Customers can choose either of the options easy, neutral or difficult. Customer satisfaction scores can be calculated by sending a survey to customers immediately after a purchase or interaction to measure on a corresponding scale.
NPS shows the percentage of customers that like, have a neutral perception or dislike the brand. NPS score is calculated through survey feedback received from customers based on NPS questions. Net Promoter Score will instantly show the percentage of customers who are happy with the customer experience. Out of a scale of 10, 0-6 scores are detractors, 7-8 scores are passives, 9-10 scores are promoters
Time to first value helps to break down a goal into smaller sections and deliver them one by one during the onboarding process. If the SaaS product is complex or if it contains a large onboarding process in the case time of first value is useful. The quicker the time to value the lesser will be the churn rate.
Customer onboarding is a crucial part of the user experience for any SaaS company. Automating customer onboarding can greatly improve efficiency, saving resources for both the company and the customer. Here are some of the best tools to automate SaaS customer onboarding:
Veemo is a powerful customer service tool that is revolutionizing the way businesses automate SaaS customer onboarding. Its user-friendly interface and comprehensive features have made Veemo the go-to solution for companies looking to streamline their customer onboarding process. It helps businesses to improve customer satisfaction.
Key Features:
● Personalized customer journeys: Businesses can create personalized customer journeys that guide users through the onboarding process step by step.
● Interactive chatbots: Veemo’s chatbot feature allows businesses to automate routine customer interactions.
● Multi-channel communication: Veemo supports communication across multiple channels, including email, SMS and social media.
● Data analytics: Veemo provides businesses with valuable data analytics tools that track customer behavior.
● Integration capabilities: Veemo can easily integrate with existing CRM systems, email marketing platforms and other third-party tools.
Omni24’s customer engagement platform provides a range of tools to help businesses automate the onboarding process for their SaaS customers. From personalized welcome messages to interactive tutorials, Omni24 makes it easy for businesses to engage with their customers and ensure a smooth onboarding experience.
Key features:
● Personalized welcome messages: Omni24 allows businesses to send automated welcome messages to new SaaS customers. It provides a personalized touch and sets the stage for a positive onboarding experience.
● Interactive tutorials: Omni24’s platform includes interactive tutorials that guide customers through the onboarding process, helping them get up to speed quickly and easily.
● In-app messaging: Businesses can communicate with customers directly within their SaaS application, providing timely assistance and support during the onboarding process.
● Automated emails: Omni24 enables businesses to set up automated email campaigns to keep customers informed and engaged throughout the onboarding process.
Appcues is a user onboarding platform that enables SaaS companies to create personalized onboarding experiences for their users. It offers tools for implementing onboarding flows, product tours, tracking user engagement and conversion rates.
Userpilot is a product experience platform that helps SaaS companies onboard and engage with users more effectively. It offers features such as in-app messaging, product tours, and user segmentation, which can be used to automate onboarding tasks and create personalized user experiences.
Having an onboarding process that doesn’t fulfill the expectations and goals of the business can hamper the progress of the business. There are certain practices one must follow to ensure the onboarding process is fulfilling all the goals. Below are the top SaaS onboarding best practices for building an effective framework:
Removing friction during sign-up is one of the most important aspects of perfect onboarding. Asking customer information as much as required as the first impression is important. If customers are not willing to provide the information you are asking for, wait until later.
When designing the SaaS user onboarding process, put some effort into thinking about how much information will be sufficient for the first time. If only email and name are sufficient for the first time, keep it as it is. Companies can gather other information like addresses and contacts later after the end of the onboarding process.
Reducing the individual onboarding journey can improve customer satisfaction, giving businesses loyal customers. Make the guide to the point and try to ignore explaining the process in one step. Divide one goal into subgoals to make it easier for first-time onboarding. If the first impression does not click, it can lead to an increase in the churn rate.
Start the onboarding flow with the core features and create an onboarding journey for each product section. Implementing an in-app guidance tool will truly simplify the user onboarding experiences. It creates a step-by-step walkthrough for the product journey.
Qualitative and quantitative data can be the best source for improving your onboarding process. Optimizing the onboarding flow is an ongoing process as there will always be improvements to make. It is always preferred to check the analytics of the last 90 days to understand the customer churn rate. Send surveys and analyze their feedback to understand customers’ pain points along with areas that need improvement.
Personalization increases customer engagement rate which leads them to spend more time on the product. All customers will not use a product in the same way, so you have to guide them to walk through the entire journey in a personalized way. Implementation of personalization leads customers to pick different paths on the welcome page so that you can provide customer information to direct them in a semi-custom path.
Creating an onboarding journey will require hard work and dedication along with onboarding software. An onboarding software tool helps to build and test an onboarding to improve customer experience. The tools will help to create a step-by-step walkthrough and tooltips to guide users for product understanding.
Effective SaaS client Onboarding plays a crucial role in improving product engagement rates. It also ensures long-term success for both customers and SaaS companies. SaaS companies can get multiple outcomes by labeling the challenges of customers during their initial onboarding process.
SaaS businesses should embed AI and automation in products to get the best SaaS onboarding experiences and streamline processes. It will help companies to build strong relationships with customers. Effective client onboarding is a win for both companies and customers as it will provide mutual growth.
SaaS customer onboarding is crucial because it sets the foundation for a successful customer relationship. It ensures that customers have a seamless experience with the software, understand its value and are set up for long-term success. If there is no proper onboarding, customers signs may struggle to fully utilize the software and may become frustrated, leading to churn.
An onboarding tool can greatly benefit your company by streamlining the employee onboarding process. It will help automate tasks, provide resources for training and ensure a smooth transition for new hires. An onboarding tool helps save resources and ensure a positive experience.
The duration of the onboarding process can vary depending on the complexity of the software and the customer’s needs. Some SaaS companies provide a self-guided onboarding process that can be completed in a few hours or days while others may take weeks. The key is to strike a balance between a quick setup and thorough training to ensure customer success.
Automation plays a crucial role in scaling customer onboarding efforts. SaaS companies can send personalized onboarding emails and trigger onboarding tutorials based on user behavior by leveraging automation tools. It not only saves time for the sales team but also delivers a consistent and streamlined onboarding experience to all potential customers.
Grow Customer Relationships and stronger team collaboration with our range of products across the Conversational Engagement Suite.
Omnichannel Customer Support & Help Desk Software
AI Enabled Business Messaging and Chatbot Software
Sales Engagement & CRM Software
Call Center Software & Virtual Phone System
Product Marketing & Experience Platform
Customer Experience & Feedback Management Software
Top 25+ Chatbot Statistics for 2024: Usage, Demographic & Trends
Scroll to top
