Happy customers have a direct impact on revenue; 84% of companies who work to improve the customer experience see an impact on their bottom line. The SaaS client onboarding process is the first place companies can impact revenue by enhancing the customer experience. Onboarding is a critical touchpoint that determines the long-term success of your relationship with customers.
Each new customer is on a journey with your software product. A customer-centric approach to onboarding helps new users do more than understand your product—it can create an indelible bond, leading to longer retention and greater customer loyalty.
Here are some best practices for ensuring a positive SaaS onboarding experience that lasts through every stage of that journey.
Key Elements of a Customer-First SaaS Onboarding Process
What SaaS onboarding best practices create customer success? There’s no mystery—these tactics can be distilled down to three key areas with huge impacts on customer onboarding.
1. Personalize the Onboarding Experience
A one-size-fits-all onboarding no longer suffices in today’s competitive SaaS markets. Clients have unique needs and goals, which SaaS providers must address through a personalized onboarding experience. Studies show that 76% of customers are more likely to purchase from a brand that personalizes their experience and interactions.
Using customer data collected during the sign-up process or through initial conversations can help tailor the onboarding process. For example, if a client is using your software for a specific industry application, your training and support should focus on how they can use your SaaS product effectively within that context.
Personalization enhances the onboarding experience by making it more relevant and engaging for the customer. When customers see that your company understands their specific needs, they are more likely to feel valued and continue their journey with your software. Of course, you‘ll need to balance personalization and scalability to avoid overwhelming your team with too many demands and impacting your profit margins.
2. Create Clear Communication
Clear and consistent communication is the backbone of a successful onboarding process. Customers should never be left wondering what the next steps are or who to contact if they encounter issues.
Setting expectations from the start is crucial. Provide a clear roadmap of the SaaS onboarding process, including timelines, key milestones, and who will be involved. Regular updates, whether through email, in-app notifications, or phone calls, can help keep customers informed and reassured.
Clear communication also involves transparency about potential challenges and how your team plans to address them. By maintaining open lines of communication and giving your clients a dedicated channel for submitting requests or questions, you build trust and ensure that customers feel supported throughout the onboarding journey.
3. Provide Proactive Support
Proactive support anticipates customer needs, addressing potential issues before they arise. During SaaS onboarding, this could mean assisting at key touchpoints, such as when a customer is setting up their account or learning to use a new feature.
For example, SaaS companies can implement in-app messaging systems triggering helpful tips for using the product or offer live chat support when a customer is on a particular screen for too long. Case management solutions can improve trouble ticket responses, and a dashboard can show the onboarding process, so customers always know where they are in the onboarding process. Reaching out to new customers with a welcome call or email can significantly improve their onboarding experience.
Proactive support helps prevent issues before they happen and shows customers you are invested in their success.
Building a SaaS Onboarding Checklist
A comprehensive SaaS onboarding checklist is a valuable tool for ensuring that all necessary steps are covered, providing a consistent and positive experience for every customer.
Essential components of this checklist should include:
Account Setup
Ensure the customer can easily create and configure their account with the necessary integrations and settings.
Product Training
To cater to different learning styles, provide various training options, such as video tutorials, webinars, and documentation.
Feedback Collection
Implement a system for collecting feedback throughout the onboarding process to identify areas for improvement.
Milestone Tracking
Track every touchpoint and task in the onboarding process and address any delays or issues.
Check-Ins
Schedule regular check-ins to offer support and answer any questions the customer may have.
By following a checklist, SaaS providers can standardize the onboarding process and ensure that every customer receives the same high level of service.
Adapting the Onboarding Checklist to Customer Needs
While a standardized checklist is essential, it’s also important to adapt it to meet the unique needs of different customers. For example, a small business may require less complex onboarding than a large enterprise with multiple teams and departments.
Companies should add customizable checklist items, such as additional training sessions or more personalized support based on market segments or the complexity of their needs. Flexibility in the onboarding process allows SaaS providers to deliver a more customized experience, which is always crucial for customer satisfaction.
Best Practices for a Positive SaaS Onboarding Experience
Give Your Team And Clients Full Visibility With a Centralized Platform
The average SaaS company uses five or more solutions for client onboarding, creating inefficient processes for your team and a lack of visibility for everyone.
Clients lose track of what they need to do next to keep the process moving forward, and your team has to repeatedly follow up asking them to complete forms or upload documents. Using systems that don’t integrate forces your team to spend extra hours manually entering data from one place to another, taking away valuable time they could be spending on training or building relationships with clients. It also creates confusion and unnecessary stress when your team or the client fails to meet key milestones, causing everyone to rush to catch up.
Using a single, integrated client onboarding platform consolidates all your tasks, timelines, documents and communication into one place, improving efficiency and creating a more positive experience. Your team can receive notifications when a form has been completed or a new document is uploaded so they can take the next steps.
Use Onboarding Metrics To Track Progress
Creating and tracking onboarding metrics is vital to measure the success of your customer’s process and identify areas for improvement. Key metrics to monitor include:
- Time to value - How quickly customers begin to see the benefits of your software
- Customer satisfaction - How strongly the customer feels about their overall investment and how likely they would be to recommend it to someone else, measured through surveys and feedback forms
- Churn rate - The percentage of customers who discontinue use shortly after onboarding
Collecting and analyzing customer feedback during the onboarding process is equally important. This feedback can provide insights into what’s working well and what needs to be adjusted, allowing you to continuously improve the onboarding experience.
Iterative, Repeatable Ongoing Improvements
The SaaS onboarding process should be dynamic and responsive to customer needs. Regularly updating your onboarding process based on data and feedback ensures that it remains relevant and effective.
Iterative improvements involve refining your training materials, updating the onboarding checklist, or enhancing communication channels. By keeping the process flexible and customer-focused, SaaS providers can better meet their customers' evolving needs.
Setuply Helps SaaS Providers Improve Onboarding
As a SaaS provider, ensuring a seamless and customer-first onboarding process ensures your success. Setuply, an onboarding platform for SaaS providers, helps businesses streamline and enhance their onboarding processes, enabling them to deliver a personalized, efficient, and customer-centric experience.
Setuply’s client onboarding platform allows SaaS onboarding leaders and customer success managers to automate essential onboarding tasks, personalize customer journeys, and track metrics that matter, ensuring every customer receives the support they need from day one. With Setuply, you can put your customers first and set the stage for long-term success.
Ready to see onboarding best practices in action? Signup for a Setuply demo.