Better Customer Onboarding: Why Is It Important?
The digital revolution and the democratization of information are transforming the market and how customers interact with brands, products, and services. Customers simply have more options than ever; finding those options is also very easy to do with the help of the internet.
That wealth of options has, however, resulted in customers being more picky about the kind of user experience they expect. Whether users are shopping online or signing up for a free service, they are more sensitive to disruptions in the user journey and UX.
Customer onboarding has become more crucial than ever. Customers can still bail out of the onboarding process, which is why streamlining the process itself is very important.
Smooth Experience = Low Drop Rate
The onboarding process is meant to improve the customers’ chances of success with your products or services. While the term is mostly used in app-based solutions, many tangible products and services now take onboarding seriously. You can see it in the way product packaging is now part of the customer experience.
Before we get to the content that needs to be present in customer onboarding, it is important to note that the smoothness of the process is just as important. As mentioned before, customers are more sensitive to disruptions, and there are a lot of disruptions in the traditional onboarding process that can be eliminated.
Asking customers to verify their identity is a good example. When the process is tedious, the risk of losing customers becomes higher. You can streamline this process by switching to automated and data-driven ID verification. Solutions such as anti-fraud and compliance from Cognito are invaluable.
Cognito actually has a very good article on how identity verification can be streamlined and weaved into your onboarding process. The piece entitled “Identity Verification: The Complete Guide to Choosing a Solution” will help you to learn more about not only the different types of ID verification, but also how to maximize user convenience by tweaking certain aspects.
Focus on Customer Success
The next reason why customer onboarding is crucial is the success of your customers. When customers can maximize the value they receive from your products and services, they are more likely to stay loyal as customers; in fact, they may bring in more customers by recounting stories about their positive experience with your company.
The process starts with setting clear expectations, followed by a series of information that brings value to the onboarding experience. You can be specific with how your product or service can benefit customers, and how to really maximize the benefits it brings. Provide tutorials and guides to boost the convenience factor, but keep the onboarding process short and enjoyable.
Follow Up
The onboarding process doesn’t stop when customers start using your product or service. It goes far beyond that point. You want to stay in constant communication with your users, and this is now an easy challenge to tackle thanks to instruments like email marketing and social media. Once again, all you need to do is integrate the follow-ups into the customer journey to make them enjoyable.
Now that you know why customer onboarding is crucial, you can start fine-tuning your own onboarding experience for the better. Use the insights we covered in this article to help you get started.
