What is customer onboarding?
Customer onboarding is the process of introducing a new customer to your brand and ensuring they are able to use the products or services they have purchased effectively.
The goal of customer onboarding is to lay the foundations for a positive customer experience by tackling objections and showing customers how to get the most out of your products.
Why is customer onboarding important?
Customer onboarding is important because it helps:
- Ensure customers can use their purchase correctly and effectively
- Build a stronger, trusting relationship between the customer and the brand
- Create trust as customers see the company has taken the time post-sale to make their experience positive
- Reduce customer service demand, as trained customers are more able to self-solve their product issues
- Brands get to know their customers, making it easier to create better products and content.
When should you start customer onboarding?
This depends on the industry, but as a general rule, companies should start customer onboarding as soon as possible – ideally right after the customer has signed up for a product or service.
This will ensure that customers have everything they need to be successful with their purchase. Starting early also gives companies an opportunity to build a strong relationship with customers when those customers are at their most receptive, which can help to increase loyalty.
Five tips for customer onboarding success
Follow these five best practices to optimize your customer onboarding process:
Focus on support:
Offer live customer support during onboarding so that customers can ask questions and get help when needed.Demonstrate value:
Make sure to explain the value of the product in clear, straightforward language, and offer your onboarding materials in multiple formats to help different types of learners.Nurture the customer relationship:
Focus on customer relationships beyond the onboarding process by providing follow-up emails and calls to educate, support, and gather feedback.Automate the process:
Utilize automation tools or services such as email sequences, tutorials, webinars, or online courses if possible to make customer onboarding easier and more efficient.A/B test your automations:
Once your onboarding sequences are live, A/B test their content to boost customer engagement and drive better business outcomes.
Customer engagement with Emarsys
Emarsys helps leading brands like PUMA, Pizza Hut, and Nike to harness the power of customer engagement and make every customer interaction meaningful and impactful through personalized, real-time engagements.
