Onboarding is the first phase of a user’s interaction with the product that goes on to shape the rest of their journey and affects conversion and retention. An effective onboarding process determines the customer’s lifecycle and the success of your business.

Today, consumers expect a unique and convenient experience from digital businesses, and if they are not satisfied, they switch to competitors.

User Onboarding Best Practices

Without an effective onboarding process, businesses will be stuck in a vicious and repetitive cycle where they spend tons of money on customer acquisition, lose those customers, and try again. Here are some customer onboarding best practices that will boost customer retention and reduce churn, all while providing a seamless experience.

• Create a clear onboarding journey

Customers are more likely to complete an onboarding process if they know where and when it ends. Remove every sense of uncertainty from the onboarding process and ensure they know what comes next.

Providing visual cues like progress trackers and step indicators will help them know what stage of the onboarding process they are in, what to expect, and where the finish line is.

• Know your customer’s needs

Identifying your customer’s needs, problems, and pain points is a crucial first step because a major purpose of onboarding is to give customers everything they need to accomplish their goals.

Note that every customer is different, and they may require different solutions for their problems.

• Educate customers about your product

Now that you know your customer’s needs educate them to see how your product fits into the puzzle to meet those needs and the steps they must take to access the product. It won’t matter how good your product is if no one knows the value it provides or how to access it.

• Reduce customers time-to-action

The sooner your customer can take certain actions and experience the value of your product for themselves, the better. That way, your product’s value becomes more tangible to them, increasing your chances of customer retention.

Remove as many barriers as possible so the customer can get started with your product. If possible, don’t require account creation before trying the product, and ask for information as late in the onboarding process as possible. Prioritize getting them to the ‘Aha moment’ of your product quickly.

• Treat onboarding like a continuous process

When appropriately utilized, customer onboarding helps foster long-term relationships. One way of achieving that goal is to treat onboarding as a continuous process, not one that ends once a customer creates an account.

Find ways to onboard customers into more of your product offerings and services. Doing so increases the chances of creating a long-term relationship with them. Continue onboarding customers until they experience the full benefits available.

• Reiterate and improve

Customers’ needs change over time, so your onboarding process must also change to meet your customers where they are. It is important to continually refine the adapt process by identifying the points of friction, tracking key metrics, measuring customer satisfaction, and gathering customer feedback to get insights into what’s working and where you can improve.

Onboard Users with Retention in Mind

The ultimate goal of onboarding is to set your customers up for long-term success with your product right from the start. A study by Profitwell showed that a positive onboarding experience significantly decreases churn within the first 27 days of engaging with a product.

Leverage Dojah onboarding and verification solutions to make the right first impressions with customers and sustain long-term relationships. Stay secure while providing the best onboarding experience with Dojah no-code tools, widgets, and APIs. Start onboarding users the right way.