Competition is stiff for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies. As a result, they need better ways to speed up product adoption, lower churn rates, and streamline their customer support processes.
That’s where SaaS customer onboarding comes in.
A customer onboarding strategy can make or break the company-customer relationship. And happy customers are your golden ticket for referrals and upselling (aka more revenue). Yet, despite its importance, many SaaS companies are struggling to find the right formula.
In this article, we look at how to create an effective SaaS customer onboarding, best practices to use, metrics to track, several SaaS software to use, and more.
Disclaimer: The information below is accurate as of March 1, 2024.
What is SaaS onboarding?
SaaS onboarding is a method of introducing new buyers to the product and guiding them on how to properly use it. This increases the chances of them adopting it as their go-to tool for a specific problem.
The onboarding process aims at new-customer success in using the product.
When applied effectively, SaaS companies can increase their customer retention rate and lower churn.
Now let’s take a quick look at the importance of good onboarding in the realm of SaaS businesses.
Why is SaaS customer onboarding important?
The benefits of customer onboarding cannot be overstated. Keep in mind that 63 percent of customers take a company’s onboarding program into consideration when deciding whether to make a purchase.
Here are three main reasons why you should build a SaaS user onboarding flow into your business process.
Faster product adoption
The more new users know about the product during the onboarding process, the likelier they are to adopt it into their daily workflow.
They need to have a good understanding of how to use it before getting a clear picture of what the true value of your product is to them. This is what’s known in the industry as the initial “aha moment.”
An effective SaaS product onboarding process helps first-time users use your product/service to its full potential as fast as possible. In turn, this converts them into loyal customers.
Fewer customer support tickets
The total number of customer support tickets you get is a strong indicator of how effective your customer onboarding program is.
It can also highlight the complexity of your product. Fortunately, a good onboarding program that educates customers on all features and how to use them will likely lower the number of support tickets.
As customers become more knowledgeable about your product, they’re less likely to ask for support. This leads to lighter customer service workloads, fewer expenses, and improved overall customer satisfaction.
Lower churn rate
Customer churn is one of the biggest problems that SaaS companies have to deal with.
US companies lose, on average, $136.8 billion per year due to avoidable customer churn.
Yet, on the flip side, loyal customers are five times more likely to repeat-buy or forgive a company for a mistake. They’re also seven times more likely to try a new offering and four times more likely to recommend the business to others.
Therefore, reducing customer churn and turning new users into loyal customers should be a top priority for any SaaS organization.
An effective onboarding program can help you lower churn and increase retention.
Here’s an efficient six-step customer onboarding journey that you can implement.
How to create a SaaS onboarding process in 6 steps
A well-crafted customer onboarding process is something that requires careful planning and execution. It’s not the time for winging it, nor is it a box-checking exercise.
You need a plan.
Here’s how you go about creating an engaging customer onboarding experience.
Step #1: Understand your customers
The first step in the SaaS onboarding process is to listen to the customers and understand their wants, needs, and pain points.
This highlights each individual user’s goals, which translates into what you’ll define as customer success.
You can do this by conducting surveys and interviews, gathering customer feedback, and analyzing user behavior.
These can also help you create a buyer persona. This can later be used to tailor your onboarding processes to better match the characteristics of the “ideal customer.”
Step #2: Provide a pleasant registration experience
At this stage of the onboarding process, users will be logging in for the first time. They will provide their email address, create a password, and choose their preferred payment method.
This signup process needs to be as seamless and as easy-to-understand as possible. First impressions count for a lot, and how things go here will show them what to expect if they decide to use your product in the long run.
It’s a good idea to “hold their hand” by giving them a step-by-step walk-through of what to do next.
Step #3: Welcome the customer
After the registration process is complete, new users should receive a welcome email and an in-app welcome message. These help make the customer feel valued and provide them with a peek into how the relationship will progress.
You should also take this opportunity to provide key information in terms of the product’s features and benefits, as well as other useful information in the form of a self-serve knowledge base, tutorials, how-to videos, use cases, relevant blog posts, etc.
These are meant to familiarize and guide users on how to start using the tool effectively and set their expectations.
In the welcome email, you can also add your social media accounts, so customers can connect with you there as well.
Step #4: Guide the customer with a product tour
At this step, you need to help new users navigate through the many features and functionalities of the product.
To ensure a good user onboarding experience, offer them a guided product tour, highlighting key features and showing how to handle basic tasks. Don’t overwhelm them with too much information. Keep it simple.
Guide users through a series of interactive tooltips, step-by-step instructions, modals, hotspots, pop-ups, short learning pills, and other useful in-app messages.
In short, make them feel comfortable using the platform.
Step #5: Provide a smooth initial setup
It’s now time to guide users through their account settings. This includes elements like preference configurations, third-party tool integration, data uploading, and various other customizations.
To smooth out the process, consider adding an in-product progress bar that indicates the different milestones they’ve reached. This encourages them to push forward and complete the setup process.
The goal here is to help users personalize the platform to their needs, requirements, and expectations, thus further aligning it with their goals.
Step #6: Plan your ongoing support
Many SaaS companies make the mistake of thinking that once the user undergoes an initial onboarding process, their job is complete.
This could not be further from the truth.
You might roll out a new feature later, or they may want to upgrade to more functionalities. Or they may simply need a refresher from time to time.
That’s why you need to plan for ongoing support and continuous learning for users. A knowledge base and an FAQ section are mandatory, as they provide quick answers. Chatbots help automate knowledge discovery through real-time assistance.
Customer success and product teams should always be ready to aid customers with more difficult questions or issues.
It’s also a good idea to conduct regular check-ins and send follow-up emails to make sure your clients are happy and are deriving enough value from your product.
Hosting regular masterclasses is another smart way to continue honing customers’ skills and turning them into product pros.
Let’s now dive into seven best practices that are perfect for optimizing the process and improving the customer onboarding journey.
7 SaaS onboarding best practices
With an outline of a SaaS onboarding plan in place, it’s time to introduce some standard procedures into the mix.
We also have a comprehensive list of customer onboarding best practices, but these seven are the most effective for SaaS onboarding workflows.
1. Reduce sign-up friction
We can’t stress enough the importance of a quick and easy sign-up process. As mentioned earlier, this is the first time new users come into contact with your product.
The initial experience they’ll have at this stage will tend to define the entire relationship with the product going forward.
Streamline the process by eliminating any unnecessary fields. Ask for only enough input in the beginning to create a great initial experience. Then, spread the rest throughout the remainder of the onboarding process.
Think of the bare minimum of information you’ll need to get them using the basic functionalities of your product. Remember, don’t ask for too much, too soon or you risk alienating them from getting too far into the signup stage.
2. Use tools and software
The right onboarding tools and technologies can get you a long way in optimizing and improving the customer onboarding experience.
Some may even say they’re a must in the SaaS world.
A customer onboarding tool like Docebo offers a multitude of functionalities specifically geared toward improving the user onboarding experience.
By focusing on customer training and education, Docebo can help you create and manage engaging e-learning materials and conduct formal and informal training sessions.
You can also use it to manage learners, instructors, and admins with different permission levels for better overall control of the onboarding process.
Docebo also integrates with a multitude of other onboarding tools, covering content and course authoring, sales, marketing CRM, video communications, analytics, and SSO platforms.
This creates seamless workflows, making it a go-to tool in your customer onboarding technology stack.
3. Personalize the experience
To ensure that your SaaS customer onboarding program performs to expectations, you need to personalize the experience as much as possible.
No two users are the same, and the program needs to reflect that. Consider tailoring the onboarding experience to the specific wants, needs, and pain points of each individual user.
You can do this with Docebo. As a learning management system (LMS) for onboarding, Docebo can deliver e-learning content in a variety of ways.
Blended learning, for example, combines the benefits of both instructor-led training and e-learning content for both guided and self-paced learning.
Mobile learning makes it possible for learners to gain knowledge from their mobile devices, offering them more flexibility.
By providing users with multiple options, you can help ensure a personalized user experience throughout the entire onboarding process.
4. Leverage automation
Leveraging automation in your customer onboarding program allows you to streamline the entire process.
With today’s tools and technologies, you can automate much of the SaaS customer onboarding program.
Welcome emails, enrolments, in-app messages, and notifications can be generated (and personalized) without the need for direct human interaction. Chatbots can take on simple customer questions.
You can also automate the gathering of customer feedback, generating surveys, or providing customized e-learning content.
All of these can help improve the overall user onboarding experience and minimize human error.
5. Keep your content up to date
As technology constantly evolves, so does the SaaS market. And so should your onboarding training materials. Your customer base needs to learn how to use all the latest features or product updates you roll out.
With a tool like Docebo Shape, your customer success team can create short and engaging e-learning content, either as updates or as new training material. This makes it quick and easy to keep your customers informed about your products.
The SaaS customer onboarding program is not something that can be set and forgotten about.
It needs to keep up with the latest trends and technologies that roll out on an almost daily basis.
6. Focus on interactivity
Interactivity in the onboarding process is essential for knowledge retention.
In the initial stages of customer onboarding, it’s a good idea to only introduce them to the basic features new clients will use.
You should also allow them some time to try out what they’ve learned and get some hands-on experience.
Create an interactive walk-through that teaches new users how to complete certain actions before advancing to the next level.
Docebo supports a range of eLearning content types (quizzes, videos, interactive exercises, simulations, webinars, etc.), so you can encourage customers to actively participate in the learning process.
7. Keep on improving the onboarding experience
Just like your learning content, the entire onboarding process needs to be constantly improved.
You need to collect the right analytics data from across the customer onboarding flow. This will help you determine what works, what doesn’t, and where there are potential bottlenecks.
This actionable data lets you improve your decision-making and optimize the onboarding process to further improve the user experience and drive engagement.
Docebo lets you generate custom reports based on user data. It looks at various user activities in relation to the course material. Based on your preference, you can look at the number of times users accessed the course, how many enrolled, their test scores, etc.
Admins can use this data to update the course material as needed or present it to higher management for review.
With that in mind, it’s also a good idea to track several key performance indicators that can shed further light on the effectiveness of your SaaS onboarding strategy.
5 important SaaS onboarding metrics to know
By keeping track of key customer onboarding metrics, SaaS businesses can continuously update and improve their strategy and implementation.
These five KPIs are essential to understanding the overall effectiveness of your SaaS onboarding program and what you need to optimize.
1. Completion rate
The completion rate metric represents the total percentage of new users who finished the SaaS customer onboarding program.
This KPI can tell you how effective your program is based on the total number of customers who are able to complete it.
As a general rule, the higher the percentage, the better. A low number could represent a complex or otherwise ineffective onboarding process.
2. Completion time
The completion time KPI works hand-in-hand with the completion rate. Generally, the faster new users can complete their onboarding, the better.
However, there is a caveat to this.
If the completion time is a lot faster than you expected, it could be that users are not fully engaged with the process and are only skimming through it to get to the end.
You don’t want that, as it may stifle their ability to get the most value out of your product and have a negative influence on your retention rate down the line.
The aim is to educate customers as much as possible while still keeping them engaged.
3. Use time
How often and how much do your customers use your product once the onboarding program is officially completed?
If the amount of time spent using your product doesn’t increase with time, it could mean that they’re not getting enough value from your service.
If left unchecked, users will look elsewhere for another solution that can solve their pain points and become their go-to tool. In other words, one that’s not yours.
4. Daily active users
Somewhat similar to the metric above, the number of daily active users should constantly increase over time.
It highlights that your product is getting traction and that your onboarding efforts are effective.
This KPI correlates with the completion rate by painting a clearer picture of how many new users start using your product regularly and begin to turn into loyal customers.
5. Churn rate
Although inevitable, customer churn is something that should be at a minimum.
Customer churn happens for many reasons, but it generally means that clients aren’t getting the desired return on their investment.
Since you made it this far, we’ll reward you with a SaaS onboarding checklist.
Free SaaS onboarding checklist
The SaaS customer onboarding checklist is a great tool to have at your disposal.
It helps customer success managers keep track of their ongoing tasks and responsibilities during the initial stages of an onboarding journey.
Account managers and success teams should also use it to keep in line with the customer success manager and provide a cohesive onboarding experience to every new client.
Get your free onboarding checklist template and streamline your SaaS onboarding strategy!
How to choose SaaS onboarding software
Choosing the right customer onboarding software for your SaaS business is a big decision.
You need to consider your organization’s requirements, resources, goals, and individual context to find a tool that will satisfy your SaaS onboarding needs.
Look for customer onboarding tools that include the following features and functionalities.
1. Ease of use
Consider a software solution that’s simple to use and offers a user-friendly interface.
It should be able to provide intuitive workflows and make it obvious to both your team and customers where they need to click or where they need to go.
You don’t want something too complex that prevents people from using it.
2. Scalability
Look for software tools that offer automation capabilities. These streamline operations and help scale up your onboarding processes.
Features like automated task management, email, and in-app messaging are especially valuable.
They should also be able to trigger specific actions based on milestones and user behavior.
3. Analytics
The onboarding tool should include robust data analytics and reporting capabilities.
These features help provide insights into customer engagement, retention, churn, and other onboarding metrics.
They also provide an overview of the onboarding process as a whole.
You should also be able to identify bottlenecks and drop-off points and measure the overall performance of your onboarding program.
4. Personalization
Lastly, consider onboarding platforms that can personalize your program.
The right platform should be able to tailor your onboarding messaging and e-learning content based on user preferences.
Personalization is key to an engaging and effective customer onboarding process.
Now, let’s take a quick look at a few SaaS onboarding examples done right.
3 SaaS onboarding examples to inspire you
These three SaaS onboarding examples can help inspire you to create your own engaging and churn-proof onboarding strategy.
Example #1: Mailchimp
Mailchimp is mainly an email marketing automation platform but also handles other marketing-related functions.
What it does well in terms of onboarding is to keep the initial signup process simple. It follows the “less is more” approach to UX and UI design.
It doesn’t overburden the new user by asking for too much information, just the email, username, and password. The email verification and confirmation process is also simplified.
The platform will provide customers with an onboarding checklist that immediately helps them derive value from Mailchimp’s services.
It guides the user on how to connect to the store, learn the basics of email design, add contacts, and send emails.
Users create these emails by using easy-to-understand template designs. The aim is to drive the user as quickly to their aha moment as possible.
Example #2: Notion
Notion is a collaborative workspace productivity tool.
In terms of its onboarding, Notion encourages new users to learn more about its functionalities by prompting them to try a guided tour on its “Getting Started” page.
Further in, users can choose different templates for various tasks like meetings, budgets, and more. The platform’s onboarding process stimulates users to explore, test, play with, and practice on pre-built pages.
What Notion does right here is make its onboarding process interactive. It gently eases new customers into using it by covering the basics and allowing them to experiment.
Example #3: HubSpot
HubSpot is an inbound marketing and sales platform.
It goes about onboarding new users by personalizing the experience through in-app surveys. It asks them simple questions related to their role in their company and what they intend to use the tool for.
Based on the users’ answers, HubSpot personalizes the online workspace and dashboard.
This helps their clients find value in the app more easily and without having to go through unrelated functionalities before finding what they need.
They also have an in-app progress bar with various onboarding milestones. This form of gamification feature helps drive engagement and boost the onboarding experience.
Feeling inspired? It’s up to you to get the ball rolling.
Now over to you
The SaaS customer onboarding process is not something you set and forget. You improve and optimize it over time.
But as you do, you’ll be able to reap the benefits in terms of customer engagement, retention, and increased profit margins.
You’ll need a professional SaaS customer onboarding tool to get you there.
Schedule a demo with Docebo today and discover the power of a well-organized onboarding program.