The Importance of Onboarding and Everboarding in Digital Customer Success

Have you ever received complaints from your customers about signing up for your service only to feel lost and frustrated because they don't know where to start? Now, consider the fact that nearly 80% of users will abandon your software if they find it too difficult to use and won’t even complain! (Source: Wyzowl) This is exactly why an effective onboarding process is super important for your SaaS (Software as a Service) business. But what if we told you that keeping users engaged doesn't end there?

This is where everboarding enters—a continuous journey that ensures your customers not only start strong but stay strong with your product. In this article, we discuss the importance of a strong start with onboarding, the value of ongoing support, the challenges you might face, and practical solutions to overcome them. Let's get started!

The Importance of Onboarding

Onboarding is essential for helping customers understand and effectively use your product right from the start. According to Jonny Tennyson, Head of Customer Success at Secure Code Warrior, “Onboarding is critical... you’ve got pretty much ten days to try and activate your customers.” In other words, the first few days after acquiring a customer are crucial for establishing a strong foundation for success.

A well-designed onboarding process helps users quickly grasp the value of your product, feel confident in using it, and become engaged and loyal customers. By providing clear guidance, helpful resources, and personalized support during this critical period, you can significantly increase user satisfaction and retention. To help you get started, check out these best practices for SaaS onboarding to ensure your onboarding strategy is top-notch.

During the onboarding period, it is important to:

1. Set Clear Expectations: Communicate the objectives and milestones for the onboarding process. This will help your customers understand what to expect and what will be expected of them. In fact, clear communication will lay the groundwork for a smooth onboarding journey.
2. Provide Comprehensive Training: Offer detailed training sessions, tutorials, and resources to ensure that customers are well-equipped to use your product. This can include video tutorials, interactive guides, and a robust FAQ section
3. Ensure Quick Wins: Help customers achieve small successes early on to demonstrate the value of your product and build their confidence. These early victories can make a significant impact on their overall satisfaction and willingness to continue using your service.
4. Offer Personalized Support: Customize the onboarding experience to meet the specific needs and goals of each customer. This can include personalized onboarding plans, one-on-one training sessions, and dedicated account managers.
5. Encourage Product Adoption: Use a product adoption platform to help new customers understand and start using your product effectively during the onboarding process. These platforms provide different tools that can make it easier for your users to see the value of your product quickly.

Check out our article on the top product adoption softwares, as it will help you select the perfect platform that will fit your needs to ensure a smooth and efficient onboarding experience.

The Rise of Everboarding

While onboarding is crucial, the concept of everboarding is gaining traction in the customer success field. Everboarding refers to the continuous onboarding of customers to keep them updated with new features and ensure ongoing engagement.

Onboarding is the first step in customer success, like laying the foundation of a house. But everboarding takes it further—it's like constantly adding new rooms and features to that house. Instead of just showing you around once, everboarding keeps you updated on all the cool stuff your home (product) can do!

Jonny Tennyson mentions, “I would actually love if we could remove the word onboarding from our vocabulary altogether.” What Jonny is trying to say is that customer education should never be considered a one-time event but an ongoing process, and that can be done through everboarding.

During everboarding, you should always practice the following things:

1. Regular Updates and Training: Keep customers informed about new features, updates, and tips regularly. This can be through emails, newsletters, and pop-up messages in the app or website. By staying updated, customers can make the most of your product's latest offerings
2. Ongoing Support and Check-ins: Stay in touch with customers to help them with any problems, gather their opinions, and provide extra assistance when needed. This ongoing support will show your customers that you're there for them every step of the way.
3. Community Building: Encourage new users to connect with your customer community, where they can share insights, ask questions, and find solutions to common problems. This peer support will enhance their learning experience and provide ongoing value.

Uncertain about which customer community software to choose? Go and explore our article on top customer community platforms and easily find out which option is best for you!

1. Adaptive Learning Paths: Create personalized learning paths that adapt to the evolving needs and goals of each customer. This will ensure that they receive relevant information and support throughout their journey.
2. Feedback Loops: Set up ways to gather and respond to customer feedback regularly. This means listening to their ideas, handling issues quickly, and making changes based on what they tell you. By using their feedback to improve your product, you will show that you care about what they think and want to make them happy, which will definitely increase customer loyalty.

Challenges and Solutions in Onboarding and Everboarding

Implementing onboarding and everboarding strategies comes with its own set of challenges, but with the right solutions, these hurdles can be effectively overcome. Let’s look at some key challenges and their potential solutions:

Scalability and Efficiency

As businesses grow, scaling onboarding and everboarding processes efficiently becomes a significant challenge. Ensuring that every customer receives the same high level of support can be difficult.

Solution: Automation can be a powerful tool to address scalability. However, as Jonny Tennyson pointed out, “We threw automation at it, thinking, if it's automated, it fixes it... but that wasn’t the case.” Automation should be used thoughtfully, focusing on automating repetitive tasks while maintaining a personalized touch. Implementing automated emails, chatbots, and in-app guidance can streamline processes without sacrificing the personal connection that is vital for customer success. Also, using scalable training platforms and resources will ensure that as the user base expands, each customer still receives the necessary guidance and support.

💡 MeltingSpot leverages webhooks to streamline and automate repetitive tasks, ensuring efficient handling of a growing customer base. Webhooks allow real-time communication between applications, enabling instant updates and seamless integration of various tools, thereby maintaining the quality of support as you scale.

You can check out our article on how to scale your customer success, as it has plenty of strategies to get you sorted out!

Customer Segmentation

Handling different types of customers with their own unique needs and goals can be tricky. Each customer uses your product in their own way, and making sure everyone is happy and successful requires a special approach.

Solution: Develop a deep understanding of your customer base and implement effective segmentation strategies. By categorizing customers into distinct groups based on similar needs, behaviors, or demographics, you can customize the onboarding and everboarding processes to each segment. This targeted approach will not only boost engagement but also enhance retention by ensuring that each customer receives relevant, personalized support and resources.

💡 MeltingSpot uses tags and groups to categorize customers based on their specific needs, behaviors, and demographics. This enables personalized communication and targeted support, ensuring that each segment receives relevant information and resources tailored to their unique requirements.

Measuring Success

Measuring the success of your onboarding and everboarding efforts is crucial. Without knowing how well your strategies are working, it's hard to make improvements and ensure customer satisfaction.

Solution: Track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as time to first value, customer satisfaction scores, and churn rates. These metrics can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your onboarding and everboarding processes. By regularly analyzing these KPIs, you can identify what's working and what needs adjustment, ensuring that your customer success strategies are always on point.

💡 MeltingSpot offers a comprehensive dashboard that provides valuable insights into key performance indicators (KPIs). The dashboard allows you to track metrics such as number of document views, live participation rate, and unsubscription rate, helping you evaluate the effectiveness of your onboarding and everboarding strategies and make data-driven improvements.

To further enhance the onboarding and everboarding experience, MeltingSpot has introduced a new Courses feature. This feature allows you to create and deliver structured educational content to your customers, ensuring they receive ongoing training and support tailored to their needs.

For more detailed guidance, check out our article on how to measure the success of your onboarding process for helpful tips and strategies.

Future Trends in Customer Success

The future of customer success is set to be transformed by advanced technologies and a growing focus on continuous education. Here are some anticipated trends:

Integration of AI and Machine Learning

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will continue to deepen, offering more personalized and predictive customer experiences. These technologies are not just about streamlining processes but are becoming essential in preemptively identifying potential issues and addressing them proactively.

Continuous Customer Education and Engagement

As businesses recognize the importance of keeping customers informed and engaged, everboarding will become more prevalent. By continuously educating customers on new features, best practices, and potential optimizations, your company can ensure that users are making the most of the products or services.

Together, these trends highlight a shift towards more sophisticated, technology-driven strategies in customer success, aiming not only to solve problems but also to anticipate customer needs and enhance their overall experience continuously

Conclusion

Onboarding and everboarding are crucial components of a successful customer success strategy. Effective onboarding helps new customers get started right away, making them happy and engaged from the beginning. Everboarding keeps them supported and informed as they continue using your product, leading to better customer retention and overall success.

As Jonny Tennyson aptly summarized, the goal is to move beyond just initial onboarding to a continuous, adaptive process that aligns with the evolving needs of customers. By doing so, companies can unlock the full potential of their customer success efforts and drive sustained growth and loyalty.

At MeltingSpot, we specialize in making both onboarding and everboarding seamless and effective. Our platform offers the tools you need to keep your customers engaged and educated throughout their journey. So, don’t wait any longer. Watch the video below and discover how MeltingSpot can transform your onboarding and everboarding processes and start driving growth and loyalty today!

Watch this 1-minute video to see how MeltingSpot can help with your onboarding and customer education challenges.