How to Streamline the Onboarding Process for New Users
Written by Toonimo
Onboarding remains one of the most important components of the customer life-cycle. It doesn’t matter if that individual is an employee of the organization, or a paying customer. The onboarding process is the framework within which credibility, relationships, and information dissemination is built. If this process is carried out effectively, customers and clients, employees and administrators will gain tremendous value from the products and services offered.
This interactive guide is designed to allow you to capitalize on retention, enhance employee satisfaction and improve the customer experience. Beyond these strategic objectives, are the important goals of increasing ROI and ROE, and generating repeat business.
Employees need to be fully engaged and involved in your platform
The X-Factor in the equation is the individual. Not only is everyone unique, but everyone has the potential to shape the future of your organization. Catering to the individual needs, wants and preferences of your target market can be overwhelming. To meet these exigencies, it is essential to understand what the customer is really saying. Some people prefer text interaction, others prefer multimedia engagement – and it is these differences that must be fully understood.
Clientele may require gentle nudging, and at other times they may need to be reeled in. But doing so requires the utmost sensitivity and understanding. As you may well have guessed by now, the blanket approach simply doesn’t work today. And if the truth be told, it never did. It’s no different with employees, since each one comes to your organization as an individual and requires personal assistance with the onboarding process. Your organizational platform is what sets it apart from others, and employees need to be fully engaged and involved in your platform to derive maximum benefit from it.
The best practices for user onboarding by Antoine PLU
But how do you achieve maximum immersion if every employee sees things differently?
The answer to this question is found in the onboarding process itself. Conventional thinking must be dropped in favor of a dynamic approach. A ‘one size fits all’ strategy is a recipe for failure. Now, the effectiveness of employee onboarding can be enhanced with cutting-edge tools that cater to the learning needs of each individual. Interactive overlays for example have proven to be the most effective communication medium for understanding new platforms. There are myriad plus points with these interactive overlays including segmented walkthroughs for users, or returning users. Whether you opt for a manual training process or an automated training process, it is essential to review all the possibilities for an optimized outcome.
Examples for more Advanced Features Available in new interactive onboarding platforms:
- Option to onboard new users through interactive Audio-Visual Walkthrough
- Customized Walkthroughs for a Specific User or a group of users.
- Option to add custom Java script code for specific feature in your walkthrough
Understand Your Users
To successfully onboard your users, it is vital that you understand who they are. For example, what types of messages will resonate with your users? What are their motivations, objectives and needs? Understanding these key issues will drive your onboarding operations in a positive way. While some companies may focus their attention on costs vis-a-vis conversion, it may be necessary to educate users to drive conversions. Then again, what type of educational best serves the needs of your onboarding program?
Prioritize Messaging
A customer’s journey through the onboarding process is best served with prioritized messaging and an effective flow of information. Remember that it is absolutely imperative to create several unique walkthroughs of landing pages and site content. These can provide different pathways to purchase for your users. Not only will this increase conversion rates, but it will also help to capture an increasing number of users. Onboarding programs that tailor their products to the needs of users are far more likely to generate favorable outcomes. And, personalized onboarding allows for an objective assessment of best-practice methodology.
Highlight your Value proposition
Before a customer makes a purchase, he/she needs to understand what benefits are provided by that product. This lends itself to what is known as a value proposition. In layman’s terms, this is a description of the product’s unique attributes. It is counterintuitive for clients, customers or users to have to dig for information. If relevant data cannot be gleaned within 5 seconds, the sale is effectively lost.
Cohesion between Value Propositions and Registration Process
Effective value propositions must dovetail with a strong call to action and easy signup and registration. Failing this, the onboarding process collapses and all that time, energy and expense will be for naught. There is always a degree of friction in registering new users, but a smooth and sleek design will always encourage additional signups. When it comes to friction, any number of factors could delay or deter user registration.
These include:
- Loading times for the registration screen,
- difficult navigation between pages,
- complex landing pages,
- clutter,
- lack of information,
- text-heavy content,
- lack of cohesion,
- lack of trust,
- Poor branding or even cognitive dissonance.
There are many possible reasons why users may be dissuaded from following through with the onboarding process. To assuage user concerns, it is a good idea to include seals of authenticity, credibility, authentic customer reviews and objective testimonials.
But it’s not all doom and gloom for administrators or marketing departments to grease the wheels in the registration process. For starters, the use of walkthroughs have proven to be the most effective method to assist users through the onboarding process. Walkthroughs enable effective and rapid registration. Now, it is entirely possible for a visual overlay to guide users through the entire registration process in the most efficient way possible.
Simplicity always trumps complexity
Onboarding is far more effective when users input detailed information. This is done by way of a comprehensive registration form. User flow must gel with the marketing requirements of the company. You don’t want to ask for any more information than is needed. Simplicity always trumps complexity in new user registrations. In-line form validations are a great way to reduce completion time by as much as 42%. All redundant form fields should be removed and only the bare essentials should be retained to make it easy, comfortable and convenient for users to register.
Complex product made simple wins over the hearts and minds of users
The signup process presents challenges for companies. Since every user is different, and everyone is motivated by a different set of needs, wants and preferences, it may be necessary to guide users through the registration process. Other users will be happy to go it alone. It’s a delicate balancing act that needs to be adopted. If you provide an easy route to completing the registration process by using interactive guides and assistance, the user will be more likely to try out new products. Referrals, bio completions, writing posts and reviews and other sorts of interactive measures are ideal.
If you are dealing with a really complex product with multiple features, the onboarding process will be more involved, and it must be prioritized. In all cases, it is imperative that the user feels that a product is indispensable. If a complex product can be made simple, it will win over the hearts and minds of users. Throughout it all, customers must feel comfortable with the essence of the product. Then once they like what they see, the registration process should be swift, easy and hassle-free.
