Customer Success Onboarding Checklist: The Only Guide You Need For Long-Term Success [+ Infographic]

1. Improves customer experience

The onboarding process helps customers understand how to use your product and get the best return on their investment. Happy customers are a valuable asset as they’re more likely to turn into brand advocates for your business.

2. Reduces customer churn

A survey by Wyzowl revealed that 55 percent of customers return a product when they don’t know how to use it. Demonstrating value through your customer onboarding process and showing customers how your product fits into their routine can boost customer retention.

3. Sets clear expectations

Effective onboarding processes let you set expectations upfront and teach customers to avoid potential setbacks when using your product. When your customers know what to expect, it eliminates the guesswork post-purchase and improves product adoption.

4. Enhances team efficiency

Another benefit of improving adoption through customer onboarding is that customers need less help. Thus, your customer success and sales teams can focus on productive tasks which help you achieve your business goals.

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1. Send a welcome email

Send a welcome email and introduce yourself to first-time customers when they sign up for a trial or buy your product. Thank them for trusting your business and share an overview of the client onboarding process.

Email marketing automation tools like Mailchimp are perfect for this task. You can use them to automate onboarding emails with trigger-based sequences for different customer touchpoints and actions.

Need some inspiration?

Here’s an amazing welcome message from personal finance software YNAB that contains all the elements of the perfect welcome email, such as:

1. Starts off with a short welcome message.
2. Acknowledges its audience’s pain points.
3. Presents a solution.
4. Incorporates multiple CTAs to address different customer needs.
5. Describes the next steps in the onboarding process.
6. Concludes by letting readers know their customer support team is an email away.

2. Share your onboarding questionnaire

With introductions out of the way, it’s time to take the next step in the customer onboarding process — getting to know your customers. You can do this with a new customer onboarding questionnaire. Online survey tools like Google Forms, SurveyMonkey or Typeform are perfect for this task.

Keep it simple and ask questions that help you get up to speed with their pain points. That way, your customer success team can provide a personalized customer onboarding experience.

Here’s a high-touch SaaS onboarding survey template by Typeform.

3. Set up an onboarding call

Schedule a kick-off call with your customers to discuss their needs once they complete the onboarding questionnaire. You can also research customers on LinkedIn for insights to personalize the onboarding experience to suit them.

Once you’re on the call, explain how your product works and how it fits into their workflow. Set clear expectations so new clients know what successful user onboarding looks like and why it’s important. Here are some ways you can do that:

1. Talk about the scope and process of onboarding.
2. Share milestones and success metrics.
3. Explain who their point of contact is and how they can reach them.
4. Educate them on average response times and the escalation process.

Clarify assumptions to avoid miscommunication.

4. Share product walk-throughs

After the meeting, send a quick email to recap your conversation and share tips and interactive walk-throughs to get them started.

It’s essential to set your customers up with the tools they need to use your product independently. Gartner’s 2019 survey reveals that one out of three buyers wants a seller-free sales experience.

You can use Scribe to create onboarding materials such as product walk-throughs and tutorials in minutes. Scribe’s auto-generated step-by-step guides can familiarize your customer with your best features and tackle specific use cases. Knowledge bases, webinars and visual guides eliminate guesswork and get your customers up to speed quickly.

Here’s how easy it is to create your first Scribe.

5. Schedule timely follow-ups

Proactive follow-ups are crucial to making them feel welcome and keeping your customers engaged with your product. They can also help you identify hurdles and address them before they lead to abandonment.

Set up reminders and check in with customers to ensure they’re getting the best value from your product. A weekly call to remind them of customer support options and your commitment to helping them succeed works perfectly.

6. Track, measure, improve and celebrate

Track your customers’ progress and evaluate customer satisfaction periodically. Use surveys to gather feedback from existing customers and identify friction points so you know what works and where you can improve.

Lastly, celebrate your customer’s success and get them excited about successfully using your product. Social media shoutouts and personalized emails are a great way to celebrate milestones in the customer onboarding process.

Here’s an excellent email from Zapier celebrating a customer milestone for some inspiration: