Did you know that 74% of potential customers will switch to other solutions if the onboarding flow is complicated? And that 86% of the customers say they will remain loyal if onboarding and continuous education are provided. Crazy, huh?
Onboarding is essential for any user experience, especially for B2B companies. It’s often the first impression a customer has of your brand, so it’s crucial to set the right tone. For this reason, onboarding flows and user experiences shouldn’t be complicated; they should be intuitive and user-friendly. Think about it: successful user onboarding results in more revenue. But what are onboarding flows? How can you improve user onboarding in SaaS? What are the best tools to do so?
In this article, we’ll explain different strategies to consider when designing your onboarding flow together with a profound explanation of all these questions and more, including:
- What is user onboarding?
- What is an onboarding flow?
- What are the benefits of using onboarding flows?
- Five ways to improve the user experience of your top products by using product flows
- The best platforms for user onboarding
- Onboarding flows in SaaS
Ready? Let’s get started.
What is User Onboarding?
User onboarding is the process of introducing a new user to a product, service, or app. In this phase, the user is typically guided and taught how to use the product during their first encounter. This is when the product makes a first impression on the user, and the impact may begin before they interact with it.
An onboarding’s ultimate goal is to achieve the aha moment – when the user understands the product’s value for the first time. To continue learning about the “aha” moment, check out our latest article, The ‘Aha’ Moment Product Guide: How to Identify and Measure.
Customer onboarding can be done in many ways, depending on your company’s industry and other characteristics. Continue reading to discover the different types of user onboarding.
Different types of User Onboarding:
Here are the most common types of user onboarding:
- Benefit-focused: This means the company explains the two or three core benefits of the site/product/app and how the users can achieve those benefits.
- Function-focused: This means the company explains the two or three core functions of the site/product/app and how the users can use them.
- Doing-focused: Doing-focused onboarding guides the user through the first or most common tasks.
- Account-focused: The account-focused onboarding guides the user through the account creation process, including adding interests and friends.
- All: Complex sites/products/apps may require a combination of the four types of user onboarding.
Although each of the five types of onboarding has its advantages and disadvantages, all are viable options. The key is how much information your new users need to get to the core value and how organically they can discover the core value.
What is an Onboarding Flow?
An onboarding flow introduces new users or customers to a new feature or user interface. The onboarding flow varies based on the platform used by the user. For example, application user onboarding flows are very different from desktop user onboarding flows.
For example, here is what Grammarly’s onboarding flow looks like:
A well-developed onboarding flow should combine a series of screens to guide the user through a specific process or task successfully. But why should SaaS companies use onboarding flows? What are their main benefits? Jump over to the next section and discover them!
What are the benefits of using Onboarding Flows?
Implementing onboarding flows into your onboarding experience has several benefits for your SaaS company. The main ones are as follows:
Make new users familiar with your application’s user interface
Through onboarding flows, you’ll help your new users get familiar with your application or product. By doing this, they’ll reach the “aha” moment faster and recognize the value of your SaaS product quicker.
Communicate the benefits of your product in-app
Onboarding flows assist companies in adequately communicating the benefits of their product efficiently and in a more visual way.
Demonstrate how your application works
One of the main purposes of onboarding flows is to show how your application or product works. Once users are aware of how to use it, they’ll be able to add it to their daily tasks, and as a consequence, this will increase customer retention.
Ensure that all new user accounts are set up and registered
By using the account-focused onboarding flows, you’ll ensure that all the new users are set up correctly, registered, and can start using your product correctly.
You’re probably aware now how vital onboarding is as part of any user experience, especially for SaaS companies. So now, we’ll explain five strategies to consider when designing your onboarding flow.
Five ways to improve the user experience of your top products by using product flows
1. Make sure your product is easy to use.
Duh, right? It sounds obvious, but this distinguishes a product-led company from a sales-driven one. The focus is on the product. So ask yourself – point blank – if your product making someone’s life easier, and if it is (which we know it is), then ask yourself does the onboarding reflect that sentiment.
If customers struggle with using your product, they will likely abandon it before they even start using it.
2. Create a clear value proposition.
This should be something that makes people feel good about buying your product. This is less about what you think and more about what your clients think and feel about your true value proposition. It sounds counterintuitive, but the reality is that many small businesses believe the core value of their product is one thing, while clients will communicate that it is something else.
Lean into the feedback from the end user’s perspective and set up landing pages or behavioral campaigns for A/B testing and remarketing to hone in on what works best. And give it a little time. Just like unicorns are rare, you need to see a pattern, and that can take 60-90 days.
3. Include a call to action (CTA) at the end of your onboarding flow.
A CTA is a prompt that encourages users to take some kind of action. We know, we know–another obvious one, right? But is the CTA fit for the user and the action? Often it isn’t, or even worse, there are 3+ CTAs which can create confusion for the customer.
Onboarding should be about guiding the user to take the actions you want them to take, so they better engage and understand your product. And since every user is different or learns differently, it is important to have a versatile onboarding process and flow. With that comes personalization and specific CTAs based on user behavior patterns. The big question is, do you have these insights? If not, we’ve got a recommendation (hint, hint).
4. Provide a clear path through your onboarding flow.
You should make it as simple as possible for users to complete each step. Again – it’s critical to personalize this path based on how you have defined your user profiles. It could be by region, language or ICP, or whatever you deem critical. The important thing is to define these details when building your flow.
5. Test different variations of your onboarding flow to see what works best.
Test, test, and test again. The onboarding process is a living and breathing part of your business and should be monitored and updated at least once a quarter. Think about it, products and services evolve, and so should your customer onboarding.
All of this is a loooot of information. We know it. That’s why we collected the best platforms to help you develop a great onboarding while covering everything we’ve explained today in this article.
The Best Platforms for User Onboarding
FROGED
FROGED is an all-in-one tool designed for SaaS companies. It allows companies to improve their customer support lifecycle: engagement, onboarding, and proactive customer support. With all its features and options, it’s one of the best platforms to improve customer experience and satisfaction. Additionally, FROGED connects the dots within the customer journey and allows companies to personalize their customer experience at every touch point, increasing their overall metrics and customer success.
FROGED offers a specific feature to onboard customers faster, increase signup conversions, and educate users about your product with one platform. Through the customer onboarding feature, your company can reduce time to value, build brand advocates, empower customers, and more.
Userflow
Userflow is another great tool to improve the onboarding experience of your company. It lets your customer success teams build checklists, surveys, customized in-app tours, and more. Through it, you can increase retention and convert users quickly.
Walkme
Walkme is a digital adoption tool that helps companies increase customer adoption. With its customer onboarding solution, you can identify and overcome friction or struggles during product adoption. It offers user segmentation, onboarding experience, data analysis, and more.
Onboarding Flows in SaaS
Onboarding flows are a powerful way of driving new customers into your product, app, or service. Using them lets you familiarize new users with your application’s user interface, communicate the benefits of your product in-app, demonstrate how your application works, ensure that all new user accounts are set up and registered, and more.
However, everything doesn’t stop here. Onboarding means more than just familiarizing new users with your interface. The goal is to create a habit loop that ensures they repeatedly return and increase customer retention.
To discover more about onboarding flows and onboarding experiences, check out our current product flows and onboarding features, or book a demo to learn more about how to use the FROGED platform and its personalized onboarding experience to improve the UX of your SaaS company.