Customer retention is perhaps the most important component of a successful B2B SaaS business. Why? Because customer acquisition costs (CAC) are generally high and the threat of churn is but one shiny object away. While it’s generally a good thing for a SaaS product to be packed full of handy features, it’s rather pointless if your customers don’t know how to use them. This is where the magic of customer onboarding comes into play, a concept that can play a crucial role in the long-term success of a SaaS business.

After turning prospects into customers through the combined effort of marketing and sales, the goal now shifts to keeping users hooked on your product. For this to happen, users must receive a steady stream of value from the use of your product. This, in turn, requires that users are educated on the different ways your product can be used, something which is much more likely to occur if there’s an effective onboarding process in place.

What’s an effective onboarding process?

Onboarding involves more than a well-crafted welcome email and tooltips with chiming sounds. Ideally it’s a structured approach, designed to give users not just one, but several “aha” moments for the entire duration of using your product. This “pavlovian” process is critical in making customers not just understand but to really experience the value of your product. This will make them less likely to look elsewhere for their SaaS needs and keep your churn rate down!

• Some examples of effective onboarding approaches include (but are not limited to):
• Kick-off calls for new customers
• Written walkthroughs / robust documentation
• Video demos
• Live demos: although expensive, this can be a worthy investment for the right high-volume customer
• Personalized onboarding checklists combined with email sequences triggered by achieved milestones

Metrics to keep track of

While successful onboarding can be challenging to measure, there are some key metrics worth keeping track of.

TTFV (Time to First Value)

How long does it take for a customer to experience real value from your product?

Activation Rate

What percentage of users complete a predefined, core set of actions?

Early Churn Rate

What percentage of customers stop using the product within the first 30-90 days?

Support Tickets

How many support tickets are created per user during the first 30-90 days? A high number could be an indicator of frustration or confusion among users.

How to make onboarding better

The onboarding process for B2B SaaS products can be improved in numerous ways, including the following:

User Segmentation: with a clear understanding of the different demographics and groups your users belong to, tailoring onboarding flows to the specific needs of users becomes, if not effortless, much easier.

Automation: Having a set of guides and short tutorials in strategic places where users often struggle built into your application is a great way to lessen customer frustration and improve the holy metric of retention.

The same goes for email drips, which are automatic emails sent to users whenever they complete specific actions, such as registering an account or downloading a lead magnet.

Human Support: in an increasingly digital world, the power of human touch is not to be underestimated. Offering human support and not just bots and AI agents can be a major differentiator in the highly competitive world of B2B SaaS products.

Data-Driven Personalization: Adapt onboarding to the specific industry you’re operating in and consider customizing it based on specific user actions.

Continuous Iteration: consider A/B testing onboarding procedures and try to collect feedback from users.

Case study: Slack

The communication platform Slack is well-known for its user-centric approach to onboarding, with its utilization of interactive tutorials, pre-populated channels and helpful Slackbot. These things combined makes getting started with their platform feel easy and intuitive, even for non-technical teams.

Conclusion

The onboarding experience plays a central role in the realm of B2B SaaS, not just in educating users but as a retention and, in turn, revenue driver. Companies with a high-value SaaS product who also invest in well-planned and user-first onboarding are much more likely to attain long-term success.

Do not treat onboarding as an afterthought, but rather as half of the business model. In maritime terms, if the product is the ship, onboarding is what keeps the sailors, well, onboard.