If you provide a really terrible onboarding experience, you’re screwed. But if you knock it out of the park, you’re making it more likely that you’ll have more invested users that stick it out for the long term, even if they experience a few bumps along the way.
89% of potential customers have said that they would consider switching solutions if they’re faced with a complicated or unenjoyable onboarding process. With numbers like this, you don’t want to blow it.
Enter: the client onboarding specialist. This role arose out of the clear value of a great onboarding experience. Their entire role revolves around creating the best, most customized, most educational, and overall most enjoyable experience possible. They are extremely high-touch with clients, giving them the edge they need to anticipate needs, wants, and goals as they approach.
But it’s 2024, so the whole world is simultaneously aware of the critical need for human touch, but also of the need for technology to deliver the efficiency required to keep up with the times. That’s why a holistic approach is necessary for the optimal onboarding experience. One that combines the heart of the client onboarding specialist with the scalability of onboarding technology.
Let’s see what this would actually look like in practice.
The critical role of a client onboarding specialist
A client onboarding specialist is essentially the bridge between your product and your clients, guiding them through the initial stages of their journey with you. Their role is pivotal, especially for complex products where it may take a little extra effort for your customers to “get it.”
Personalized guidance and support
One of the main things that client onboarding specialists bring to the table is the personalized support they offer.
Consider two scenarios. In one, you receive generic automated messages as you work through onboarding. In the other, you have a person there for you when you need them, doing more than just walking you through the platform but actually taking into account your goals and challenges.
These specialists, if they’re doing their job well, take the time to understand their client’s specific business needs and challenges, which empowers them to tailor the onboarding process to align directly with the goals they uncover.
The personalization that client onboarding specialists provides also makes possible the somewhat intangible but oh so valuable human touch. This builds trust and fosters a strong client relationship that sets clients up for a more long-term connection.
Expert navigation through dicey processes
Trying to work through complex setups or configuration can be daunting for new users. Client onboarding specialists have been there a million times, so they’re able to guide users through with a high degree of empathy and understanding.
Take, for example, Salesforce. Their product is powerful, and with that power comes a bit of complication. The sheer number of options and settings can feel like mental overload to new users. Their onboarding specialists help to guide clients through initial setup, helping them configure the platform to meet their specific needs.
The human insight here can help to focus users on the specific tasks at hand, rather than looking at a massive list of intimidating tasks or features in front of them. In scenarios where clients might get stuck, these specialists can provide real-time solutions. This reduces friction and frustration, allowing clients to get up and running quickly. And more importantly, to perceive value quickly.
Proactive problem solving
A proactive approach to problem-solving is another hallmark of effective onboarding.
Specialists can anticipate potential issues and address them before they become significant roadblocks. For example, HubSpot, known for its marketing automation software, uses a proactive strategy during onboarding. Their specialists don’t just react to client queries; they actively monitor progress and check in with clients to offer additional support or resources as needed.
This proactive engagement helps to mitigate issues early on (i.e. prevents them from escalating to churn) ensuring that clients remain on track and continue to move forward with confidence.
The power of in-product tactics in onboarding
The human touch is irreplaceable, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be complemented by technology.
The onboarding process can be enhanced exponentially by using in-product tactics to reinforce and supplement the work of onboarding specialists.
Listen, no matter how incredible your client onboarding specialists are, they’re still human. Technology can help to fill some of the gaps that inevitably come with that humanity.
Reinforcing key concepts
Reinforcement is never a bad thing, right? While the client onboarding specialist can plant the seed for great onboarding tactics, onboarding tech can continue to water those seeds.
In-product tactics like tooltips, product tours, and messages can help to deliver constant reminders of the things they learned from the onboarding specialists. For example, when a user interacts with a new feature in a platform that they just got started with, they may receive a tooltip that provides some additional context or reminds them of a key point discussed during their onboarding session.
While some users may prefer not to constantly be conversing with a human, receiving some automated but intelligent tips in the product can give them an impactful but low-touch option to keep upping their platform knowledge.
Supporting different learning styles
Not all users learn best through direct instruction. Some prefer to learn by doing. In-product tools like interactive tutorials, knowledge bases, and interactive help centers can help companies cater to a wider variety of these learning preferences.
Having to set up a virtual onboarding session with an onboarding specialist may feel like pulling teeth to some people, leading them to try to just struggle through it on their own if they have no other option. A technology-backed onboarding process gives them the option to receive the help they need in a way they want.
Canva does a great job with this. They have a really robust help center and self-serve tutorials that let users learn at their own pace.
Providing immediate assistance
Client onboarding specialists need to sleep or live their life sometime, but the time they’re clocked in may not necessarily align with when their clients are digging into the product. There are some people who just get their best productivity surges at midnight, and onboarding specialists can’t be expected to be there to greet them when they sign on.
In-product support tools such as chatbots or in-app messaging are great for filling in these gaps by offering immediate help when users need it most. Command AI’s Copilot, for example, is a 24/7 virtual agent that provides a dynamic, personalized chat experience that almost feels human. That means that if a user is stuck with a question at 2am that they need to chat through with someone, the chatbot is there to help.
This not only reduces the need for human intervention (letting the onboarding specialists sleep in peace knowing they won’t wake up to a flurry of frustrated emails in the morning), but it also ensures that users can continue their work with minimal disruption.
Monitoring in-product behavior for success
In addition to the benefits that users get from the combination of human client onboarding specialists and onboarding tech, companies are also able to pull in a lot of valuable data when they integrate technology into their onboarding flows.
Tracking user engagement and progress
By tracking engagement metrics like feature adoption, time spent on key activities, and task completion rates, companies can draw out valuable insights on user engagement.
For example, if a significant number of users are not engaging with a core feature, it may indicate a need for additional training or a re-evaluation of how that feature is introduced during onboarding. Tools like Pendo or Mixpanel can be used to track these behaviors and give you actionable insights that can inform the onboarding strategy.
Identifying potential roadblocks
Monitoring in-product behavior also helps identify where users are getting stuck or dropping off in the onboarding process.
Data that points to a certain task or process being frequently abandoned by users, for example, likely signals a point of confusion or frustration. Onboarding specialists can then use this data that the technology is dropping into their hands to reach out and offer assistance, or the product team may adjust the user interface to make the process more intuitive.
Closing the feedback loop
Feedback loops being left open is one of the surest ways to sabotage the longevity of an organization. The best SaaS companies are intentional about investigating and acting on the feedback that they receive.
By using insights from in-product monitoring, companies can refine both the specialist’s approach and the product’s onboarding experience.
Integrating human expertise with in-product strategies
The human touch of a client onboarding specialist and the automation and efficiency of onboarding tech have the power to create the most effective onboarding journey. But only if you’re intentional about combining them strategically, aligning your use of either of them with the needs of the user at certain points of the onboarding process.
Creating a seamless onboarding journey
You don’t want your tools and your team to compete with each other. And you don’t want your customer getting confused or overwhelmed when they feel like they’re getting bombarded with messages from both sides.
The first step here is to make sure that, at a minimum, messaging is consistent across your human and technology processes. This consistency helps reinforce key concepts and ensures that users receive a coherent and supportive experience, whether they are interacting with a human specialist or exploring the product on their own.
The next step is to give your client onboarding specialists visibility into the interactions that users are having with the technology. This not only helps to alert them of potential problems areas that they can reach out about, but it also ensures that they’re only providing value, not reiterating points unnecessarily.
The future of client onboarding
We don’t see client onboarding specialists being fully replaced by technology any time soon. But we’re pretty confident that any SaaS companies that don’t support their onboarding process with technology aren't going to be able to keep pace for long. The most successful teams are going to be the ones who strike an artful balance between human touch and high-tech efficiency.
