Here’s a simple and, in some senses, dreaded fact: first impressions do matter.
People make first impressions — in consequential and non-consequential contexts and situations — all the time. While watching the first episode of a new show, going on a blind date, listening to a long-anticipated album, or visiting a new place, people’s initial opinions, feelings and experiences can leave a lasting mark.
In fact, in psychological studies on first impressions, initial interactions have been shown to last months, influence personal judgment regardless of subsequent conflicting evidence and significantly predict employers’ recruitment decisions during the hiring process.
In customer onboarding, the same holds true. The introductory phase is pivotal in boosting retention and satisfaction.
“Customer onboarding has a significant impact on whether a customer keeps using your product long-term or churns after just a few months,” said Malik Mitchell, a customer success manager at Healthee.
According to Salesforce’s 2022 State of the Connected Customer Report, 88 percent of respondents said the experience a company provides is as important as its products or services, up from 80 percent in 2020.
The onboarding process — the first impactful impression, and what determines clients’ long-term success and loyalty — is an integral part of that.
Here’s how two customer success professionals provide an effective onboarding experience.
Rho is an automated spend and cash management platform for finance professionals and organizations.
Describe your customer onboarding program. What are the main components? How has this program impacted the customer experience?
Clients who sign up for Rho have two options based on their preferences and business needs. Some may prefer to work closely with someone on our team, say, when they are setting up their accounting integration transaction feed or automated expense management workflows. In that case, each of these clients is assigned a dedicated success manager to help configure Rho according to their needs. Other clients prefer a self-service model, in which case they have access to our easy-to-use Get Started onboarding tool that offers bite-sized guides focused on crucial “jobs to be done” to begin reaping the benefits of Rho. Examples include creating your first Rho Card, inviting teammates, linking and funding your accounts and more.
It’s common for SaaS companies to only offer a self-service option with an actual human only available after hours or days. At Rho, we understand the nuances of the mature, middle-market businesses we serve and emphasize a partnership approach — providing guidance, expertise and responsive service as it is needed. Avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach has helped us generate goodwill with our clients, which shows up in our net-promoter scores.
In your experience, what are the most important aspects of creating a seamless customer onboarding experience? What does this look like in action?
First and foremost, the best operating principle is to recognize that every customer is unique and will use your platform’s capabilities in ways that are unique to their business. For example, our construction and marketing agency clients typically use our project-based budgeting tools, and our venture-backed customers enjoy using our automated treasury services. That’s the benefit of Rho’s all-in-one finance platform: You can leverage any combination of our corporate card, expense management, AP, banking and treasury capabilities based on the needs of your business. We avoid the common mistake of assuming there is a single path that fits every customer.
We avoid the common mistake of assuming there is a single path that fits every customer.”
Another critical aspect of a successful customer onboarding experience is that your client success team members are subject-matter experts on topics and processes that are most important to the clients you’re serving. In our case, Rho works with business owners, seasoned CFOs, controllers and lean finance teams. It’s crucial that our team members speak the language of finance — that they understand everything from the complexity of NetSuite instances to how critical workflows like month-end close work are.
What are the biggest hurdles you face in customer onboarding? How do you overcome these hurdles?
One thing every client success team faces is bandwidth strain. As our business continues to scale, we must boost the efficiency of our processes — much like our finance customers use Rho to do. Another challenge is that finance professionals can vary in terms of the processes and tools they use to get their jobs done and may be resistant to changing how they operate. In these scenarios, it’s crucial that we lead with empathy, providing case studies, customer references and white-glove service that helps them realize the benefits they see when demoing our platform — in a way that empowers how they work.
Healthee is on a mission to fix employee health benefits through an AI-powered platform that answers questions in an instant.
Describe your customer onboarding program. What are the main components? How has this program impacted the customer experience?
The customer onboarding process is one of the most important stages of the customer lifecycle. While it comes right at the start of their journey, it sets the tone for our customers’ relationship with your product and company. Our customer onboarding process at Healthee is split into phases like kick-off, set-up, testing and go-live.
The main components that we use to onboard are weekly client check-in calls, as well as a customer-facing project board. The weekly meetings help us continue to facilitate meaningful face-to-face relations. Meanwhile, our project board provides real-time visibility on project updates, as well as house materials and guides to ensure customers are set up for success pre- and post-launch.
This program has impacted customers in many positive ways. Not only does it facilitate trust, it also helps them avoid obstacles during use, reminds users of our value and, most importantly, shows our customers they made the right decision partnering with Healthee.
In your experience, what are the most important aspects of creating a seamless customer onboarding experience? What does this look like in action?
Customer onboarding significantly impacts whether a customer keeps using your product long-term or churns after just a few months. The biggest aspect will always be communication. When customers are selecting and paying for a new service, they might experience a fear of change. To combat this fear, you want to make sure customers feel involved in all aspects of the project and understand the product from initiation to execution. We find that highlighting and showing the value proposition early on promotes more successful onboarding.
To combat their fear of change, you want to make sure customers feel involved in all aspects of the project.”
What are the biggest hurdles you face in customer onboarding? How do you overcome these hurdles?
When customers switch to a system, they have action items in addition to their daily job responsibilities. Showing a sense of urgency and compassion goes a long way. I try to let my customers know I understand their frustrations, and the quicker we can obtain these deliverables, the quicker we can get them onboarded and solve that pain point.
Another hurdle would be if the project runs too long. Even if a customer has no hard or urgent launch date, keeping the momentum going helps keep the POCs engaged. If there are times when the project is awaiting task completion, cross-department teams use that time to share marketing and engagement materials. Teaching best practices relating to their pain point keeps their interests high.
