SaaS Customer Onboarding Best Practices with Examples

Customer churn is a significant challenge for any business, especially for new SaaS companies, which often experience churn rates of up to 15% in their first twelve months.

To keep customers engaged and reduce churn, you must implement an effective onboarding process. A positive, personalized onboarding experience ensures that customers quickly see the value of your product. Additionally, not all customers will use your product the same way. So, it's important to create a smooth, customized journey across every touchpoint to build stronger relationships post-purchase.

In this guide, we'll share customer onboarding experience best practices complete with real-world examples that you can use to help your customers succeed with your product from Day 1.

Understanding SaaS customer onboarding

The goal of the customer onboarding journey for SaaS companies is to help new users get up to speed with your software.

From the moment a customer subscribes, the onboarding process kicks in. This is your chance to guide them through everything from setting up their account to learning key features. It is important to help users feel confident using your product so they can integrate it seamlessly into their daily workflows. 

The main objectives of SaaS onboarding are to drive product adoption, reduce churn, and build long-term relationships. When users quickly grasp the core features, they’re more satisfied and engaged. If you provide strong support from the start, you can prevent customers from dropping off by showing them immediate value.

Essential components of successful SaaS customer onboarding

The success of a SaaS customer onboarding strategy hinges on two factors: initial engagement and ongoing education and training.

Initial engagement

Your first touchpoint with new customers is your brand's first impression. Making it personalized and welcoming helps customers feel valued and confident in choosing your product. 

For your company, this means higher activation rates and fewer support requests since users clearly understand how to get started. For your customers, it means quickly seeing the value in your product, leading to increased satisfaction and a stronger likelihood of long-term commitment.

Take Zenefits, for instance. The SaaS company partnered with Skilljar to completely revamp its customer onboarding and training process. This wasn't just a minor tweak—they launched a formal customer education program with a unified onboarding experience across their Implementation, Customer Success, and Support Teams. This initiative was comprehensive, featuring 50 training courses designed to address common "how-to" questions, beginning with the first time they sign in. Additionally, it integrated with Zenefits' phone support system to deliver tailored content and notifications to users right from the start.

The result? A streamlined onboarding process that saw 13% of new users engaging with training and a 5% reduction in support tickets.

Read More: Zenefits Reduces Support Tickets by 5% with Customer & Partner Education

Education and training

Providing comprehensive education and training is crucial for helping new users understand and make the most of your SaaS product, which ultimately drives user adoption rates and reduces churn.

When users are well-trained, they stick around longer and maximize your product’s features. This makes them happier and more loyal, which means they get more value out of your product, work more efficiently, and hit their business goals faster. 

In fact, 86% of customers are likely to stay loyal to a business that invests in good onboarding content that welcomes and educates them after they sign up for a product.

To make this happen, build a robust library of resources, including detailed tutorials, step-by-step guides, and interactive content for all learning styles.

How-to videos and interactive walkthroughs are particularly effective in helping users understand how to use your product and flatten the learning curve. For example, Asana's cloud-based learning management system—Asana Academy—centralizes its diverse resources into one location. Through online courses, video tutorials, and webinar training, customers can learn the best ways to use Asana, making it easier for them to get up to speed and maximize the product’s benefits.

This ultimately helped Asana significantly boost customer satisfaction—they saw a 19-point increase in NPS vs. Non-users and have 4.5+ average CSAT scores.

Read More: Asana Scales Training and Sees 2X+ Growth in Users for eLearning Platform

SaaS customer onboarding best practices

Implementing customer onboarding best practices ensure new users quickly grasp your product and see its value. Let’s explore some that can transform your onboarding process.

Tailor onboarding processes to customer segments

As a SaaS provider, you know not all of your users are the same. They come from different industries, hold various roles, have unique needs, and possess different levels of experience. So, a one-size-fits-all approach just won't cut it.

This is where customer segmentation comes in. By segmenting your customers, a customer success manager can tailor the onboarding process to meet specific user needs. Start by collecting data on user roles, industry, company size, and previous experience with similar tools. You can gather this information during the signup process through detailed questionnaires or data enrichment tools like Clearbit or ZoomInfo. Then, create different onboarding paths for various user personas or industries.

Read More: A new segmentation model for customer onboarding

Leverage automation and personalization

Workflow automation can make the onboarding process more efficient, while still keeping that personal touch. Automating repetitive tasks allows your team to focus on more complex issues and personalized interactions.

Use tools like Intercom and Appcues to create customized onboarding journeys. They can send automated emails, including welcome emails, in-app messages, and notifications based on user behavior and progress. For example, if a user hasn’t completed a crucial setup step, the system can automatically send a personalized reminder with specific instructions. This keeps users on track and prevents them from feeling overwhelmed.

Automox's onboarding process is a great example. The company had impressive results using Skilljar for on-demand and tailored training. They created Automox University, which reduced manual onboarding time by 75% and allowed Customer Success Engineers to focus on more complex product discussions. 

This combination of automation and personalization led to a threefold increase in training enrollments shortly after launch, ensuring customers could quickly and effectively use the product.

Read More: Automox sees 75% reduction in customer onboarding time with Skilljar

Monitor and measure onboarding success

Tracking the effectiveness of your onboarding process is essential to continuously improve and adapt. Key onboarding metrics to monitor include: 

• Activation rates: Measures the percentage of users who reach a significant milestone, indicating they've begun to derive value from your product.
• Time-to-value (TTV): Tracks the amount of time it takes for users to reach the Aha moment.
• Customer satisfaction: Determined through customer feedback and surveys to understand users' contentment with the onboarding process.

To keep tabs on user engagement and progress, set up a solid analytics framework. Tools like Amplitude or Mixpanel provide detailed insights into user behavior during onboarding. By tracking where users drop off, you can pinpoint pain points and areas needing improvement. Regularly analyzing these metrics helps you make data-driven decisions for a positive onboarding experience.

Using data analytics, Egnyte’s leadership realized their current onboarding strategy of live training couldn’t keep up with the growing customer base. To address this, Egnyte launched Egnyte University, combining on-demand training, powered by Skilljar, with advanced customization. Tailored learning paths for end-users and admins included access to courses, product walk-throughs, knowledge base, webinars, and Quick Tip videos. Integrated with its Helpdesk and User Community, this unified customer support system successfully doubled Egnyte’s TTV and boosted customer retention.

Read More: With Egnyte University's training, users find value in Egnyte's platform 2x faster

How LMSs help with customer onboarding

Offering structured, scalable, and engaging training experiences, Learning Management Systems (LMSs) give you a leg up in streamlining customer onboarding.

These systems consistently deliver key information, crucial for helping customers understand and use your product effectively. Scalability means you can onboard numerous customers simultaneously without extra resources. Plus, engaging content like interactive courses and quizzes makes learning enjoyable and memorable.

What's more, on-demand access lets customers learn at their own pace, boosting satisfaction and reducing support needs. 

Drive success through effective SaaS customer onboarding with Skilljar

In the world of SaaS, getting the onboarding flow right is crucial for creating customers that will stay with you. Skilljar's powerful LMS can help you achieve this by allowing you to craft personalized and effective onboarding experiences.

With Skilljar, you can create tailored and interactive customer training modules that cater to different user segments, ensuring each customer receives the information they need. Plus, robust analytics tools let you track user progress and engagement, highlighting areas where new customers might need extra support. This data-driven approach means you can continuously refine your onboarding process. 

Skilljar also integrates seamlessly with your existing CRM and support systems, providing a smooth experience for both your team and customers.

‍Get a demo to learn how Skilljar enhances product adoption and satisfaction while reducing churn rate.