What is User Onboarding: Definition and Examples
User onboarding is essential for software and web services. According to Tailor Brands statistics, most users make up their minds about a product within 7-90 seconds. During this time, it is imperative to form a positive impression that will help maximize the degree of engagement. Today, we will tell you how to do this by properly creating a user onboarding process. Let's understand what it is and what examples you can use to organize your business processes.
What is User Onboarding
By definition, user onboarding is the process of familiarization with a product designed to demonstrate the value of software or services and teach how to apply them as efficiently as possible. It provides an example of the future experience of interacting with a product and shows how customers can achieve their goals.
Thus, after the onboarding process is complete, users should be able to use the basic features of a product or know where to find detailed instructions. Ideally, users should be able to test a service or software themselves, but this is not always possible. The choice between a theoretical presentation and practice-oriented training is made on a case-by-case basis (mainly depending on the complexity of the product).
During onboarding, users are often shown the possible results of using a product. This allows customers to link the product's use to their own success, increasing the degree of engagement and extending the estimated cooperation period.
Now that you know the meaning of user onboarding, let's move on to the main metrics.
How to Measure User Onboarding Effectiveness
The most important metric of user onboarding is the retention rate. In software and SaaS services, it is calculated using the following formula:
The logic is clear: if a user intends to continue cooperation and is willing to pay to use a product, the presentation was successful. It is advisable to analyze this indicator in the dynamics, for example, before and after changes in a user onboarding strategy. To determine your market placement, you can also compare it with the industry average or the results of your closest competitors.
Sometimes, simple solutions are the best. Therefore, to determine how effective the adaptation process is, you should ask your users about it. For example, TMetric, a time-tracking app, used Claspo widgets to ask new and regular users to provide feedback on their experience. Our web page widgets quickly redirected them to the Capterra and G2 platforms, where they could leave their reviews.
However, you can also run surveys with closed and open questions right on your website. This will allow you to gain more valuable insights about the user experience during onboarding. Take a look at this template, for example.
Yes, it is currently most suitable for the e-commerce industry, but our intuitive editor allows you to adapt it quickly to your needs. Here's how you can customize it in a few clicks:
In addition to simple customization, Claspo offers flexible display rules. For example, you can set your survey widget to appear once a month to receive regular user feedback. Another example is that your pop-up can appear if the user clicks on the "Cancel subscription" button, allowing them to share the reasons for the decision or take advantage of a special offer to continue the subscription on favorable terms. Implement any scenario with Claspo!
Another important user onboarding metric is the acceptance rate. Its generalized formula looks like this:
The target action for the calculation depends on the company's software features, goals and business model. If you need to assess financial results, you should choose the number of paid subscriptions. If the customer base growth rate is more important, choose the number of invitations to new users. To analyze the depth of product use, choose the number of open projects, etc.
To analyze a user's journey during adaptation, you can calculate the engagement characteristics:
This metric is best used to compare different time periods, segments of the target audience or software modules. This method will help you identify weaknesses in the user adaptation strategy and determine the priority areas for its improvement.
Another indicator that can be used in an analytics system is stickiness. Actually, it is the frequency of product usage:
Depending on the service or application's features, you can also use other time frames, such as the ratio of active users per week, per month, per year, etc. “Stickiness” shows a product's value and irreplaceability. The more often users turn to it, the higher the levels of engagement and loyalty are.
Why is User Onboarding Important
First impressions are the most important. Marketing consultant Esteban Kolsky, referring to the White House OCA study, says that a positive onboarding user experience motivates 72% of users to tell at least six other people about a product. And negative experiences make 13% of customers spread the word to 12 people or more. Of course, every business wants to get into the first category when onboarding new users. And to achieve this, you need to do everything right.
WiFiTalents provides the following statistics on the importance of user training and demonstrating a product value:
- 86% of respondents say that a positive user experience during the onboarding process motivates them to become loyal customers of a company.
- Businesses that constantly work to improve their user onboarding strategy have 82% higher retention rates.
- 55% of users admit that they do not want to return to a service if they cannot understand it during the first session. As a result, 20-30% of customers sign up for a paid subscription for one period only and do not renew it.
Slack is a great example of success in this case. The corporate messenger uses a very simple but effective strategy for onboarding new users. It combines detailed instructions with an informal approach, such as messages like “YES!” and the chatbot apologizes for being stupid. In addition, Slack actively uses empty screen space to place tips.
Slack is constantly changing its strategy and conducting bold experiments to improve the onboarding process. It completely changed its approach to user onboarding in 2014, 2016, 2019, and 2022. These experiments resulted in a 90 percent average annual growth in the customer base and an annual increase in the company's revenue by 40-50%.
User Onboarding Process: 3 Steps
In classical marketing theory, the user onboarding flow is seen as a path from product awareness to loyalty.
However, the problem with this approach is that most of its stages are not directly related to onboarding itself. Its processes are concentrated on decision-making stages and customer service. That is why we will discuss an alternative approach, which involves the allocation of primary, secondary and tertiary onboarding.
Primary onboarding
This is the moment when a user should say “Aha!” and reach for the subscription button. Its purpose is to demonstrate the minimum required set of product features and show how it can solve a client's problems. At this stage, the main elements of user onboarding are demonstrations and simplified instructions in infographic format.
It is crucial to clearly and understandably show a future client how the product helps them achieve their priority goals. To achieve this, it is advisable to use very short fragments of text, screenshots or schematic pictures.
For example, the TMetric app mentioned above simplified user onboarding with short reports, statistics and summaries. Claspo pop-ups, in turn, informed users of helpful information available and invited them to learn more about each step of the onboarding.
Another tool for initial onboarding can be a trial version of a service. A user should see how the software works in practice. It is worth engaging them in a simple learning process of 3-5 steps and congratulating them on successfully completing the first task. It's exactly like in computer games - there is a mission and a reward. This cycle motivates people to return again and again, increasing the level of engagement. Examples of such elements of user onboarding:
- a trial trading account at Alpari;
- help with finding the first Instagram followers;
- free or discounted first rides with Uber, Lyft, Bolt and other ridesharing services.
Secondary onboarding
It's a big mistake to stop at the moment of registration or payment for a subscription. At this stage, a client has yet to reveal their maximum value for the company. Therefore, the new user onboarding process continues by demonstrating additional features. These can be separate software modules available for an additional fee or advanced tools built into the basic version. In the first case, the business receives more income; in the second case, it increases user satisfaction.
Examples of secondary onboarding:
- monthly Asana webinars;
- personalized life hacks in the Spotify app;
- free and discounted improvements to Verizon accounts.
And here is again an example from TMetric (what a convenient case, right?). They acquainted the users with all the helpful updates in a timely manner. Claspo pop-ups appeared in the app for a month after each release and redirected users to a detailed introduction to the new features. Benefits? Users definitely did not miss new application possibilities and could implement them in their tasks for better results.
Secondary onboarding in the user journey can also motivate users to reuse certain service functions and modules. To increase engagement, you can provide customers with credits, bonuses and increased limits. Another effective tool is a case study, in which you should tell a success story. All this will improve retention rates and reduce the outflow of users to competitors.
Tertiary onboarding
The process doesn't end even when a user becomes a mature customer, gradually reaching the peak of their value. You can get even more value from them by turning them into advocates for your brand. To do this, you should use tools such as referral programs, rewards for connected accounts, and posts on the company's blog or official social media. Demonstrating how it works in practice and giving the first reward in advance will significantly increase the likelihood that a customer will want to join the program.
Another element of onboarding at the late stage of the user journey is to create the grounds for the probability of expanding the subscription in the future. Even if a customer already has a top-end tariff plan, it's worth offering them an opportunity to participate in testing experimental features, new products or additional software modules. This way, you can solve several problems at once:
- increase the level of trust and loyalty;
- get valuable feedback to improve your product;
- increase the potential lifetime value of customers.
Examples of tertiary onboarding:
- subscription to experimental features in Serpstat;
- reports on investment opportunities in Wealthfront;
- access to the professional community on the Shopify platform.
User Onboarding Best Practices with Examples
We will tell you how to improve the user onboarding process and what real business examples you should follow.
1. Personalize the onboarding process
Develop a customized path for each of your target audience segments. Tailor the training and demonstrations to their needs, preferences and tentative knowledge at the start. According to Gitnux, this will reduce user churn by 20% and help keep users' attention longer to get better engagement rates.
An example of user onboarding in this case is CMS Tumbler. The platform has dozens of schemes for demonstrating its product. Each of them even has its own virtual persona, accompanying a future client all the way to the moment of conversion.
2. Consider the needs of users
Everyone has their own way of learning, speed of information acquisition, and style of applying practical skills. Follow the example of top schools — the best user onboarding is a multimodal system with an extensive structure. If a user encounters difficulties, provide them with additional advice at a certain stage. If a user quickly understands the product, allow them to skip a separate block of the demonstration. Business Dit's research shows that this approach can increase a company's profit by an average of 7.4%.
The best example in this case is the Duolingo app. It offers a very flexible onboarding process, where beginners can get advanced assistance on certain functions, and experienced users can skip the beginning of the training to avoid wasting time.
3. Use progressive onboarding systems
Don't try to say everything at once. The best user onboarding experience can be gained by reducing instructions and demonstrations to 4-5, and sometimes 10 points or slides. Make sure that a customer has gotten acquainted with the information, learned about the product's value, and learned how to use a particular feature, and only then move on to the next stage. CommandBar's surveys show that 81% of users have a positive attitude toward instructions in Step-by-Step formats, which is significantly higher than video guides, which score 54%.
If you want to show new users step-by-step instructions, choose Claspo’s slider. Arrange the slides sequentially and introduce all the steps of using your product. This will simplify their onboarding and show how to achieve the best results faster, which will definitely turn newbies into regular users of your service!
A good example is Notion, an intelligent productivity platform. The onboarding process is represented by a checklist that can be filled out in any order or even skipped. Each step is simplified as much as possible, which creates perfect conditions for fast and effective learning.
Experienced users can also recall an example of a poorly customized onboarding process. For instance, Clippy, a virtual assistant in older versions of Microsoft Office, overwhelmed users with huge amounts of irrelevant information and constantly distracted them from their work. Not surprisingly, the company abandoned it later.
