Ways to Ensure Customers Experience the Aha! Moment When Product Onboarding
by Leigh Hamer | Last Updated: Sep 16, 2022
The aim of an exceptional product onboarding customer experience is to ‘WOW’ the customer. This means exceeding their expectations.
If your brand relies solely on printed instructions to guide customers through a new product setup, you’re missing out on the power of digital.
Start with the end in mind. What do you want a happy customer to tell their friends?Why will they recommend your product?How will your brand stand out? Your answers form the building blocks of your product onboarding strategy.
To stand out, your product onboarding needs to be personalized, simple, and data-driven. The customer needs to feel empowered and confident. Brands that incorporate digital experiences into their customer’s onboarding experience can track customer engagement, provide timely customer support, and start building brand loyalty much earlier.
Defining Success
Success here is not merely satisfaction. We’re aiming for exceptional. Noteworthy. Remarkable. A singular event of unprecedented delight. To create this unrivaled experience, you must first understand that the height of elation – or depth of defeat – customers feel after getting a new product is in direct proportion to the time and energy invested in the purchase.
Consider the customer’s point of view:
They researched their problem. They compared and considered your product against the competition. They gave you their time.
They decided to buy. They gave you their money.
If they had to wait at all for delivery their expectations are only heightened. If this product doesn’t meet their needs, they will be sorely disappointed.
Help them find immediate value.
No matter the product or industry, customers need to be onboarded. Onboarding simply means an introduction. It’s a guided process to ensure the new customer’s first few uses are positive experiences.
Communicate
Product onboarding requires consistent and clear communication. It also begins immediately upon purchase.
A customer orders your product online. Their onboarding starts with the order confirmation. That can come in the form of a landing page, text message, email, or order-tracking app. In this case, it’s a great idea to build anticipation. Generate excitement. Personalize messages like “Our team is carefully packing your new product.” Give your customers the feeling that your team is working for them, ensuring their product is being thoughtfully delivered.
A customer buys your product from a retail store. Their onboarding starts when they read anything printed on the box. In this case, customers are looking for instructions - either how to assemble it or start using it. Using a QR code on the box or on product, allows the customer to activate a digital experience that guides them through their first use.
Every step. Every action. Everything and anything you expect your customers to do must be overly simplified. Customers will perceive this as straightforward – without room for error. That’s the level of confidence they expect.
Make Informed Updates
Well-executed digital product onboarding strategies provide brands with measurable customer insights. With a digital product installation guide, for example, brands can track how long customers spend viewing the content. Brands can see which steps take users the longest time and identify where new customers are struggling. This enables brands to make thoughtful updates to the instructions or know when to offer a live chat option.
Digital elements in the product onboarding process delight customers
Empowering a customer to use your product successfully, and ensuring they know where to find the information they need, creates an exceptional experience.
Tips
- Customers tend to be happiest immediately after successfully using a product for the first time. This is when brands have earned the right to ask for something in return. Ask customers to write a review. Have them post a picture on social media. Request they complete a brief survey.
- Support your customers. Recognize that product onboarding can be a cycle as new accessories come out or upgrades to existing products. Give them direct access to help and answers for common questions or troubleshooting issues.
Finding the Aha! moment in product onboarding is an art, not a science. All we need to do is listen. We know that a considerable part of onboarding is helping customers learn how to successfully use the product and eventually become an expert user knowing where to access the information they need.