User onboarding is a very delicate process. Recognising where it begins is easy because the very first step is for a new user to signup, but where exactly does it end?
When can you consider a user to be onboarded?
Let’s start by considering what we actually mean by user onboarding.
When a new user finishes onboarding and first starts to use an app, they will often see “blank state” pages. That is, pages with no activity, history or data, because it’s their first interaction with the product.
If a new user finds the blank state page intimidating it will just increase the friction and it won't give them any reason to stick around.
Statistically, 40-60 percent of customers will never return to an app that they sign up for, and if your trial-to-paid conversion rate is in the double digit range (without a credit card provided upfront), you’re doing better than most.
Signing up for an app in 2016 isn’t a sign of commitment any more. All too often, it’s actually the SaaS equivalent of the first date — uncomfortable, awkward and destined for failure.
The onboarding process is a journey your users have to go through from the moment they sign up, until they reach the "Aha!" or "Wow! moment". Unless you will be able to guide users to their desired outcome, there's a very slim chance any of them will return in the long-term.
Here are 21 resources that will help you gain a better understanding about user onboarding and everything that's involved into providing a great first-time experience for your customers:
The first impression your product leaves upon the user is critical. If anything goes wrong during the user onboarding process, people won’t be able to receive the value of your product.
The users might decide that your product is not worth dealing with and the return for what you’ve invested up until this point will be minimum.
For any SaaS company to grow, two things need to happen: The number of new users needs to increase and the churn rate of existing users needs to decrease.
These two metrics are usually the focus of two specific departments or teams: marketing and the product manager
So where does the onboarding process fit in?
For most B2B apps or software services, onboarding new users usually involves friction even for the best optimized processes.
Things like connecting a social media service or adding a snippet of code on a website, can be a time consuming process, especially for larger companies.
It goes without saying that, until your app starts providing the benefit that it promised on the sales page, you can’t charge for that service.
With a new product on the market, getting people to invest their time in the onboarding process can be even more of a challenge.
They haven’t built a connection to your product yet and they don’t have peers raving about how brilliant it is.
They’ve read some copy, promising them that their life is going to be better after using your product, but they haven’t yet experienced that for themselves.
