Top 5 Ways to Build Scalable On-boarding for Your SaaS

As a product developer or owner, you’ll understand the value proposition of your SaaS comprehensively. But although having top-of-the-range functionality, tailored user interfaces, and problem-solving services are essential, it’s all worthless without an adequate on-boarding process. Therefore, developing a scalable on-boarding technique that’s bespoke to your ideal customer persona is crucial.

Creating an on-boarding process requires some key fundamentals to be successful: show customers the key functionalities, why these are beneficial to them, and how they can achieve this, while maintaining the highest engagement. To gain a better insight into how to accomplish this for your SaaS successfully, we suggest you read the following:

1. On-platform pop-ups

The first scalable on-boarding technique we wanted to discuss is on-platform pop-ups. For those that aren’t aware, they’re small graphical user interfaces (GUI) that can showcase brief, introductory information about a feature or area of your service. By developing a small on-boarding sequence, users can quickly be shown around your platform and better understand the where, what, and how it offers.

An excellent example of this is Mailchimp. To introduce customers to their emailing marketing SaaS product, they offer pop-up GUIs that quickly explain what certain features provide. By combining these into an introductory series, users can understand how your system operates while holding their hand through the process.

‍

Undoubtedly, it’s an ideal way of showcasing your product to new prospects. By implementing this correctly, no stone is left unturned, and users will gain fundamental knowledge about how to utilize your product. Considering it’s estimated that around 55% of people say they’ve returned products because they didn’t completely understand how to use them, it’s an excellent consideration for an on-boarding strategy.

2. Questions & Answers

In addition, another excellent on-boarding procedure is a question and answers format. As mentioned by its name, it’s a strategy that includes a multitude of questions and answers. It’s superb because it engages many target audiences by breaking them into categories.

For example, let’s say after you’ve created a customer research framework, you’ve determined two different customer persona’s. Audience (1) might be professionals in the industry and only want to understand how your service works, whereas audience (2) might be amateurs that need to develop a further understanding of the reasons, benefits, and how it operates.  

These customer personas will differentiate, meaning separate on-boarding techniques will be more effective and useful. Therefore, users can be offered a more personal introductory experience by splitting them up through a question-and-answer sequence. Sprout Social shows an excellent example of this:

You can quickly see how Sprout Social splits their different audiences up based on their background from the above image. By achieving this, you can increase engagement by keeping the on-boarding content more personalized towards their needs.

Many initially successful start-ups stop growing because of inadequate on-boarding procedures that haven’t adapted to their audiences’ requirements. By implementing this strategy, you can guarantee consumer engagement by offering bespoke introduction content based on their demographics.

3. Progression bars

Including the above, progression bars are another phenomenal option. Since the beginning of GUI, these small features have been implemented into practically everything requiring you to fulfill specific needs. The reason it’s been around for so long is that it’s effective, and behavioral scientist, Oleg Urminksy, suggests it’s because working towards a goal helps motivate you to complete it.  

Progression bars can come in many different designs, some more effective than others. However, a concept that stood out to us was this one by Feedier.

From the above example, you can quickly determine the start and end of the on-boarding process. Additionally, on the righthand side, it prompts you on how you can begin moving this progression bar forward (or, in this case, downward).

By implementing this, consumers feel more inclined to progress forward and complete the introduction goal. However, while they achieve this, they begin spending more time on your platform, reducing the likelihood of them leaving even more.

4. Videos

Videos were bound to make it on this list, considering 97% of people believe videos effectively welcome and engage new customers. It’s evident why these are a popular option because they help explain and demonstrate the service like no other on-boarding technique. By directly illustrating the value of your service, consumers can quickly understand how it operates, the benefits, and expected results immediately.

Mostly all SaaS companies use Videos one way or another when developing a scalable on-boarding procedure. However, an organization that does this exceptionally well is Fiverr.  

Fiverr is a freelancing marketplace that enables consumers to find hireable candidates for projects. It’s home to over a million active freelancers, all creating new gigs daily. To guarantee optimal scalability, introducing them via a video on-boarding technique that walks them through creating these is excellent.

5. Multi-answer chatbot

The last honorable mention of scalable on-boarding techniques is a multi-answer chatbot. The concept combines various other methods and creates a more innovative structure.

If there’s one thing new prospects like, it’s quick services. Consumers receive instant answers to queries that spark their interest with multi-answer chatbots. Additionally, it splits the audience (like the question-and-answer method), allowing you to create a more personalized, bespoke introductory period that engages their customer persona even more.

There are various examples of chatbots online, but we felt like Tars offered a tremendous example based on the “Wishberry” product sample:

What we like about the above is how welcoming it feels and the engaging support it offers. Instead of listing frequently asked questions, it narrows them down into the critical on-bonding elements based on what the consumer already knows about the establishment.

For example, someone who already knows the concept behind Wishberry doesn’t necessarily need to be presented with content that offers this answer. Therefore, instead, they might want to know why to choose Wishberry. By having this option available, consumers can happily select what they want to discover based on their needs, which increases their engagement.

Conclusion

After becoming knowledgeable on the above, you should have a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of the top 5 ways to build a scalable on-boarding process. The importance of reading your market and approaching this correctly is significant, as it can increase retention rates and, most importantly, profitability.

So, now you’ve developed this knowledge, which will you be implementing into your SaaS product?

‍

‍