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Do you really know the benefits of a great onboarding?

First impressions count in life — and in SaaS onboarding.




When users initially sit down with your product, you want them to feel comfortable using it. If they don't, they might walk away and never turn back.


This problem is made more complicated because users have a lot of choices these days. If your product isn't easy to use, they'll find one that is. Bad user onboarding can cause customer churn, hurt revenues, and increase customer acquisition costs (CAC). 


Some software is so simple that a toddler could intuitively figure out how to use it. However, a lot of SaaS tools have complex features and functions.


So how can you ensure that users are comfortable with your product straight away? The answer is simple: use a no-code user onboarding tool like Usetiful.




Good user onboarding drives retention

Users download products because they have a need or problem. If your product adequately solves their issue, they'll probably keep using it.


User retention is an essential metric for increasing customer lifetime value (CLV). Studies suggest that a positive onboarding experience increases two important factors:

  • The number of users retained

  • The likelihood that users will pay for a product



Image 1: Customer with positive onboarding experience has an 88.7% retention rate in the first 9 weeks. - Profitwell


Retaining paying customers is vital for increasing revenues. When users first engage with your product, they don't know how it will give them value. A product tour or interactive user guide can lead them to their aha moment, AKA the point where they "get" how the product will help them achieve their goals.


Keeping user churn to a minimum is essential. It's far cheaper to retain customers than acquire new ones. Additionally, if your product is leaking a high number of users, spending a lot of money on acquisition isn't really sustainable.


All products experience some level of attrition for a variety of reasons. However, if one of the reasons your users are leaving is because they don't understand how to unlock the value of your product, you probably need an automated onboarding tool.


New users pose a particular problem for some products. If a product has a lot of features and functionality, users need to learn how to navigate the app to unlock its potential. But things like user manuals don’t always cut it.


One of our clients, Asset Connect from Schneider Electric, is a good case in point. They provide a way to connect users’ energy-creating assets – like solar, wind, and hydroelectric power — on one platform. From here, users can monitor their assets, run analytics, and generate reports.



Image 2: Asset Connect from Schneider Electric onboard their users with Usetiful checklist.


Because the platform offers so many possibilities, getting up to speed on the product requires investing time for users. Asset Connect employed Usetiful to build a User Onboarding Checklist, so its users could “learn by doing.”


As users work their way through the checklist, Asset Connects product tours adapt. This process helps users feel in control as they are guided through each feature. Additionally, because the tours feel like part of the product, they enhance the customer experience. 


Usetiful helps users get instant value out of complex, feature-rich software. SaaS businesses can significantly boost their retention rates if users realize value early by learning how to use a product in an engaging way.




User onboarding increase revenues

Solid user onboarding can have a positive effect on the bottom line. As we showed above, when users know how to get value from a product, they are more likely to keep using it. Similarly, they will be more prepared to pay for your service.



Image 3: Customers who had a positive onboarding experience are 12%-21% more likely to purchase. - Profitwell


Holding on to paying users increases revenues. When coupled with strong user acquisition, these figures add up quickly because user churn is reduced, meaning your user base can grow.


Positive onboarding experiences convert more users. Research also suggests that it helps keep users for longer.


To demonstrate how Usetiful can help drive retention and boost revenues, let’s look at one of our case studies. roHealth is a Nigerian tech startup that helps businesses and employees choose and save money on health insurance plans. It faced an issue that will be very familiar to SaaS companies: converting signups into users.


After running a survey, they found the root of their retention problems. Users weren’t sure how to use their app once they had signed up. They were interested in the service but weren’t sure how to get value from the app. This problem was what we built Usetiful to solve.


They used Usetiful’s no-code interface to build:

  • A product tour

  • An interactive user guide

  • Smartips

By showing their users how to get value from their product, roHealth boosted its SaaS onboarding rate by 47%. 

With customer acquisition costs (CAC) on the rise, the importance of guiding your users towards their “aha moment” is vital. Our DAP provided roHealth with a cost-effective way to retain users, all while saving them money and boosting their revenues.




User onboarding can lower CAC

Customer acquisition costs (CAC) have been rising in recent years. There are lots of different factors at play here. Digital advertising is becoming more competitive, and more robust data privacy laws are making advertising less targeted. All of this has meant that developers need to pay more to find new users.


When each new user costs more to acquire, it means two things.


a) you need to convert users at a higher rate

b) retaining users becomes more important.


Automated onboarding tools like Usetiful can help with both situations. 


When users first encounter your product, a product tour or interactive user guide can demonstrate why your solution is a great fit for their needs. That means you can absorb slightly higher CAC because you convert more users.


Similarly, when you can hold on to users for longer, you're less reliant on acquisition. Some estimates suggest that retaining users is about 5-25X less expensive than acquisition. Additionally, current customers create upselling opportunities, which experts suggest is about 4X cheaper than finding new users.




Conclusion

Automated onboarding tools, like Usetiful, can help:

  • Drive user retention

  • Increase revenues 

  • Lower CAC

And let's be honest, who doesn't want that?


Simple no-code tools like Usetiful allow developers to create intuitive product tours or interactive user guides. These overlays can help users get value from your product quickly, which leads to higher conversion and retention rates.


If you need help with SaaS onboarding, choose an easy-to-use digital adoption platform like Usetiful.





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