This slidedeck was used during our webinar on onboarding and retention. Watch the recording here: https://blog.userlane.com/resources/how-to-plant-the-retention-seed-while-onboarding-users-webinar/ Onboarding is a mission-critical phase that defines the relationship your customers will have with your brand. The rates of activation, adoption, retention, and customer success are already determined from the very first time you onboard new users. The presentation covers: ○ How to support users during the onboarding process to drive adoption and lead users to customer success ○ Why onboarding is not only connected to short-term but also long-term churn ○ The role of customer success agents in the onboarding phase ○ Plenty of examples of tactics and hacks you can put in place to drive retention and create a strong bond with your customers from the very beginning.

2. VIDEO WEBINAR:
WATCH THE RECORDING

3. WE’RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT:
● How Onboarding relates to Retention
● General Onboarding Goals
● The effects of your onboarding UX on engagement and activation
● How to hook users to your service (to create engagement and retention)
● The role of customer success

4. RETENTION

5. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

6. FALLING-OUT=BREAKUP?
One single fight
(problem) doesn’t lead
to a breakup (churn)!

7. INSTANCES OF MICRO-AGGRESSION
Instances of micro
aggression pile up
over time. Frustration
+ delays + problems
→ Snap!

8. INSTANCES OF MICRO-AGGRESSION
● Connected to frustration
● Inability to control a situation
● Lack of security/stability/predictability
● Subconscious negative feeling
● Lead to bad associations
● Masked by curiosity + novelty
● Pile up over time
● Unexpected bad consequences

9. THE FIRST IMPRESSION COUNTS
...and sets the mood for the entire
future relationship !
#nopressure !

10. WITHIN YOUR PRODUCT - BAD ONBOARDING
AND LONG-TERM CHURN
TERRIBLE ONBOARDING EXPERIENCE → Immediate Churn
ANY FORM OF FRUSTRATION/DELAY → Instance of micro aggression
[potential trigger of long-term churn]

11. CHURN AS A BY-PRODUCT OF BAD UX
Terrible UX:
● Not knowing what to do
● Being completely lost
● Not being able to rely on support
● Not being able to even start using a
product
● Not being able to see any results
Bad UX:
● It takes time to understand
● Spending time to look for the right
trigger
● Not having direct support
● Long time-to-value
● Trial and error
● Lack of thorough information

12. CHURN AS A BY-PRODUCT OF BAD UX
CHURN

13. ONBOARDING: GOALS
1. Bring users from zero to hero as fast as possible (information + set up)
2. Lead users to quick wins (solve actual problems)
3. Engagement (feature/user adoption/team…)
4. Activation and Habit Formation
5. Set the stage for a long-term relationship based on trust and value

14. VIDEO WEBINAR:
WATCH THE RECORDING

15. ONBOARDING
-It never stops
-It starts way before users test your solution
-You need to be in the driver’s seat: take control of what happens, when it
happens, at what stage → Educational/Formation

16. ONBOARDING PHASES
● First touchpoint (brand)
● Educational Content
● Signup process
● FTUX (first time user experience)
○ Trial + Commitment
● Post FTU Outreach (educational content, support,
customer success)

17. THE EFFECTS OF A PROPER ONBOARDING PROCESS
-High trial to paid conversion rate
-High level of engagement
-Activation/Habit Formation (through
triggers)
-Higher retention rate

18. SOME IMPORTANT MILESTONES
● Provide a checklist (decide on initial actions + sequence)
● Clearly define scope and goals: what outcomes can users expect?
● Eliminate delays between singup and results
● Scaffolding (important features → mastery)
● Show benefits and explain why your software is unique
● Segment users and personalize journey
● Show progress and reward users
● Allow users to integrate your solution within their existing environment (let them invest)
● Create positive associations and emotions
● Limit distractions
● Introduce novelty and variety

19. ENGAGEMENT
-Eliminate barriers between users and operations
-Reduce set up to a minimum
-Don’t force users to abandon you platform (tutorials, sandbox environment): make
sure that all actions lead to actual results
-Eliminate problems proactively (with content, demo calls, guidance, support)
-Signal the presence of real human beings (live chat…)
-Learn by doing (look at videogames)
-Present benchmarks

20. ENGAGEMENT PT II
-Define critical steps (important features and hooks)
-Introduce unexpected elements of fun
-Find balance between exploration and guidance
-Generate immediate assets (lists, achievements, rewards): outcomes and
excitement → not features!
-Allow people to involve their team
-Sense of achievement/recognition
-Customization

21. ENGAGEMENT PT III
People are not excited about features.
People are motivated by a vision:
outcomes (improved status quo) +
a better version of who they currently are.
You aren’t excited about coins → you’re
excited about having new superpowers!

22. VIDEO WEBINAR:
WATCH THE RECORDING

23. POTENTIAL ISSUES
● Limited attention span
● Users are hard to impress
● Skeptical approach
● People feel overwhelmed
● No people appointed for the job (Sales? Marketing? Customer Success?)
● UX/UI Design alone is not a solution

24. DESIGN THE FTUX
● Walk in your user’s shoes
● Define the journey for different segments
● Take each user by the hand → logical sequence of steps
● List everything the user needs to know and achieve
● Eliminate friction at each stage
● Coordinate product and customer success teams
● Create an enticing + educational experience
● Make sure the user is productive (every second away from your product is a
form of delay)

25. DESIGN THE FTUX
● Reduce perceived complexity
● Break important tasks into steps
● Reduce choice anxiety
● Add suggestions and break down information (“tell me something about
yourself” VS list of questions)
● Explain why choices are important and show pros and cons
● Pre-fill information
● Defer asking for non-critical information
● Show progress (and start from the beginning with a cool 30%!)
● Encourage users (“Almost done!”)
● Present benefits not features

26. DESIGN THE FTUX
● Link plain information (zzzzzz) to value proposition (yeah!)
● Enable users to visualize the end state (superpowers!!!)
● Collect feedback from customers
● Set the mood for a happy relationship
● Avoid hard-selling at this stage - make it all about the experience (organic
conversion)
● Reminding users of pricing + premium features is okay
● Time your messages based on results
● Monitor completion (d1, d3, w1)

27. ACTIVATION
-Content
-Customer Success
-Force actions (see Twitter, Quora, or StumbleUpon)
-Emails
-Feedback loops
-Collect and monitor metrics → adjust [FullStory?]
-Present roadmap. Announce features. Ask for
feedback.

28. HIGH-TOUCH VS LOW-TOUCH
How much you can automate depends on:
ARPU
and
Customer Segments (Lead Scoring)

29. HIGH-TOUCH ONBOARDING
Live chat, phone, email
Personalized outreach based on behavior VS generic mail
Personalized webinars
Seminars and events
Calendly link
Proper email: no fancy design, no ‘unsubscribe’, short and tight
to the point, raw text, no URL shorteners, use first name
Customer Success Calls

30. HABITS
-Habit formation leads to activation and engagement
-Habit formation is connected to repeat purchase, upselling, and retention
-Habit formation is not only keeping customers engaged within your product, but
keeping them engaged with your brand in general
-The sooner the better: more engagement at an early stage leads to activation and
investment (spending time with your product and integrating it within daily
operations)
-Habits are connected to automatisms (steer clear from dark patterns!)

31. ADVANCED CUES
-Reduce commitment (ask for micro-commitments instead)
-Motivation without ability leads to frustration!
-Core motivators:
Positive: pleasure, hope, social acceptance
-Constraints: time, money, effort, brain cycles, non-routiness, social deviance

32. FINAL REMARKS
-Keep in touch (see car dealers)
-Keep offering great content + value-adding add-ons (calculators, spreadsheets,
workbooks, news aggregators…)
-Create communities (sites, slack channels, FB groups…)
-Take care of your tribe

33. VIDEO WEBINAR:
WATCH THE RECORDING

34. Thanks for your attention!
2018