In today's competitive market, onboarding can make or break your relationship with new customers. Effective onboarding helps customers understand how to use your product or service and sets the tone for long-term engagement and satisfaction.
It’s through CRM systems that this can be achieved effectively, and HubSpot has been designed to make onboarding a smooth process. However, it isn’t just knowing the best onboarding practices that will make this successful, but having the right HubSpot experts on your team will ensure that your onboarding hits the mark on every step.
In this blog, we'll explore the importance of onboarding, how you can effectively onboard customers using HubSpot, and why having in-house experts ensures a seamless and engaging experience.
Understanding the Importance of Customer Onboarding
It’s easy to think that the hard work is done once you have brought in a new customer through the Sales process. But customers don’t just want to use your services, they want to know that they feel valued which is when customer onboarding comes in.
Customer onboarding is the process of welcoming new clients and helping them get acquainted with your product or service. There are multiple reasons why your onboarding needs to be well-structured including:
First Impressions: The initial experience a customer has with your business will determine if they become long-lasting clients and loyal to your brand/service. Your sales pitch and process to making them a customer could be excellent, but your onboarding needs to be just as strong. You want them to feel comfortable and confident that they have made the right choice by choosing you.
Reducing Churn: Up to 20% of businesses can struggle with reducing churn when looking to create a successful customer experience. Effective onboarding reduces the chances of customers abandoning your product or service due to confusion or frustration. Successful onboarding also fosters trust and confidence. When users feel supported and well-informed, they’re more likely to see the service as valuable, which increases their commitment.
Increasing Customer Success: Through structured guidance and support, onboarding helps users quickly become familiar with essential features, making it easier for them to achieve their specific goals. By setting users up for early wins and ongoing success, onboarding turns new customers into successful, long-term advocates of the business.
Step-by-Step Guide to Onboarding Customers with HubSpot
1. Understand what success means to you
The first and most important step is understanding what is important to your business and what needs to change. To build a successful onboarding process, you need to do your research on what you have/do currently. Ask yourself questions such as:
- What do we want to achieve from this?
- Do we lose customers at a specific time?
- Are we skipping a step(s) that could strengthen our onboarding?
- Are we leveraging HubSpot to its full potential? Figure this out before you create and implement your plan.
2. Segment Your Customers
Before you start the onboarding process, it's crucial to segment your customers based on their needs, preferences, and behaviours. HubSpot's CRM allows you to create detailed customer profiles and segment them into different lists. This segmentation helps to personalise the onboarding experience, ensuring each customer receives relevant information and support.
3. Create an Onboarding Workflow
Workflows in HubSpot allow you to automate and streamline the onboarding process. Here's what you need to consider when building an effective onboarding workflow:
- Define Goals: Set clear objectives for your onboarding process. What do you want customers to achieve in the first week, month, and quarter?
- Map the Journey: Outline the key steps in the onboarding process, which can vary depending on how you utilise HubSpot. But consider steps along the journey such as account setup, product training, and milestone achievements.
- Automate Emails: Use HubSpot's email marketing tool to create a series of automated onboarding emails. These emails should welcome new customers, provide necessary resources, and guide them through the initial setup.
4. Personalise Communication
Personalisation is key to a successful onboarding process. Use the data from HubSpot's CRM to tailor your communication based on the customer's profile and behaviour. Sending personalised emails, messages, and content makes customers feel valued and shows your appreciation for them using your services.
5. Provide Comprehensive Resources
Ensure that customers have access to all the resources they need to succeed with your product/service. HubSpot's Service Hub is excellent for this as customers can have access to HubSpot’s knowledge base offering help articles and tutorials. Make sure these resources are easily accessible and cover common customer queries and issues.
6. Offer Hands-On Support
Despite having a wealth of self-service resources, some customers may still require personal assistance. HubSpot's customer support tools, including help desk/ticketing and Breeze Customer Agent, enable you to provide timely and effective support. Ensure your support team is well-trained and equipped to handle common onboarding issues.
7. Track and Measure Success
It's essential to track the progress of your onboarding process and measure its success. HubSpot's analytics tools in Marketing Hub allow you to monitor key metrics, such as email open rates, customer engagement, and support ticket resolution times. Use these insights to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions.
8. Gather Feedback
Feedback is an asset in refining your onboarding process. Through Service Hub, you can gather feedback from new customers about their onboarding experience. Ask questions about the clarity of instructions, the usefulness of resources, and the responsiveness of support. Use this feedback to make continuous improvements.
9. Celebrate Milestones
Recognise and celebrate your customers' achievements during the onboarding process. Whether it's completing their profile, setting up their first campaign (If using HubSpot), or reaching a usage milestone, acknowledging these accomplishments can boost customer morale and engagement.
10. Maintain Ongoing Engagement
Onboarding doesn't end once the initial setup is complete. Maintain ongoing engagement with your customers to ensure they continue to derive value from your product. Customers who have used your services for a long time can sometimes get pushed to the back and sometimes forgotten, so it’s important to give them as much attention as you would with new customers.
Bring a HubSpot Expert onto your team
Now you have a better understanding of how to onboard new customers with HubSpot and the importance of onboarding overall. But this blog will be useless to you if you don’t know how to access HubSpot’s full potential or have just brought the CRM into your business.
This is when bringing a HubSpot expert onto your team is the solution.
Having a HubSpot expert on your team can significantly improve customer onboarding by ensuring that every step of the process is streamlined, customised, and aligned with your business and customer needs. A HubSpot expert can configure the CRM, marketing, and sales tools to create an onboarding experience tailored to new customers, making it easier for them to see immediate value.
If you're not sure what expertise are needed, have a read through our expertise page.
How we can help
As the first and leading HubSpot recruitment agency in the UK, we have the knowledge of what is needed in a HubSpot expert to be successful in your required role. We screen every candidate in depth and ensure that they match the required skills and cultural fit for your business. We’ll work with you every step of the way for a seamless recruitment process and be here to offer any advice you need.
Get in touch with Steadman Hub today, book your initial consultation call and get HubSpot hiring!
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Conclusion
Customer onboarding is a critical component of customer success and retention. By leveraging HubSpot's powerful tools and following best practices, you can create an effective onboarding process that sets your customers up for long-term success. Remember, the goal is to make your customers feel supported, informed, and confident. With a well-structured onboarding process and a HubSpot expert on your team, you'll not only reduce churn but also foster lasting customer relationships.
