Strategies to Improve Onboarding and Reduce Customer Churn

When I was head of growth, our team reached 40% activation rates, and onboarded hundreds of thousands of new users. Without knowing it, we discovered a framework. Here are the 6 steps we followed. 1. Define value: Successful onboarding is typically judged by new user activation rates. But what is activation? The moment users receive value. Reaching it should lead to higher retention & conversion to paid plans. First define it. Then get new users there. 2. Deliver value, quickly Revisit your flow and make sure it gets users to the activation moment fast. Remove unnecessary steps, complexity, and distractions along the way. Not sure how to start? Try reducing time (or steps) to activate by 50%. 3. Motivate users to action: Don't settle for simple. Look for sticking points in the user experience you can solve with microcopy, empty states, tours, email flows, etc. Then remind users what to do next with on-demand checklists, progress bars, & milestone celebrations. 4. Customize the experience: Ditch the one-size fits all approach. Learn about your different use cases. Then, create different product "recipes" to help users achieve their specific goals. 5. Start in the middle: Solve for the biggest user pain points stopping users from starting. Lean on customizable templates and pre-made playbooks to help people go 0-1 faster. 6. Build momentum pre-signup: Create ways for website visitors to start interacting with the product - and building momentum, before they fill out any forms. This means that you'll deliver value sooner, and to more people. Keep it simple. Learn what's valuable to users. Then deliver value on their terms.

🙈 Confession: My startup Curata once faced a dismal 60% churn rate, renewing only 40% of revenue. It was tough & we were on the brink of losing hope. 🚀 But guess what? We managed to turn the tide and double our renewal rates in just nine months! How did we do it? Through a game-changing approach called "Critical Care" that we developed in conjunction with our advisor, Mark Roberge (of Stage 2 Capital & founding CRO of HubSpot). We all strive for customer success, but did you know there are four distinct means to achieve it? Let's explore them: 💊 Customer Support (Urgent Care): Reactive support is essential for addressing customer issues, just like visiting an urgent care clinic when you're unwell. 🍼 Onboarding (Neonatal Care): Onboarding ensures a smooth start for customers, much like neonatal care for infants, setting them up for a healthy journey. 🩺 Business Reviews (Routine Checkups): Regular checkups through business reviews help understand customer needs, like routine checkups with a doctor. 🚑 Critical Care (The Advanced Approach): Here's the game-changer! Critical Care is an advanced form of customer success that proactively detects subtle issues and provides urgent attention -- like dispatching an ambulance out to the patient if anything seems wrong. 🚨 What is Critical Care? It's like having remote diagnostic monitors on a patient, allowing us to identify potential churn risks early on and take immediate action before it was too late. Here are just a few some Critical Care triggers to track: 📉 Drop or no recent product usage 🔗 Broken integrations 👤 Champion left the organization 🆕👥 New users created in product 🏢🔄 Acquisition of customer's company 🔄📝 Change in use case ⏳💸 Overdue payments Most companies typically just do the support, onboarding, and business reviews, but these aren't enough. By the time that it's time for a quarterly business review, often the customer has churned already (at least mentally). That's why critical care is so important. Identifying these triggers early gave us the power to take swift action, preventing churn and strengthening customer relationships. In short, we adopted attitude of extreme ownership where any customer problem became our problem. We had to retool our process, technology and most importantly the culture to make this change, but once we did the results followed in our renewal rates. 👉 If you're facing similar challenges in your SaaS business, I hope that you can turn things around from what I went through the hard way -- and what worked. Read the full post to learn how we did this & how you can too 👇 https://lnkd.in/gVtzwZXr #SaaS #CustomerSuccess #RenewalRates #BusinessGrowth #CustomerRetention Special thanks to the dedicated former members of the Curata customer success team: Matt Cordaro, Craig Blum, Brady Delahanty, Andrew Cleak, Jesse Meeks, ALM, Keegan Hinson, Derek Jacobson, Brian Felschow, Tyler Beeson, Erica Ayotte Favorito, Dave Wigder.

How I led my last Customer Success team to 2X our revenue in one year - while being new to the industry: 🚂 Onboarding - Moved asynchronous onboarding to a hybrid model - One-off onboarding to a cohort model - Made deadlines for sign-ups with sales team - Created automated email flows and reminders for tasks - Created clear goals for each day of onboarding - Streamlined our LMS, took off a bunch of courses, made it region specific 🔢 Data Obsession - Transitioned our culture from anecdotes to data storytelling - Measured absolutely everything and refined our KPIs - Identified keystone habits to improve the customer journey - Identified the journey of our best customers and made it the standard - Integrated multiple systems that led to a bunch of automations - Reported on data regularly. This was our meeting mantra: "If there is no data, there is no meeting." 🤝 Sales-Success Handoff - Struck an iron-sharpens-iron relationship with each other. Sometimes there can be friction, but we always sharpened each other. - Gave clear feedback on what the business needed: quality over quantity - We really dug into our Biz Dev team's diligence - so much gold - Dug through our data to find our ideal customer persona - Learned that some times you just gotta say "no" 👨💻 CS Ops became our superpower - Created tech touch campaigns for low-volume customers - Onboarding used to take dozens of hours a week per CSM, and now it takes a fraction of the time for one associate - Created dashboards that helped us see clear insights into the business - Created risk and health factors that triggered a sleuth of interventions - Created a ticketing system with automation, canned responses, and a robust knowledge base to reduce internal escalations 🏃♀️ Let others lead - My teams had abilities beyond my own, I gave them space to run with their ideas. - Someone wanted to do local in-person trainings - Do it - Someone wanted to bring in a new product to sell - Go for it - Someone wanted to modify onboarding - Test it out - I learned this saying when I was lifting at a powerlifting gym at age 13: "Check your ego at the door." 💥 By the end of 2023, our team increased revenue by 215%

The biggest mistake I see SaaS brands make with their onboarding: Focusing too much on features and not enough on outcomes. Your customers need to know what your product can help THEM achieve. Some tips to improve your onboarding process: ✅ Identify the key activation points that lead to long-term retention These are the moments when customers experience significant value from your product. Understanding these critical moments and guiding your customers towards them early in the onboarding process is crucial. ✅ Remove any unnecessary friction in your signup and setup process. Simplify every step to ensure a smooth experience from the start. Evaluate your signup forms and setup instructions. Are they straightforward? Can any steps be automated or eliminated? The easier you make it for customers to get started, the more likely they are to stay. ✅ Provide clear, outcome-oriented guidance at each step Instead of just showing how to use features, explain the benefits these features bring. For example, rather than saying “Use our analytics tool to track metrics,” Say “Use our analytics tool to gain insights into your sales performance and make data-driven decisions.” This helps customers understand the real value your product offers. Your onboarding should be laser-focused on helping customers reach their first success as quickly as possible. Early wins are crucial for building confidence and demonstrating value. You already have a key outcome your onboarding process aims to deliver. Now, ask yourself: How can you streamline that process even further to make it seamless and effective? Make your onboarding process more outcome-driven and customer-centric & you will significantly increase your customer retention and satisfaction. By the way, what challenges are you facing with your current onboarding process?

🛑 Solving the CS foundation gap - The customer onboarding lifecycle Customer onboarding is a crucial CS foundation we aim to be gap-free. In previous posts, I addressed the Sales-CS handshake as a preliminary step for onboarding. First, I want to tear apart a belief I see in many places by CSMs, and executives: "The onboarding is the process to make the customer use the product." ❌ WRONG ❌ The truth is that onboarding demonstrates the business value our service can bring them, connects the value to the reasons for buying and business pains, and builds confidence in the users, buyers, and champions that we are the right solution for them. The onboarding is the dating period between the customer, the CSM, and the service. But this dating is challenging. We, the service provider, know we want to continue to date, but for the customer, this dating is blind. They saw a picture of us (the POV or trial) and were still afraid and unsure if we were the chosen one or maybe they should date others. So, like dating, the goals of the onboarding process are: 1️⃣ Build rapport with the executive buyer, champion, and early users. 2️⃣ Demonstrate the business values, connect them to the reasons for buying, and validate the ROI as an outcome of time and money savings. 3️⃣ Build the trust of the buyers that they chose the right solution. 4️⃣ Show the end users that our service improves their lives. The results of a good onboarding life cycle and process are: 💰 Shorter time to value 💰 Increase upsell and cross-sell opportunities 💰 Reduce churn risk 💰 Reduce customer frustration Onboarding can vary and depends on the touch level, the product, the complexity, and the customer segment (SMB, mid-market, enterprise). Here is a simple suggestion for an onboarding life cycle template: 🛫 Onboarding Kickoff - with the executive buyer and champion to remind the reasons for buying, understand which teams will be involved, and plan the onboarding project plan. 🛫 Integration - set up all the needed integrations and settings. 🛫 Admins setup & training - setting up the needed admins and training them. 🛫 End users setup & training - setting up and training the needed end users. 🛫 Value perceived - Customer sees the value and understands its ROI and how it resolves its business issues. 🛫 Onboarding retrospective - Reminding the reasons for buying, providing proof of the business value, sharing the ROI, and planning the next six months together (until the QBR). The meeting must include the executive buyer and not just the champion. During the onboarding period, we want to meet with the champion at least once a week, ensure we address their business and technical questions, hold both sides accountable for the next steps, and continue building rapport. Onboarding is the foundation for the rest of the year. Investing in closing the gap will increase the probability of long relationships. #clg #customerledgrowth #sales #customersuccess

STOP: You're doing customer onboarding wrong if you think of it as a one-time event. ❌ When we say "onboarding", the one we most often think of is the first engagement with a customer when they purchase your solution initially. (Not to be confused with implementation, but that's for another post). Onboarding is a critical interaction used to establish the expectations of the relationship and set the tone for what's to come. It outlines process, establishes trust, and combats negative emotions, like buyer's remorse. Customers learn how to access the product, the team, and the support that they will need as they embark on their journey with you and your solution. What we often overlook when talking about onboarding is that the customer journey is anything but static. Change is constant. ♻ Their players change. ♻ The customer's needs change. ♻ Your product offerings change. ♻ Your players change. Any one of these scenarios would be reason to re-engage using an onboarding interaction, even though the customer is already secured and may be well into their relationship with you. This is especially true when decision makers leave. The script is different, but the motion is similar. Onboarding is therefore a series of engagements - with multiple people - that occurs throughout the customer lifecycle. Too often, I've seen the "re-onboarding" scenario overlooked or generalized when designing the customer journey. It should be a specific trigger with careful monitoring. Three things I like to see when designing re-onboarding activities: 1️⃣ An up-to-date joint success plan to be used to educate the new stakeholder about what priorities were in place and how you were tracking against them with their predecessor. I can't emphasize enough how valuable this resource is in these conversations. Neglect them at your own risk. 2️⃣ Early enablement. Get something locked in as soon as is practical with your new stakeholder to take them through your solution and train them on it. Their calendars will fill up quickly and they likely won't reserve enough time for you once they are off to the races. Take advantage of this small window. 3️⃣ Schedule regular interactions to stay close to them over their first 90 days. Use this time to educate, add value, build rapport and trust, and make a stellar first impression. Augment human interactions with digital value-add nurture workflows. For any given book of business (even those who are managing less than 5 accounts), change is constant. Don't make the mistake of thinking that onboarding is just for new logos.

How do you maximize renewal rates?  - New business and expansion is tough now  - So retention rates will make or break you  - But CFOs are scrutinizing every line item Here’s a primer: 𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙍𝙏 𝙒𝙀𝙇𝙇 𝙄𝙉 𝘼𝘿𝙑𝘼𝙉𝘾𝙀 Startl a month or two before the renewal and you’ve already lost. There’s nowhere near enough time to turn things around. All you can do is beg and plead and throw out discounts and other concessions. 𝘽𝙐𝙄𝙇𝘿 𝘼 𝙍𝙀𝙉𝙀𝙒𝘼𝙇 𝙋𝙄𝙋𝙀𝙇𝙄𝙉𝙀 𝙄𝙉 𝙎𝘼𝙇𝙀𝙎𝙁𝙊𝙍𝘾𝙀 Do you have an actual pipeline for renewals in your CRM? Every customer should have an open opportunity with a close date and be assigned to a person responsible for the renewal. 𝙄𝘿𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙄𝙁𝙔 𝙐𝙉𝙃𝙀𝘼𝙇𝙏𝙃𝙔 𝘾𝙐𝙎𝙏𝙊𝙈𝙀𝙍𝙎 𝙀𝘼𝙍𝙇𝙔 This usually starts with product usage data. Preferably this is aggregated and integrated into your CRM, but even if you have to login to a separate system, do you have someone responsible for reviewing this data in real time? Also, don’t miss feedback in meetings and emails. This is also critical to capture. 𝘿𝙀𝙁𝙄𝙉𝙀 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙋𝙍𝙊𝘾𝙀𝙎𝙎 𝙏𝙊 𝙂𝙀𝙏 𝘾𝙐𝙎𝙏𝙊𝙈𝙀𝙍𝙎 𝙃𝙀𝘼𝙇𝙏𝙃𝙔 Document the step by step process to get a meeting with the right people and then help them get value from the platform. This might take months of work across multiple stakeholders so it’s critical to have a documented process and get in front of this early.  For extra credit, build these steps into your CRM so you can see which unhealthy accounts have gone through which steps. 𝘿𝙀𝙁𝙄𝙉𝙀 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙊𝙉𝘽𝙊𝘼𝙍𝘿𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙋𝙍𝙊𝘾𝙀𝙎𝙎 Get customers healthy from Day #1. Document the step by step process to onboard your customers. Map out what customer stakeholders are necessary to be involved in order for them to get value from your platform. Define each step in the onboarding process and ensure it’s assigned to specific people and tracked in your systems. You should be able to see every step for every customer in one place. 𝙈𝘼𝙋 𝙊𝙐𝙏 𝘾𝘼𝙋𝘼𝘾𝙄𝙏𝙔 All of the above is fairly worthless if your team doesn’t have enough time to execute this across every customer. How long does it take to run one customer through this process? How many people do you need to do this across all your customers? Map this out so you’re not understaffed. 𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙉 𝘿𝙊 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙍𝙀𝙉𝙀𝙒𝘼𝙇 When all of the above is done, the renewal process is somewhat fairly straightforward. You might have questions over pricing, terms, etc but all of the above is 99% of the battle. What am I missing? What would you add? 🤔

One thing I've noticed when working with clients and doing discovery calls is that a lot of companies are not using customer signals to be proactive instead of reactive. Being proactive rather than reactive is the key to ensuring customer satisfaction and retention. One effective strategy to stay ahead of potential issues is by documenting and understanding "customer signals" – subtle behaviors and indicators that can serve as red flags. Recognizing these signals across the organization allows businesses to engage with customers at the right moment, preventing issues from escalating and ultimately fostering a more positive customer experience. Teams should not just try to save the account once there is a request to cancel or an escalation. You need to pay attention to the signs before you hit this point. Ensuring the entire team knows what to look for means that everyone is empowered to care and improve the customer experience. Here's a list of customer behaviors that could be potential red flags, gradually increasing as they check out or consider leaving: 🔷 Reduced Engagement: Decreased interactions with your product or service. Limited participation in surveys, webinars, or other engagement opportunities. 🔷 Decreased Usage Patterns: A decline in frequency or duration of product usage. Reduced utilization of features or services. 🔷 Unresolved Support Tickets: Multiple open support tickets that remain unresolved. Frequent escalations or dissatisfaction with support responses. 🔷 Negative Feedback or Reviews: Public expression of dissatisfaction on review platforms or social media. Consistently low scores in customer feedback surveys. 🔷 Inactive Account Behavior: Extended periods of inactivity in their account. No logins or interactions over an extended timeframe. 🔷 Communication Breakdown: Ignoring or not responding to communication attempts. Lack of response to personalized outreach or engagement efforts. 🔷 Changes in Buying Patterns: Drastic reduction in purchase frequency or order size. Shifting to lower-tier plans or downgrading services. 🔷 Exploration of Alternatives: Visiting competitor websites or exploring alternative solutions. Engaging in product comparisons and evaluations. 🔷 Billing and Payment Issues: Frequent delays or issues with payments. Unusual changes in billing patterns.

Here’s how I’ve seen a lot of customer success teams attempt to mitigate churn - 1. Note potential flight risk 2. Log it. 3. Wait and see what happens 😑 The expectation is that someone else is reading that sheet, and presumably will take action. The reality is…nobody reading the sheet thinks they need to act. This is an example of a reactive, inefficient approach to risk mitigation, resulting in an administrative exercise if anything. My LinkedIn Sales Solutions team follows a proactive process that’s clear, consistent, and tracked. We’re aligned on what must be accomplished, who’s taking on those tasks, and how we measure progress. For every 12-month renewal above $100,000, we’ve defined a framework to identify risks: Do we have sufficient activation? Do we have sufficient adoption? Do we know who the executive sponsors are? Do we know who the decision makers are? Have we delivered a value review to them? When something’s off, we flag it, and create a plan. And my team knows I’m inspecting everything. I’m sending questions and comments, they’re constantly updating the records. We’re all accountable, and on the same page about what must be done. Don't just do something to do something - ensure that the administrative processes you instill have accountability and measurable outcomes.

Forbes reports an average churn rate of 5% for early-stage SaaS companies but notes for established companies, it can be much larger. In my experience, I've seen as high as 35%+. And with 2.5% of employees, roughly 4 million, changing jobs on average each month (Per Research Center), relying exclusively on a single champion within your customer accounts is an unsustainable strategy for maintaining a healthy churn rate. Churn prevention hinges on effective multi-threading. How can we as marketers help? Here's a simple, yet effective, strategy to wake the dead and build more champions. ↓ → Review an account list of your best-fit customers and identify where there are 2 or fewer actively engaged users. → Bucket those inactive users into categories of personas. 💡Tip: If you're using a solution like UserGems 💎, you can automatically categorize these users into specific personas and have them alert you in your CRM when similar personas are at your account. → Identify active users in your customer base that match the personas of the inactive users. → Create a matching program for the two groups (this can live inside your community forums or platforms) to connect and learn from one another. (Meetsy powered by Commsor 🦕 provides an automated matching program for individuals to engage without any interference from sales or marketing, allowing for conversations to remain largely unbiased and organic). 💡Tip: Provide topic prompts such as, "What is the most surprising/underrated feature that [SOLUTION NAME] offers that you can't live without?", to evoke meaningful discussion. → Alert the account team on matches that occurred each month and plan a course of action for CSM and account owners to re-engage with inactive users to see how they incorporated the feedback. (Note that marketing has ample opportunity to share 1st party intent data from website and product usage to see how their adoption with the brand and platform has increased since matching, enabling the account team to be more personalized in their outreach). → Create content (audio, video, text) that highlights the use case and share it with customers, maybe even give a nod to the customer who came up with the innovative way to use your product! Rinse, repeat. Tactics like these can act as a shield for your future revenue and help you build champion relationships that last.