In the e-commerce world, all brands heavily rely on MarTech solutions to drive customer engagement, increasing conversions, and enhance overall marketing performance. However, simply purchasing a SaaS solution is not enough to ensure success and many businesses failed to get return from investment.
I've onboarded small to midsize and mid to large enterprise businesses in past few years, and observed that successful Onboarding makes it big difference to get ROI. When you invest in SaaS solutions, the journey towards success begins right from the moment you start the onboarding. I like to refer "Onboarding" as a Marriage, and to make this marriage work, both teams should invest in equally. Because this is the phase that sets the stage for a fruitful customer experience and lays the foundation for long-term success.
As the project owner and success builder, CSM plays a crucial role. We must leverage our organisational skill, communication abilities, relationship building expertise, and product knowledge to drive smooth onboarding experience for our clients.
In this post, I will share some tips for your next SaaS onboarding, what businesses need to prepare for a successful kick-off, and what are the questions to address during the onboarding phase. Also I will share lessons I've learned from my experience as a CSM in a SaaS company.
Let's start from Why Onboarding is important?
As CSM:
Driving Value Recognition: Onboarding is the foundation for realizing the full potential of the solution. It helps clients understand the features, functionalities, and benefits, enabling them to utilize the solution effectively. A well-executed onboarding process sets the stage for clients to derive maximum value from your solution. That means a high customer satisfaction, retention, and ultimately - Business Growth.
As business:
Aligning on your Business Goals and Priorities: Effective onboarding ensures alignment between the solution and the specific goals of your brand. It allows you to map out your objectives, define KPIs, and setup the platform accordingly. Through collaborative discussions during onboarding, your vendor understand your unique business needs, enabling them to tailor the solution for optimal performance and outcomes.
Businesses how can you prepare for the onboarding?
Data: It is the lifeblood of any technology - ERP, Marketing Automation and CRM etc. To ensure a seamless onboarding experience, businesses should organise and clean your data in preparation.
Define Clear Objectives: Before embarking on the onboarding process, brands should identify your pain points, desired outcomes, and specific areas of improvement. Defining these objectives upfront provides a roadmap for the onboarding process and helps set expectations.
Internal Alignment and Readiness: Successful onboarding requires internal collaboration and readiness. E-commerce brands should ensure that relevant teams, such as marketing, IT, and sales, are aligned and prepared for the implementation. There is a good chance that your onboarding process will take longer if you are not prepared and lack a clear understanding of your role and responsibilities internally.
As CSM, what can we make it better:
Project Ownership and Success Building: As a CSM, we are the key project owner during the onboarding phase. We play a critical role in orchestrating the onboarding process, ensuring timely delivery, managing expectations, and aligning internal teams and resources. By taking ownership of the project, we set the stage for a successful onboarding experience and establish a strong foundation for customer success. Additionally, your communication skills are crucial in setting clear expectations, providing guidance, and fostering open lines of communication with customers, internal teams, and stakeholders.
Building Strong Relationships: Successful onboarding is built on trust and rapport. CSMs have the opportunity to build strong relationships with customers during the onboarding process. By actively engaging with customers, understanding their unique needs and challenges, and demonstrating empathy and responsiveness, CSMs can establish a solid foundation for a long-term partnership.
Product Knowledge: In-depth knowledge of the SaaS solution is a prerequisite for effective onboarding. As a CSM, your deep understanding of the product's capabilities, workflows, and potential use cases enables you to guide customers through the onboarding journey with confidence. By showcasing your expertise, answering questions, and providing valuable insights, you instill confidence in customers and reinforce the value of the solution.
As you can see the initial phase of onboarding is crucial and most of the part is focused on preparation and planning. Because it's important to gain a comprehensive understanding of the client's unique requirements, goals, and challenges.
Based on these needs assessment, develop a personalized onboarding plan that aligns with the client's objectives. The plan should outline the key features and functionalities of the SaaS tool that will address the client's challenges. For instance, if lead generation is a priority, the plan could include setting up lead capture forms, creating lead scoring criteria, and designing automated email drip campaigns to nurture leads.
Executing these series of use cases is to demonstrate the capabilities of the tool and drive tangible results. I noticed a lot of decision makers focus on ROI but onboarding success criteria should focus on non financial metrics and readiness, and activate a diverse range of use cases that cater to your specific needs.
The ideal onboarding process for marketing automation SaaS tools is a journey of discovery, customization, and optimization. As a CSM, executing a diverse range of use cases during onboarding enables clients to witness the transformative power of marketing automation firsthand. By guiding clients through the platform setup, training, and ongoing support, we empower them to drive exceptional marketing results and build strong customer relationships. With a strategic onboarding process in place, marketing automation SaaS tools become powerful allies in driving business growth and achieving marketing objectives with ease.