Growth Stage: Creating an Effective Onboarding Process
Tim Edwards
This post was originally published in January 2019 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
When customers start the onboarding and implementation process, they have entered the growth stage of the B2B buyer’s journey. Your goal in this stage is to improve customer retention and lifetime value by ensuring that customers have everything they need to get the most out of your solution.
You may ask yourself, “How can I maximize value for my customers after the deal has already been signed?” We suggest starting every new customer relationship with a kick-off meeting. During this time, you can provide an onboarding specialist to help your new customers implement the solution and thrive in the growth stage.
Learn how to foster customer loyalty by increasing their engagement with your product and helping them reach their goals.
Download the Ultimate Guide to the B2B Buyer’s Journey
With our guide, you will learn how to help your potential customers through the five stages of their buyer’s journey.
Customer success enablement
It’s important to be proactive in this stage of the customer journey to establish a positive business relationship. Anticipate the customers’ needs even before the deal is closed and set a clear expectation for the onboarding process.
Take the time to personalize your approach after closing the sale and touch base with the customer to ensure they have successfully implemented your solution. That way they know they can immediately reach out to you if they run into any roadblocks.
At EBQ, we conduct our onboarding process by starting with a Kick-Off meeting. Our Business Consultants host meetings where all important information and additional resources are discussed, ensuring that the client is aligned with our company.
Developing instructional programs or content to offer your client will demonstrate that you’re willing to work with them to ensure they are getting their needs met. These resources should cover how to install and customize your product or service, any key features the customer should be aware of, and how they can measure success.
This is a great opportunity for your company to upsell or cross-sell other products or services by mentioning upgrades or additional services that are available for purchase down the road.
Set your customer up for success:
- Educate them on best practices specific to integrating your product or services, so they start to use it consistently and eventually rely on it.
- Find other areas in their organizations where you can offer additional services or solutions to help them solve a problem.
- Become their go-to resource throughout the implementation process by encouraging brand advocacy.
We understand that a hands-on onboarding process is not accessible for every business. This is where email automation comes into play. Implementing automated emails will allow your team to touch base in each phase of your customer’s implementation process with relevant information. You can also save time and resources by building tutorials that can be found in the product’s UI so users can learn about individual features that may need a bit of explaining.
If this is a new step in your company’s onboarding process, our marketing automation specialists are here to walk you through everything you need to know about email automation.
Benefits of customer retention
Many organizations focus on earning new business in their growth strategy. However, retaining customers can actually increase revenue, brand advocacy, and long-term success for your company. Research shows that securing a new customer can cost your company 5x to 7x more than working towards retaining a current customer.
The B2B buyer’s journey will continue to evolve as buyers become more self-sufficient in researching and making purchasing decisions. As more buyers become numb to advertising, companies need to strategize the post-decision stages of the buyer’s journey to cultivate loyalty and offset the increasing costs of obtaining new customers.
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Build customer loyalty
The growth stage is often overlooked but is one of the most important stages of the B2B buyer’s journey. Offering your customer resources, educational content, and additional services will save you money by fostering customer loyalty and brand advocacy.
Taking a proactive approach to your customer’s needs will set them up for success when implementing your solution. If the customer is able to effectively use your solution and see it as a reliable resource, they will be more likely to come back for more or tell others about their experience.
It may seem that once the sale is closed, the job is done, but we want to emphasize the importance of treating this stage of the customer’s journey just as important as closing the deal. Retaining loyal customers now will save your company money in the long run.
Download the Ultimate Guide to the B2B Buyer’s Journey
With our guide, you will learn how to help your potential customers through the five stages of their buyer’s journey.
Improve customer retention for long-term success
By creating positive onboarding experiences and implementation processes, you ensure that your customers get everything they can out of your solution while fostering brand loyalty. If you invest in them, they will feel more confident about returning to make another purchase in the future.
New leads are a great way to bring in revenue. However, the real key to success is keeping your existing customers happy and engaged with your company. If creating an onboarding strategy seems overwhelming for your team, we are here to help. Our customer onboarding team works to ensure your customers successfully implement your solution while keeping them engaged throughout their experience.
