5 ways your digital business can ensure seamless customer onboarding
With digital services becoming more mainstream, consumers are looking for both convenience and trust when transacting with businesses.
At the same time, companies are building strategies to develop long-term relations with customers by improving onboarding experiences.
Research finds that customer scores should be developed based on the countless interactions that customers have with companies to ensure that employees can make more informed decisions. Investments in brand positioning, prospecting and lead generation should all be guided by relevant data metrics to ensure maximum returns.
When customers visit a brand, they make memories that influence their behaviour in the long run. These can be enhanced by focusing on 5 main areas of customer service:
1. Get to know your customer
This is the first step in understanding the customer lifecycle and determining why someone chose to transact with a company. Depending on where they are in the marketing funnel, the first business interaction must set the tone for a future client renewals and referrals.
The source of a customer’s interaction with the business must be logged and tracked to better follow consumer intentions. For instance, inbound triggers such as request and chats at the awareness stage indicate actual leads. Social data, including Facebook analytics etc, and interactions on popular forums also point to customer background and purchase intent.
Sign-up information at welcome screens are useful in identifying customer demographics and further refining the process of enhanced consumer interaction.
In this pursuit, customer identity verification software plays a pivotal role. This software allows businesses to collect, manage, and verify customer data efficiently, creating a comprehensive and accurate picture of their clientele.
2. Simplify sign-up procedures
For the newest digital customer, convenience is top priority. A sign-up process that takes too long or requires filling lengthy onboarding forms can become a serious deterrent in customer onboarding. Using syndicated communication channels also offers customers the flexibility to use different touchpoints.
Automated sign-up process, based on machine learning and artificial intelligence models now offer a minimum level of friction and make onboarding as painless as possible. As consumers enter personal credentials, verification can be done through digital identity verification in real-time to safeguard the process at both ends.
Simple onboarding processes have multiple benefits for both customers and businesses. New prospects need to be convinced about a positive product/service experience, as well as obtain value addition when making a purchase. For businesses this translates into scalability. Keeping tabs on customer onboarding metrics also helps firms determine which parts of the process need to be tweaked in order to improve performance. This includes indicators such as churn rate, customer lifetime value (CLV) and retention metrics.
3. Beef up customer engagement
With concepts such as UX/UI gaining traction in recent years, businesses can choose from a number of engagement tactics to invite and retain new customers. Just as traditional business welcome messages and customer representatives were expected to be compelling and well-informed, digital interactions have found their way into customers’ lives.
Welcome email triggers are highly successful in terms of open rates and click-through holiday. Additionally, there greeting messages, automated AI chatbots and knowledge-based content can all serve as effective tools for customer engagement. If your content is drawing consumers in, solving their problems, and helping them learn more about the industry at large, you are probably going in the right direction.
As far as website engagement is concerned, the use of compelling call-to-action (CTA) tabs is highly useful and contributes significantly to conversion rates. Feature callouts and popup messages can serve as guiding lights for customers navigating through landing pages. Updated FAQs are most-sought after especially in terms of voice search which now looks for short, useful answers that users can get quick solutions from.
4. Offer cross-departmental customer support
Once a customer has signed up, retaining them also involves carrying out personalised interactions that solidify relationships. While customer service is an integral part of a business, new clients must not be left solely at their discretion, risking alienation from the rest of the company framework. Cross-departmental communication is key for optimizing drop-off rates and furnishing future onboarding strategies.
One of the most common failure points in terms of customer onboarding spring from a lack of alignment between functional business areas. In order to mitigate challenges in customer retention and churn rates, a comprehensive process of securing customers entails support for a number of pain points.
Personalisation of services is by far the most prominent trend in consumer services of late. Once a consumer has begun interaction with a firm, retaining them can be easier if they are given more options to tailor the rest of their experience. Incentives can then be offered based on customer goals and ideas. This need not be rolled out by the core sales team with the typical marketing support material. Instead, customised messages by product or service teams can better inform customers in the long run.
5. Build trust with data regulations controls
With the use of sensitive customer data becoming an essential part of onboarding strategies, it is no surprise that it comes with a tonne of regulation. The GDPR examines customer and business relationships in light of principles of lawfulness and transparency. Data privacy and data management controls must ensure accuracy and integrity for all parties involved.
Businesses may benefit from gathering large amounts of customer data points and customising service delivery accordingly. However, checks on the adequacy and relevance of data collection bar firms from doing so, in pursuit of compliance and regulatory checks, as well as privacy consent. Enhanced data securities to improve data breach procedures and awareness training for employees transfers trust onto the consumer, further improving onboarding experiences for the long run.
