Today, selling online is more competitive than ever, and customer onboarding can make a big difference for your brand. While it’s easy to think that customer onboarding is nothing more than a set of activities aimed at creating a more appealing user experience, the process is more than that. This crucial aspect of the customer’s journey focuses on all aspects of user experience on your platform, from when they visit the website until they achieve their purpose for doing so. Without an adequately defined onboarding process, you may struggle to sell to new and returning customers, which may negatively affect the long-term viability of your business.
Let’s say you happen to be looking for tips on how to incorporate effective customer onboarding – this piece will break down the importance of this concept and show you how to leverage online reviews to create a better user experience for your website’s visitors.
What is customer onboarding and why is it important?
Simply put, customer onboarding refers to all the actions a new customer must perform before they can complete their purchase. This process covers the entire customer journey, from the initial signup to searching for the desired product, filling out the checkout page and using the product for the first time. However, you’d do well to note that it could also mean something more, depending on the nature of the business.
The best thing about customer onboarding is that it introduces potential customers to your business’s products and services. It’ll show them why they need the product, how to use it, and all its essential features. This process will create a strong impression in users’ minds that will linger for an extended period. An effective onboarding process will also guide buyers until they can successfully use your website or identify the right item to purchase, thereby boosting user satisfaction. Every stage of the process must be handled smoothly to keep users coming back for more.
When you look closely, it’s evident that there’s a proportional relationship between customer onboarding and customer retention. Without a clearly defined onboarding process, most people will visit your website and exit without purchasing what they initially intended. If you focus on enhancing this process, you’re bound to retain many of your existing customers, which will enhance your business’s long-term survivability and profitability. Extensive research also shows that focusing on improving customer experience, by even a small amount, and ensuring they come back, may boost your profit by anything between 25% and 95%.
Another benefit of customer onboarding is that it will help you lower customer acquisition costs. As mentioned earlier, an effective onboarding process for your customers will increase customer retention. When your business has a constant influx of returning customers, you don’t have to spend so much acquiring new ones, thereby saving money on brand promotion and lead generation.
How can online reviews contribute to customer onboarding?
While online business owners sometimes overlook product reviews, they can be crucial in enhancing the customer onboarding process. Online reviews describe how past customers felt after using a product or service. Depending on the experience of your past users, online reviews may be positive, negative or neutral.
Online reviews may either be added to each product description or used to create another section of the website. You’ll also find certain websites dedicated to providing detailed customer reviews on different service providers. At CasinoSherlock, you’ll find reviews of the best online casino websites available in the United Kingdom, with information about their best games, casino bonuses and payment methods available to players in the region. By studying the reviews on this platform, you’ll know what to expect before signing up for any online casino, and may also learn how to leverage the strengths and weaknesses of these gambling websites for a better user experience. Hence, navigating your preferred online casino will be relatively easier.
The truth is that when most new customers visit your platform, they are aware of what they wish to buy but may hesitate to make their final decision. Why? They need that extra push to convince them that they are making the right decision, and that’s where online reviews come in.
These days, online reviews are a crucial part of a person’s online purchase experience. That’s why many people will spend hours sifting through online shopping reviews before buying anything. In fact, customers are more likely to purchase an item with a five-star review rating than something else with a three-star rating. An online survey reveals that 85% of customers trust reviews and consult multiple sources to determine the user sentiment around a product or service before purchasing it.
They’ll blindly believe the higher product or service rating offered by a previous customer, rather than the product description itself. That’s because they feel that product descriptions can be altered to suit your brand’s purpose, while reviews are authentic proof of credibility derived from past users. Without doubt, online customer reviews can help you stand out from competitors. The higher the number of positive online reviews on your website, the more inclined visitors will be to buy from you.
It’s also interesting to note that customer reviews are a sign to visitors that you encourage feedback on your platform, creating a sense of belonging. Online reviews are also a sign that you take your customers seriously, and that they have a say in the quality of products and services you offer. Furthermore, online reviews from old customers create a ripple effect on new ones. When new customers feel a sense of belonging to your brand, they are bound to drop their own reviews too, boosting your brand image even further.
Exploring how to improve customer onboarding with online reviews
After establishing the importance of online reviews to the customer onboarding process, the next thing to do is learn how to use this feedback to simplify the process. If you want to improve your customer onboarding with online reviews, you’re expected to gather these descriptions from past users and display them on your website before repeating the process. However, this is easier said than done. You’ll need to decide when to ask for customer feedback and how to ask for it.
When to ask for customer reviews
While it makes sense to request customer feedback as customers navigate your website, there are certain instances that may help you gain better results. To ensure you get quality feedback, here are a few touchpoints in the customer journey to ask for reviews:
- After signup: You may ask for customer feedback after they’ve registered and are exploring your site’s features. This type of approach is suitable for service-based platforms. At this stage, the purpose of the review should be to determine if the customer has experienced any challenges during their registration. Understanding that the signup phase is a visitor’s first interaction with your platform and a chance to build a strong impression is crucial. Hence, it’s vital to learn whether new users can complete their registration seamlessly, and gain valuable insight to improve the process.
- After a customer checkout: When a customer completes a purchase, most websites display a ‘Thank you’ message to inspire customer loyalty, and this often signifies the end of the user’s journey on the platform. However, it doesn’t have to – incorporating a post-checkout review is a great way to gain customer feedback at this stage. You can email the user requesting to learn about their purchase experience on the platform and the quality of the item they got from you.
- When customers fail to return: User churn is inevitable for online business owners. However, how you respond to it can make a significant difference. If a customer has failed to complete their purchase, recently unsubscribed from your service or has refused to use your platform after their initial attempt, it may be a great time to ask for a review from them. At this stage, you can gain necessary feedback through surveys that aim to identify the challenges they faced while using the platform.
Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, customer onboarding is an all-encompassing process that starts from the moment a user navigates to your website until they purchase a product or service. While there are several methods to improve customer onboarding, online reviews are an effective strategy that every online business owner can try, without making too many changes to their website.
