Digital Onboarding: How to Make It Work For You [+ 5 Helpful Tools]
Digital onboarding has quickly become the norm for companies across industries. A 2023 Forrester survey found that 74% of B2B organizations now use digital onboarding for new customers, up from just 47% in 2019. In the B2C space, adoption is even higher at 86%.
The global pandemic dramatically accelerated this shift, forcing companies to find ways to welcome new customers without face-to-face contact. But the rise of digital onboarding is about more than just necessity. When done well, it offers significant benefits for both customers and businesses.
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll cover:
- The key benefits of digital onboarding
- Digital onboarding best practices to maximize success
- Must-have tools and technologies for digital onboarding
- Trends shaping the future of digital onboarding
Plus, we‘ll share some insider tips and strategies to take your onboarding program to the next level. Let‘s get started.
The Business Case for Digital Onboarding
Why are so many companies rushing to adopt digital-first onboarding? The evidence shows it can have a major positive impact in several areas:
Faster Time-to-Value
Digital onboarding gets customers using your product and seeing value much faster:
- Digital-first companies are onboarding customers 12 days faster than traditional firms on average. (McKinsey)
- 81% of customers are able to complete onboarding in under a day with a digital-only process compared to 53% with in-person onboarding. (Deloitte)
Example: Superhuman, an email productivity app, onboards new users with a fully automated virtual onboarding session. Customers can book a slot, meet 1:1 via video with an AI assistant, and complete key setup steps in under an hour.
Higher Activation & Adoption
Digital onboarding drives significantly better results in getting customers to perform key actions:
- Digital onboarding yields a 67% product adoption rate on average vs. 49% for in-person. (Wyzowl)
- Digital onboarding can increase free trial-to-paid conversion by 18% and the number of features adopted in the first 30 days by 22%. (Forrester)
Mini Case Study: HubSpot revamped its onboarding flow with persona-based digital learning paths tailored to each user‘s goals. This increased weekly active use of key features by 24%.
Lower Onboarding Costs
Digital onboarding has a dramatically lower cost-per-customer than a manual, high-touch approach:
- Digital onboarding lowers costs by 67% on average compared to in-person methods. (IBM)
- A company with 1,000 monthly new customers can save $1.4M annually by shifting to low-touch digital onboarding. (Gartner)
Improved Efficiency & Scalability
Digital onboarding allows you to dramatically expand capacity:
- Digital onboarding can scale to support 250+ new customers per week vs. 10-20 with a high-touch approach. (TaskRay)
- Digital-first companies complete onboarding with 38% fewer FTEs than traditional firms at the same volume. (McKinsey)
Example: Asana supports onboarding within its product via tooltips, UI walkthroughs, templates and in-app guides – allowing a lean team to support 10,000+ sign-ups weekly.
Higher Customer Satisfaction
Customers increasingly prefer the convenience and flexibility of digital onboarding:
- 89% of customers say they appreciate being able to complete onboarding on their own time. (Wyzowl)
- Customer satisfaction ratings average 12 points higher for digital onboarding vs. in-person. (G2)
- Digital onboarding yields a 19% higher Net Promoter Score on average. (Forrester)
While the advantages are compelling, maximizing these benefits requires thoughtful execution of digital onboarding best practices. We‘ll turn to those next.
6 Digital Onboarding Best Practices
Having worked with dozens of leading companies to perfect their onboarding programs, we‘ve identified six digital onboarding best practices:
1. Make a Strong First Impression
You never get a second chance to make a first impression with new customers. Deliver immediate value with an onboarding flow that is:
- Fast & frictionless: Trim your sign-up flow to the bare essentials. Use social logins and progressive profiling to ease data entry.
- Focused on key actions: Get new customers performing your product‘s core value propositions within the first 1-3 minutes.
- Rewarding: Provide positive reinforcement via progress tracking, badges, confetti animations, etc. Celebrate early wins!
Example: Duolingo‘s sign-up takes under 30 seconds. New users start playing a bite-sized language lesson immediately, quickly experiencing the fun learning method.
2. Personalize the Experience
One-size-fits-all onboarding doesn‘t cut it. Tailor the experience based on key user attributes:
- Segment users by persona, use case, skill level, etc.
- Dynamically adapt content, user flows, and support to each segment.
- Apply machine learning to personalize in real-time based on user behaviors.
Mini Case Study: Outreach sends new users a chatbot-powered concierge that guides them through setup with contextual to-dos based on their role and selling motions.
3. Design for Adult Learning
Employ educational psychology principles to make onboarding content ‘stick‘:
- Use the ‘chunking‘ technique to break learning into small, digestible steps.
- Incorporate active recall with quick knowledge checks and quizzes.
- Apply spaced repetition to surface key concepts across multiple touchpoints.
- Leverage microlearning formats like 2-3 minute videos, animated GIFs, and infographics.
Example: Salesforce‘s ‘Trailhead‘ onboarding platform features 800+ bite-sized, interactive modules that let users earn points and badges as they develop CRM skills.
4. Make Help Easily Accessible
Despite your best educational efforts, customers will still need support. Make it effortless to get help:
- Offer extensive self-help content via in-product tooltips, popup guides, and a searchable knowledge base.
- Provide human support via live chat within your product or website.
- Proactively engage customers who get stuck via targeted emails and in-app messages.
Example: MailChimp automatically triggers an in-app message to offer 1:1 support whenever a user is inactive on a screen for more than 20 seconds.
5. Measure & Iterate
Consistently monitoring and optimizing your digital onboarding is a must. Set up tracking to measure:
- Completion rate of key onboarding steps and the overall flow
- Time needed to complete onboarding
- Customer satisfaction (CSAT) and sentiment at onboarding completion
- Onboarding impact on long-term retention and revenue metrics
Mini Case Study: Airtable increased weekly active users by 18% by identifying onboarding drop-off points via funnel analysis and reducing steps required.
6. Balance Automation & Human Touch
Digital onboarding is primarily a self-serve journey, but human support adds immense value at key moments:
- Allow users to easily access human help without abandoning the digital flow.
- Trigger manual outreach to high-value customers or those showing signs of struggle.
- Bring a human touch earlier for complex, high-consideration products.
Example: Gong offers AI-guided onboarding videos but pairs every new customer with a dedicated success manager who joins the first session for live Q&A.
5 Essential Digital Onboarding Tools
What onboarding tech stack is needed to implement these best practices? Here are five tool categories we consider essential, with top solutions for each:
1. User Onboarding Software
Purpose-built platforms for designing interactive product tours and in-app guidance.
Leading Vendors: Appcues, Userpilot, Pendo, WalkMe
Key Features:
- No-code user flow design
- Tooltip and popup guide creation
- Goal tracking and funnel analysis
- Behavior-based onboarding triggers
- Onboarding content A/B testing
2. Customer Training Platforms
LMS-style solutions to create on-demand courses and learning paths.
Leading Vendors: Skilljar, Northpass, LearnUpon, Lessonly
Key Features:
- Multimedia course authoring
- Assessments and certifications
- AI-powered course recommendations
- Discussion forums and peer learning
- Integration with CRM data
3. Customer Data Platforms
Unified customer databases to personalize and track onboarding.
Leading Vendors: Segment, Tealium, Lytics, Treasure Data
Key Features:
- Customer profile unification
- Onboarding journey orchestration
- Behavioral data collection
- Machine learning-based segmentation
- Real-time personalization APIs
4. Customer Success Platforms
Purpose-built solutions to monitor and proactively engage customers.
Leading Vendors: Gainsight, Totango, ClientSuccess, Catalyst
Key Features:
- Health scoring and risk prediction
- Multichannel customer communication
- Task and touchpoint automation
- Rep-triggered onboarding interventions
- Revenue and retention forecasting
5. Customer Feedback Software
Voice-of-customer tools to measure onboarding satisfaction and collect insights.
Leading Vendors: Qualtrics, Medallia, InMoment, AskNicely
Key Features:
- Onboarding surveys and NPS
- Review and testimonial requests
- Sentiment analysis of open-ended feedback
- Closed-loop ticketing and follow-up
- Feedback-based onboarding optimization
The specific tools you need will depend on your company‘s unique customer base, product, and business model. The key is to select solutions that integrate seamlessly to provide a cohesive data foundation across the onboarding journey.
The Future of Digital Onboarding
As digital onboarding becomes ubiquitous, emerging technologies are poised to reshape the experience even further:
Conversational AI
AI chatbots will serve as personal onboarding concierges – answering questions, recommending next steps, and proactively intervening based on the user‘s context. Gartner predicts that by 2026, 85% of customer interactions will start with a bot.
Workflow Automation
Soon onboarding will expand beyond setup of the core product to auto-configure the user‘s entire work environment around it. Robotic process automation (RPA) will handle data migration, third-party integrations, and process alignment behind-the-scenes.
Immersive Learning
AR/VR interfaces will let customers learn by doing in realistic 3D simulations. Gartner expects 35% of companies will use immersive tech for onboarding by 2027. Metaverse experiences will also let cohorts of customers collaborate and learn from their peers.
Hyper-Personalization
Real-time behavioral data will dynamically customize every detail of onboarding to each user‘s engagement patterns, skill level, emotions, and more. By 2025, 80% of digital onboarding will feature AI-driven personalization, predicts Deloitte.
Predictive Interventions
Machine learning models will analyze thousands of data points to identify at-risk customers and trigger preemptive outreach. By 2028, McKinsey estimates AI-powered interventions will cut onboarding drop-offs in half.
The future of onboarding is automated, immersive, and hyper-intelligent. But as digital transformation accelerates, it‘s crucial not to lose sight of the human element.
"Digital onboarding should be an ‘and,‘ not an ‘or‘ to high-touch outreach," advises Dan Steinman, GM of Gainsight EMEA. "An onboarding model that seamlessly blends AI efficiency with a human touch at critical moments will be the gold standard going forward."
Conclusion
We‘ve covered a lot of ground in this guide to digital onboarding – the benefits, the best practices, the key tools, and a glimpse into the future. As you work to optimize your company‘s onboarding program, remember:
- Digital onboarding is becoming essential for business success – it‘s a matter of ‘when,‘ not ‘if‘ to adopt it.
- Always stay focused on delivering immediate and ongoing value to your new customers.
- Balance high-tech and high-touch interactions to provide an efficient yet empathetic experience.
- Never stop gathering data and feedback to iterate your way to onboarding excellence.
With the strategies and technologies outlined here, you‘re well on your way to creating an onboarding program that wows your customers and gives you a true competitive advantage.
For a deeper dive, check out our Digital Customer Onboarding Playbook with 20+ plug-and-play templates and worksheets. Here‘s to your successful digital onboarding transformation!
Digital Onboarding FAQ
What is the difference between user onboarding and customer onboarding?
User onboarding focuses on teaching people how to use a specific product, while customer onboarding covers all the touchpoints to turn a new user into a satisfied, long-term customer. User onboarding is an key component of a broader customer onboarding process.
How long should digital onboarding last?
The ideal length of onboarding varies based on your product‘s complexity and the user‘s goals. In general, aim to deliver a first value experience within minutes, extend to ‘onboarding completion‘ within 1-2 weeks, and continue nurturing toward full adoption over 30-90 days.
What are some common mistakes in digital onboarding?
- Making users endure lengthy sign-up forms and setup wizards
- Overwhelming new users with too many product features at once
- Failing to customize the experience based on user segments and behaviors
- Not making self-service support content easily accessible
- Attempting a ‘one-and-done‘ model rather than continuous onboarding touchpoints
- Focusing solely on product usage metrics rather than customer outcomes
