{"id":4979,"date":"2018-09-26T11:54:14","date_gmt":"2018-09-26T15:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/?p=4926"},"modified":"2021-10-12T07:23:58","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T11:23:58","slug":"why-customer-onboarding-is-more-important-than-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/why-customer-onboarding-is-more-important-than-you-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Onboarding 101: Why Customer Onboarding Matters More Than You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many companies are guilty of not having any proper procedures in place when it comes to onboarding. With customers, for instance, most sales reps will focus all their energy and efforts on closing the sale. Once the customer has signed on the dotted line, a sales rep might send across an invoice and engage in a few pleasantries, but then quickly move onto talking to the next prospect.<\/p>\n

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When it comes to employees, it\u2019s pretty much the same — HR managers typically invest their time and effort on interviewing and hiring, not <\/i>onboarding. Sure, there might be a standard to-do list for new hires to follow on their first day at work, but this typically isn\u2019t as well thought out or optimized as the actual hiring process.<\/p>\n

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If you want to improve your company\u2019s operations and overall performance, though, all that has <\/i>to change. In this two-part series, we discuss the importance of both customer and employee onboarding<\/a>, and give you some tips on how to supercharge your onboarding strategies. First, let’s focus on customers.<\/p>\n

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What is Customer Onboarding?<\/h2>\n

Having a proper customer onboarding strategy in place is crucial <\/i>to achieving a higher customer retention. Why does this matter? Well, your customer retention<\/a> rates have the ability to make or break your business (and nope, we\u2019re not being dramatic).<\/p>\n

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Now, you probably already have some great customer acquisition strategies in place. Maybe you\u2019re running ads on Google AdWords, or you have an awesome referral program that\u2019s getting you a lot of word-of-mouth business. But you shouldn\u2019t rely solely on this; having an effective customer acquisition strategy does NOT mean that you can neglect your customer retention.<\/p>\n

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Consider this: in the short run, it\u2019s 16 times as expensive to build a long-term business relationship with a new customer than to cultivate the loyalty of an existing customer<\/a>. And after 5 years, a 1% difference in retention rates can translate into a 12% impact on a company\u2019s valuation.<\/a> Bearing this in mind, it\u2019s safe to say that you can\u2019t afford to just “hope for the best” when it comes to onboarding and retention.<\/p>\n

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Addressing Customer Churn<\/h2>\n

Now that\u2019s sorted out, let\u2019s talk about what causes customers to churn (i.e., stop using your product). There are four broad categories to consider:<\/p>\n