Acquiring new users is challenging (and often expensive) so it only makes sense that enterprises should concentrate at least some of their efforts on getting users interacting with their products.
If you need convincing, consider this: companies with tailored onboarding programs are four times more likely to outperform their competitors in terms of profitability and growth according to a recent survey from Pendo.
The survey revealed that user onboarding can be a significant competitive advantage, increasing customer satisfaction, reducing customer churn and cutting the number of support requests.
"The importance of effective onboarding cannot be overstated in today's competitive environment where companies can succeed or fail based on their ability to engage users quickly and deliver a great product experience," said Todd Olson, CEO and founder of Pendo. "Effective onboarding can help accelerate customer time to value. It delivers more than user satisfaction - it delivers business outcomes."
Onboarding, however, is not universally adopted. According to the survey, 33 percent of respondents indicated they don't deliver any onboarding as part of their initial product experience. Far more companies supplying B2B software (57 percent) and consumer software (48 percent) delivered a user onboarding experience than ecommerce companies (29 percent). In addition, a majority of respondents reported that their onboarding programs were not particularly effective (66 percent).
Although most of the companies in the survey had some sort of onboarding program, a much smaller percentage tailored the experience for different user segments (40 percent). Tailored onboarding can make an impact. On average, 70 percent of users dismiss onboarding walkthroughs right away, but if content is more relevant to users' specific needs they are much more likely to engage with it.