Customer Onboarding: 5 Key Elements

3 min readSep 23, 2022

Getting users to download your app is about making an excellent first impression. You should be able to convince your users that your app is worth using regularly based on their initial interaction with it. I spoke with Ankush Sachdeva on my podcast about the entire customer onboarding process. Ankush Sachdeva is the co-founder and CEO of the well-known social media applications ShareChat and Moj. Especially after the ban on TikTok, Moj garnered a lot of attention from the public. Ankush shared his experience developing Moj within 30 hours of the ban.

Sharing the excerpts of my discussion here-
Introducing new users to your application through messages is known as onboarding, and it’s an important aspect of your app’s success. Several best onboarding practices can help you engage and retain users effectively, but there is no magic formula for making your app successful. First, let’s examine what the onboarding process entails.

What is user onboarding?

The onboarding process incorporates inspiration, education, and timely and actionable insights. Onboarding your users will help you understand their needs, how your product will stay with them, and how you will handle the onboarding process for each product.
New users should be guided through all the features of your product during onboarding. Every user will have different needs when it comes to the onboarding process. You cannot force new users to watch a welcome video, slideshow, or any feature of your app.

AN OVERVIEW OF USER ONBOARDING.

1. Welcome Email

A greeting is a great way to interact with new users during offline interactions, and it also applies to online interactions. Give your consumers additional tools, such as further integration, to help them get started as a welcome gift. Alternatively, you can use the consumer’s or company’s name in the welcome message. Users will feel valued if you take the time to do this as a nice gesture.

2. Product Demonstration

Educating your customers is one of the most critical parts of the onboarding process. Users learn best by using the product themselves. An interactive walkthrough will instruct users how to accomplish each task as they complete the previous one. Creating contextual tips that lead the user to how to complete a task is therefore essential.

3. Identify goals

Active users should set specific goals as one of the first steps. To achieve your product’s desired outcome, create logical steps based on your goals. You can also add a checklist within the app to keep your consumers motivated and on track.

4. Content Quality

Your application will be more valuable if you produce quality content to help consumers solve their problems. You can become your client’s trusted advisor when you give them advice that greatly benefits them. Increased trust translates into more sales.

5. Mini Celebrations

You created all those customer-centric milestones, right? Celebrating your new customers’ accomplishments will get them excited about their progress. This can be done via in-app notification, an email, or a quick phone call. You will have a greater chance of getting them to invest in your solution if you make them feel like you are invested in their success.

An onboarding process takes time to build, and updating it requires a lot of effort. The onboarding process cannot be changed instantly, but you can make small changes over time to make it smoother.

To listen to our full conversation, click here.