
- August 11, 2023
- By Farzad Khosravi
A step-by-step guide to Customer Onboarding
Businesses, across most industries, have an average customer retention rate of less than 20%. This is abysmal.
Imagine spending hundreds of dollars to acquire each customer just to lose 80% of them.
80% of people cancel their subscriptions because they fail to give the user what they want. Where’s the gap? Most apps are confusing and complicated.
There are a lot of factors that determine your customer retention rate but one of the biggest ones is your customer onboarding.
63% of customers think onboarding is key to deciding to subscribe to a product (source). Additionally, 86 percent of consumers will pay more for a better customer experience (source)
The first few minutes, hours, days, and weeks with your product will determine everything. You need to make sure you guide your clients to success.
How? That’s what this email is all about
Let’s start with why you need good customer onboarding.
1) It sets the first impression
2) Helps users understand product value
3) Improves retention (reduces confusion and frustration)
4) Facilitates product adoption
5) Increases conversion (from trial to paid customers)
Don’t think I need to sell you on the benefits of a good onboarding experience anymore. Let’s talk about how to create one.

Steps to a good onboarding:
Learn Onboarding/Activation Best Practices
- Hubspot has a fantastic and all-inclusive guide on onboarding.
- Read The Psychology of Waiting Lines. Short and sweet but probably one of the most important things you will ever read in your career, especially as a founder.
Onboarding/Activation Using Email
Email is still king. And still one of the best activation/onboarding tools out there.
- Customer.io: One of my favorite emailing tools and also have a startup program.
- Hubspot, Mailchimp, Activecampaign, and any other classic email marketing software can be used to fill this need.
- Sendgrid, Mailgun, or Postmark are great solutions if you have a need for transactional emails and are technical. I still prefer using Customer.io for this need. IF you’re unsure what transactional emails are, check out this guide.
- Checkout out beautiful examples of welcome emails here
Onboarding/Activation In-App
- Pendo: “Everything you need to create the best software experiences—all in one place.”
- Appcues: “Design, deploy, and test captivating onboarding experiences in minutes, not weeks”
- Intercom: One of the most popular tools, it can also fulfill your email marketing and support needs. “Faster resolutions. Happier customers. Intercom is the only platform that connects you with customers at the best possible time—when they’re already using your product, app, or website.”
Use interactive walkthrough (as shown below) to guide your customer through the product (and also keep them engaged)
(for context this is a GIF with an interactive walkthrough video of a product. Docs is not showing it for some reason)

Create an onboarding video tutorial for your product. Check out some awesome examples here
Final Checklist
- Signing up is as easy and possible.
- You show the user how to set up the app
- Interactive show of the features.
- Provide a knowledge base or FAQ
- Send a check-up email every once in a while. (Consider adding a simple yes or no to 1-5 star survey)
Want more advanced tactics to set the right foundation with your product and customer experience. Check out my Startup Guide
It covers everything you need to make sure your customer gets the best experience possible.
Hope you find this email helpful..
See you next week.
– –
P.S. I’m taking FREE 1:1 coaching calls for anyone who might be interested in taking my course on Maven.
We’ll discuss and evaluate your current situation and business and figure out if this course is the right fit for you.
If you’re still sitting on the sidelines. Start here 👇
(Your Free coaching call will be booked once you sign up for the waitlist)
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