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Customer Onboarding Best Practices: The Secret Sauce to Acquiring Loyal Customers

Getting customers to use your app is a lot like dating. Once you find someone you like, you’ll plan the all-important first date where an amazing first impression is a must. During the first few dates, you’ll share stories and experiences to see if the relationship has long-term potential.

Sound familiar? When customers download your app, you have to make a good first impression. During their first interactions with your app, you explain its purpose and features to help the user judge whether or not the app is worth using on a regular basis.

When you’re introducing a new user to your app through a series of messages, it’s called onboarding, and it’s a vital part of your app’s success story.

The importance of a good user experience

Your onboarding process has to start with a good user experience. Think of this as the first impression you get on an initial date. If you’re not interested, you leave or make up a fake emergency to bail on the date. Don’t let this happen to your app users.

Here’s how to make sure your app offers a simple, user-friendly experience:

• Get to know users early
  As users download your app, ask them about their preferences to ensure a customized experience. For instance, a music app can ask users to pick their favorite bands.
• Make navigation simple
  App users must be able to intuitively use your app, which means simplicity is key. Keep menus basic, use familiar icons like a magnifying glass to signify a search and stick to known online features like an “X” to close windows.
• Keep the color scheme clean
  Most brands use the colors of their logo in the app to maintain consistency. However, you should limit your color scheme to 2 or 3 colors to maintain an eye-pleasing look.
• Keep screens uncluttered
  Less is more. Don’t fill the user’s screen with icons and navigation bars. If it’s not 100% necessary to your app’s functionality, get rid of it.

Tips to onboard users with retention as the focus

Once the user experience is perfected, it’s time to start sending messages to users as part of your onboarding plan. Here are a few tips to make sure users respond to the introductory content:

• Introduce features slowly
  One of the chief goals of onboarding is to show users how to use the app. Do so slowly. You don’t want to bombard users with too many instructions too fast. Introduce the most important features first through simple messages like Google does with it’s home automation app:

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