Many companies believe that once a customer signs up for a product or service with them, they’ve successfully won over that person. Like many things in life, however, it’s not that simple. Depending on what happens after they sign up, that person might become a lifelong customer, or they might fail to adopt your product or service fully. The latter could, in turn, lead to them unsubscribing or stopping buying from you, and heading over to one of your competitors instead.

The actions that you take after someone first buys a product or service from you is known as customer onboarding, and the process is key for customer loyalty and retention. Here are three tips for ensuring that your customers’ post-purchase experience with your company is as positive as it can be.

Make it simple

If you ask too much of users during the customer onboarding process, you risk them losing patience or feeling overwhelmed and giving up. Break it down into simple, small steps that can be completed quickly, and retention is likely to increase. This could mean keeping online forms short, not asking for or giving out too much information at once and using videos where possible to make things easier for people.

Try and make each stage as intuitive and effortless as possible, so that it feels like fun rather than work. For instance, if you are an insurance agent, make use of the insurance quoting tool like the kind iLife Technologies has developed. Your potential customers would be impressed that you have a time-saving quote engine that can shortlist the necessary products quickly. Another top tip is to make certain things skippable. This allows those who already know how to use your service, or would rather figure things out on their own, to miss out on the steps that they don’t need.

Make it personal

If you can make your customer onboarding experience personal, your clients are likely to be left with a positive impression of your company. Fantastic customer service is a great way to put a smile on someone’s face, which makes them likely to buy from you again in the future or continue with their subscription.

This can be done through the tone of voice of the emails and messages you use – think warm and friendly rather than corporate and official. Try and add some personality to your communications. This not only feels more personal, and it is also more memorable and adds some spark to what a boring process it can otherwise be. If you’re shipping a physical product out to someone, the simple addition of a handwritten thank you note can make all the difference.

Make it useful

Consider what the customer wants from the onboarding process and do your best to supply it. This could be done by calling attention to the most important features of your service so that people can get the most from it immediately, and still be eager to learn more. Alternatively, you could use software that sends specific messages based on customer behavior, so that people get the information most applicable to their needs. Finally, reach out to customers to get their feedback to find out what they want, and make sure that you’re providing it.