Onboarding customers? Don’t forget the why!

Many onboarding teams focus on time to onboarding. It’s a good idea! Customers who are not using the product or service yet are very susceptible to churn, so speed is of the essence. Still, rushing to a quick implementation may be at the expense of customer value, and getting to first value requires that you understand what constitutes value.

What is the why? It’s simply the reason why the customer wants to use the product or service. What business problems will the purchase solve?

Who should figure out the why? Ideally, the sales rep will take the time to discover the business need for the purchase–and will also document it.

When do we need to find the why? Ideally, before onboarding even starts, as noted above. But the why can change as the customer progresses in the lifecycle, and perhaps the sales rep did not do a great job of defining and documenting the why. Therefore, early on during the onboarding process, it’s a good idea to reaffirm or rediscover the business need.

How do we find the why? Ask, and listen for the answer. For most vendors, customers have a pretty limited range of business needs, determined by the product offerings on the one hand and the verticals of the customers–so it’s possible to prompt the customer towards an answer. It’s also helpful to maintain a list of  bad fits: problems that customers believe could be solved by your products (or, gasp, that sales reps may make customers believe they can solve) but cannot in reality. Identify unrealistic expectations early on!

Why does the why matter? If the why is realistic, you’ll want to measure success against the goal so you need to include designing metrics in the onboarding conversation. If the why is not realistic, you’ll need to refocus to be successful.

How does your onboarding project capture the why for customers?