May 9, 2019

Create Detailed Support Docs

2. Activation  >  Create Detailed Support Docs

Create detailed support docs to reduce SaaS churn

An onboarding process is incomplete without support documents and actionable guides. Support documents are a great way to increase the activation rate and reduce churn as they provide all the help new users need to get started with your software.

INTUITIVENESS

Webflow

Webflow has created several support documents for its users including videos, tutorials, and community forum.

Mailchimp

MailChimp offers its customers with actionable guides on every single feature. There isn’t anything that you won’t find in their library.

Twilio

Twilio has added a link to its documents in the primary menu so that it is visible right away and users can access it instantly.

How to use the technique

  • Target buyer personas and integrate it into the customer journey. You cannot create support documents that will suit your entire market. Target specific personas based on lifecycle stage. This free churn optimization framework is all you need to get started. 
  • Choose documentation type. It is best to create multiple support documents like tutorials, step-by-step guides, how-to articles, etc.
  • Offer multiple formats. Some personas prefer videos while others like actionable guides. Create multiple formats that users will love interacting to so they don’t churn.
  • Focus on content. The actual content of the support documents should be well-written, informative, easy-to-read, easy-to-scan, and should be user-friendly. What you write and how you present it are two critical aspects to be considered. This is critical for reducing churn.
  • Make it easy for users to find these documents. Don’t let them sit on your website. Share links. Send links via email. Incorporate links in the onboarding sequence. That’s how you'll engage them and reduce churn.
  • Regular updates are essential to keep documentation current. Add, remove, and tweak content as per need. We have a free guide that will help you in analyzing how your support documents perform. Read more on the analysis techniques in this free actionable guide.

Mistakes to avoid

  • Poor UX can ruin your investment and efforts. Don’t make it a pain for users to find, read, and understand support documents. Keep it simple and user-friendly.
  • Unnecessary documents with unnecessary details. Do you have right support documents that users need or you’re just following industry trends? Don’t make the mistake of creating support documents that users don’t need. Refrain from adding unnecessary details. Keep it short and actionable.

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Research evidence

According to a report by Coveo on helping customers help themselves, businesses having self-service programs retain 40% of their customers. Businesses experience 16.2% improvement in customer satisfaction with self-service programs.

40%

According to a report by Coveo, businesses having self-service programs retain 40% of their customers (which is a lot!). 


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May 9, 2019

Progress Bar In Onboarding

2. Activation  >  Use Progress Bar In Onboarding

Use progress bar in onboarding to reduce SaaS churn

Use of progress bar indicating the steps (actions) left in the onboarding process has a magical effect on conversion, activation, and churn. Customers expect to see an indication of their progress and how they're advancing in the process.

INTUITIVENESS

Growth_Hackers

Growth Hackers has a really institutive and engaging checklist onboarding process.

Ghost

Ghost created a checklist onboarding experience that increased conversions to 26% from the previous 7%.

Quora

Quora uses a partially completed progress indication to make users realize they're already halfway through.

How to use the technique

  • Use progress indication for most crucial actions in the customer flow. Identify actions that lead to activation, and add them to the progress indicator. We have a free churn optimization framework to help you get started immediately. 
  • Select appropriate timing. If there are several steps involved in the activation, its best to use progress indication towards the end with half-filled.
  • Choose an attractive design. There are several ways to show progress to the new users during the onboarding process. For instance, you can use a straight bar, checklists, reward checklist, tutorial progress, partially completed checklist, quick-wins, etc. It is recommended to opt for a partially completed progress indication.
  • Don’t start progress from zero. Starting progress indicator from half-way perform better as it gives a sense of achievement to new users and it reduces churn significantly.
  • Keep it short. Long and lengthy progress indicators will make users churn. Keep it short preferably under 5 steps.
  • Try different progress indicators. Use different sequence, actions, and types of indicators based on user engagement. This will help you split test and figure out what works best for your audience. Read more on the analysis techniques in this free actionable guide.

Mistakes to avoid

  • Misleading progress indication. When progress doesn’t represent the actual progress, the user is more likely to churn. Keep it fair and show real progress. If it is a progress bar or percentage, give different weight to tasks based on their importance.
  • Actions aren’t challenging. Don’t let users’ complete useless actions. Missions that users have to complete should be challenging to keep them engaged and to develop their interest.

Research evidence

Lars Kaczmirek conducted an in-depth review of how progress indicators impact completion rate. He found progress indicators that represent true progress of the user in percentage perform better than indicators that move one step with each completed task. Use of progress indication improves response rate and accessibility.

2/5

To maximize the effectiveness of your progress indicators try to incorporate the progressbar instead of steps indicator (like above)


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May 6, 2019

Send Lifecycle Emails

2. Activation  >  Send Lifecycle Emails

Send lifecycle emails to reduce SaaS churn

Sending regular timely emails is a great way to engage users, increase the activation rate, and reduce churn. Personalized emails sent during critical lifecycle stages to address issues will make the user’s life easier and more fun.

●●● INTUITIVENESS

Kingspoint

Kingspoint has a crash course on conversion optimization. It ends 8 emails in 14 days with a goal to boost conversions. These emails have a 65% open rate and CTR of 31%.

Moz

Moz sends an effective activation email with one clear goal and a prominent CTA.

Zapier

Zapier sends out a personalized email to users who haven’t used their app after sign up.

How to use the technique

  • Segment users based on their stage. This is the only way to send lifecycle emails that are personalized. This can be achieved by using customer flow maps. You can find more information in our churn optimization framework.
  • Send a welcome email instantly. The first email users receive after sign up should reach their inbox in under 90 minutes, else they will churn.
  • Personalize emails. Link email software with customer flow map. Track progress with tracking tool. Skips emails for tasks that a customer has already completed. Send emails for the next most critical task in the flow and remind them of what they're missing (or where they left).
  • Have a single goal per email. Don’t try to tell new users everything in a single email. Each email you send should have a single goal with a clear action plan and a powerful CTA.
  • Treat engaged and inactive users differently. Send them different emails. However, your focus should be on engaged users who are moving ahead in the lifecycle. Keep them engaged. Don’t let them churn.
  • Send actionable emails with clear instructions. Copy matters. It should be persuasive, short, and actionable.
  • Measure performance of lifecycle emails. Identify loopholes. Tweak underperforming emails. Identify common user issues. Data analysis is the crux here. Don’t know how to do it? Check out this free guide.

Mistakes to avoid

  • Not offering help. Emails cannot provide answers to all the problems. Invite them to send you an email or contact live chat if they have any unaddressed issues.
  • Poor copy. Sending an email for the sake of an email doesn’t work. It’s what you write in the email that matters. Avoid copy-related mistakes as it will negatively impact your brand as a whole.
  • Not asking for feedback. It is a big mistake that you should never make. Get feedback from inactive users and ask them why they stopped using your app. Their feedback will help you improve things that users have problems with.

Research evidence

The eDigital survey found that live chat has the highest customer satisfaction (73%). Customers love live chat because they can get answers to their queries almost instantly. Customers expect to receive an answer to their queries in as low as 1 minute and that’s why they prefer live chat.

1m

Average expectation of a reply time in live chat is only 1 minute. It's difficult to keep up with, but in case of success 73% of your customers will be satisfied. 


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LOOKING FOR THE WAY TO STOP YOUR SAAS FROM LEAKING MONEY?

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May 6, 2019

Offer Live Chat

2. Activation  >  Offer Live Chat

Offer live chat to reduce SaaS churn

Live chat is the best thing you can give new users. It increases conversions, reduces churn, and keeps users engaged during the onboarding process. You can offer help immediately before they even think of leaving.

●●● FUNCTIONALITY

TradeShift

TradeShift increased sales opportunities by a whopping 32% with live chat.

Mention

Mention increased activation rate by 12% after it started sending a customized welcome message to new users.

SalesLoft

SalesLoft used live chat to increase sales and conversions. It received 8x more demo appointments for the software via live chat.

How to use the technique

  • Know when to use live chat. It is essential. The live chat shouldn’t interfere with user onboarding. You need to understand and track user behavior to offer live chat just at the right moment when they're most likely to churn. This free guide will show you how to do research to understand your customers. 
  • Set automated greeting. Show users that they have the option to talk to a human should they need. There are fair chances that users might ignore live chat icon. However, it’s hard to ignore a greeting that pops up on the screen.
  • Offer early help. The purpose of using live chat is to offer instant help to users, solve their queries, and help them achieve first success with your app. Be proactive in offering help to reduce churn.
  • Deliver value. You can use chat greeting to deliver value to the users. Describe your product’s major feature in the chat greeting. Persuade users to activate.
  • Offer support 24/7. Make sure you offer live chat 24/7. There has to be at least one agent live at any given time of the day.
  • Train customer support team. Live chat can backfire if your agents aren’t trained. If they aren’t well-trained to solve user issues, guide them, and help them with decision-making, what’s the point of having live chat?
  • Identify common problems. Live chat provides you with lots of information on common user queries, general issues, peak timings, etc. Use this data to tweak the customer journey and user experience. We have an amazing free guide to help you with testing and analyzing.

Mistakes to avoid

  • Inadequate staff. Not having enough staff to handle customer queries and an inability to provide live chat 24/7 are the biggest mistakes you'll ever make. If you have to do it, do it properly.
  • Using chatbots. While chatbots are great for customer services but using them during onboarding process when users are in a phase to understand your brand, chatbots can backfire. Don’t use them. If it’s really necessary to use chatbots, use them with extra caution.

FREE OPTIMIZATION GUIDE

Stop Your SaaS From Leaking Customers With Our Proven Optimization Process

We will reveal an EXACT framework we use to improve conversion & retention rates of our SaaS clients by at least 30%.

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Research evidence

The eDigital survey found that live chat has the highest customer satisfaction (73%). Customers love live chat because they can get answers to their queries almost instantly. Customers expect to receive an answer to their queries in as low as 1 minute and that’s why they prefer live chat.

1m

Average expectation of a reply time in live chat is only 1 minute. It's difficult to keep up with, but in case of success 73% of your customers will be satisfied. 


Related techniques SEE ALL THE TECHNIQUES >

LOOKING FOR THE WAY TO STOP YOUR SAAS FROM LEAKING MONEY?

Download our FREE guide with the battle-tested process for SaaS conversion & retention optimization

Get a PDF with an exact step-by-step framework we use with our SaaS clients to research why their SaaS is leaking money, define optimization opportunities and run data-driven experiments that bring tangible ROI.

May 6, 2019

Create A NUE Leading To Aha

2. Activation  >  Create A NUE Leading To "Aha"

Create A NUE that leads to "Aha!" to reduce SaaS churn

Create a perfect new user experience that guides new users to get value from your app instantly. Help users get to their Aha moment so they stick with your software and don’t churn.

●●● FUNCTIONALITY

Magoosh

Magoosh increased its conversion rate by 17% after it started sending customized welcome messages to new users.

KnowYourCompany

Know Your Company optimized its user onboarding process which helped them increase activation rate by 44%.

Hint

Hint Health increased pricing reviews by 10% within a few weeks by providing creating a customized and proactive onboarding process.

How to use the technique

  • Define Aha moment for new users. This can be found by analyzing buyer personas and customer journey map. We have a free guide that will let you know how you can do it with ease.
  • Make it easier for users to experience Aha moment. This is the point of creating an onboarding experience that will show them how to get to Aha moment. After experiencing Aha moment, users are less likely to churn.
  • Reduce friction. Are there any distractions? Is something stopping users to get to Aha moment? Does design support onboarding process? Provide users with a highly focused user experience during the onboarding process that has no distractions at all.
  • Choose one core feature. It’s really important that the onboarding sequence focuses on one core feature that truly represents Aha moment. It should be the most important feature of your software. If users get to know it, they won’t churn.
  • Create support documents. A flawless and well-designed onboarding experience isn’t just enough. Create support tools, help videos, and guides so users can get additional information as per need.
  • Offer customer support. You cannot create a great user experience without proactive customer support. Make sure there are human beings available to answer any queries that new users have.
  • Focus on benefits. New user experience should explain the benefits that users drive from using your app. It shouldn’t just describe features.
  • Analyze and see how new users interact and respond to the onboarding sequence. Do they really get to the Aha moment? This calls for intensive testing and tweaking. Here is a guide you shouldn’t miss on testing and analysis.

Mistakes to avoid

  • Not focusing on churn. When your primary goal isn’t to retain new users with awesome user experience, things don’t turn out well. The reason why you create an onboarding process, great new user experience, and guide users to achieve Aha moment is to reduce churn. To ensure they continue using your app.
  • Not personalizing new user experience. It is a lethal mistake. Don’t treat all users the same way. Users have different needs and backgrounds. Create a personalized user experience based on data you have and buyer personas.
  • Making it hard for users to get to Aha moment. Don’t complicate it. Keep it simple and easy.

FREE OPTIMIZATION GUIDE

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We will reveal an EXACT framework we use to improve conversion & retention rates of our SaaS clients by at least 30%.

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Research evidence

Quettra conducted a study and found that apps lose 77% of users in the first 3 days after the install. The figure jumps to 90% in the first 30 days. The top 10 apps have the best day one retention rate which shows the importance of engaging new users right away.

90%

That many users are lost in the first 30 days by SaaS products in average. Make sure you have a better onboarding! 


Related techniques SEE ALL THE TECHNIQUES >

LOOKING FOR THE WAY TO STOP YOUR SAAS FROM LEAKING MONEY?

Download our FREE guide with the battle-tested process for SaaS conversion & retention optimization

Get a PDF with an exact step-by-step framework we use with our SaaS clients to research why their SaaS is leaking money, define optimization opportunities and run data-driven experiments that bring tangible ROI.

May 6, 2019

Build A Product Tour

2. Activation  >  Build A Product Tour

Build a product tour to reduce SaaS churn

Product tour is a perfect way to helping users understand your app and learn using it. A quick product tour helps users achieve activation quickly. It reduces the churn rate and boosts user engagement.

●●● FUNCTIONALITY

Proposify

ProdPad used product tours to onboard new users. It decreased their trial to paid period by a whopping 80%.

Dropbox

Dropbox has a great onboarding product tour that guides the new users and makes it dead-simple to understand their tool.

ProdPad

Proposify totally transformed its user onboarding process with a focus on product tour. The change increased trail to paid conversions by 5% and users who complete the product tutorial are 3x more likely to convert.

How to use the technique

  • Link product tour to customer flow map. What is the most important action in the flow map? What are the critical events? Add them to product tour. Read our article on customer flows to learn more.
  • Identify the key features of your product and include them in the product tour. Don’t focus on all the features. It will make product tour boring and lengthy.
  • Personalize product tour by linking to buyer personas and to user’s history. What actions does the user take on your app? How did he/she found it? Use existing information for personalization to reduce churn.
  • Keep UI simple yet attractive. Don’t add a lot of information. Make it intuitive and catchy.
  • Keep it short. It should have 4-6 steps in the product tour with actionable instructions. Long product tours make users churn.
  • Show users how they can achieve first success with your app. Help them get to activation. Show what benefit they will get.
  • Make action-taking easier. Do you have CTAs within the tour? How many steps are involved in action taking? The easier it is for them to follow the tour, the better it is. It will reduce churn and boost engagement.
  • Test different product tour types. There is no best product tour for onboarding. Test different variations such as nickel tour, coach marks, guided tour, explainer video, tooltips, task completion, and others to see what works best in terms of retention and churn reduction. This free guide has more details.

Mistakes to avoid

  • No follow up. Having an amazing product tour doesn’t necessarily mean the user will activate. Follow up if the user doesn’t activate after the product tour.
  • Not focusing on activation. The purpose of the product tour is to guide users to achieve success with your app and activate. A product tour is useless if it doesn’t focus on activation.
  • Unable to track critical events. If you’re not tracking critical events during onboarding, you won’t be able to track activation and if the user followed instructions. Even if you have to do it manually, don’t go without tracking.

FREE OPTIMIZATION GUIDE

Stop Your SaaS From Leaking Customers With Our Proven Optimization Process

We will reveal an EXACT framework we use to improve conversion & retention rates of our SaaS clients by at least 30%.

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Research evidence

Research by Localytics found that 21% of users never open an app after a single use. App retention can be increased by 50% with a solid onboarding process (such as product tours).

50%

This is how you can grow your retention rate with a solid onboarding process only


Related techniques SEE ALL THE TECHNIQUES >

Implement with our proven SaaS Churn Optimization Framework

Download a PDF with an exact process we use with our SaaS clients to research, define optimization opportunities and test.

May 6, 2019

Map Your Customer Flow

2. Activation  >  Map Your Customer Flow

Map your customer flow to reduce SaaS churn

Mapping your ideal customer flow helps with understanding and prioritizing steps that users take to achieve their goal. A clear customer flow helps with activation and reduces churn.

●●● FUNCTIONALITY

BingoCardReader

Bingo Card Reader redesigned its UI to facilitate customers to move quickly through the mapping flow. The change in UI resulted in a 10% increase in customers who succeeded with their app in the first go.

Trackduck

TrackDuck reduced fields in their registration form from 10 to 4 based on customers’ feedback. This resulted in an increase of 120% in registration completion.

Leadfeeder

Leadfeeder has created a detailed customer journey map that provides them with all the information about their ideal customers throughout their journey.

How to use the technique

  • Conduct research to get a better insight into customer flow. Conduct interviews, field studies, and surveys. Not sure how to do it? We have an actionable guide for you.
  • Use existing data preferably from buyer personas and analytics to better understand and map customer flow. For instance, a specific persona might find your brand through search while another persona might find you via a social network.
  • Identify all the touchpoints your customers can use to interact with you. These touchpoints play a critical role in reducing churn. You can identify customers who are not using all the touchpoints (meaning they're about to churn) – and take necessary action.
  • Map your ideal customer flow. What steps an ideal customer takes from research getting first success with your software?
  • Identify customer motivation, emotion, pain, challenges, and interest in each stage. What keeps an ideal customer moving? What are the hurdles? How you can help them move forward.
  • Identify actions successful customers take. Focus on these actions. Help and guide customers to take these actions. Add them to your flow.
  • Track customer flow. Use a tracking tool to see how customers move from one stage to the next and where they stop. Without a tracking tool, you won’t be able to take necessary actions on time which means customers will churn.
  • Tweak your map. A map once created isn’t finalized unless it has been tested and tweaked for perfection. Is there something missing? Do all customers follow the exact same flow? We have a free guide to help you with testing and tweaking, grab it now.

Mistakes to avoid

  • Not conducting research. Mapping customer flow is all about your customers. You cannot do it yourself. Go out and do research to better understand your customer’s journey.
  • Not using a tracking tool. You cannot measure the progress of your customers without a tracking tool. Don’t make this mistake. Guesswork doesn’t work.
  • Not responding and reacting to issues. The purpose of creating customer flow is to identify roadblocks and help customers achieve success with your app. Respond on time to fix issues and to help your customers.

FREE OPTIMIZATION GUIDE

Stop Your SaaS From Leaking Customers With Our Proven Optimization Process

We will reveal an EXACT framework we use to improve conversion & retention rates of our SaaS clients by at least 30%.

DOWNLOAD FREE PDF


Research evidence

Customer journey mapping research report 2018 by CXPA found that 67% of organizations are currently using customer journey mapping and 85% of them reported customer flow has a positive or very positive impact on their organization. Some 71% of respondents said that customer flow has increased customer satisfaction.

85%

Of organizations that currently use customer journey mapping reported customer flow has a positive impact on them,


Related techniques SEE ALL THE TECHNIQUES >

Implement with our proven SaaS Churn Optimization Framework

Download a PDF with an exact process we use with our SaaS clients to research, define optimization opportunities and test.