Increasing Engagement Rate of Web Users

Nicholas Ciambrello

Hi all! Looking for some insights from you all!

Right now our company is facing a pretty big engagement challenge. We get a lot of new customers who sign up through the website without dealing with a sales rep. Naturally, these customer churn out much higher than people who are engaged with a human. Because of this we created an Onboarding team to get these users engaged through our Product demos (includes success plan and the whole 9). 

The issue we're facing, however, is that these people are not engaging with us enough to say were making a difference in overall Retention. When we actually do get them on a demo they retain very high we just cant get enough people on a demo. Feedback we have recieved from users all screamed for onboarding but its not culminating in results right now.

My question for the community is, are any of you out there getting a high engagement from a web based user group with a lower price point ($100-$400) ? Would love to pick some people brains to figure out how we can solve our engagement issues.

Ed Powers

Interesting and difficult challenge, Nicholas. You state that "Feedback we have recieved from users all screamed for onboarding but its not culminating in results right now." My first blush is to suggest you dig deeper with your customers: Why are they leaving? Why are they disengaged? In every case I've struggled with solutions I found customers always revealed the answers when I asked "why?" enough times.

Nicholas Ciambrello

Thanks Ed! Yeah I figured we would have to go through interviewing some customers. Hoping to get some stories from people who were able to generate engagement with their web users to start so we can test some different strategies out.

Do you have any preferred survey companies I could reach out to for interviewing former customers?

Ed Powers

Some great choices out there, Nick. I'd start with @Steve Bernstein at Waypoint Group and Evan Klein at Satrix Solutions.

Steve Bernstein

Thanks for the note, @Ed Powers!  I'm a big fan of Satrix for customer interviews -- they've "been there, done that" so many times in this area that you'll get results.  Of course, if you're interested in an on-line/scalable voice-of-customer capability then that's what we're all about... Either way, it's important to truly understand the key drivers of loyalty (statistically and linked to financials to derive the "biggest bang for buck") while also being able to gain repeatability in knowing what/why/how customers feel that there needs to be improvement.

As an example, toward the end of your onboarding process it'd be valuable to understand if the customer feels that they are ready to proceed. That is,I strongly recommend you don't ask about "satisfaction" with the process: We find that "satisfaction" is really a wimpy measure since nobody really wants to spend time on "onboarding." What are the OUTCOMES that you want customers to expect after that stage and how well is the company delivering on them from your customer's point-of-view?

/Steve

Anita Toth

Getting deep customer insights will illuminate those problem areas and help define the type of onboarding customers are looking for in order to be successful. This is what I help SaaS companies do -- interview their customers and get deep data. It makes discovering your next steps much easier. And the actions you take have greater impact on retention.

Anita Toth

@Ed Powers  I'll put my name in there too. Customer interviews are 90% of what I do. ?

Nicholas Ciambrello

Awesome thank you everyone for the insight! I think we def need to do some customer surveys and it is a pitch I am going to make to my CRO.

In the meantime, I feel like everyone on here has their Onboarding programs set up perfectly and that they get 100% of their clients to an Onboarding with a CSM. However when we look at our numbers were getting 20% am I missing something? What does a successful onboarding process look like?

I will say its not something that we publicly advertise (marketing hurdles we have to get past) but what is driving your customers to take Onboarding? Is there a company out there that has a large customer base that gets their new users through the web instead of a sales team that has good engagement that we can use as a model?

Our CRO is looking for a model company we can get some insights from.

Anita Toth

@Nicholas Ciambrello  When going to your CRO, here's one thing to really strengthen your pitch -- do 5 customer interviews, asking the same set of questions. Find the one customer story that really stands out and that supports your point -- eg poor onboarding experience. It becomes easier to say that if one customer experienced this, how many others are too?  

Does this make sense?

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Anita Toth
Customer Retention/Churn Consultant
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-23-2020 11:30
From: Nicholas Ciambrello
Subject: Increasing Engagement Rate of Web Users

Awesome thank you everyone for the insight! I think we def need to do some customer surveys and it is a pitch I am going to make to my CRO.

In the meantime, I feel like everyone on here has their Onboarding programs set up perfectly and that they get 100% of their clients to an Onboarding with a CSM. However when we look at our numbers were getting 20% am I missing something? What does a successful onboarding process look like?

I will say its not something that we publicly advertise (marketing hurdles we have to get past) but what is driving your customers to take Onboarding? Is there a company out there that has a large customer base that gets their new users through the web instead of a sales team that has good engagement that we can use as a model?

Our CRO is looking for a model company we can get some insights from.

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Nicholas Ciambrello
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-23-2020 10:23
From: Anita Toth
Subject: Increasing Engagement Rate of Web Users

@Ed Powers  I'll put my name in there too. Customer interviews are 90% of what I do. ?

------------------------------
Anita Toth
Customer Retention/Churn Consultant

Original Message:
Sent: 09-22-2020 10:19
From: Ed Powers
Subject: Increasing Engagement Rate of Web Users

Some great choices out there, Nick. I'd start with @Steve Bernstein at Waypoint Group and Evan Klein at Satrix Solutions.

------------------------------
Ed Powers
Consultant

Original Message:
Sent: 09-22-2020 10:06
From: Nicholas Ciambrello
Subject: Increasing Engagement Rate of Web Users

Thanks Ed! Yeah I figured we would have to go through interviewing some customers. Hoping to get some stories from people who were able to generate engagement with their web users to start so we can test some different strategies out.

Do you have any preferred survey companies I could reach out to for interviewing former customers?

------------------------------
Nicholas Ciambrello

Original Message:
Sent: 09-22-2020 09:40
From: Ed Powers
Subject: Increasing Engagement Rate of Web Users

Interesting and difficult challenge, Nicholas. You state that "Feedback we have recieved from users all screamed for onboarding but its not culminating in results right now." My first blush is to suggest you dig deeper with your customers: Why are they leaving? Why are they disengaged? In every case I've struggled with solutions I found customers always revealed the answers when I asked "why?" enough times.

------------------------------
Ed Powers
Consultant

Original Message:
Sent: 09-21-2020 14:08
From: Nicholas Ciambrello
Subject: Increasing Engagement Rate of Web Users

Hi all! Looking for some insights from you all!

Right now our company is facing a pretty big engagement challenge. We get a lot of new customers who sign up through the website without dealing with a sales rep. Naturally, these customer churn out much higher than people who are engaged with a human. Because of this we created an Onboarding team to get these users engaged through our Product demos (includes success plan and the whole 9). 

The issue we're facing, however, is that these people are not engaging with us enough to say were making a difference in overall Retention. When we actually do get them on a demo they retain very high we just cant get enough people on a demo. Feedback we have recieved from users all screamed for onboarding but its not culminating in results right now.

My question for the community is, are any of you out there getting a high engagement from a web based user group with a lower price point ($100-$400) ? Would love to pick some people brains to figure out how we can solve our engagement issues.

------------------------------
Nicholas Ciambrello
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