Onboarding Survey Questions

I posted on linkedin recently my POV towards onboarding surveys, more specifically the use of NPS during this stage (too soon to ask in my opinion). Obviously, the types of questions would depend on the software and customer base - I'd love to hear from the community about questions they've asked during this stage.

What made you buy the product/service?

How easy was it for you to get started?

What is the most important improvement we could make to improve your onboarding experience?

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Comments

Carl Hoffmann

We have not had a surveys at my companies during the onboarding phase, but based on the VoC surveys we did set up (support transactional, PS engagements, training, annual relationship survey), here are my thoughts:

I agree that NPS may be too early to use, but may have some value in gauging how successful the onboarding is (i.e. did onboarding make the customer feel better or worse about starting their new relationship with you? First impressions on the actual product vs. what was promised leading up to the sale.

I would be careful about adding too many questions during this phase of the relationship, as it could set up a case of survey fatigue. This probably depends on each organization's survey strategy, so your mileage may vary. 3 sounds like a good number for just about anyone, though.

I especially love the third question because if goes directly to the experience and even if it was a positive one, it can lead to feedback that can make it better.

Alex Thebert

Hi Tiffany,

This is such a great question! One of my favorite onboarding survey questions asks if their implementation was "easier than expected." This has been a helpful check-in to make sure we're setting good expectations. The vast majority of the time, customers find that onboarding was easier than they thought - music to my ears!

Best,

Alex

Jenni Washington

I've gained some good insights from everyone. We do include NPS in our onboarding and to help make the case for rethinking that, it would be useful to hear - 1) how long is your onboarding process on average, 2) at what point in onboarding (milestone reached, transition to CSM) is your survey sent, 3) if instead CSAT is used during onboarding, around what events?

Thanks
#forumnewby

What made you buy the product/service?

How easy was it for you to get started?

What is the most important improvement we could make to improve your onboarding experience?

Pam Micznik

Thanks @Walter Zepeda. Proof that Certifications are a great benefit and function for #CustomerEducation. That is a different discussion.

Brian Hartley

The overall on-boarding process
Your on-boarding team
The administrative training
The end-user training
The amount of training documents and videos available to me during the on-boarding
The platform met the expectations set in the sales process
The time it took to implement your application
My onboarding resource clearly communicated key milestones
My on-boarding team was responsive
My on-boarding team clearly communicated risks within the timeline

Walter Zepeda

It's an important topic @Pam Micznik. Our onboarding survey includes questions on how the admins found the training in terms of ease of learning, how engaging it was, how accessible, etc.

As for training incentives, we found that certifying users as Actimo Experts was successful. Many of them even add their certification on their LinkedIn profiles.

Pam Micznik

And...from a Customer Education perspective...do you have an easier time getting customers to fill out a survey or to consume training?

@Walter Zepeda... my guess is you have great insight here.

Anita Toth

@Ed Powers My fav quote so far in this few weeks has to be from you:

" I always tell my clients that NPS is better than nothing, but not much. " ?

Ed Powers

Your sense that the NPS question is inappropriate at the end of onboarding is supported by brain science, @Tiffany Morin. The mind isn't wired to make a global appraisal accurately after a recent event. Instead, it substitutes the memory of the event itself as a proxy, meaning NPS winds up measuring the wrong thing. This is true when NPS is used after service transactions, too. The NPS question is best used in context of a relationship survey.

And any assertions about NPS prediction validity is suspect. The science shows we humans are terrible at predicting how we'll feel or what we'll do in the future, which is one big reason why NPS is such a poor predictor of actual behavior. Another major reason is statistics--unless you have a very large sample size (such as in B2C environments), any variation you see is most likely due to chance. A 2016 study by the University of Cambridge showed how just bad NPS performed predicting customer loyalty. Over a 3-year period, between 72% and 82% of the time NPS ratings did not match actual customer buying behaviors at a large UK B2B company.

I always tell my clients that NPS is better than nothing, but not much. It's one way to obtain verbatim comments from which one can ask more specific questions in a CSAT survey that more accurately diagnoses problems and measures the results of process improvement. And ultimately, that's the goal. Best to use the right tools for the job.

Walter Zepeda

Thanks @Anita Toth. I think it's the trade-off when you start automating things. Of course, platforms have options to personalize your surveys and you can even have avatars and pictures with real people, simulating a more human approach (we use Ask Nicely) but you have to find the right balance and go with whatever works for you in terms on response rate, response quality and cost.

Anita Toth

@Walter Zepeda. I don't think I've seen a better response than yours at showing the difference between the great results of a personalized survey versus the poor response of an automated survey (NPS or any other). Even in something like a survey, what a difference in perception from the customer in terms of a personalized survey truly connecting with who they are.

Walter Zepeda

@Anita Toth great question. Since this survey is sent in a very personalized fashion, most do fill out the Whys. When we send out an NPS and it has a follow-up question, we don't always get a response but it's expected since the process is more automated.

Anita Toth

Love that Actimo is asking onboarding questions @Walter Zepeda. I'm curious as to how often people fill out the "Why?" question when they're completing the survey? Is it fairly common or do they mostly just give a numerical answer and then complete the survey?

Walter Zepeda

Our onboarding survey includes:

From 1 to 5, how would you rate your Actimo training? Why?
From 1 to 5, how would you rate the quality of the resources available to learn how to use Actimo? Why?
From 1 to 5, how well did the Actimo team communicate deadlines, pending items and tasks during the onboarding process? Why?
From 1 to 5, how would you rate you overall satisfaction with Actimo's onboarding process? Why?

All the "Whys" are optional

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Walter Zepeda
Head of Customer Success at Actimo America
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-------------------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 10-18-2020 18:57
From: Tiffany Morin
Subject: Onboarding Survey Questions

I posted on linkedin recently my POV towards onboarding surveys, more specifically the use of NPS during this stage (too soon to ask in my opinion). Obviously, the types of questions would depend on the software and customer base - I'd love to hear from the community about questions they've asked during this stage.

What made you buy the product/service?

How easy was it for you to get started?

What is the most important improvement we could make to improve your onboarding experience?

------------------------------
Tiffany Morin
------------------------------

Kmoertle

A few thoughts to add. I would imagine an onboarding survey would tie back to the objectives of the onboarding process.

Before and after scaling questions can offer a lot of insight into where gaps might exist after onboarding.

For instance, you can ask "on a scale of 1 to 10, what was your knowledge level/comfort level with XYZ prior to onboarding" And then follow it up with "on a scale of 1 to 10, what is your knowledge level/comfort level of XYZ after the onboarding process". You can center the question around any aspect of the process. This can help you measure the progress you're making with onboarding while also identifying where there may still be gaps. For instance if someone was a 1 before onboarding and they are now a 5 (out of ten) what does this information tell you? it certainly shows progress but also indicates there is still a ways to go. Asking the right questions can help you identify where the gaps might be.

It might also be interesting to include a (scaling?) question around how onboarding is helping them understand how their use of your product will help them achieve their business outcomes. High or low scores around this can help you identify red flags early in the process.

Anita Toth

Totally agree with you @Tiffany Morin and @Craig Jackson about NPS during onboarding. It's too early an ask.

The questions should all depend on the goal of the survey:

ease of use?
challenges to highlight areas of improvement?
time to value?
UI?

The questions should relate to the goals of the survey.

For instance if the goal is to highlight areas of improvement, a question could be around one thing they found challenging while starting to use the product. (Asking around challenges will yield more detailed responses than asking around improvements. Frustration/challenges are strong emotions and are more likely to remain in their minds.)

Asking questions during onboarding is critical to reducing churn.

Craig Jackson

Morning Tiffany

I think you've asked some great questions there.

Interesting point around NPS scoring as there is so much divided opinion around this at the onboarding stage. Personally I do agree with you, it is a little early. I would say however you can derive a score from using both quantitive and qualitative questions in your survey.

You could consider a question around how happy the customer is with their onboarding experience with a 1-5 answer. Then follow up with what is the most important improvement you would like to see, the previous scoring will help frame the value of the improvement.

As a side note I've recently added a little extra for the customer, bit of fun and goodwill - "We love to celebrate our customers, tell us whats new in your world and we can share it with our community" - we've had some excellent responses from this, its really helped us foster relationships at an early stage and drive engagement.

I hope this helps a little.

Craig