1. 5 Steps to
Successful
Customer
Onboarding
A Skilljar Slideshare
Originally presented at Learning Solutions 2018

2. Mission: Customer Training Made Simple
Awareness
Educate prospective
customers about your
industry and products
Adoption
Drive user and partner
effectiveness through
training and certification
Efficiency
Increase internal
productivity and reduce
operating costs
Growth
Build long-term revenue
by creating lifetime
customers and partners

3. 5 Steps
● Decide on your onboarding MODEL
● Identify onboarding MILESTONES
● Use the right MODALITIES
● MARKET your training
● Consider your METRICS

4. Why Is Onboarding Important?
(source: Preact)

5. Customers Have Choices

6. “Your customers expect
you to make them wildly
successful.”
Customer Success: How Innovative Companies are Reducing Churn and Growing Recurring Revenue,
by Nick Mehta, Dan Steinman, and Lincoln Murphy

7. Step 1
Define your
Onboarding
Model
What is your customers’
path to success?
7

8. 8Image source: Amity

9. 9Image source: Amity

10. 10Image source: Amity

11. Step 2
Identify
Onboarding
Milestones
What is your customers’
path to success?
11

12. Goal: Get Customers to Value
12
Identify
Key milestones in the
customer onboarding
journey

13. Goal: Get Customers to Value
13
Handoff Sales team passes an account and all notes over to our customer success
team
Kickoff All stakeholders meet to plan implementation
Soft Launch Training gets released to a test group
Launch General release

14. Goal: Get Customers to Value
14
Discovery
With relevant stakeholders:
What are successful customers
doing?

15. What About Content? - 3 Rules
1. Build content that teaches to your milestones.
2. Frame it that way for the customer.
3. If it’s not directly related to getting a customer to
initial value, it’s not in your MVP (minimum viable
product).

16. Content Planning Map
Source: Skilljar resources

17. Step 3
Pick Your
Learning
Modalities
Optimize the student
experience
17

18. • High touch
• Structured
• Costly
• Limited access
Classroom Training
18

19. • High touch
• Personalized
• Costly
• Hard to scale
1:1 V-ILT
19

20. • Cuts down on expenses
• Accessible
• Limitations around
interactivity & timing
1:Many V-ILT
20

21. • Inexpensive
• Reactive
• No interactivity
• Hard to curate
Help Documentation
21

22. 80% of extended enterprise
training is still done in person
(source: Brandon Hall)
Customers are asking for more
digital learning content
(source: TSIA)
On-Demand Learning Content
22

23. Holistic Training
Ecosystem
Tying it all Together

25. Step 4
Market Your
Onboarding
Program
Drive students to your
onboarding program
25

26. Should we charge for training?
26
Reasons to Offer Free Training
Few public resources Faster time to value Reduced support tickets

27. Should we charge for training?
27
Reasons to Offer Paid Training
Advanced offerings High-touch training Certifications Content updates

28. Do you have?
• Access to marketing ops?
• Integrations with marketing
systems?
• A marketing strategy?
Marketing Resources

30. Salesforce Integration
• Increased
student urgency
• Trigger Marketo
drip campaigns

31. Step 5
Consider
Your Metrics
How can you demonstrate
the value of training?
31

32. How to Demonstrate ROI
32
Customer renewalsProduct adoption Reduced costsCustomer satisfaction

33. Develop SMART Goals
33
● Specific
● Measurable
● Achievable
● Relevant
● Time-bound

34. Establish Baseline Metrics
34
● Product adoption
● Customer churn &
renewals
● Registrations &
completions

35. Key Takeaways
Step 1: Define your MODEL
Step 2: Identify MILESTONES
Step 3: Use the right MODALITIES
Step 4: MARKET your training
Step 5: Consider your METRICS

36. Thank you!
marketing@skilljar.com