Table of contents

Why rapid onboarding matters

In B2B SaaS, the faster a customer can start realizing value, the stronger the foundation for satisfaction, retention, and long-term success. Rapid customer onboarding helps reduce time-to-value, builds customer confidence, and establishes a strong, positive first impression.  

But, speed isn’t the only critical ingredient to onboarding new clients. 

As with everything, speed has to be balanced with resourcing.  

This guide will walk you through creating an effective customer onboarding experience that maximizes engagement, meets customer goals, and doesn’t require additional headcount —all in 20 days or less. Add these 6 steps into your customer onboarding best practices for a faster onboarding experience in B2B SaaS.

Starting-line


1. Make day 1 a milestone moment

Objective: Set the stage with a memorable Day 1 experience that feels like a milestone for your customer. It’s easy for customers to blur the start line with your product after what is sometimes a lengthy sales process.  

When you make day 1 a distinct, clear, and memorable event, you re-engage customer attention and remind them why they were so excited to find your solution in the first place. 

Strategies: 

  • Personalized welcome: Begin with a tailored welcome email that includes the customer’s name, company, and an introduction to their onboarding resources and team. This creates a warm, personalized experience and lets the customer know they’re valued.
  • Celebratory fanfare: Don’t neglect the magic touch. Add a touch of celebration to mark the start, such as confetti in an introductory video, a “welcome” banner, or an on-demand kickoff webinar that highlights the goals of onboarding. 
  • Clear next steps: Provide a clear list of what customers can expect in the onboarding process, outlining each milestone they’ll reach along the way. 

💡 Pro tip: When you invest time in laying the right foundation, you don’t have to trade personalization for scale. Convert manual calls and emails into workflows, and add branching to automatically meet customers where they are.

Example: Using BrainStorm, you can trigger a customized welcome email that’s both celebratory and informative, making day 1 feel like a distinct moment in time. 

Onboarding-email-1


2. On-demand customer onboarding: Offer learning anywhere, anytime

Objective: Don’t slow customers down who are ready (and raring?) to go. Allow customers to move as quickly as they’d like with easy access to flexible, on-demand resources.  

💡 Pro tip: Onboarding content that feels more informal personalizes the experience. Plus, it’s easier to create and maintain. Avoid over-doing it on production. The perfect is the enemy of the good!  

Strategies: 

  • Self-serve learning: Map out the manual steps your team currently takes to fully onboard customers, including emails, calls, events, and collateral. Then transform those resources into scalable, on-demand learning. Create short, informal video courses or use a webinar format.  

Example: With BrainStorm Flows™, you can convert live training sessions easily into accessible micro-learning courses, enabling users to engage when they’re ready and review content as needed. You don’t have to be an L&D professional- , you just need to know what customers need to succeed. 

Personalized-paths


3. Personalized learning paths: Let customers choose their own adventure

Objective: Tailor onboarding to each customer’s specific goals and needs, allowing them to explore the areas most relevant to them. 

Strategies: 

  • Choose-your-own-path options: Design the customer onboarding journey with multiple paths based on their goals or roles. For example, admins might take a different path based on the primary use case they have in mind for your product.
  • Interactive guides: Create interactive flowcharts or decision trees that let customers select their own routes through the content, providing a sense of control and personal relevance. 

Example: BrainStorm’s branching feature allows customers to navigate onboarding paths that suit their unique needs, whether they want to dive deep into technical features or focus on business outcomes. 

Branching 


4. Real-time progress tracking: Monitor customer engagement

Objective: Gain visibility into where customers are in the onboarding process and identify any potential challenges they might face. 

Strategies: 

  • Visual dashboards: Use a dashboard that shows real-time progress for each onboarding stage, allowing you to quickly see where customers might be slowing down or dropping off.
  • Bottleneck monitoring: Identify points of drop-off so you can proactively address issues. Identify areas where customers frequently stall, and be ready to offer guidance or additional resources. 

Example: With BrainStorm’s visual progress tracking (such as a Sankey chart), you can monitor where customers might be encountering challenges and use data to smooth the journey, eliminating bottlenecks and driving engagement. 

Sankey


5. Automated nudges: Keep customers engaged

Objective: Sustain engagement during the onboarding process through well-timed reminders and calls to action that gently prompt customers to stay on track. 

Nudge

Strategies: 

  • Automated Reminders: Set up automated notifications to encourage customers to complete the next onboarding task. These can be delivered via email, chat, or in-app messages.
  • Timely Suggestions: Use reminders to direct customers toward additional resources, quick wins, or supplementary videos that align with their current onboarding stage. 

Example: BrainStorm’s messaging integration allows you to send automated reminders, like a quick note to enable SSO with an embedded how-to video link, keeping customers actively engaged without being intrusive. 


6. Build lasting value: Moving beyond day 20

While Day 1 to Day 20 are focused on driving first value, rapid customer onboarding also lays the groundwork for continued success. Beyond these initial days, it’s essential to transition customers into a stage of ongoing value discovery, where they can explore deeper product features, receive additional training, and find new ways to integrate the solution into their workflows. 

Strategies: 

  • Advanced Resources: Provide advanced resources or extended learning for customers who are ready to go deeper into the product.
  • Continuous Feedback: Collect customer feedback on the onboarding process and use it to improve future onboarding journeys. 

Example: As customers complete their initial onboarding, BrainStorm can prompt them with optional advanced training modules, keeping them engaged and encouraging further adoption.

Ready to elevate your onboarding game?

Onboarding doesn’t have to be overwhelming—it can be quick, simple, and even enjoyable. By focusing on key moments like a standout Day 1, providing flexible learning options, and keeping the process personal, you’ll set your customers up for success faster than ever. Remember, it’s about making every step count and building excitement, not just efficiency.

BrainStorm helps you land the value of your product with customers from day one. Our features help give customers exactly what they need to get started, and then nudge them along when they get stuck.

Schedule a demo to see how BrainStorm can help you create a seamless onboarding experience with your customers.