Be honest - is your documentation sabotaging your customer onboarding efforts?

I ask because it's a hidden problem that plagues far too many SaaS companies.

Onboarding guides get outdated quickly. It makes the messaging inconsistent, or just plain insufficient.

It’s hard to keep track of and before you know it, it’s become a huge project to tackle.

It’s not just a headache for the internal team. The impact on customer adoption, retention, and lifetime value is significant.

Let’s discuss the hidden cost of poor onboarding documentation and what to do about it. ↓

What Happens When Documentation Fails You & Your Customers

Insufficient or outdated onboarding docs don't just create a poor first impression - they can sabotage the entire customer journey. A few key ways this plays out:

• Slower Time-to-Value: Without clear, comprehensive guidance, customers flounder and struggle to get up and running. This delays their ability to realise the benefits of your product.

• Higher Support Costs: Confused customers generate a flood of support tickets, draining your team's resources. And let's be honest - a knowledge base with glaring gaps is a poor substitute for human assistance.

• Increased Churn: Customers who can't figure out how to use your product are far more likely to churn, especially in the critical early stages. All that effort you put into acquiring them goes down the drain.

• Internal Issues: New team mates will struggle to get up to date on processes and details quickly. Miscommunication will be rampant across internal teams. Delays will occur, and easily avoidable mistakes will happen.

Sloppy onboarding documentation doesn't just frustrate your customers - it actively undermines your ability to drive adoption, retention, and growth.

So, what can you do to tackle this?

🧪 The Project: Supercharge Your Onboarding Docs

Here are some steps to look at to ease the pain of keeping on top of your documentation. Just make a start on it.

1. Assemble a cross-functional team

Creating great customer onboarding docs shouldn’t happen in a vacuum.

Bring together representatives from Product, Support, Training, and Marketing to form a dedicated documentation working group.

This diverse team will ensure your materials are comprehensive, user-friendly, and aligned with broader business objectives.

It also puts more eyes from different perspectives on the problem. This means updates are less likely to be missed and the effort of updating documentation impacts a broader group of people. In turn, it makes the task even more worthwhile.

2. Conduct a content review (with a twist)

Try an empathy-driven approach when you review your docs. Ask newer members of your team or working group to put themselves in your customers' shoes and evaluate the existing onboarding docs.

What's confusing? What's missing? What could be improved?

Team members who have been at the company the longest can often subconsciously fill in the blanks because they know everything so well. Newer team members will look through a different lens.

3. Prototype, test, iterate

Now that you have useful insights on what to improve you can start to prototype new onboarding content.

Implement a testing and feedback loop. Gather input from real users, then refine your materials based on their experiences.

You are looking for ease of use, clarity in understanding, and any gaps in detail. Take note of the format they prefer as well.

4. Establish a culture of continuous improvement

Onboarding documentation is never "done". It’s an ongoing project that needs iteration.

Develop a regular cadence for reviewing, updating, and enriching your materials.

This can include new formats for the information, new ways to get it in front of customers, and more effective ways to onboard new team mates.

Empower your working group to own this process and keep your docs fresh. For the best results, it needs to be a cross department effort.

🤓 The Analysis

Tackle this project with strategic intent. You can transform your onboarding docs from a necessary evil into a powerful driver of customer success.

Imagine the impact of documentation that's always fresh, always helpful, and always aligned with your customers' needs.

Someone needs to take charge of project managing this effort. Do you have someone best suited in your team?

It's time to stop letting sloppy onboarding docs undermine all of your hard work.

What to expect if you try this project:

• Improved communication between internal teams

• Powerful assets to support onboarding efforts

• Faster adoption of your product

• Reduced churn